(AP) — President Barack Obama’s acknowledgement that his promise that Americans could keep their health insurance plan turned out to be inaccurate has been named the year’s best quote.

Other notable quotes including Pope Francis’ urging that the Catholic Church reduce emphasizing hot-button issues like abortion, a Republican governor insisting on changes in his party and a Pakistani teenager who was shot by the Taliban calling for a campaign against illiteracy, poverty and terrorism.

Yale University librarian Fred Shapiro released his eighth-annual list of the top quotes of 2013 and says they reflect a theme of change.

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford became the first Canadian to make the list with his admission he smoked crack cocaine.

(AP) – A southwest Missouri hospital patient who is suspected of killing himself last month during a double shooting in his room had cancer.

The Springfield News-Leader reports that Greenlawn Funeral Homes said in an obituary that 79-year-old Booker Cox Jr. died “after a long battle with cancer.” Police said the Branson real estate agent’s 70-year-old wife, Carolyn Cox” was struck in the chest during the Nov. 30 shooting at CoxHealth in Springfield.

While police have called Booker Cox’s death an apparent self-inflicted shooting, no information has been released about how his wife was shot or her condition.

Police Capt. David Millsap says the investigation is ongoing. State and federal regulators also have released few details about their investigations.

(AP) – Several officials at Lincoln University are losing their jobs in reorganization by the public university in Jefferson City.

The building and grounds director, a tutor and the vice presidents for administration, academic affairs and university advancement will be losing their jobs.

The vice president for student affairs will become the dean of students with reduced responsibilities and a nearly 22 percent pay cut.

Lincoln University President Kevin D. Rome says most changes take effect Jan. 1 and come because of the school’s budget situation.

Rome says he focused on the vice president jobs in trying to save money. He says some areas are being merged and that services to students are not being eliminated.

(AP) – Missouri is in a wait-and-see mode after submitting a bid to Boeing Co. for a new airplane assembly plant.

But even if Missouri loses the competition, the effort to lure Boeing could have several results.

Lawmakers who approved an incentive package in a special session say their quick work and bipartisan cooperation should be a signal to other businesses that Missouri wants them here.

The negotiations to pass the Boeing incentives also could result in a renewed push during the 2014 session by Gov. Jay Nixon and some senators for an overhaul of Missouri’s existing tax credits.

And House Speaker Tim Jones says if Missouri doesn’t get the Boeing facility, the state may need to look more closely at changing its labor and tax policies.

(AP) – Partisan politics are coloring governors’ decisions on whether to expand Medicaid in their states.

The question of whether more low-income people receive Medicaid coverage may have less to do with their need than with how their states vote in governors’ races.

Medicaid is the government health insurance program for the poor. Every Democratic governor has called for accepting larger-than-usual federal subsidies to expand coverage.

But the nation’s 30 Republican governors are split. Eight agreed to expand Medicaid – and most of them are from states President Barack Obama won.

At least 20 GOP governors have declined the offer. In doing so, at least one rejected advice from the commission he assigned to study the question.

Critics say some governors fear a tea party challenger in next year’s Republican primaries.

Part of my job as a contributor to the industry’s premier animal agriculture infohubs involves spending untold hours reviewing animal rights websites and blogs, which are generally bubbling with a toxic brew of outrage, misinformation and visceral attacks on American food producers.

I soak it all up so you don’t have to.

On that basis, I can say with confidence that it’s common practice for activist groups to exaggerate the impact and influence they want their followers to believe they have. And in fairness, that’s not a tactic confined solely to the groups espousing a radical vegan lifestyle. Plenty of mainstream groups pretend that their reach extends way beyond reality.

For example: Magazine publishers routinely inflate their reach by sharing so-called “pass-along” numbers to advertisers that are much larger than their paid circulation, by claiming that three or four times more people than just their subscribers will eventually read their rags as they get “passed along” to friends and families.

Yes, it’s suspect, but nothing like the hot air about scope and scale that activist groups like to proclaim.

One of the most outrageous claims I’ve seen lately comes from a small organization known as Vegan Outreach. They specialize in what many would consider an “old school” approach to proselyting: Standing around on college campuses handing out leaflets touting the horrors of eating meat and the glories of living on soy food and salad.

Here’s a snippet from the group’s messaging: “Our approach is simultaneously pragmatic and forward-thinking and focuses on engaging those who are deemed most open to lifestyle changes: namely, the young, and, in particular, college students”

At least there’s an element of honesty in the admission that their efforts are aimed at a population that’s, shall we say, “susceptible” to propaganda about the big, bad meat industry.

But when VO’s website begins bragging about its influence, and the numbers of susceptible people they’ve touched, all credibility disappears.

Here’s an example: “Wow! Adopt a College activists have been on an amazing roll!” a recent email to supporters began. “ This semester alone, dedicated activists have already handed Vegan Outreach’s detailed, documented booklets directly to 933,321 students at 816 schools!”

A million students! In just a couple of months?

Yeah, my response to that statistic is also, “Wow!”

Only for a different reason.

The numbers never always lie

First of all, what’s the cost of a million “detailed, documented booklets?” Granted, printing a million copies of anything (allegedly) gets you a serious discount, but even still, it’s pricey. What’s the lowest possible cost, a buck apiece? That would be a bargain, considering that we’re talking about full-size (8½ by 11 inch), 16-page, four-color booklets.

Even at that much of a monumental discount, we’re talking a million dollars, in four months.

Unless, of course, Vegan Outreach’s outreach numbers are as horribly distorted as the misinformation that fills their detailed booklets, ones that carry titles such as, “Compassionate Choices: Making a Difference for Animals.” Or, “Even if You Like Meat: You Can Help End This Cruelty.” Or, “Why Vegan: Help Stop Animal Cruelty!”

Nice try, vegans, but even at pass-along rates way in excess of what the most audacious publishers try to claim, there’s no way a million people are leafing through your detailed disinformation while sitting at the dining room table.

Eating their soy burgers and salad.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Dan Murphy, a veteran food-industry journalist and commentator.

(AP) – A Missouri prison program has donated a record 163 tons of fresh fruit and vegetables to food pantries, shelters, churches, nursing homes and schools this year.

The Missouri Department of Corrections announced the yearly distribution total Friday. The donation from the Restorative Justice Garden program shattered last year’s 117-ton record.

The Northeast Missouri Correctional Center in Bowling Green was the department’s top producer this year with more than 62,000 pounds of produce donated. The Boonville Correctional Center donated the second-largest amount of produce with more than 49,100 pounds.

Department officials said the program operates without the assistance of tax dollars. All of the seeds and plants for the gardens are donated to the institutions. In return, all the produce grown is donated.