by Frank James

A quick guided tour of some of today's most important, most interesting, or both, Washington-related stories.

The Congressional Budget Office said the nation's budget deficit will increase to $250 billion this fiscal year, after three years of decline, because of the slowing economy. And that was before at least $100 million from the economic stimulus package now being discussed by the President Bush and Congress.

U.S. financial markets continued to slide even after Tuesday's surprise interest-rate cut by the Federal Reserve as recession fears continued to dog the markets.

Senior House leaders met with Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson Wednesday morning as the Bush Administration and congressional leaders tried to work out the details on an economic stimulus plan.

While some of Sen. Hillary Clinton's Democratic party leaders have worried that President Clinton's aggressive support for his wife has sometimes created controversies that have gotten her campaign off message, other supporters welcome the ex-president and like the image projected by the party's most powerful couple.

A security barrier between the Gaza Strip and Egypt was partly demolished today by masked men, allowing thousands of Palestinians who had been trapped in that poor area by an Israeli blockade of official crossings, to stream into Egypt for needed supplies.

Global warming could actually reduce the number of serious hurricanes that will hit the U.S., a federal study that conflicts with other research that concludes that the U.S. mainland is likely to be visited by such major storms more frequently.

Too few adults get vaccines for serious diseases like tetanus, diphtheria, whooping cough, shingles and cervical cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control.