ChicagoTribune

As you're putting together a holiday gift list and checking it twice, instead of making sure you haven't forgotten anything or anyone, check to see if the items are made in America. How many do you think will be? It's the rare story about retailing that doesn't garner reader comments about where...

Journalists, more accustomed to covering news than making it, are even less used to becoming part of the beat and story they cover. Imagine someone who reports on the local sewage board being asked to lay some pipe.But two weeks ago, I entered into my beat and its biggest story in dramatic fashion....

At least Lou Carlozo can't say he was unprepared. As the Chicago Tribune's assistant feature editor and writer of the popular "Recession Diaries" blog, he knew better than most what the suddenly cash-strapped have to look forward to. Still, it didn't make it any easier when on Wednesday he got his...