Federal budget needs work
The Free Press
Mankato, Minn.

The Congressional Budget Office recently released its 10-year budget projection and economic outlook for the U.S. and guess what: We still need to work on the whole spending versus revenue thing.

The CBO is projecting a deficit of $1.1 trillion for fiscal year 2012 (which ends Sept. 30), down 2 percentage points as a percentage of GDP from last year’s $1.3 trillion deficit. While that sounds like some good news, CBO Director Douglas Elmendorf notes that the deficit is still the highest of any deficit between 1947 and 2008.

Giffords lessons should not be forgotten
The Free Press
Mankato, Minn.

The announcement last week by Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords that she would not seek re-election struck a sad note for champions of her recovery, but it was comforting at the same time to see she knows she needs to take care of herself and family first.

... We can appreciate the miracle of her recovery, but at the same time, must consider in a sobering way just how we, as a country, got to that place where a community meeting in a grocery store parking lot became a horrific place of violence.

Romney must face up to tax equity
Tonawanda News
Tonawanda, N.Y.

Though it may not prove politically expedient for Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney, his decision to release his 2010 and anticipated 2011 tax returns will have at least one benefit, even if it wasn’t intended: Americans rich and poor alike are due a robust national dialogue about how we value wealth and work.

Film giant felled by changing times
The Salem News
Salem, Mass.

Kodachrome, they give us those nice bright colours
They give us the greens of summers
Makes you think all the world's a sunny day, oh yeah!
-- From Simon & Garfunkel's "Kodachrome"

The company that brought vivid color to Americans' family photographs filed for bankruptcy last week. According to the Associated Press account of the decision, the company simply failed to keep pace with the rapid transition from film to digital photography.

New Egyptian government
The Joplin Globe
Joplin, Mo.

While still under rule by the military, Egypt is beginning to form a new government and constitution after the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak last year.

Parliamentary elections have been held, and the Muslim Brotherhood’s party called Freedom and Justice will in all likelihood hold over one-half of the seats in that parliament.