In a sluggish economy where retailers in general are taking a beating, online retailers in Chicago and nationwide continue to make gains in both sales and consumer satisfaction.

According to a recent survey of 125 retailers by Forrester Research Inc. and a Shop.org study, online retail is expected to be a bright spot in the industry in 2008 with sales estimated to rise 17 percent this year to $204 billion from $169 billion in 2007.

How would you like to earn a million dollars today, just to have it disappear tomorrow? Worse, how would you like it if this happened every day?

That’s exactly what grain elevators are experiencing as record commodity prices and dramatic price swings force them to adjust the amount of margin money they ante up every day for grain forward contracts used to hedge, or lock in, today's price.