Details are starting to emerge about a study planned by the U.S. Department of Education to determine what states are doing with their education money under the economic-stimulus law and whether the efforts being funded improve schooling. . . .

Dignitaries ranging from former Secretary of State George Shultz to retired Marine Col. Dan O'Brien to the police chiefs of more than a dozen Bay Area cities were on hand Monday to see Dennis Burns sworn in as Palo Alto's police chief in a ceremony at Stanford University's Arrillaga Alumni Center. . . .

Bill Clinton may have invented triangulation - the art of finding a "third way" out of a policy dilemma - but U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan is practicing it to make desperately needed improvements in K-12 education. . . .

In the world of public education, New York is the big spender. . . .