Free Republic

WASHINGTON -- For the first time in five years, the U.S. government has run a budget deficit below $1 trillion. The government said Wednesday that the deficit for the 2013 budget year totaled $680.3 billion, down from $1.09 trillion in 2012. That's the smallest imbalance since 2008, when the government ran a $458.6 billion deficit. It's still the fifth-largest deficit of all time. The deficit is the gap between the government's tax revenue and its spending. It narrowed for the budget year that ended on Sept. 30 because revenue rose while spending fell. Revenue jumped 13.3 percent to $2.77 trillion....

U.S. growth accelerated in the third quarter as consumers and businesses ramped up spending, a report that shows the economy remained resilient in the face of strong headwinds. Gross domestic product in the July-through-September period expanded at a 2.5% annual rate, the government said Thursday. That’s nearly double the 1.3% rate of growth in the second quarter and much faster than the first quarter’s tepid increase of 0.4%.

AMES, Iowa (AP) -- Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich is bristling at suggestions that his presidential campaign has been hurt by a number of resignations by his staff. In a Republican presidential debate in Iowa, Gingrich scolded Fox News Channel anchor Chris Wallace for asking a "gotcha question."

And in only its second weekend in release, the bottom fell out of costly domestic flop The Golden Compass from New Line, which forked over $200+ million to make it. I know, I know, the pic is doing OK overseas after earning $50.9 mil from 27 territories December 7th-9th. But the fantasy epic is so lost domestically it earned only an anemic $2.6 million Friday and $3.7 million Saturday from 3,528 nearly empty runs for 3rd place and a new cume of just $40.5 mil. I hear studio topper Bob Shaye once again is blaming everyone but himself -- including...

<p>He has already signed big-hair rockers Poison, an alliance that cuts across stylistic boundaries about as far as you can go.</p> <p>"We make as much money if we sell 100,000 copies this way as we made when we sold a million copies through a major label," Poison bassist Bobby Dall told Billboard magazine.</p>