Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

...Sen. Barack Obama, a Democrat, would create a National Health Insurance Exchange for any individual and business that wants to purchase a private insurance plan or enroll in a new public plan. Subsidies would be provided to families with lower incomes to help make insurance affordable. 

While still giving workers the option of retaining their employer-based coverage, Republican candidate John McCain would make tax credits available to help them obtain their own insurance. He also wants to allow people to purchase… more

Market Doubts Hit Private Student Loans (Pittsburg Post-Gazette) ...Sallie Mae and others are experiencing a growing default rate. The sub-prime mortgage crunch has spilled over into the student loan area, too, with investors less willing to buy loans of different kinds, said Stephen Burd, senior research fellow at New America Foundation, a nonprofit think tank. "It's just a question of securitization right now," Mr. Burd said. ...

The Geneva Initiative came about soon after the breakdown of official Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations in early 2001. A group of former negotiators and public figures from both sides drafted a model peace agreement to show that there remained wide support among both Israelis and Palestinians for a solution based on two states for two peoples.

The 40-page initiative was signed by a nonofficial group of Palestinians and Israelis that included former Israeli generals, former Palestinian prisoners and former Cabinet ministers from… more