Etc.

Fed chair Ben Bernanke means well, but his new plan probably won't do much to create jobs.

It's Congress and its policies favoring economic elites at everybody else's expense that's the problem. Congress, and for that matter the White House, has no intention of reversing its destructive 30-year policies.
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I can say that higher education in Oregon is virtually unaffordable. I can't even BEGIN to think of taking courses to retrain or update my "skills" because it is prohibitive to do so.

Getting a reading endorsement in Oregon, for example, costs over a THOUSAND DOLLARS A CLASS because they are graduate-level classes. This is something like twice as much as classes I paid for in Nevada just a few years ago getting my endorsement in special education.

More:

Oregon’s for-profit schools, such as Everest College and Le Cordon Bleu College of Culinary Arts in Portland are more expensive than the state’s public universities. Such schools have become popular “retraining” options after job loss because of their lower admission standards and shorter (two years or less) programs. The predatory nature of these institutions quickly becomes clear. “I borrowed $25,000 for school. I now owe $86,000,” Katie W., a former Le Cordon Bleu College student, told the World Socialist Web Site. “How can I succeed?”

As more and more people borrowed substantial loans and tuition was rising, college towns in Oregon saw a spike in their economies. The colleges themselves were able to expand and provide more jobs. With opportunity in the work force dwindling, students have been turning to college campuses in hopes of either waiting out the economic slump or a chance at a new beginning. The Oregonian reports that the influx of students “sparked spending and hiring,” providing a “boost” to Corvallis and Eugene, Oregon’s major University cities.

Which means the tuition gets jacked up even more.
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Rahm can now be nicknamed The Oddfather:

NBC Chicago reports that Mayor Rahm Emanuel evaded questions over alleged mob ties in a $99 million custodial contract awarded for O'Hare International Airport. The contract went to the non-union employer United Maintenance, a subsidiary of United Services Co., which has connections to several prominent Chicago mob families.

United Services' executive vice president, Paul Fosco, was convicted and imprisoned in 1987 for a "racketeering...scheme to swindle the Laborers Union through manipulations of lucrative benefit plans," the Chicago Tribune reports. Fosco's father, Angelo Fosco, and the infamous Anthony "Big Tuna" Accardo were also tried for their involvement, although both were ultimately acquitted. United Services' owner, Richard Simon, previously ran National Maintenance Facilities with partner William Daddano, Jr., whose father was a notorious enforcer and loan shark for the Chicago mob.