From the PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW: Mike Domach has spent a few weeks every year in the Pennsylvania wilderness for more than a decade. But gas drilling operations there have him wondering if it’s worth going anymore.

From NEWSMAX: Texas Gov. Rick Perry seemed to lose steam again Thursday night under withering criticism from his GOP debate rivals — especially former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who battered him again over Social Security and illegal immigration.

ROBERT LERMAN: No, I think it’s somewhat of a problem, but you way overstated it. There were no nuances to the report. You ignored a big source of wealth, which is the wealth embodied in Social Security.

From NEWSMAX: The fight for the 2012 Republican nomination for president continues to be a two-man race between Texas Gov. Rick Perry and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, although Romney has closed the gap considerably, according to Rasmussen Reports.

From NEWSMAX: Former President Bill Clinton tells Newsmax that Washington should not raise taxes until the slumping economy is turned around — and says President Obama’s plan to increase taxes on the wealthy won’t solve the debt problem.

From USA TODAY: Suspected drug traffickers drove two trucks to a main avenue in a Mexican Gulf coast city and dumped 35 slaying victims during rush hour while gunmen stood guard and pointed their weapons at frightened motorists.

From USA TODAY: … about one out of every 20 hospitalized patients will acquire an infection there, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Nearly 100,000 die each year from these infections; that number has leveled off after 15 or 20 years of rising.

EDITOR: In most circumstances, we are pro-union and regret their loss of membership and political muscle which was largely used to protect the middle class. Nevertheless, there are certain industries where a strike threat is so horrendous as to enable the unions to burden American industry with unsustainable labor costs.

From the PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE: …Last Tuesday in Harrisburg, Judge Christopher C. Conner, appointed by President George W. Bush, found the law’s requirement that people must buy health insurance to be unconstitutional (along with certain other provisions).

From THE DAILY BEAST…That’s why the concern here isn’t what the book tells us about Geithner. It’s not completely clear from press accounts whether Geithner directly countermanded an order about Citi. In its article from last week, the Associated Press called Obama’s directive an “order to consider.”

From the LOS ANGELES TIMES: Propelled by an increase in prescription narcotic overdoses, drug deaths now outnumber traffic fatalities in the United States, a Times analysis of government data has found… While most major causes of preventable death are declining, drugs are an exception.

From NEWSMAX: President Barack Obama, in a populist step designed to appeal to voters, will propose a “Buffett Tax” on people making more than $1 million a year as part of his deficit recommendations to Congress Monday.

From the LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS: Quarterly GDP data don’t, on the whole, tend to make the person studying them laugh out loud. The most recent set, however, are an exception, despite the fact that the general picture is of unrelieved and spreading economic gloom. Instead of the surge of rebounding growth which historically accompanies successful exit from a recession…

“When countries get their foot on the ladder of development, they are generally able to continue the upward climb. All good things tend to move together at each rising rung: higher capital stock, greater specialization, more advanced technology, and lower fertility.