[Kenya-born half-brother Mark Obama ] Ndesandjo, whose book “Cultures: My Odyssey of Self-Discovery” explores the complicated relationship between the brothers, said the first time he met Barack, “it was a very powerful meeting.” We had very different views about a couple of things… there was a cultural clash because I mentioned in my book that I felt that he thought that I was too white and I felt he was too black.

City officials said they hoped the state had learned lessons from the experience. Even though many Harrisburg officials had objected to the state’s takeover, they ultimately won a better deal for the city after council members rejected earlier state recovery plans that did not require concessions from lenders and would have left the city with significant debts…

Passage of the marijuana initiative would permit adults 21 and older to possess up to one ounce (28 grams) of marijuana for private personal use and to grow as many as six cannabis plants for their own consumption…

WE.CONNECT.DOTS: Expanded state-sponsored gambling began as a necessary program under Democrat Governor Ed Rendell. With Republican Governor Tom Corbett, the state has repeatedly opted to increase gambling to avoid tax increases.

The drop emerged from a major federal health survey that experts say is the gold standard for evidence on what Americans weigh. The trend came as a welcome surprise to researchers. New evidence has shown that obesity takes hold young: Children who are overweight or obese between age 3 and 5 are five times as likely to be overweight or obese as adults…

PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE: A federal investigation has found Pennsylvania prisons confine inmates who have serious mental illness or intellectual disabilities in a manner that violates both the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment and the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The researchers looked for a link between acetaminophen and ADHD because they believe the medication might work as a hormone disruptor capable of affecting fetal brain development, Ritz says

A significant amount of the conversations during Monday’s Senate Appropriations Committee budget hearing for the Department Public Welfare focused, not surprisingly, on Medicaid expansion and the Corbett administration’s Healthy PA Medicaid waiver.

A new analysis by The Allentown Morning Call newspaper and published Monday indicates that growth in the industries associated with drilling in the Marcellus Shale — one of the country’s main areas for hydraulic fracturing, or fracking — fell by 29 percent from 2010 to 2013. There are now just under 30,000 that can directly be linked to the Marcellus…

In the Crimean port city of Sevastopol, home of Russia’s Black Sea naval base, hundreds of pro-Russia protesters massed outside the city’s main administrative building on Monday for more than five hours until the city council agreed to allow Alexei Chaliy, a Russian businessman, to take over immediately as mayor.

[Cliff] Benson also is a former board member and finance chairman of the Second Mile, Mr. Sandusky’s former charity that is in the process of being dissolved…