Chrysler will add shifts - but avoid investing in new plants - as the US market continues to recover. It could be a big year for the U.S. auto industry. After an unexpectedly strong close to 2012, most analysts anticipate the market will grow by as much as another million units this year - even more if Washington lawmakers can come up with a long-term solution to the nation's debt and taxes debate. Yet, while 15.5 million vehicles would mark the strongest sales the industry has experienced since the start of the long recession, the bad news is that this …

The same week in which Lance Armstrong was apologizing for his decade-plus of using banned drugs and then misleading friends, fans and marketers. The NHL took out a full page ad in newspapers nationwide that addressed the situation. Fans apparently took the message - which ran in about 40 newspapers in the U.S. and Canada - to heart. Arenas hosting season openers over the weekend were virtually sold out. And NBC said that its regional telecasts from Saturday registered a 2.0 overnight rating, which the network indicated was its highest-rated.

Energy drink dollar sales grew 14.6% to $1.9 billion in U.S. food, drug and mass channels for the 52 weeks ending Dec. 2, compared to the prior year, according to SymphonyIRI Group, the Chicago-based market research firm. Energy drinks were about 5% of total beverage sales and 8% of beverage profits for the last six months of 2012 for Niemann Foods' 40 County Market-banner stores, based in Quincy, Ill.

Atari Inc. has filed for bankruptcy protection, looking to separate from French owners and pitch for independent funding. In the process, the gaming firm has secured $5.25 million of debtor-in-possession financing and will aim to sell assets, including its famous logo (which is already licensed out) and games like Pong, Asteroid and Tempest, in the next 90 to 120 days. In the last few years, Atari Inc. has shifted its focus from traditional retail gaming to digital titles and licensing, with mobile platforms proving especially lucrative for the parent company, Atari SA.

Supervalu here said last week that it has reached an agreement to sell its Albertsons, Jewel-Osco, Acme, and Shaw's and Star Market banners to a group led by Cerberus Capital Management in a transaction valued at $3.3 billion. The deal, projected to close by the end of the first quarter, would reunite the two Albertsons banners that had been split since Supervalu acquired most of that chain in 2006.

But in Australia McDonald's is using a variety of high-tech tools to go even deeper with its food sourcing/quality message, allowing diners to track the ingredients in the food they are about to eat. A free iPhone app called TrackMyMacca's (using the Aussie nickname for McDonald's) can be downloaded via Facebook or iTunes. The app reads code on food packaging (150 million pieces of which were reprinted for the effort), which uses GPS tracking to identify in which McDonald's restaurant a diner has purchased the food.

A Justin Timberlake film "In Time from Diesel" advances the brand's "Days To Live campaign." The initiative has been launched for the Timeframes watches brand and is built around the idea of getting people to step back from their daily routine to re-evaluate their lives... and then make their wildest dreams happen now rather than later.

7-Eleven Inc. has extended its tentacles throughout New York, but East Village residents are ready with a fish skinner. A group of neighborhood activists are fighting plans to open a 7-Eleven on Avenue A at 11th Street. On Jan. 16, more than 100 residents and members of the 11th Street A-B-C Block Association held a meeting at Father Heart Church on East 11th Street to discuss ideas for halting the convenience store chain's advance. The chain store giant thinks there's room in the neighborhood, especially if other businesses can't compete.

New car registrations in the European Union fell by 8.2% in 2012, dropping to their lowest level since 1995, according to figures from the European Automobile Manufacturers Association. And with the European Union still struggling to resolve its debt crisis and pull out of recession, industry analysts fear the situation may get worse this year - a situation that could prove disastrous for some of the continent's weaker manufacturers who have already racked up billions of dollars in losses.

Luxury retailers are popping up in luxury hotels throughout the nation's capital this weekend as an array of social, political and entertainment elite descend on Washington, D.C., for Barack Obama's second presidential inauguration. Saks Fifth Avenue, Neiman Marcus, Montblanc and Bloomingdale's are among stores staging temporary boutiques in hotel lobbies. Guests at the Ritz-Carlton at 22nd and M Streets in Northwest D.C. can schedule complimentary appointments with makeup artists from Chanel and Dior as part of the hotel's partnership with Saks, Jan. 18-21.