Nationwide consumer prices jumped in June, driven by high gasoline, transportation and food prices, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Wednesday. In the Chicago-Gary-Kenosha area however, inflation rose more modestly.

The Consumer Price Index, a key measure of inflation, shot up 1.1 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from May to June. This was the second-largest national monthly increase in percentage terms in 26 years. The reading was substantially higher than Bloomberg LP's economists' estimate of 0.7 percent.

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.

When Olympus Partners, a major private equity firm based in Stamford, Connecticut, acquired a majority stake in the privately held Jessup, Maryland-based Ann's House of Nuts last week, managers at the buyout firm were placing a big bet on a nut company with little-to-no recognition among ordinary consumers.

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.

As Cook County's newly increased sales tax rate entered its second day Wednesday, shoppers from communities along the county's border with Indiana flocked to retail outlets across the state line, where taxes are now more than 3 percent lower.

The new Cook County rate of 10.25 percent-an increase of one percentage point-dwarfs Indiana's statewide sales tax rate of 7 percent.

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.

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.