The bottom line

Airlines cut domestic flights

Since 2007, major airlines have cut the number of U.S. domestic flights by 14 percent in order to maintain high capacity numbers, and thus higher returns on their investment. The biggest drops have occurred at hubs like Cincinnati, Cleveland, Memphis, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis, which have lost 40 percent of their scheduled flights.

The New York Times

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Income up in small cities and rural areas

While average income fell by 3.5 percent in metropolitan areas between 2007 and 2011, it rose 3.8 percent among residents of small cities, towns, and rural areas, largely because of the energy boom and high prices for farm products.

USA Today

Bond and Lincoln lift box office earnings

James Bond and Abraham Lincoln helped lift the domestic box office to a record Thanksgiving weekend. The five-day period from Wednesday to Sunday grossed a combined $291 million thanks to Skyfall, Lincoln, and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn—Part 2, beating the previous Thanksgiving record of $273 million in 2009.

Associated Press

Don't be fooled by Black Friday

Black Friday doorbuster sales aren’t all they are cracked up to be. An analysis of more than 500 Black Friday prices from big-box retailers like Target and Sears found that nearly a third of the products had been sold at lower prices earlier in the year.

The Wall Street Journal

The high toll of identity theft

As many as 9 million Americans have their identities stolen each year. New research suggests that there are roughly 10,000 identity theft rings in the U.S., with crooks most highly concentrated in Alabama, the Carolinas, Delaware, Georgia, Mississippi, and Texas.

Time.com