Prices for food nationwide edged up slightly in June but masked an unusually large increase in fresh vegetables.

Rising consumer prices generally reflect an increase in producer prices, which analysts agree won’t ebb anytime soon.

“The increase is not a temporary spike in input costs,” said Bill Lapp in a report released Wednesday by his company, Advanced Economic Solutions, which provides economic and commodity analysis.

Valentyn Bannikov, 19, said he'll excited to get his hands on the iPhone 3G Friday even though Apple Inc.'s latest attempt at a cellular device comes only a year after its initial foray into the mobile phone market.

But promises of a next generation phone that is advertised as "twice as fast" for "half the price" piqued Bannikov's interest. "It's unusual and different from other telephones. I might wait in line tomorrow if I have time for it," he said.

Ina Pinkney almost didn’t have a restaurant when she opened in 1991. With the U.S. in the midst of a recession, launching Ina’s from the bottom was difficult.

She faced more trouble after Sept. 11, when she said business was nearly non-existent, no bodies in her booths.

But twice the eatery overcame trying economic times and it continues to serve breakfast, lunch and dinner in the West Loop at 1235 W. Randolph St. Despite those triumphs, Pinkney said, the fix she finds herself in now makes her particularly skittish.

Like Devin Hester on a punt return, sports business jobs are hard to catch.

Every year, top fleet students graduate from Northwestern University’s law and business schools, and its master’s in sports administration program. Many enter high-paying positions in corporate America. But for students pursuing careers in the sports industry, jobs aren’t nearly as ubiquitous.

Illinois metropolitan areas unemployment rates increased from 4.7 percent to 5.4 percent in April 2008, which is higher than the national average of 4.8 percent.

In the Chicago-Naperville-Joliet metro area changes in unemployment figures were virtually identical to those of the entire state.

The Conference Board's Consumer Confidence Index continued its downward trend in May, hitting a 16-year low of 57.2, down 5.6 points from 62.8 in April.

It was the fifth straight month that the Index has fallen.

The Present Situation Index, which measures consumer sentiment about the current economic environment and job market, decreased to 74.4 from 81.9 in April. The Expectations Index, which gauges what consumers expect from the economy and job market in the near future, declined to 45.7, down 4.3 points from 50 in April.