GOOD NEWS: “Oil prices briefly fell below $50 per barrel Thursday for the first time in 20 months, after the U.S. government reported larger-than-expected jumps in crude oil and gasoline inventories. Oil has dropped 17 percent since the end of 2006 amid weeks of mild winter weather in the U.S. Northeast, a key consumer of heating fuels, and growing energy stockpiles. Stockpiles of gasoline and distillate fuels, like heating oil and diesel, also rose last week, the Energy Information Administration said.”