"Treasurer Timothy Cahill said Thursday he would not grant Gov. Deval Patrick's request to invest $50 million in state pension funds for bonds that would be sold to provide tuition loans to cash-strapped college students," the Associated Press reports. "Speaking in his capacity as chairman of the Pension Reserves Investment Management Board, Cahill said making such a direct investment for social reasons and not financial ones would set a bad precedent. 'We would not be investing because we thought it was a good investment; we would be investing because we want to help a certain part of the population,' the Quincy Democrat said during a hastily called Statehouse news conference. 'Our job is to protect the assets of retirees, which is separate from helping students accessing college.' Instead, the treasurer said he would support the Legislature signing a note of credit guaranteeing the state would repay $450 million in bonds so the Massachusetts Educational Financing Authority can get the money it needs. The non-profit authority, which serves about 40,000 families annually, hopes to make such a bond sale within the next two weeks."