U.S. BUDGET DEFICIT GROWS 27% THIS YEAR

» The U.S. government’s budget deficit rose by $183 billion to $867 billion during the first 10 months of this budget year as spending grew more than twice as fast as tax collections.

The Treasury Department say the deficit for the current fiscal year through July is up 27% from the same period a year earlier. Spending rose 8% to $3.73 trillion, and tax revenue rose 3% to $2.86 trillion.

President Donald Trump’s $1.5 trillion tax cut and new spending agreed to last year have swelled the gap between what the federal government spends and what it takes in.

Rite Aid picks former insurance executive as new CEO.

Rite Aid has chosen a former insurance executive to replace longtime CEO John Standley to try to right the struggling drugstore chain.

The company said Monday that Heyward Donigan will take over immediately for Standley, who’s been CEO since 2010.

The 58-year-old Donigan is a former executive with Premera Blue Cross. She most recently served as CEO of Sapphire Digital.

Donigan takes over a company that runs nearly 2,500 drugstores and lost $99.7 million in its first quarter.

BlackRock takes huge stake in parent of Sports Illustrated.

NEW Y O RK

BlackRock is taking a sizeable stake in the parent of Sports Illustrated and the retail chains Nine West and Aeropostale, becoming the company’s largest shareholder.

Financial terms were not disclosed. The Wall Street Journal cited anonymous sources who put the investment at $875 million, valuing the company at $4 billion. Authentic Brands Group has more than 50 brands and nearly $10 billion in annual global revenue.

Verizon sells early socialmedia darling Tumblr

» Verizon is selling NEW Y O R K Tumblr, a darling of early social media, to the owner of blogging platform WordPress.

Tumblr is known for its devoted fan base and has been home to angry posts from celebrities like Taylor Swift. It angered many last year when it banned porn and “adult content,” which made up a big part of its highly visual and meme-friendly online presence.

Verizon got Tumblr through its 2017 purchase of Yahoo. Yahoo had bought Tumblr for $1.1 billion in 2013, but ended up writing off much of its value.