The President’s Council of Economic Advisors says unemployment is expected to remain steady through 2013 at just under 5%. Council Chairman Edward Lazear says that’s still low by historic standards.

Odds are the “economy will avoid a recession,” says William Poole, the Fed’s St. Louis Bank President, who sees the current economic condition as being much less severe than hard times in the past.

The “friendly confines” at Wrigley Field in Chicago could get cozier with a proposed hotel and apartment building right across the street.