WBEZ 91.5 Chicago

Not so long ago, northern Chinese winters meant one thing: cabbage, day in and day out. Just four years ago, cabbages were so cheap they were being given away for free as a promotional tactic.But a visit to a Beijing market is evidence of how times have changed."

There were 297,000 jobs added to businesses' payrolls in December, according to the widely watched ADP National Employment Report, which was released just a short time ago.And that's well above the 100,000 or so that economists had been expecting, the Associated Press says.Meanwhile, the latest Intu

"Chrysler Group LLC, Ford Motor Co. and General Motors Co.

 While Chicago has given away millions of dollars in incentives to lure corporations like Boeing and United Airlines, most residents look elsewhere for signs of the city’s economic health.

Americans' paychecks will be a little bigger this month, thanks to a temporary cut in payroll taxes.

Stocks are trading higher this morning (the Dow Jones industrial average is up about 110 points, or 1 percent) and some of the credit is going to these latest economic indicators:-- The private Institute for Supply Management says the nation's manufacturing sector expanded again in December.