Ken Kewley woke up Tuesday without health insurance for the first time in nearly nine years.

So did most of the 41,467 other Pennsylvanians who had been covered by adultBasic, a state-subsidized insurance program for the working poor that Gov. Tom Corbett shut down on Monday in one of the largest disenrollments in recent memory.

Mr. Corbett, a Republican elected in November, has said the program he inherited is not sustainable with Pennsylvania facing a $4 billion budget shortfall. He blames his predecessor, Edward G. Rendell, a Democrat, for not keeping the plan solvent. His administration notified beneficiaries in late January that their coverage would expire Feb. 28.

[snip]

Pennsylvania is one of several destitute states seeking to help balance budgets by removing adults from government health insurance programs.

Gov. Christine Gregoire of Washington, a Democrat, recently removed 17,500 adults covered under Basic Health, a state-financed plan for the working poor. In Arizona, Gov. Jan Brewer, a Republican, proposes to remove up to 250,000 childless adults who have been insured by her state's Medicaid program under a decade-long agreement with the federal government.

And this will put it all in perspective (emphasis mine):

The Blue Cross/Blue Shield plans continue to run substantial surpluses, rising to a cumulative $5.6 billion in 2009 from $3.5 billion in 2002, according to the Pennsylvania Budget and Policy Center, a research group that advocates for low-income families.

But the insurers say their obligation to pay for a state program has ended. "Our support to adultBasic was always a temporary financing mechanism," said Aaron Billger, a spokesman for Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield, the largest of the state's plans. "We have long told the state that it was unsustainable."

And finally, the Obama administration just shrugs and says there's nothing they can do:

The Obama administration rejected the state's request to allow refugees from adultBasic to qualify immediately for the high-risk insurance pool authorized under the federal health law. Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, responded that she could not waive the law's requirement that applicants be uninsured for six months.

This is just unacceptable; I would say "unconscionable," except that having a conscience is a pretty much a prerequisite.

As a government our responsibility is to lay the foundations for the private sector to thrive..

For the past 20 years, the congregation of the Westboro Baptist Church has picketed military funerals to communicate its belief that Godhates the United States for its tolerance of homosexuality, particu-larly in America's military. The church's picketing has also con-demned the Catholic Church for scandals involving its clergy. Fred Phelps, who founded the church, and six Westboro Baptist parishion-ers (all relatives of Phelps) traveled to Maryland to picket the funeral of Marine Lance Corporal Matthew Snyder, who was killed in Iraq inthe line of duty. The picketing took place on public land approxi-mately 1,000 feet from the church where the funeral was held, in accordance with guidance from local law enforcement officers. The picketers peacefully displayed their signs--stating, e.g., "Thank God for Dead Soldiers," "Fags Doom Nations," "America is Doomed," "Priests Rape Boys," and "You're Going to Hell"--for about 30 min-utes before the funeral began. Matthew Snyder's father (Snyder), petitioner here, saw the tops of the picketers' signs when driving to the funeral, but did not learn what was written on the signs until watching a news broadcast later that night.

Snyder filed a diversity action against Phelps, his daughters--who participated in the picketing--and the church (collectively Westboro) alleging, as relevant here, state tort claims of intentional infliction ofemotional distress, intrusion upon seclusion, and civil conspiracy. A jury held Westboro liable for millions of dollars in compensatory andpunitive damages. Westboro challenged the verdict as grossly exces-sive and sought judgment as a matter of law on the ground that theFirst Amendment fully protected its speech. The District Court re-duced the punitive damages award, but left the verdict otherwise intact. The Fourth Circuit reversed, concluding that Westboro's statements were entitled to First Amendment protection because thosestatements were on matters of public concern, were not provably false, and were expressed solely through hyperbolic rhetoric.

Held: The First Amendment shields Westboro from tort liability for itspicketing in this case. Pp. 5-15

Pitt, with 22 players, tops the list this year as having the most players in trouble with the law, among Sports Illustrated's 2010 pre-season top 25.

Some interesting statistics:

Pitt was far from the only school with players who had criminal records. The results of the investigation include some striking revelations. Among them:

• Seven percent of the players in the preseason Top 25 -- 204 in all (1 of every 14) -- had been charged with or cited for a crime, including dozens of players with multiple arrests.

• Of the 277 incidents uncovered, nearly 40 percent involved serious offenses, including 56 violent crimes such as assault and battery (25 cases), domestic violence (6), aggravated assault (4), robbery (4) and sex offenses (3). In addition there were 41 charges for property crimes, including burglary and theft and larceny.

• There were more than 105 drug and alcohol offenses, including DUI, drug possession and intent to distribute cocaine.

• Race was not a major factor. In the overall sample, 48 percent of the players were black and 44.5 percent were white. Sixty percent of the players with a criminal history were black and 38 percent were white.

• In cases in which the outcome was known, players were guilty or paid some penalty in nearly 60 percent of the 277 total incidents.

Players who would have been on last year's rosters but had been charged and expelled from their teams before Sept. 1 -- and there were dozens -- were not counted in our sample. Nor did SI and CBS News have access to juvenile arrest records for roughly 80 percent of the players in the study.