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Analysis: Democrats and GOP point fingers at each other over government paralysis
• WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama and Congress stand at a junction.
• The road the country has been on for the past five years is now beginning to come to an end. The Federal Reserve, which pumped $3 trillion into the economy to keep the Great Recession from worsening, is withdrawing its financial lifeline amid signs of fresh economic growth. The nation's gross domestic product is inching up and annual federal budget deficits are heading down.
• How Washington policymakers respond to the improvements in the economy may even sow the seeds for more cooperation in Washington.
• But don't count on it.
• Finger-pointing still abounds between the Democrats who control the White House and the Senate and the Republicans who control the House of Representatives ahead of midterm elections later this year that will determine control of Congress for the remainder of Obama's presidency.
• ___
After 22 years, Jay Leno said goodbye to 'Tonight,' with help from Billy Crystal, Garth Brooks
• NEW YORK (AP) -- Make way for Jimmy Fallon,
• "Tonight Show" host Jay Leno ended a stellar if sometimes stormy run Thursday night with high emotion at concluding what he termed "the greatest 22 years of my life."
• Calling himself "the luckiest guy in the world," Leno went out on top, which was where he stayed for most of his stretch as the successor to "King of Late Night" Johnny Carson.
• His exit, not entirely by choice, now clears the deck for yet another chapter of the 60-year-old talk show, with Fallon taking over as "Tonight" moves back to New York from its longtime Los Angeles home on Feb. 17.
• "You're very kind," Leno told his audience at the start of his last monologue. "I don't like goodbyes. NBC does. I don't care for them."
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