Many Democrats lambaste Corbett for refusing to support a state drilling tax on the gas industry, saying he’s forgoing billions of dollars in revenue at the same time he’s imposing spending cuts on needs like schools.

This year, Cummins Westport — a joint venture of Cummins (ticker: CMI ) and Westport Innovations (NASDAQ: WPRT ) that focuses on building natural-gas powered engines for trucks — introduced the first 12-liter natural gas engine. This engine is capable of powering heavy trucks weighing up to 40 tons, opening up a new market segment for natural gas engines.

Last week’s announcement that the U.S.economy grew at a 2.8 percent annual rate in the third quarter was stunning. It came with caveats, of course, because everything seems to come with caveats these days. Some doomsayers warned, for various arcane reasons, that it was the wrong kind of growth.

The office, which investigates fraud related to welfare and food stamp benefits and other programs administered through the Department of Public Welfare, filed cases from fiscal 2010 through fiscal 2012 alleging average annual food stamp violations of $1.9 million. Total state food-stamp benefits during those years averaged $2.57 billion annually…

So the idea is that even the poorest child in Oklahoma should have access to the kind of nurturing that is routine in middle-class homes. That way, impoverished children don’t begin elementary school far behind the starting line — and then give up…

…There is a coyness to some retrospectives. In a long essay in a recent New York Times Book Review, Executive Editor Jill Abramson wonders “Was Kennedy a great president?” — a question she never answers — and opines that he “remains all but impossible to pin down,” whatever that means.

PA Governor Tom Corbett would like to have a few more legislative achievements to tout in his campaign for re-election. By his own choosing, Corbett’s 2014 campaign for re-election to another four-year term actually began the day after the municipal election this year. The Republican began his campaign on a simplistic but appealing theme.

“She has the profile where she could be a late entrant into the race and immediately become a top-tier candidate,” said Larry Ceisler, a Philadelphia public relations consultant. “I just think (Kane’s advisers) want to be ready” if the political landscape shifts.

There are fears that parents will stop letting their children play the game, that football will die a slow death once we learn just how dangerous it is. Maybe, through it all, football fans have bargained with themselves: the game is dangerous, the dangers can’t be removed, and we’re going to ignore it all and enjoy it until the day those dangers don’t let us consciously enjoy it anymore.

Is allowing youngsters to play football de facto child abuse?

Former Texas prosecutor and district court judge Ken Anderson agreed Friday to serve 10 days in jail, complete 500 hours of community service and give up his law license for hiding evidence in a 1987 murder trial that sent an innocent man to jail for nearly 25 years.