WASHINGTON (AP) – Nancy Schumacher says she just wanted to do her civic duty, and so she heeded the call to become a superdelegate for Hillary Clinton. But in the year of the angry voter, not even an administrative assistant from Elk River, Minnesota, can escape the outrage.
"Some of the (phone and email) messages called me names. Some of them called Hillary names. And others said I was a stupid bitch and something bad will happen to me," said Schumacher, a Democratic committee member. "It's kind of hard to take sometimes."
BOSTON – Hours after the Massachusetts House of Representatives approved an annual budget bill calling for modest spending increases, federal officials reported Thursday that the U.S. economy nearly stalled last winter, declining from relatively modest growth rates over the past two years. By contrast, a local assessment showed that Bay State growth gained momentum over the past quarter.
The U.S. Commerce Department cautioned that its "advance" estimate that pegged first-quarter gross domestic product growth at 0.5 percent on an annual basis is subject to further refinement and revision, with the first expected on May 27. If it stands, today's estimate would be the weakest growth in the economy in two years. GDP is the broadest measure of economic activity.
