Throughout the spring months, trucks loaded down with trays of multicolored annuals travel from Buckley Growers in Taylorville, Ill., to the Busy Bee Nursery in Crestwood, Ill. Busy Bee, which is in its 20th year, hired Buckley because the grower offers varieties of flowers that general manager Peter Barones can't find anywhere else.

"We've always been happy with their service and product," said Barones, who has been a Buckley customer for five years. "We're comfortable with them because they run a good business."

What if a hospital or manufacturing plant could process its waste into synthetic fuel that would, in turn, provide power to that business? If that process could be done on site at a cost of just 22 cents per pound of waste, companies across the country would surely jump on the technology, right?

Not so fast.

Northbrook, Ill.-based Peat International Inc., which bills itself as a waste-to-resources company, has found success selling its waste treatment systems overseas in Taiwan and India.

Digg.com, one of the web’s top destinations for tech news, political opinion and funny videos threw a party in Wrigleyville Wednesday evening, drawing a male-heavy, youngish crowd of nearly 300 avid members of its user community for free drinks, announcements from the Digg team and a chance to mingle with site founder and web celebrity Kevin Rose.

Major public announcements included a new partnership with the Chicago Tribune and a revamped online store for Digg.com merchandise. Digg CEO Jay Adelson also spoke about a new feature in the pipeline that will let users create their own sub-Digg’s for topics of their choosing.

Adelson was tight-lipped, however, when asked about recent rumors that Digg was being acquired by search giant Google.com for $200 million.

“There is no word,” he said. “We commented on one of these rumors before and it got us in trouble. There is nothing to say.”

The airline industry isn't just trying to stay aloft with its passengers. It is also battling to preserve the near $5 billion in revenues generated each year through the transport of goods such as electronics, fresh produce and pharmaceuticals.

Last year, the airline cargo business expanded by its smallest margin in three years, less than one percent, according to data from the Bureau of Transportation Statistics. In the first quarter of this year, revenue from cargo was down 1.4 percent over the year earlier period.

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.