Washington Post Top Online Stories: Wed 11/17/10

The Washington Post lead headline online early Wednesday morning says "States, mortgage lenders in talks over fund for borrowers in foreclosure mess." The paper says state attorneys general and the country's biggest lenders are negotiating to create a nationwide fund to compensate borrowers who can prove they lost their home in an improper foreclosure, state and industry officials said.

The paper says Ireland's debt crisis forced European officials into emergency talks Tuesday to try to contain the country's problems, as doubts surfaced about how an international fund established this year to help beleaguered European economies would work in practice.

It says forget about convincing Congress. The leaders of the president's fiscal commission came under fire from the panel's own members Tuesday as they struggled to forge a bipartisan consensus on an ambitious plan to balance the federal budget.

The paper says the phone book - or at least the residential white pages - is going the way of the rotary telephone and the phone booth.

And the most popular story says what should you say to your college kid when he or she comes home for Thanksgiving having all too clearly gained the notorious Freshman 15?