Free Republic

France is set to miss its 2017 deficit target by a wide margin, the country’s public accounts watchdog said on Thursday, predicting the gap between spending and revenue would exceed a eurozone limit of 3 percent of GDP. In the absence of “strong adjustment measures”, the deficit will reach 3.2 percent of GDP, the Court of Auditors said, in a warning to new President Emmanuel Macron, who will produce his first budget in the autumn. The previous Socialist government said it expected the deficit to fall from 3.4 percent last year to 2.8 percent this year, which would have brought...

LOS ANGELES Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa says he didn't use a penny of taxpayer money to finance his romance with a TV newscaster, but authorities have said nothing about the whereabouts of his police bodyguards during the time he spent with his girlfriend. Since the mayor confirmed his relationship with Telemundo's Mirthala Salinas on July 3, his office acknowledged he traveled to Arizona in January to attend her mother's funeral and news reports have placed him at various times at Salinas' home in the San Fernando Valley. Those accounts have not been disputed by the mayor's office. Villaraigosa's chief spokesman, Sean...