What do Illinois Gov. George Ryan and Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura have in common with Arkansas chicken producers, Texas rice growers and Utah medical companies? They'd all like to see an end to the 40-year-old U.S. embargo on trade with Cuba. more

State and local governments will lose $13.3 billion this year and tens of billions more in years to come because sales taxes are not paid on most Internet purchases, a report released Tuesday by the Institute for State Studies says.The estimated losses are 41 percent higher than those predicted in an April 2000 study by the same researchers, a non-partisan, non-profit group affiliated with the Western Governors' online university. The difference between last year and now is largely the result of higher projections of business-to-business sales activity on the Internet. more

State tax revenue growth last quarter was the weakest in eight years and the economic slowdown, which had been concentrated in the Midwest and the Southeast, has spread to nearly the entire country, according to a report published Wednesday by the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government. "The trend now is toward slowing growth. The fear is that this continues and we start seeing negative growth," says Nicholas Jenny, a fiscal analyst at Rockefeller and one of the report's authors. more

It's official. The sagging U.S. economy has become a drag on tourism and business travel in most parts of the country. At least that's what the Federal Reserve Board says in its latest "Beige Book" report, which monitors the burps and sputters of the nation's economic engine. However, travel industry officials predict overall business and leisure travel this year will finish the summer slightly above last year's rate, one of the best in history. more