Fox News and Mercury Radio Arts Announce New Agreement; Beck to ‘Transition Off’ Daily TV Program  —  Editor's note: After a great deal of speculation about Glenn Beck's future on television, here is the freshly-inked news release.  There will be a couple of key headlines out of this …

Paul Ryan's Multiple Unicorns  —  Gosh.  For a plan that supposedly sets a new standard of seriousness, Paul Ryan's vision (pdf) depends an awful lot on unicorn sightings — belief in the impossible.  Let me review the top three unicorns.  —  First, the plan assumes that tax cuts will set off a literally unprecedented boom.

With 100% of vote counted, Kloppenburg clings to narrow lead; recount expected  —  At left, Justice David Prosser speaks to supporters in Hartland.  At right, Assistant Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg speaks to supporters in Madison.  —  By Patrick Marley, Jason Stein and Lee Bergquist of the Journal Sentinel

Teen Finds Campaign Worker At Back Door At 3AM  —  ANKENY, Iowa — A 15-year-old girl found a campaign worker from Alabama banging on her Ankeny family's back door early Wednesday morning.  —  Chloe Steward told KCCI she heard her dog barking around 3 a.m. and went to investigate.

Boehner, Obama budget call lasts three minutes  —  President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) had a brief phone call Wednesday as a government shutdown loomed, and Boehner told the president he is “hopeful” a spending deal can be reached, the Speaker's office said.

Bachmann: Why I'm qualified to be president  —  Michele Bachmann, after Bill O'Reilly asks her if she has the frame of reference to be the leader of the free world.

DEMANDS FOR AN ‘ALTERNATIVE’.... Yesterday afternoon, the lead story on Mark Halperin's “The Page” was the White House's mild rebuke of Paul Ryan's Republican budget plan.  —  Halperin's headline: “Obama Pans Ryan — Without Alternative.”  —  This was one of those cases in which the media establishment …

Memory Hole Alert  —  Wow.  Yesterday afternoon I downloaded the tables from that Heritage report that's the basis for the Ryan plan.  The first page looked like this:  —  You can see the unemployment forecast, with the amazing 2.8 percent prediction, in the fourth set of figures.

West Wing briefing: Obama headed out of D.C. as shutdown looms  —  A fiery President Obama insisted Tuesday that if he and congressional leaders couldn't reach a deal to avert a government shutdown, “I want a meeting again tomorrow here at the White House.”  —  “I will invite the same folks that we invited today,” he added.

What If We Focused On The Long Term Climate Gap?  —  No matter how hard I try, I can't quite get my head around the combination of Washington's obsession with decades-away projected fiscal shortfalls and it's total lack of interest in decades-away projected climate disaster.

Man With Anti-Obama Sign Attacked In San Francisco  —  SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF/ BCN) — A man who set up a table with political literature and a sign opposing President Barack Obama was attacked in San Francisco's North Panhandle neighborhood, police and witnesses said Tuesday.