Des Moines Register

Another proposal ties rates to bonds issued by the federal government, which allows interest rates to rise and fall with the market, said Jason Delisle, director of the Federal Education Budget Project at the New America Foundation in Washington, D.C. ...

“It often is the physician's preference that wins the day,” said Shannon Brownlee, a Dartmouth instructor who led the national study. The researchers compared how often Medicare recipients from various areas of the country underwent a dozen types of ...

But Peter Bergen, a counterterrorism expert for CNN and author who works for the New America Foundation, argued financial resources are not a real problem. The United States spends a much smaller portion of its gross national product fighting in Iraq ...

A recent report by the nonprofit project on student debt contains some troubling news for Iowa families: In the class of 2008, students graduating from college in Iowa finished with more debt, on average, than students in any other state. Iowa State University, for its part, showed up on the report's list of "High Debt Public Colleges and Universities," those institutions notable for having very high student debt levels.

Hillary Clinton would require all Americans to have health insurance, just as most states require drivers to carry car insurance.

Her plan, unveiled Monday in Des Moines, would offer tax subsidies to help those who can't afford coverage. Americans could choose from private plans or a government plan.

Those who like their current insurance plan would be able to keep it, she said. Those who are uninsured or who don't like their work-based coverage would have two choices: a program similar to Medicare or one of the private plans available to federal employees....

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, one of the Democrats seeking the presidency, unveiled a national energy plan Thursday that places a high priority on ethanol and other biofuels produced in Iowa.

"I would say that on a scale of 10, the use and promotion of biofuels and biodiesel and ethanol would be at about a 9.5 level," Richardson said in a conference call with Iowa reporters.

Hurricane Katrina graphically showed how many Americans live in abject poverty, one natural disaster away from losing the few assets they have.

But many Iowans have equally few assets to weather a similar financial setback, whether the cause is a natural disaster like Katrina or an economic one, such as losing a job. More than half of households in our state headed by adults 55 and older lack retirement assets, such as pensions and annuities. Among low-income households in Iowa headed by an adult over 55, nearly two out of three households have no retirement assets.