Former Govs. Dick Thornburgh, Tom Ridge and Ed Rendell held a conference call to tout a constitutional amendment to replace statewide judicial elections with a panel that would recommend a pool of judges. The sitting governor would then pick the judge or justice who would then be confirmed by the state Senate.

DRUG WAR CHRONICLE: Snitch is a Hollywood action thriller with a message, and it’s a message that is so far playing well with audiences and theaters across the land. The $15 million crime and justice pic starring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Susan Sarandon has already done more than $32 million in gross box office receipts, and its being held over for a fourth week in select theaters around the country.

According to the book jacket, “ ‘The Insurgents’ is the inside story of the small group of soldier-scholars, led by General David Petraeus, who plotted to revolutionize one of the largest, oldest, and most hidebound institutions – the United States military.

“All too often we’re associated with being ‘anti’ everything,” Bush said. “Way too many people believe Republicans are anti-immigrant, anti-woman, anti-science, anti-gay, anti-worker, and the list goes on and on and on. Many voters are simply unwilling to choose our candidates even though they share our core beliefs, because those voters feel unloved, unwanted and unwelcome in our party.”…

NEWSMAX: Consumer sentiment tumbled to its lowest in over a year in early March as more Americans were dissatisfied with government economic policies and fewer expected to see improvements in growth or the labor market, a survey released on Friday showed.

FINANCIAL TIMES: …Ten years later – and more than a year after Barack Obama pulled out the last troops – Iraq is indeed sovereign, as the US president declared. But it is not, as he also said, stable.

NEWSMAX: Iran is about a year away from developing a nuclear weapon and the U.S. remains committed to doing everything in its power to prevent that from happening, President Barack Obama said in an exclusive interview aired Thursday on Israeli TV.

NEW YORK TIMES: …The Urban Institute study is one of many to show something of a perfect storm of economic trends battering younger workers. One is the collapse of the housing bubble. Young people who bought homes as prices started to decline in 2006 are often underwater on their mortgages today.

HARRISBURG PATRIOT-NEWS: State officials confirmed Thursday that they are within a week of signing off on terms key to the sale of Harrisburg’s incinerator and the resolution of more than $340 million in debt tied to the trash-burning facility.

PHILLY.COM / AP: Pennsylvania’s new auditor general says improper payments to charter schools may have cost state taxpayers millions of dollars.