The shape of health-reform legislation is getting clearer. The Center for Budget and Policy Priorities reports that under the Senate finance committee bill, a family of four making $55,000 a year — just about the median income in this country — will pay approximately $4,000 toward premiums and then a $1,000 deductible, even after tax credits and subsidies.

On Flag Day and on the eve of Veterans Day, many Americans are perplexed about action needed to get us out of the quagmire of foreign wars. Do we need a loud YES to questions posed by Gen. Colin Powell's doctrine?

The Star's editorial was in error when it said state education retirees' insurance costs have not increased in 25 years. While active employees costs have risen little, education retirees costs have risen substantially in that time.

This is my opinion, and I speak from bitter experience only for myself. In all the debates over President Obama's health-care changes, I have yet to hear (except once on PBS) any comment about the 20,000 people who die in this country every year because they developed a condition or disease that needed treatment and there was no one to pay for it, so it went undone.