“Some people spoke in favor of it (a death penalty), or that it should be part of the package; others said they weren’t so sure. Others didn’t speak up at all,” [Oregon State University President Ed Ray] testified…

PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER: Only an estimated 55,000 of 163,968 people who applied for the program by Jan. 1 have been enrolled in the Medicaid expansion, said Kait Gillis, spokeswoman for the state Department of Human Services…

That’s why the federal government has started keeping track of those mistakes and other preventable errors and penalizes hospitals with the worst records. Make too many mistakes (known as “hospital acquired conditions”), and a hospital loses 1 percent of the money it is due from Medicare, the federal health coverage for senior citizens…

HARRISBURG PATRIOT-NEWS: Three former Penn State administrators suffered a big defeat Wednesday in their fight to free themselves of charges that they lied about their early knowledge of and responses to allegations of child sexual abuse by Jerry Sandusky.

Maybe it has just become part of the Lancaster Newspapers’ DNA, but the front page article “LNP print operation moving” manages to obscure almost as much as it tells.

A December 2014 report released by the National Association of Charter School Authorizers (NASCA) says Pennsylvania’s charter school policies lack focus and consistency — though still perform better than other states like it.

THE BUDAPEST SENTINEL: Translation of Blanka Zöldi’s article “Even sliding on our hands and knees we have to bring up the water” (“Akár négykézláb csúszva is, de fel kell hozni a vizet”) published by abcug.hu on 5 January 2015. Photographs by D. András Hajdú.

Alumni-elected trustees Al Lord and Anthony Lubrano claimed they’ve learned Penn State has made a fresh settlement offer in the Corman/McCord’s suit challenging the sanctions, and demanded full disclosure of any such offer in a letter to Trustees Chairman Keith Masser they released Monday…

PENNLIVE: … [Larry] Davis said he believes Kane was legally safe in releasing the latter memo, because it was not a part of the 2009 investigation. Furthermore, he said, she was not in office and therefore not sworn to secrecy, in 2009.

Even oil-producing Texas has felt a hit. The astute investor and prince of the Saudi royal family spoke to me exclusively last week as prices spiraled below $50 a barrel. He also predicted the move would dampen what has been one of the big U.S. growth stories: the shale revolution.

His new book, “Hall of Mirrors” (Oxford University Press), accuses the global leaders of the 21st century of failing to heed the warning signs that a crisis might occur and then becoming too self-satisfied with the initial success they had at containing the worst effects of the banking crisis in late 2008 and early 2009.

One of Brill’s critical insights is how consolidation in the hospital industry has actually decreased insurer power relative to provider power: Much of the rising cost of health care comes from overcharging by hospitals, not insurers.

“This seems to me to be another political attack on my attempt to clean up Harrisburg and its political culture. They have fought me all the way, including an effort to impeach me,” Kane said, without specifying to whom she referred, although it appeared to be Republicans, including Rep. Daryl Metcalfe of Cranberry, who tried to remove her from office…