Tuition to go up 3 percent at Pa. state universities

PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER: The board governing Pennsylvania’s 14 state universities on Tuesday approved a 3 percent tuition increase for 2014-15. Under the plan approved by the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education’s board of governors at its meeting in Harrisburg, full-time in-state students this fall will pay a base tuition of $6,820 a year, a $198 […]

Obama Should Counter John Boehner’s Lawsuit

DAILY BEAST Column: …Did Boehner gave any specific reasons why he needed to employ the extraordinary remedy of suing a President—as opposed to seeking a political solution to a political issue? Nope. Instead Boehner offered up sweeping statements like, “The President has circumvented the American people and their elected representatives through executive action.” (I wonder, […]

Now is the time to legalize medical marijuana in Pennsylvania

HARRISBURG PATRIOT-NEWS Op Ed: …For too long, terse comments and simple-minded caricatures of medical cannabis supporters have replaced any serious discussion of the topic in Pennsylvania. The reality of the situation is far more serious and sobering. Many lawmakers (including myself) have had conversations with parents whose children suffer from devastating disorders that haven’t responded […]

Germany Dumps 70-Year No-Spying Pact

THE INDEPENDENT: The Central Intelligence Agency recruited a German intelligence official in an apparent quest to get information about Berlin’s probe into U.S. spying on the country and its leaders, and now Germany will have its payback. The interior minister announced that Germany is ditching the no-spy agreement it’s had with the U.S. and Britain […]

Once fabled Atlantic City hits free fall

Casino revenue has declined almost every month for the past eight years and now amounts to just half of the $5 billion reported for 2006. Atlantic Club (1,600 jobs) closed in January, Showboat (2,100 jobs) will close next month, and several of the 10 surviving casino-hotels probably will shut or shrink…

Medicaid expansion report tallies what state is missing

LEHIGH VALLEY MORNING CALL: …Both sides agree that hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians — 305,000 by 2016, according to the council’s report — would be covered by an expanded Medicaid program. As it stands, nearly all of those people are uninsured, because they do not qualify for the existing Medicaid program under Pennsylvania’s rules, nor do they qualify for health-insurance subsidies under the federal law.