Legoland throws block party
The first indoor Legoland Discovery Center in America, featuring a Lego factory, 4-D Lego movie and a model workshop, will open at noon July 25 at the Streets of Woodfield shopping center across the street from Woodfield Mall. The 30,000-square-foot center, designed for families with children ages 2 to 12, is modeled after a Lego world in Berlin, Germany, that attracted 500,000 visitors in its first year last year. Adrian Jones, U.S. general manager for the U.K.-based center operator Merlin Entertainment, said Schaumburg was picked for Legoland's U.S. debut because of its access to highways.

She saves $35,000 a year
Sandra Guy: Marsha Flood learned to squeeze every penny after she decided to stay home to raise three children. Flood, 57, of Geneva,made do on half of the family's previous income, survived her husband's year-long layoff and ended up cutting the family's expenses by $35,000 a year while maintaining a middle-class lifestyle.

Chicagoans now paying nation's highest sales tax
Sandra Guy: If you think you're paying more sales tax today in Cook County, you are. The sales tax rate jumps 1 percent today, thanks to a Cook County Board vote, giving Chicago the dubious distinction of having the highest municipal sales tax rate in the nation. The County Board adopted the latest increase to pay for a hole in the budget.

Webinars offer bang for buck
Sandra Guy: Webinars are proving fruitful business tools, but not for sales pitches, two Chicago-area enterprises have discovered. CVM Solutions, an Oakbrook Terrace-based company that helps businesses improve their procurement processes and hire minority- and women-owned suppliers, started hosting webinars in order to become a "thought leader" in the supply management market.

Expect gas to hit, surpass $5 a gallon
Sandra Guy: As oil hit $140 a barrel for the first time ever Thursday, analysts say people in markets such as Chicago could pay more than $5 a gallon for gasoline in the near future. "Given the current economy, we could be looking at the national average price of gasoline at upwards of $4.60 to $4.90 a gallon, and people in some markets will pay well over $5 a gallon," said Stephen Schork, an oil industry analyst and editor of the Schork Report.

Rogers heading to Allstate social- networking job

Desiree Rogers is leaving the Peoples Gas utility for a new job as president of social networking for Allstate Financial, the Northbrook-based insurance firm announced Thursday.

Chicago ranks as seventh-largest cybercity

Chicago maintained its ranking as the seventh-largest cybercity for the third straight year, helped by increased hiring by small and medium-sized technology businesses, according to a report being released today.

Walgreens prescribes more use of its club card
Sandra Guy: Walgreens is getting more aggressive about marketing its prescription savings club card in a tough economy with cut-throat competition for cheap generics. Deerfield-based Walgreens is using online coupons to entice shoppers to ask about the savings club at the pharmacy. "We're having thousands and thousands of sign-ups a week," Walgreen Co. CEO Jeffrey Rein said. The Walgreens savings club card carries a yearly fee of $20 for individuals and $35 for a family.

Savings? It's in the plastic bag for these cost cutters
Terri Rivera is taking recycling seriously now that gasoline prices are squeezing the family budget. Rivera, director of development for the Community Nurse Health Association in LaGrange, started washing and reusing the sandwich bags for her and her husbands' lunches. Each Sunday, Rivera packs lunches for the entire week for herself and husband Eddie. She recently stopped splurging on buying lunch because of rising gasoline and other prices.

Generic drugs, keeping receipts add up
Sandra Guy: Kathy Kadlec is using the insights she gained in a 15-year retail career to pinch pennies as she raises five kids ages 12 to 18. She has learned to be flexible about where she fills her prescriptions. At first, Kadlec, 45, used a gift card from a local pharmacy to get a discount, but she recently switched to Wal-Mart's generic drug price program.

Shucking corn as a biofuel
Sandra Guy: A startup company that is renting space at the Illinois Institute of Technology is looking past corn to find biofuels, especially as ethanol production gets much of the blame for skyrocketing grocery prices. "We think we have an alternative to first-generation ethanol processing, which is so dependent on corn," said Mark Lenhart, co-founder and chief operating officer of AlterVia Fuels. Lenhart believes corn ethanol is unfairly being blamed for raising the price of food.

The bay of their existence
Sandra Guy: The Koch family business in Glen Ellyn has become a top seller on eBay by focusing on niche markets and leveraging the family's ability to speak several languages. Klaus Koch, a 60-year-old native of the Rhineland section of Germany who came to this country 32 years ago, advises would-be eBay entrepreneurs to work hard and have patience.

Cyber-savvy FTD chief believes in flower power
Sandra Guy: FTD, the Downers Grove-based floral delivery business, is owned by a California company, but its new leader is a Skokie native. Mark R. Goldston, 53, considers himself a marketer and inventor who happens to run major companies, including United Online, the Woodland Hills, Calif.-based online company that announced May 1 its planned purchase of FTD for about $456 million in cash, notes and stock. Goldston grew up in Skokie, rose to prominence as head of Faberge and then invented the Reebok Pump athletic shoe.

'All the world's a supply chain'
The technology required to find your rental car in a parking lot or to locate an oil-refinery worker in an emergency are the kinds of far-flung applications that Zebra Technologies offers its clients. The Vernon Hills-based company, known for its bar-code readers, is pushing into printers that help track goods, services and people.