No, Columbus doesn’t have a team playing in Sunday’s Super Bowl. Heck, Columbus doesn’t even have a pro football team — though it used to, and was once home to NFL headquarters.

And no, it’s not hosting the big game, either.

But that doesn’t mean Columbus doesn’t stack up well against Boston, New York and Indianapolis in other ways, though.

Local economist Bill LaFayette has compiled some comparisons among Columbus, the cities represented in the Super Bowl and the game’s host city.

Last fall the head of the American Chemistry Council said that if a proposed ethane cracker plant that would be used to develop natural gases from the Utica and Marcellus shales is built in Ohio, it could result in thousands of new jobs in the chemistry industry alone.

Cal Dooley, chief executive officer of the American Chemistry Council said the plant, proposed by Royal Dutch Shell, could generate 17,000 chemistry and supplier industry jobs in Ohio.

NEW YORK — Retailers reported mixed sales results for January in a sign that American shoppers are continuing to be cautious about when and where they spend their money in the shaky economy.

Of the 12 merchants reporting monthly sales this week, the number of those who beat estimates and those who missed expectations was about even, according to a Thursday morning tally by Thomson Reuters.