Finish Line: Former Massachusetts Gov.Mitt Romney, who has talked for months like The Man Who Would Be President, announced to his supporters this morning that he is not going to make a third run for the presidency, according to several news outlets. Romney’s decision frees up millions of dollars worth of donor money, in particular for the center-right candidate Jeb Bush.

The Rap: Former rap music mogul Marion “Suge” Knight has turned himself in to police after he was suspected of running over two men in a parking lot following an argument on a movie set in Compton, Calif. He’s charged with murder and is being held on $2 million bail.

The fatal incident happened in the parking lot of a restaurant not far from the movie set. Knight drove away in his pickup truck as one man died and the other was injured. Witnesses said it looked intentional, but Knight’s lawyer said he was being attacked and was escaping.

The co-founder of Death Row Records is no stranger to Thug Life. Knight spent several years in prison for parole violation and was the man driving the car in which Tupac Shakur was a passenger when he was shot to death in Las Vegas in 1996. Last August Knight and two others were shot and wounded during a party on the Sunset Strip.

Econ 101: The Commerce Department reported this morning that the economy grew at a rate of 2.4 percent in 2014, not bad, but less than the 3 percent economists had hoped.

Part of the drag on the economy is curtailed government spending. President Obama yesterday called for an end to the “sequester” budget cuts and “mindless austerity” in federal spending. Originally designed as a threat to make Congress enact a budget, the sequester cuts are uniform reductions in spending regardless of need.

The president proposed a seven percent increase in spending, about $74 billion. Obama wants to take advantage of the shrinking deficit and improving economy to restore his Democratic agenda, but he faces a Republican Congress bent on a balanced budget.

Nation: The Republican Senate yesterday passed a bill approving the Keystone XL pipeline, joining the House in a potential standoff with President Obama who threatens a veto. Even as the price of oil has dropped to about $44 a barrel in a world glut, and layoff are rolling through the industry, the Republicans insist on building the pipe that would carry Canadian tar sands oil south to the Gulf of Mexico.

World: Rescuers picked babies out of the rubble yesterday In Mexico City after the accidental explosion of a natural gas truck leveled 70 percent of the hospital. One woman and two children were killed. Sixty-six people were reported injured.

Permawar: Coordinated bombings of security facilities in the Sinai yesterday killed 26 people. The Egyptian government is having difficulty putting down a growing insurgency that is modeling itself after the Islamic State.

>Three American military contractors were killed yesterday in a shooting on the military side of the Kabul airport. The shooter, described as an Afghan man wearing a uniform, was also killed in the incident.

Weather: Another winter storm has moved in from eastern New York to Boston and up through Maine. Deep snow is expected in some areas, particularly in Maine.

The Obit Page: Colleen McCullough, the Australian author whose novel “The Thorn Birds” sold 30 million copies around the world, has died at age 77. The book about a priest torn between the church and love for a beautiful woman was made into a popular 1983 mini-series on American television.

>Rod McKuen, the sentimental New Age poet and lyricist of the 1970s and 80s, has died at age 81. Never taken seriously by critics and other poets, he was the author of Listen to the Warm. McKuen was also a prolific songwriter whose work was performed by many familiar names; Barbra Streisand, Petula Clark, Dusty Springfield, Frank Sinatra, and more. He was nominated for an Academy Award for writing the song “Jean” for the 1969 movie “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.”

Editor’s Note: We’re just here this morning so we don’t get fined.

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