Free Digital News Source for Tweens and Juniors

http://tweentribune.com/
Directly from the website, here is the information about how it works:

How it works
Each weekday, they scour the Internet for age-appropriate news stories that will interest students in Grades 1-12, then invite them to post comments. All comments are approved by their teachers before they are published.

TweenTribune, TeenTribune, TTJunior and TTEspañol are in full compliance with COPPA - the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act – as outlined by the Federal Trade Commission. This means that:
Students may not use their last names.
Students may not use their email address anywhere on the site.
We do not gather or store student email addresses.
Teachers moderate students' comments before they are published.
We only uses news stories from reputable news organizations, such as the Associated Press, and local newspapers and TV stations.


Instructions
After you submit your information via the form, they send you an email containing your username and password.

Then log in to set up your classroom(s) by clicking on the Manage classrooms link included in the welcome email to you. The Manage classrooms link appears 3 places: On the page, in your welcome email and in the list of For teachers links on the right side of the homepage after you log in
Use the Manage classrooms link to rename your classrooms, add students, delete students or retrieve your students' usernames and passwords.
Then ask your students to select a story from Topics menu or the homepage of TeenTribune, TweenTribune or TTEspañol and create a comment about the story. Comments do not appear until you publish them.
Then log in and click the Comments awaiting approval link to review, then publish, your students' comments. This link displays within the list of For teacher links that appear on the right side of the homepage after you log in. Select the classroom you want using the Change classroom pulldown.

For teachers links
Step-by-step instructions
Manage classrooms
0 Comments awaiting approval
See all students' comments
Share comments with parents
See each student's comments
Print all comments
Q scores of my students
Q scores of top 999 students
Faculty Lounge
Top 10 Lesson Plans
FAQs & Help

Seems pretty awesome! And it's free!