WASHINGTON — U.S. health care spending in 2007 grew at its lowest rate in nine years, due mainly to a slowdown in prescription drug spending and lower administrative costs for the Medicare program, according to a new government report released Monday.

While the report doesn't reflect most of the economic downturn that began in December 2007, its authors say that health spending historically has been insulated from the effects of a sour economy. However, experts say this could change given the uncertain economic climate and the increased shifting of payment responsibilities to consumers.

Public and private outlays for health care reached $2.2 trillion, or $7,421 per person in 2007, up 6.1 percent from 2006, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reported. » read more

WASHINGTON — Amid a galloping global economic crisis and mounting U.S. job losses, President-elect Barack Obama and congressional leaders agreed Monday on broad aspects of what's sure to be the largest short-term economic stimulus plan the nation has ever seen and promised to pass legislation quickly.

Democratic leaders in the House of Representatives and the Senate — with little resistance from Republicans — said they'd immediately push Obama's ambitious stimulus package. The president-elect is proposing a $775 billion, two-year economic stimulus package that includes about $300 billion in tax cuts or credits, with a special emphasis on lower and middle-income earners.

The plan got an important boost from Republicans, who lauded the tax cuts. » read more

PITTSBURG — Regulars at Granny Y’s, locally renowned for top-heavy cream pies and Butter Pecan Earthquake Cake, say it was not unusual seeing the richest man in town mingling easily with diners before ordering fried chicken fingers.

Lonnie "Bo" Pilgrim, 80, who chopped cotton for $1 a day as a child, had partnered with his brother Aubrey in a feed and live-chick business three blocks away in 1947.

Their corrugated steel-walled store evolved into Pilgrim’s Pride, a vertically integrated poultry company — from feed mills and hatcheries to packaged boneless chicken. After Aubrey’s death 42 years ago, Bo built it into the world’s biggest chicken processor with 47,900 employees and annual sales of $8.5 billion. And the company became Pittsburg’s economic engine and biggest employer. » read more

OLYMPIA – Plenty, a downtown restaurant that occupies a corner of the historic Angelus Building on Fourth Avenue, will close Sunday after nearly six years in business because of the slowing economy and rising costs, co-owner Jim Butigan said.

It is the second retailer to close downtown since November and the move raises new concerns about how small businesses downtown and throughout Thurston County will fare this year when faced with a slower economy. Some experts say that a downturn in fourth-quarter sales could spell trouble for those businesses that rely on a boost in holiday business to carry them through the slower first and second quarters of the year.

In November, Earth Sticks, an ecofriendly retailer of hand-carved walking sticks, shut its storefront because of a downturn in business, owner Dirk Dahl said. On the west side, Olympia Art & Frame closed its art supply business through a liquidation sale; the restaurant Mojito Bay, at Westfield Capital mall, also has closed. » read more

Unemployment is rising, and few businesses are hiring. Spending on everything from houses to horses is slow.

One bright spot in Central Kentucky's economic picture is health care: Lexington's hospitals are hiring, and their administrators anticipate a continuing need for trained professionals.

"In almost every area of medicine, there's a shortage" said Dr. Michael Karpf, executive vice president for health affairs at the University of Kentucky. According to the Education and Workforce Development Cabinet, health and educational services was one of three major sectors to see increases in the number of jobs between November 2007 and November 2008. The other sectors adding jobs were government and natural resources. » read more

A shutdown of the Flint Hills Resources refinery at North Pole has potential to rattle the Anchorage economy, and state officials are working with the company to find a way to keep the plant going.

Flint Hills, part of Kansas-based Koch Industries Inc., has indicated its aging refinery is struggling financially because of last year's record high prices for crude oil used to make such products as jet fuel, heating oil and gasoline.

The company has put the refinery up for sale, and other options include converting it into a receiving station for distributing but not making fuels, said Koch spokeswoman Katie Stavinoha. » read more