Getting your player ready...
WASHINGTON — The stimulus checks are working. The Commerce Department reported Thursday that retail sales rose 1 percent last month, double what had been expected. The May increase provided the strongest evidence yet that the economy is getting a major boost from the $50 billion in economic-stimulus payments the government sent out by the end of May, slightly less than half of the $106.7 billion scheduled to be sent out this year.
Also Thursday, the Labor Department reported that new applications for jobless benefits rose by 25,000 last week to 384,000, the highest level since late March.
