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ting various things in the places where there are low tax havens around the world for their businesses."
• Romney's assertions resembled Obama's declaration earlier this summer that the "private sector is doing fine." Romney and other Republicans pounced on the president's comments and cast them as an indication that he was out of touch with the nation's economic struggles.
• Romney didn't mention Thursday that he has kept some of his personal money in offshore tax havens, including accounts in Switzerland and the Cayman Islands.
• ___

• WASHINGTON (AP) -- Mitt Romney's success in raising hundreds of millions of dollars in the costliest presidential race ever can be traced in part to a secretive data-mining project that sifts through Americans' personal information -- including their purchasing history and church attendance -- to identify new and likely, wealthy donors, The Associated Press has learned.
• For the data-mining project, the Republican candidate has quietly employed since at least June a little-known but successful analytics firm that previously performed marketing work for a colleague tied to Bain & Co., the management-consulting firm that Romney once led.
• The head of Buxton Co. of Fort Worth, Texas, chief executive Tom Buxton, confirmed to the AP his company's efforts to help Romney identify rich and previously

untapped Republican donors across the country.
• The Romney campaign declined to discuss on the record its work with Buxton or the project's overall success.
• There are no records of payments to Buxton from Romney's campaign, the Republican National Committee or a joint fundraising committee. Under federal law, companies cannot use corporate money or resources, such as proprietary data analysis, for in-kind contributions to campaigns.
• ___

• WASHINGTON PARK, Ill. (AP) -- A teen girl reported missing more than two years ago told police she escaped a home in southwestern Illinois where she had

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