NEW YORK TIMES: …Warnings voiced against partial legalization — of civic disorder, increased lawlessness and a drastic rise in other drug use — have proved unfounded.

Some economists say more inflation is just what the American economy needs to escape from a half-decade of sluggish growth and high unemployment.
The Fed has worked for decades to suppress inflation, but economists, including Janet Yellen, President Obama’s nominee to lead the Fed starting next year, have long argued that a little inflation is particularly valuable when the economy is weak.

Pianist Frances Veri will perform with her son, violinist Michael T. Jamanis, in a community concert at El Redentor and St. Paul’s United Methodist Church on Sunday, October 27 at 4 p.m. Student performances by the Music For Everyone strings at Crispus Attucks will begin at 3:30 p.m.

NEWSMAX: Jay Paterno, the younger son of the late Penn State football coach Joe Paterno, is considering a run for Congress next year as a Democrat in a race that would pit him against Republican incumbent Rep. Glenn Thompson.

The Silk Road website, which allowed anonymous trade in illegal drugs, forged documents, hackers and hit men, had nearly a million customers and $1.2 billion in sales, court papers say. Silk Road’s operator, known on the site as “Dread Pirate Roberts,” allegedly collected commissions worth $80 million. FBI agent Christopher Tarbell called Silk Road “the most sophisticated and extensive criminal marketplace on the Internet today.”… (more)

ALJAZEERA: An annual report from the National Center for Homeless Education, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Education, found that 1.2 million students enrolled in schools across the U.S. were homeless between 2011 and 2012, a 10 percent increase from the 2010-11 school year.

True, crime rates have fallen in past decades, but only some of that can be attributed to high incarceration rates and are outweighed by the astronomical financial and social costs. Pennsylvania, for example, spends about twice as much on corrections – $1.8 billion – as it does on higher education…

“I’m signing a bill that improves the health care provider/patient relationship that will also help lower the cost of healthcare,” said Corbett. “This new apology rule … will allow health care providers from all across the state to apologize and communicate with patients and their families, and not have those statements or gestures used against them.

The below transcript was taken from “REPLAY: Lancaster mayoral debate between Rick Gray and Charlie Smithgall”: (Smithgall gave his closing remarks first. The following then occurred during Gray’s closing comments:)

Struggling for words, Smithgall called Gray’s statement “a load of c—p”, denied receiving money from the county, and added that he has long allowed the county to use his firing range, free of charge.

The story of Fukushima should be on the front pages of every newspaper. Instead, it is rarely mentioned. The problems at Fukushima are unprecedented in human experience and involve a high risk of radiation events larger than any that the global community has ever experienced.

The new research by Anne Fernald, a psychologist at Stanford University, which was published in Developmental Science this year, showed that at 18 months children from wealthier homes could identify pictures of simple words they knew — “dog” or “ball” — much faster than children from low-income families. By age 2, the study found, affluent children had learned 30 percent more words in the intervening months than the children from low-income homes…