Will health insurance agents and brokers face a fate similar to that of travel agents, whose role in travel planning has dwindled as people book their own trips online?

There's no telling exactly what will happen in coming years as states set up online exchanges where consumers can shop for health insurance policies starting in 2014, but brokers aren't going down without a fight.

President Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are holding a joint news conference this hour at the White House.

Merkel will be awarded a Presidential Medal of Freedom today and is to be honored with a State Dinner at the White House this evening. Earlier today, she and the president "hailed the relationship between their nations as the cornerstone of efforts to promote peace and prosperity around the world," The Associated Press writes.

Some student food favorites are under attack in Washington. The Agriculture Department has released new standards for school nutrition and has published them for public comment. Speaking right up are lobbyists for the food industry.

The standards, the first new version since 1994, would limit starchy vegetables to two servings a week. That guideline covers corn, peas, lima beans, and a hot item in the serving line — french fries.

But the CEO of the National Potato Council, John Keeling, says not so fast.

Reminding voters he cut his own salary and over a $1 billion in spending to balance the state’s budget, Democratic Governor Stever Beshear has unveiled a second television advertisement in his re-election bid against Republican state Senate President David Williams. Entitled “Leading by example”, the 30-second commercial began airing statewide Monday, and highlights cost-cutting measures the governor has advocated during the national recession.

We're just catching up to the stories about an amateur astronomer in California who claims to have spotted some sort of structure on Mars where something might be living.

Oh sure, there are doubters (also known as scientists), who say that what David Martines saw is just a digital glitch in the image.

Surveyors found 342 deficiencies in nursing homes they inspected in Kentucky recently. The data, obtained through an Open Records request by the statewide advocacy group Kentuckians for Nursing Home Reform covers the first three months of 2011 and is the latest information on the quality of nursing home care at this time, according to a press release from the group.

The Syrian town of Jisr al-Shughour is in the eye of the storm of a three month protest movement. Syrian security forces used armed helicopters to quell protests there on Friday, according to activists. By Monday, the Syrian government was reporting that 120 members of the security police had been killed by "armed gangs" and was vowing to mount a major military operation int he town.

Fred Barnes is the executive editor of The Weekly Standard.

The Obama administration is 0-for-3 in meeting economic expectations. In 2009, President Obama and his advisers believed the bountiful stimulus package would give the economy a strong jolt. It didn't, and still hasn't. In 2010, Obama declared Recovery Summer and predicted a surge in employment. The economy lost 283,000 jobs over the summer. This year, Obama expected a significant ratcheting up of jobs and growth. There's been a ratcheting down.

Michael Steele is the former chairman of the Republican National Committee and served as lieutenant governor of Maryland from 2003 to 2007.

Summertime, and the living won't be easy. From electricity to groceries to clothing, the cost of everything you need, and of most things you want, has increased. But there are few places where Americans have felt the sting of higher prices more profoundly than at the gas pump. And you don't have to own a car to feel it; just get on a plane, take the train — heck, catch a cab.

After calling Kentucky home for 71 years, the transition of armor functions from Fort Knox to Fort Benning, Ga., will pass another milestone this week when units with the U.S. Army Armor School case their colors at Brooks Field. The colors casing and departure ceremony is scheduled for 9 a.m. Friday and is open to the public. The Armor School’s primary training units — the 194th Armored Brigade and the 316th Cavalry Brigade — will roll up their flags and case them in a green sheath, a rite of passage for the Army, said Col. Michael Wadsworth, deputy commandant of the Armor School.