..the tax committee’s findings are the latest in a string of analyses that cast a skeptical eye toward GOP plans to slash tax rates without adding to the deficit. Democrats and some think tanks have said it’s not possible to cut rates to the level that Republicans are advocating without shifting the tax burden toward the middle-class…

CHRONICLE: In a report released Tuesday, the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services has found that the state’s needle exchange program has provided clean needles to nearly 10,000 drug users and gotten more than 2,000 of them into drug treatment. In the report, Health Commissioner Mary O’Dowd concluded that the program is a success and should be continued.

On Friday, school children dedicated prayers to her recovery in morning assemblies and she was also remembered during weekly prayers at mosques across the country…

From the PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE: … Some PennDOT driver’s license centers were still offering materials Thursday saying photo identification will be required to vote on Election Day, Nov. 6, despite a ruling to the contrary last week by a Commonwealth Court judge.

Biden’s 36 years in the Senate served him well Thursday night. Who says that delivering hundreds of floor speeches on Capitol Hill isn’t useful? The vice president also proved wrong the critics, who predicted he was going to make a gaffe. He didn’t…

With the publication earlier this month of “Bull By The Horns, Fight to save Main Street from Wall Street and Wall Street from itself” by Sheila Bair, Former FDIC [Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation] Chair, we learn how this tragic failure to bring about modifications came about.

Despite public denials, Gov. Tom Corbett’s Office of Administration is deeply involved in attempts to silence a Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board staff attorney who, on his private time, conducts community forums on the Harrisburg debt crisis.

From the HUFFINGTON POST: …John Gurdon’s future success was almost nipped in the bud in 1949 when a schoolmaster at elite Eton College wrote on his report card that pursuing science would be a waste of time.

From NEWSMAX: Michigan and Pennsylvania are now up for grabs in the 2012 presidential race – according to new polls published on Tuesday… In Michigan, USA Today reports, Obama now leads Romney by only three points

The House is more polarized than at any time in the last century, according to models built by Keith Poole, a professor of political science at the University of Georgia, and Howard Rosenthal, professor emeritus of social sciences at Princeton. The last time the Senate was this divided, according to the joint research, was a century ago…

From the PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER: The popular Keystone rail service between Philadelphia and Harrisburg, Amtrak’s fourth-busiest route, could face serious cutbacks next year because of reduced federal subsidies.

A senior Republican aide in the House of Representatives told the Financial Times there was an internal debate within the party, with one side arguing that Republicans would be better off to “give in” to Democratic demands for an increase in taxes for individuals making more than $250,000 if Barack Obama were re-elected….