From the WASHINGTON POST: With Europe falling deeper into crisis and Congress paralyzed, only one institution may have the flexibility to try to keep the U.S. economic recovery on track: the Federal Reserve. But the Fed faces a daunting burden. Any new action could provoke tough political criticism.

From the HARRISBURG PATRIOT-NEWS: A majority of Harrisburg City Council blasted Gov. Tom Corbett today for expecting council to proceed with the state-sponsored fiscal recovery plan for Harrisburg even though former city receiver David Unkovic called for criminal investigations of the incinerator retrofit project that buried the city in $326 million of debt.

From the HARRISBURG PATRIOT-NEWS: Gov. Tom Corbett, who has been criticized for cutting state spending for schools and social services, is advocating future tax credits worth as much as $67 million a year for a petrochemical refinery planned by Shell Oil Co. in western Pennsylvania to capitalize on booming natural-gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale.

We are trying to fathom why the Sunday News is so avid and its esteemed editor Marv Adams is so irrational about obtaining information from the County Tax office concerning what actual hotels pay in the way of hotel room sales tax.

In a strategy presentation to top GOP donors in Boston last month, Romney campaign officials placed a premium on winning Florida, North Carolina, Ohio and Virginia… Obama appears to hold a steady advantage in Pennsylvania. Polls show him leading Romney by around 7 percentage points…

From YAHOO: If you’re taking a refreshing dip in a pool with four other people, odds are one of you is urinating. This is not gross-out myth, but cold, depressing fact from a recent survey conducted by the Water Quality & Health Council, a scientific research group sponsored by the American Chemistry Council.

From the FINANCIAL TIMES: First-quarter growth for the US was revised down from an annualised rate of 2.2 per cent to 1.9 per cent on a day of gloomy data for the world’s largest economy. The downward revision to gross domestic product came alongside a weak jobs report from ADP, the payrolls processing company, and a rise in new claims for unemployment insurance.

From the NEW YORK TIMES Editorial: ….Mr. Obama has demonstrated that he can be thoughtful and farsighted, but, like all occupants of the Oval Office, he is a politician, subject to the pressures of re-election. No one in that position should be able to unilaterally order the killing of American citizens or foreigners located far from a battlefield — depriving Americans of their due-process rights — without the consent of someone outside his political inner circle…

DRUG WAR FACTS NEWSLETTER: If this term sounds like a new twist to an age-old peril, it is. Although TOC is a fairly recent invention, it reflects an approach that is evolving with its times. The National Institute of Justice charted TOC’s brief history, “Starting in the 1970s, but accelerating in the early 1990s, a new form of organized crime took hold. The combination of a new geopolitical climate, a globalized world economy and resulting softer borders, and a revolution in information technology available to crime groups hastened a shift.

From POLITICO: Republican super PACs and other outside groups shaped by a loose network of prominent conservatives – including Karl Rove, the Koch brothers and Tom Donohue of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce – plan to spend roughly $1 billion on November’s elections for the White House and control of Congress, according to officials familiar with the groups’ internal operations.