It came down to the wire, but finally, Republicans and Democrats agreed on a deal that keeps the interest rate on government-backed student loans from doubling. It will save the average borrower about $1,000 a year, but the compromise is likely to cost students a lot more than that over the long term.

The agreement that lawmakers passed Friday will keep interest rates at 3.4 percent for another year. Anthony DeLaRosa, a 23-year-old University of Colorado graduate, says it's a big victory.

It has taken several years of financial upheaval and nearly 20 summits, but the prospect of Europe's disintegration has apparently frightened leaders into working together.

This seems to be the larger message emerging from the European summit in Brussels, Belgium, where EU leaders agreed Friday to a $150 growth plan for the struggling economies across the continent. The deal sent stock markets surging in Europe, the U.S. and elsewhere.

Friday's record-setting heat and brutal storms left much of the Midwest and Eastern U.S. cleaning up damage and waiting for crews to restore power on Saturday.

The AP reports 13 people dead and more than 3 million without power after a day where temperatures in cities from St. Louis to Washington, D.C., hit triple-digits.

On the day after the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of President Obama's health care law, Washington returned to business as usual.

In other words, supporters of the law were busy praising its virtues, and opponents calling for its demise.

Over at Georgetown University Law Center, several health law experts got together to dissect the court's ruling and what it might mean down the line.

The U.S. Anti-Doping Agency said that one of its panels reviewed the evidence against Lance Armstrong and decided to formally charge the seven-time Tour de France winner with doping.

The AP reports if Armstrong fights the charges, the case goes to an arbitration panel, which will decide the merits.

The Wall Street Journal reports: