A couple of resources that count as aces in the hole, for me.  I have gotten a lot of good stuff from these two.

The first is www.insidehighered.com, a free but for-profit site that touts itself as one of the "new models of providing information and career services for professionals in academe" founded by "three executives with decades of expertise in higher education journalism and recruitment".  Despite this the site presents a wide range of well documented and timely news items from the world of higher education.
I am signed up for their weekly highlights digest email; true professionals probably want the daily version.

The second ace resource in my pair is the Grad/prof listserv hosted by NASFAA, the National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators.  Their home on the web is www.nasfaa.org and let me tell you what, those people know more than you ever wanted to about financial aid.  Membership is available to non-professionals.  These are the guys with their boots on the ground when it comes to student borrowing and Tony Sozzo is their king! He is the current chair of the Graduate and Professional section. The listserv is intermittent, sometimes quite busy and sometimes slow but what does come across is good.  Topics frequently arise and are covered earlier and in more detail than anywhere else. 

So there you have it- where to go when you want to know!