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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. shoppers turned out in force in March, pushing retail sales to their strongest gain in a year, according to a government report on Tuesday that may prompt economists to raise forecasts for first-quarter growth. "The implications of these data are massive. Off the top of my head, I would say that we just moved from 4 percent GDP growth in Q1 to something like 5 percent," said Steven Stanley, chief economist at RBS Greenwich Capital. The economy expanded at a 4.1 percent pace in the final three months of 2003.

Are You a Bush Booster -- or Basher? Tell us if you approve of President George W. Bush's overall job performance and whether you think he will be re-elected in the upcoming election. Click the "Vote" button at the bottom to submit your results and see others' responses, then click here to see how Americans nationwide answered these and other questions in this week's NEWSWEEK poll.

I was one of over 8,000 people polled a few weeks ago by Zogby. I was just sent some of the results. The formatting is better if you follow the link, but I was afraid that the link would disappear before long, so I went ahead and copied in the text. Here is the poll. Are you registered to vote in the United States? Interactive Poll Yes 100 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- How likely are you to vote in national elections? Interactive Poll Very Likely 99 Somewhat Likely 1 Total 100 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- In which party are you either registered to vote or do...