Around Business

LAFAYETTE -- A Japanese car manufacturing deal will scuttle plans to build a Saab crossover sports utility vehicle in Indiana, but could pave the way for production of Toyota's popular hybrid cars at the Subaru plant in Lafayette.\nIn Indiana, the Saab crossover product had been slated to begin production in 2007, bringing with it new jobs at the 2,300-employee Lafayette plant.\nBut experts said the deal could still benefit workers in Indiana.\nIndiana economic development officials have been hoping to create a hybrid automobile industry in the state. In August, Gov. Mitch Daniels and other state officials met with Toyota executives in Japan to promote the state's plants for hybrid manufacturing.\nHybrid sales have nearly doubled in the United States during the past year as gas prices continue to soar. Since 2000, the U.S. hybrid market has increased nearly ten-fold. By 2015, experts predict hybrids could account for 35 percent of U.S. car sales.

White Sox trump work for many Chicagoans

\nCHICAGO -- Playoff baseball in Chicago is a rarity -- too special for many die-hard Chicago White Sox fans to be sitting in a cubicle while their team is trying to win its first postseason series in nearly 90 years.\nThe afternoon opener of the American League Division Series against the Boston Red Sox in Chicago made Oct. 4 ripe for cutting out of work early -- or playing hooky altogether.\nAt Tootsie Roll Inc.'s headquarters on the city's South Side, a number of employees requested the day off to watch the game, president Ellen Gordon said. Others were lucky enough to be scheduled on the night shift, although plenty were hard at work on the pre-Halloween crunch.\nMany White Sox fans who took the day off to watch or attend the game Tuesday said they found sympathetic Cubs fans among their co-workers -- people who know all too well that postseason baseball isn't an annual event like it is in New York or Atlanta.