midwest bureau chief diane eastabrook joins us from the c.m.e. group in chicago. hi, diane. i erd that you went and saw the car today. what did you think? >> i actually didn't see it up close, but i did see it on a feed that came down. >> susie: one thing i think is interesting is g. m. has the chevy volt, those sales have been on the slow side. so why is g. m. moving ahead with another electric vehicle? >> well, susie, g. m. is still rolling out the volt nationwide. but as you said sales do seem to be behind where the company thought they would be. part of it has to do with infrastructure, we still don't have a lot of public charging stations out there. part of it is price, this is a $40,000 vehicle in a sour economy. and the other part could be gasoline prices, they've been sliping in recent months, so it's sort of hard to make an argument to buy a $40,000 electric car when gas is cheap. but g. m. and the rest of the auto industry are fairly confident that once they can clear some of these hurdles, get infrastructure in place, the economy gets back on track, that these veh

as diane eastabrook reports, some are finding their way from eyesores to success stories. >> reporter: these are the sights and sounds of new home construction. school street, near downtown libertyville, illinois, is an aberration in an anemic housing market. buyers have snatched up 21 of the development's 26 homes and a third of the 15 lofts housed inside a former grade school. >> so, here's the master suite. this is a great room because it has this awesome window seat here. >> reporter: developer john mclinden shows off one of the few bungalows still on the market. school street was a huge gamble for mclinden. he bought the project in a foreclosure sale last year after the previous developer went bust. instead of continuing school street as a development of million-dollar townhomes, mclinden scaled it back to smaller, less expensive bungalows. >> the style of a single-family bungalow connected to downtown was very appealing and we had early-- very positive early response. in fact, we sold six of the homes before we closed. with hard contracts and 20% down. >> this was a subdivision

diane eastabrook, "nightly business report" chicago. >> susie: meanwhile tonight's commentator looks at the economic realities facing the nation's younger generation of workers and says he understands why they're angry. he's mike mandel, senior fellow at the progressive policy institute. >> the occupy wall street protests seem to be spreading across the country and around the world. i'm not going to speak about the group's tactics or demands, however, i do want to address some of the economic realities that are driving the anger. the fact is, taking inflation into account, earnings for young male college grads are down 19% since their peak in 2000. earnings for young female college grads are down 16% since their peak in 2003. these figures are for people who should be doing well, workers with a bachelors degree and a full-time job, 25 to 34 years old. prime working years. but this decline in pay shows no sign of bottoming out, much to my surprise. i had assumed that the job market for young people would have recovered by now. instead, we are seeing the ongoing impoverishment of young

diane eastabrook takes us to an award winning hospital near chicago that's using lean ideas to attract patients and save money. >> reporter: this group of japanese doctors recently toured advocate good samaritan hospital in downers grove, illinois. they snapped pictures of imaging equipment and checked out a patient simulator. >> does he speak japanese? >> reporter: the doctors came to see how a manufacturing process developed in japan helped the hospital win a malcolm baldridge national quality award. lean production got its start at toyota decades ago. the company uses the process at all of its plants to cut waste improve efficiency and build better cars. good sam hospital started using the lean strategy a few years ago in its cardiac unit to speed up response time and improve patient outcomes. dr. charles derus vice president of medical management says it worked so well the facility is rolling out the process hospital-wide. >> i can't imagine any business that doesn't have people wasting their time or wasting energy transporting things back and forth or getting things that are defec

diane eastabrook, "nightly business report," orland park, illinois. >> tom: here's what we're watching for tomorrow: mattel releases its quarterly earnings. we'll also see the september reports on retail sales and import prices. tomorrow's "market monitor" says since stocks have flirted with bear market territory, investors should look for companies paying dividends. he's robert stovall, managing director and strategist at wood asset management. >> susie: attention, gap shoppers-- you'll soon see fewer stores in the u.s.. the company is closing locations here as it expands overseas. the long-struggling apparel chain will close more than a third of its u.s. gap brand stores over the next two years, leaving it with about 700 locations. at the same time, the company's growing in china, doubling its stores in the asian nation by about 400 over the next couple of years. >> tom: solyndra's president and c.e.o. has called it quits. brian harrison stepped down last week, according to a bankruptcy court filing from the solar maker. the company folded last month, despite receiving a $528 million

she talked to diane eastabrook about the challenges of building a healthier business in an unhealthy economy. >> taking a recess from the executive suite, kraft chairman and c.e.o. irene rosenfeld plays with students at a chicago charter school. rosenfeld came to this charter school to see how the public school integrates health and wellness with academics. in the lunchline you won't find any oreo, only fruits, veggies and lean meats. like the school, kraft wants to be healthier, too. recently they increased the amount of whole grain in wheat thins and honey maid graham crackers. they also removed the transfats from oros an other products. rosenfeld told me food companies risk losing customers if they change their flavor. >> it's a challenge, but it's one of the things i'm most proud of. we have terrific individuals in our r&d facility, and they've done an excellent job on products like lunchable, like premium crackers and like our nut products and a number of our other offerings where we've been able to reduce the sodium content without compromising the taste. it's really... they're