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JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The Social Security Administration says one of its fraud investigators received a readable list of Missourians who have concealed-weapons permits but that the list was later destroyed.

The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Friday that the agent received the list in a readable format from the Missouri State Highway Patrol in January.

Patrol officials told a Missouri Senate committee Thursday the data were never accessed at the federal level because of a technical glitch. But the Social Security Administration's Office of Inspector General told The Post-Dispatch the unreadable version was sent to the agent in 2011.

The investigator was planning to check if anyone who met Missouri's mental health qualifications for a weapons permit had also sought benefits for a mental disability. But the project was dropped.

WASHINGTON (AP) — In spite of budget wrangling and finger-pointing by U.S. policymakers, the government's short-term fiscal picture isn't all that bad. It's actually getting better — at least for now.

Washington is borrowing about 25 cents for every dollar it spends, down from over 40 cents just a few years ago.

And the budget deficit is dropping to $845 billion after topping $1 trillion for four straight years. The Congressional Budget Office says the deficit will keep shrinking — to $430 billion by 2015.

That's the good news.

But without a fix, the government's finances will start to worsen again as the three major "entitlement" programs — Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid — become more and more expensive and unmanageable under the increasing weight of retiring baby boomers.