For a look at the state of America's youth, there's probably no better resource than the U.S. military, which examines thousands of them every year to fill its recruitment goals.

This week's number that President Barack Obama needs to worry about is not two, the number of governorships the Democrats lost on Tuesday. It is 10.2 percent, the unemployment rate for October announced Friday by the U.S. Department of Labor.

In announcing deep spending cuts to close a $600 million budget cap, Gov. Deval Patrick last week stressed that he was leaving the main sources of state aid to education intact. What he didn't say was that he was making cuts in another account that will cause immediate hardships for the state's regional school districts.

A funny thing happened on the way to Iran's annual celebration - this year was the 30th anniversary of its takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.

The Free Flow of Information Act, the federal shield law for journalists, looks like it's back on track after nearly being derailed by objections from the White House last month.

It is safe to say that the right-wing talkers and pundits who are hailing Republican gubernatorial victories in increasingly Democratic Virginia and very Democratic New Jersey as heralding the end of the Age of Obama could not pick Bob McDonnell and Chris Cristie, the respective victors in those contests, out of a police line up.

Much as some would like to paint yesterday's election results as a referendum on Barack Obama, odd-year elections typically turn on local issues and candidates, telling us little about the national elections that follow them by a year.

Warren Buffett made his biggest bet ever - and it wasn't in a new Internet company with a goofy name or some newfangled technology. It was in a railroad that dates back 150 years.

We share the view - as does Obama - that the Nobel decision was embarrassingly premature. But recovering America's international standing from the damage done by Bush is not inconsequential, and it is a result not just of Obama's color, but of his efforts, beginning months before his election, to project a different image to the world.

Voters go to the polls across the country on Tuesday, but be wary of experts who predict sweeping trends based on these mostly local races.