From the HARRISBURG PATRIOT-NEWS: Pennsylvania has perfected the art of examining the way it delivers higher education — and then doing little with what it has learned. Several studies have been done over the years, only to be ignored.

From the PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE Editorial: Pennsylvania already has a love-hate relationship with Marcellus Shale gas drilling. Enthusiasm for the prospect of good jobs and generous payments to property owners who lease their land has been tempered by worries about the prospects for harm to the state’s air, water, roads and quality of life.

From the HARRISBURG PATRIOT-NEWS: … In an election year, Pennsylvania Republicans determined inaction on Marcellus Shale carried far greater risks than being accused of raising taxes. That wasn’t exactly clear Wednesday, as lobbying forces descended upon Pennsylvania representatives, urging them to vote against the compromise legislation.

The Sunday News article “Hotel tax debate rages; payments not open to public” is a compromise between journalistic standards and serving the financial interests of Penn Square Partners, of which a subsidiary of the newspapers is half owner.

Hospitals will charge the cash paying patient around 2 ½ times what they charge a health insurance company. Pharmacies decline to carry economical generic brands. A popular erection drug costs ten times as much at Rite Aid as the generic version available via the Internet from abroad.

In his book “Republic, Lost … How money corrupts Congress – and a plan to stop it”, Harvard Law School professor Lawrence Lessig mentioned in passing a ingeniously simple way of achieving reform set forth by Yale professors Bruce Ackerman and Ian Ayers.

From the WASHINGTON POST: Turkey’s top diplomat said Friday that Iran is ready to negotiate an end to the standoff with Western powers over its nuclear program, suggesting that the controversy could be resolved quickly if the deep distrust between the two sides could be overcome.

From the WASHINGTON POST: …When Israel knocked out Iraq’s Osirak nuclear reactor in June 1981, it was essentially one ground-level building, yet the mission required 14 Israeli aircraft — F-16 fighter-bombers with some of their fuel tanks removed to carry heavy bombs, and F-15 fighters to handle any Iraqi planes that came up to meet them.

From the PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER Editorial: Gov. Corbett’s proposed state budget could be a prescription for disaster for higher education in Pennsylvania. The total $27.13 billion spending plan would avoid tax increases, but deeply cut funds for most state colleges and universities.

In “Republic Lost”, Legal scholar and Harvard Law School professor Lawrence Lessig points out that the Constitution places no restrictions per se on free speech, from whatever source…individuals, unions or corporations. He says “…in my view, the corporate speech actually at issue in the [Citizens United] cas – a video about Hllary Clinton, produced by a nonprofit political corporation – should have been free of regulation by the government.”