From USA TODAY: In taking on the Supreme Court for the second time in three years, President Obama is following in the footsteps of Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln and Franklin Delano Roosevelt. When Obama challenged the court Monday by saying a decision to strike down his landmark health care law would be “an unprecedented, extraordinary step,” his words touched off a week-long controversy over the court’s right to judicial review and the president’s use of the bully pulpit.

…I was asked to make a statement at the public hearing of the Budgetary Committee of the House of Councilors on March 23. I raised the crucial problem. of N0.4 reactor of Fukushima containing1535 fuel rods. It could be fatally damaged by continuing aftershocks. Moreover, 50 meters away from it exists a common cooling pool for 6 reactors containing 6375 fuel rods!

From the NEW YORK TIMES Column: …As of last September, only 2.5 percent of Fannie and Freddie mortgages were seriously delinquent, versus 7.2 percent for banks’ mortgages. Still, the crowd clamors for widespread Fannie and Freddie write-downs, even though they would constitute a direct and sizable gift from taxpayers to the largest banks.

From the HUFFINGTON POST: In 2001, an 11-year-old girl told a judge that her father raped her, sending the man to prison for nine years. Today, she admits that she lied. Now 23-years-old, Cassandra Ann Kennedy says made up the story because she was upset with her father following her parents’ divorce, The Daily News reports.

ESPN THE MAGAZINE: …Five months after that night and two-and-a-half months after Paterno’s death from lung cancer at age 85, the Penn State community’s anger at the coach’s dismissal might be less visible but is no less visceral. The story of how the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse case escalated into a Penn State scandal and a Joe Paterno scandal before a rapt national audience seems, in retrospect, a deceptively simple narrative:

From the HUFFINGTON POST: In little-noticed remarks last month, Israel’s foreign minister declared that a war with Iran would “be a nightmare,” drawing in countries from around the region and leaving “no one…unscathed.” During a diplomatic visit to China, Avigdor Lieberman told the Israeli daily Yedioth Ahronoth:

From BLOOMBERG: As restrictions on abortion and contraception have become the subject of state legislative action and Republican presidential candidates’ pitches to voters, arguments have focused on the issue’s moral and religious dimensions. Less attention has been paid to the financial implications to states, businesses and women if governments impose policies that lead to increases in unplanned or unwanted pregnancies.

From USA TODAY / AP: The U.N. crime-fighting office said Tuesday that 2.4 million people across the globe are victims of human trafficking at any one time, and 80 percent of them are being exploited as sexual slaves. Yuri Fedotov, the head of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, told a daylong General Assembly meeting on trafficking that 17 percent are trafficked to perform forced labor, including in homes and sweat shops.

HARRISBURG PATRIOT-NEWS: …In a conference call, Jon Soltz, chairman of VoteVets.org, a political action committee that has endorsed [Patrick] Murphy, took issue with [Kathleen] Kane’s criticisms about her opponent, a former congressman from Bucks County, not having the legal or courtroom experience to be attorney general…

[Kane] said: “In fact, I have publicly thanked and applauded the congressman on multiple occasions for his valor and service to our nation. The documented fact that Congressman Murphy did not take the Pennsylvania bar exam or try a case in a Pennsylvania courtroom is a real issue and concern for the state’s voters.

From the PHILADELPHIA DAILY NEWS: .. Samad Muhammad is not the region’s only kid to wake up without health-care coverage in recent months. At least 89,000 children vanished from the state Medicaid rolls between August and January – roughly 25,000 of them in Philadelphia, according to the state Department of Public Welfare.

HARRISBURG (April 2) – Prevailing Wage legislation could come up for a vote this week in the state House of Representatives, or, as it has in the past, fail to get considered due to insufficient House GOP support. HB 1329 would set the bar higher for when the “prevailing” wage – the average wage and benefits of a particular region – is paid on a publicly-financed construction project.

The Lancaster Sunday News again devoted only four short paragraphs to what appears to have been a telephone report on the J. P. McCaskey second place finish at the statewide Mock Trial contest. As was the case when McCaskey won the regionals, the article was ‘buried’ opposite the Obituary Page.

And then came the day of reckoning. According to the Lancaster Sunday News: “As of Monday, the Lancaster County Convention Center Authority will begin receiving 100 percent of the revenues generated by the county’s hotel tax.