Few headlines were seen last week noting all the good news on the economic front and I am curious as to why more attention hasn't been paid to these numbers.

First, from The Wall Street Journal:

"We hate to be the bearers of good news, but someone's got to do it: The Congressional Budget Office has released its preliminary estimates for Fiscal year 2007 that ended Sept. 30, and the federal budget deficit fell again, this time by 35 percent to $161 billion.

There's more to applaud, if you can stand it: Since 2004, deficit spending has tumbled by $251 billion, which is one of the most rapid three-year declines in U.S. history. The deficit as a share of the economy is down to 1.2 percent, or about half the average of the last 50 years. This improvement is especially remarkable given the $150 to $200 billion a year of post-Sept. 11 expenses for homeland security and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"Americans coughed up a record $2.568 trillion in taxes to the IRS in 2007, or 6.7 percent more than in 2006. This means federal receipts have climbed by $785 billion since the 2003 investment tax cuts, the largest four-year revenue increase in U.S. history. Income, dividend and capital gains tax rates were all cut in 2003, but individual income tax receipts have soared by 46.3 percent in four years, with payments by the wealthy accounting for most of the windfall. Last year's increase in individual income payments was 11.3 percent, or more than double the rate of growth in nominal GDP. Don't worry, class warriors: Hannah Montana and others among the "new rich" are paying their taxes.

"The overriding lesson here is that the best antidote for deficits is faster growth, not tax increases. The budget deficit has declined more rapidly this decade in the wake of the Bush tax cuts than it did in the 1990s in the wake of the Clinton tax increases. CBO is still forecasting a balanced budget in 2010, but if Congress gets its way on spending and taxes, all of this progress will be short-lived."

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Who needs television?

Poor Rita Redmon has been walking around town this week with a bruised up leg. That's actually the good news. Rita received her bruises from trying to do a good deed for one of her neighbors.

Last week Ginny Brown pulled one of those stunts we've all pulled from time to time when she locked herself out of the house. The very next day she pulled one of those stunts that most of us don't pull -- she locked herself out again. (That's probably a column in itself right there).

Rita happened to come home just about the time Ginny and another friend were trying to climb in the window. Being the kind of friend she is, Rita made Ginny get down from the ladder and climbed up on the ladder herself.

She wiggled through the opening, but ended up getting her foot caught on the window.

"I yelled out there for them to get my foot free, but then I thought, 'You dummy,' because I was about two feet off the floor, hanging upside down."

The foot came free and Rita came crashing down. The good news is that she's getting around okay and laughs as she tells the story. I also think Ginny has found a spot for a spare door key just in case this happens again.

As I learned, Rita has learned to have a good laugh at her own expense.

There was the time several years ago when she and a friend decided to go for a walk. Since Rita needed to mail a letter, they decided to walk to the post office and back. That way, Rita could buy her stamp and get a little exercise at the same time.

They got to the post office where Rita dropped her money in the machine and got nothing. I don't know if the machine was empty or USPS was trying to cut in on the riverboat casinos. Whichever it was, she didn't get her stamp.

Rita decided to find a postal worker. Trouble was the doors were locked. She looked around and saw the parcel drop off opening. That's the one slightly larger than the letter opening on the side of the post office.

Rita figured she would just stick her head in there and yell for someone to bring her a stamp or at least get her money back from the one-armed bandit in the lobby.

Rita got her head in the opening, but then couldn't get it back out. She hollered in the cavernous back room of the post office, but never got a response. She pulled but could not get loose.

After a while her friend, Lori Landrum Telgen, who had probably been on a few escapades with Rita before, did what you would expect any friend to do, she left. In her defense, Lori may have been going to get help, but it's also a possibility she wanted nothing to do with being involved in the crime of attempted breaking and entering into a federal office.

As Rita remained stuck she heard the voice of a man come into the post office. I don't think to this day Rita knows who that man was. The other good news is that he probably did not know who she was either.

Rita said she remembered something about turning when a person has their head stuck in a tight place. She began to twist around and finally got her head loose from the opening. When she told her husband Bob about the incident he only had one question.

"What would you have done if that man had pinched you," he asked.

"I'd probably have gone airmail," she responded.

Antics like this are probably the reason Mike Hunter has given Rita the nickname of "Lucy" after the television star Lucille Ball.

Then again, it he may have given her the moniker after hearing about the time Lucy, uh, Rita, decided to do something nice for Bob.

Rita decided she would wash Bob's brand new car for him. I think it was a Lincoln, with leather interior and all the bells and whistles.

About the time she gets almost finished Bob came home. As the story goes, he walked past Rita, looked over at the car and made one of those helpful suggestions husbands around the world like to make.

"Next time it might be a good idea to close the moon roof before you start washing the car," Bob said. He didn't appear to get too frazzled; obviously Bob had been the beneficiary of Rita's good deeds before.

Bud Hunt is the publisher of the Daily Dunklin Democrat.