Free Republic

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration will raise its 10-year budget deficit projection to roughly $9 trillion from $7.108 trillion in a report next week, a senior administration official told Reuters on Friday. "The new forecasts are based on new data that reflect how severe the economic downturn was in the late fall of last year and the winter of this year," said the official, who is familiar with the plans. "Our budget projections are now in line with the spring and summer projections that the Congressional Budget Office put out." The CBO said in June that deficits between 2010...

US Treasury 10-yr CDS hits record high Mon, Dec 1 2008, 11:34 GMT http://www.afxnews.com LONDON, Dec 1 (Reuters) - The spread or risk premium on 10-year U.S. Treasury credit default swaps hit a record high on Monday, extending a recent trend as market participants continued to fret about the scale of the government's financial rescue programmes. Ten-year U.S. Treasury CDS widened to 68.4 basis points from Friday's close of 60 basis points, according to credit data company CMA DataVision. Five-year Treasury CDS widened to 52.5 basis points from 46 basis points at Friday's close, it said. (Reporting by Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

PROVIDENCE, R.I. - Prosecutors urged a judge Wednesday to send a former rock-band manager to prison for 10 years for setting off the pyrotechnics that caused a nightclub fire that killed 100 people. "The devastation wrought by the conduct of the defendant is unparalleled in our state's history," prosecutor Randall White said, choking up at times. He added: "The suffering is endless, and the extent and depth of the pain is bottomless." Daniel Biechele's attorney, Thomas Briody, argued that his client deserves mercy — in the form of community service, with no prison time — and feels immense sorrow for...

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - The city's former treasurer was sentenced to 10 years in prison on corruption charges Tuesday in a federal investigation that came to light when an FBI bug was discovered in the mayor's office. Corey Kemp was found guilty in May of taking part in a scheme to trade city contracts for gifts, favors and cash. The case hinged on telephone calls, secretly recorded by the FBI over nine months, in which Kemp and Democratic fundraiser Ronald A. White talked about shaking down businessmen for contributions and other payments. The FBI also bugged Mayor John F. Street's City...

Europe's 10-year mission to catch a comet Europe's mission to land a spacecraft on a comet is set for take-off next month, a year after the project was delayed because of problems with a rocket launcher. The European Space Agency will propel the Rosetta craft into space on February 26 from a base in Kourou, French Guiana, said Jean-Yves Le Gall, director-general of Arianespace, which made the rocket that will launch the craft. If the Rosetta mission succeeds, it will break new ground by placing a lander on a swift, icy comet. Until now, spacecraft only carried out brief fly-bys...

MONMOUTH - A Galesburg man was sentenced to 10 years in prison Monday for the 2002 death of a Galesburg woman who was sitting on his lap and having sex with him as he drove. At a bench trial last month in Warren County, Sonny Morris El, 32, was found innocent of reckless homicide but guilty of aggravated driving under the influence of drugs. He faced between one and 12 years in prison, but his attorney, Warren County public defender Scott Shipplett, asked Judge Greg McClintock to sentence Morris El to probation. State’s Attorney Chip Algren asked McClintock to impose...