On the ground floor of Chicago's tallest building, the restaurant Kindling features tall ceilings, lots of light and a 13-foot live-fire hearth presided over by the tattooed chef, Jonathon Sawyer. The fine-dining establishment serves a range of dishes, but steak dominates the menu, with options like a 16-ounce prime New York strip and a "Mrs. O'Leary," an 8-ounce filet served with a red wine demi-glace and fried shallots...

Outgoing Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) told The New York Times in an interview released this week that she "never liked" the "sexualization" of women she said goes on at President Trump's Mar-a-Lago resort. "I never liked the MAGA Mar-a-Lago sexualization," Greene said. "I believe how women in leadership present themselves sends a message to younger women."...

I love being at the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. Among other exhibits, it houses America's official presidential portraits, which I find so compelling I visit and revisit them. I'm especially intrigued by the unfinished Gilbert Stuart portrait of George Washington and the life-size portrait of Abraham Lincoln. I am profoundly grateful to these two men and to those who along with them founded a nation on the improbable idea that a diverse people can live free and self-govern. Originally meant only for landed white men, historian Jane Kamensky called our founding idea "leaky" in the PBS Ken Burns series "The American Revolution."...

Dave Nuss's pickup rumbled down the dirt road, dark, rich soil turned up in fields on either side. The 69-year-old farmer gestured to one field then another, commenting on the fortunes of each crop this year. Then he stopped and looked across an irrigation ditch. A trio of sheds — one green, one tan, one gray — loomed in the distance. It was the former site of his asparagus operation. Once booming, now long since bust. "We lost all our customers," Nuss said...

Many small business owners are betting on growth in the year ahead, even as inflation, labor shortages and economic uncertainty continue to pressure operations, a new survey finds. About 80% of small business owners say they are confident in their outlook, and about 79% expect revenue growth in 2026, according to Comerica Bank's Small Business Pulse Index released Dec. 9. Those expecting growth project an average revenue increase of 7.9%...