…As of Friday, Senate GOP officials said May tax collections lagged 2013-14 budget projections by more than $100 million on top of a roughly $500 million shortfall through April.

Since Kane’s probe was born of questions she said she’d consistently received on the campaign trail in 2012 about the Sandusky case’s management, Corbett – who was sitting Attorney General when the office received the case in 2009 but already eyeing his 2010 gubernatorial run – is about as climactic as they come…

Still, for all of the school’s commitment to diversity, openly acknowledging who lived where and how well was complicated. It became easier for the parents when they realized that the children had no issues with it; at 4 or 5, they’re still a few years away from wielding the word “rich” as a weapon or experiencing deep and lasting class envy.

HUFFINGTON POST / AP: U.S. defense officials said Thursday that Russia has pulled most of its forces away from the Ukraine border, a withdrawal that the U.S. has been demanding for weeks.

We were startled to hear broadcast over CNN that the “fertility rate” for the USA had ‘dropped’ to 63 births per thousand. That is a rate of 6.3%.

“Early this morning, the U.S. House made an historic move by voting to prohibit the Drug Enforcement Administration from interfering with state medical marijuana laws. The bipartisan amendment passed with 219 ‘yes’ votes.”

FINANCIAL TIMES: A landmark “right to be forgotten” ruling against Google in Europe risks damaging the next generation of internet start-ups and strengthening the hand of repressive governments looking to restrict online communications, Larry Page, the search company’s chief executive officer, has warned.

If pension reform happens during the current legislative session, it appears as though it’s going to take the form of a hybrid pension proposal the Public Employee Retirement Commission on Wednesday said could save the state’s pension plans more than $11 billion during the next 30 years.

NEW YORK TIMES: …Speaking at the commencement of the United States Military Academy, [President] Obama disputed critics who say his cautious response to crises like Syria’s civil war and Russian aggression toward Ukraine had eroded America’s leadership in the world.

EDITOR: While on a cruise a week ago, we met over dinner a recently retired Australian aviation consultant and his wife.

When we asked if he had any views about the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 disaster, he told us the cause of the crash was the same as one that had occurred a decade earlier with a Malaysian airline.

The 30th and Market area will link “Philadelphia’s business center with its intellectual heart in University City,” Drexel president John Fry said in a statement.

It also said that the hulking remains of factories that dot Detroit, crumbling reminders of the city’s manufacturing prowess, must be salvaged or demolished, which could cost as much as $1 billion more.