NEW YORK TIMES: …H. Geoffrey Moulton, Jr., who worked in the U.S. Attorney’s office in Philadelphia, will lead the long-awaited review of the Penn State abuse case, state attorney general Kathleen Kane said in a news release on Monday…

YAHOO / AP: The oil and gas industry is trying to ease environmental concerns by developing nontoxic fluids for the drilling process known as fracking, but it’s not clear whether the new product will be widely embraced by drilling companies.

The rules, required under a child nutrition law passed by Congress in 2010, are part of the government’s effort to combat childhood obesity. While many schools already have improved their lunch menus and vending machine choices, others still are selling high-fat, high-calorie foods… (more)

NEW YORK TIMES: …These Americans in their 50s and early 60s — those near retirement age who do not yet have access to Medicare and Social Security — have lost the most earnings power of any age group, with their household incomes 10 percent below what they made when the recovery began three years ago, according to Sentier Research, a data analysis company.

NEWSMAX: … [Outgoing Secretary of State Hillary] Clinton told reporters there are signs Iran is sending more people and increasingly sophisticated weaponry to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in his 22-month battle against rebels seeking to end his family’s four-decades of authoritarian rule.

WASHINGTON POST Column: …The consequences would be widespread. The Pentagon would have to cut spending 8.8 percent, estimates Todd Harrison of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a think tank specializing in defense issues. Among civilian workers, there would almost certainly be furloughs. Procurement contracts would have to be rewritten to reduce purchases;

Several years ago, I was a public school teacher in central Harlem, New York City. There was one difference between these kids and the ones from my suburban childhood. My students, like Hadiya, lived in a war zone. Most lived in the projects of New York City. Each day they passed a gauntlet of thugs and drug dealers.

It is estimated that the proposed replacement of Pennsylvania State Stores through the sale of licensing rights will generate approximately a billion dollars of revenue. Who is pushing for the privatization of the State Store system? Who is pushing for the privatization of the lottery system? Who pushed for the development of the Lancaster County Convention Center project?

Under his plan, the state’s 600 state-owned liquor stores would be shut down, with about 1,200 wine and spirit licenses auctioned off and separate licenses available for supermarkets, convenience stores and big-box retailers.

So if the employer isn’t willing to chip in for family premiums — as most big companies already do — some families will be out of luck. They may not be able to afford the full premium on their own, and they’d be locked out of the subsidies in the healthcare overhaul law…

The timing of the attacks coincided with the reporting for a Times investigation, published online on Oct. 25, that found that the relatives of Wen Jiabao, China’s prime minister, had accumulated a fortune worth several billion dollars through business dealings