News In Brief

Shaky Chicago bank gets OK for a rescue merger

Gov. James Thompson signed emergency legislation Tuesday allowing the Continental Illinois National Bank & Trust Company to merge with an out-of-state buyer, a step toward solving the money woes of the nation's seventh-largest bank.

The measure, hustled through the General Assembly in several weeks by the bank's lobbyists, temporarily lifts a legal roadblock barring out-of-state banks from acquiring Continental.