We hadn’t expected any serious troubles while viewing the TV news warnings of Hurricane Sandy. A year ago there was a hurricane in New York also, but in Manhattan it was almost unnoticeable. This time it was different.

PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE: …since the GOP not only flipped the House in 2010 but totally controlled 21 state governments, including Pennsylvania’s, it allowed the party to master post-census congressional redistricting around the country. On Nov. 6, Democrats won the popular vote by 500,000 votes nationally but took just 201 of the 435 U.S. House seats.

Joseph Weinert, senior vice president of Spectrum Gaming Group near Atlantic City, noted the gambling market is now down 40 percent from its peak levels, but the city still has the same number of casinos.

Barak’s resignation could mean the departure of the most moderating influence on hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is expected to retain his job after the election. Barak, who heads a small centrist faction in parliament, had often served as Netanyahu’s unofficial envoy to Washington…

PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER Editorial: With a $27 billion state budget, Pennsylvania should be able to spend less than 1 percent of that amount to make sure 600,000 of its most vulnerable citizens have their basic health-care needs met…

LEHIGH VALLEY MORNING CALL: … I think that consumer protection, on a larger scale, has been dormant for a number of years. First we need to look at mortgage fraud crimes, student loan fraud crimes and crimes against our veterans.

What only careful readers of the article would have gleaned is the extent of the financial connections between the drugmaker and the research. The trial had been funded by GlaxoSmithKline, and each of the 11 authors had received money from the company.

“With men and plant unemployed, it is ridiculous to say that we cannot afford new developments. It is precisely with these plants and these men that we shall afford them. When we have unemployed men and unemployed plants and more savings than we are using at home, it is utterly imbecile to say that we cannot afford these things.

REUTERS: More than 40,000 people have been killed in 20 monconflict between Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s forces and those fighting for his overthrow, a violence monitoring group said on Friday.

The meeting highlighted what today is the biggest disagreement between some of the world’s top economists and the Obama administration. The economists say the president could have significantly accelerated the slow economic recovery if he had better addressed the overhang of mortgage debt left when housing prices collapsed.

For the better part of three decades, Western PA witnessed erosion of its heavy industrial base. Outside of Pittsburgh and a few other pockets of economic development, Western PA existed on pension, Medicare and social security payments and government handouts.

THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS: … It is widely known that the constitutional process for nominating and confirming the federal government’s senior policy officials has become dangerously distorted, inhibiting the prompt and effective leadership and management of any new administration.

NEW YORK TIMES: President Obama skipped dessert at a long summit meeting dinner in Cambodia on Monday to rush back to his hotel suite. It was after 11:30 p.m., and his mind was on rockets in Gaza rather than Asian diplomacy. He picked up the telephone to call the Egyptian leader who is the new wild card in his Middle East calculations.