The credit ratings agency said Thursday that it downgraded Pennsylvania’s approximately $11 billion in general obligation debt from AA to AA minus.

PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE: …[Candy Eslinger a retired secretary and registered Democrat, is] among 520 registered Pennsylvania voters polled by Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster for its latest survey, conducted Sept. 15-22.

HARRISBURG PATRIOT-NEWS: In their first face-to-face debate, Gov. Tom Corbett and Democratic challenger Tom Wolf exchanged civil but pointed discourse Tuesday during the best-attended dinner in the history of the Pennsylvania Chamber of Business and Industry…

Speaking of the budget, another piece of work from the Republicans, the blueprint is “smoke-and-mirrors.” Even after borrowing from other funds, one-time transfers and delaying payments to vendors, the state has no chance of meeting all financial obligations through June 30, 2015.

PHILLY.COM: A BIG BATCH of porny emails may be the very last thing Gov. Corbett, trailing badly in the polls to Democrat Tom Wolf, needs to hear about right now.

…the health care problem is the number-one problem of America and of American business. If we have 17 or 18 percent of our GDP going to health care and we’re competing with countries that have 10 percent. That’s seven or eight points. There’s only 100 points in the dollar. And to have a seven- or eight-point disadvantage is huge.

In operating rooms and on hospital wards across the country, physicians and other health providers typically help one another in patient care. But in an increasingly common practice that some medical experts call drive-by doctoring, assistants, consultants and other hospital employees are charging patients or their insurers hefty fees. They may be called in when the need for them is questionable. And patients usually do not realize they have been involved or are charging until the bill arrives…

The General Fund would be in better shape if Mr. Corbett had gone after more revenue from shale gas drillers — a severance tax like that of other states, instead of a mere impact fee. But that remedy was elusive in the $29.1 billion 2014-15 budget, which was chock-full of one-time revenues and accounting gimmicks…

So let’s be clear about the issue here: It does not necessarily have to do with the action of a player but rather the financiial interests of the team and league, as determined by the zeitgeist of the moment.

PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE: “Pennsylvania has a tough hand to play with its weather, terrain and the sheer size of its system. Ohio’s situation isn’t as complex or difficult,” said lead author David T. Hartgen, transportation professor emeritus at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

…Economists warn against judging the health of the economy by a single month, but for the last three months the unemployment rate has held steady or gone up, which is a reversal of a trend of steady or decreasing unemployment since November 2012.