GOP House can't claim to speak for America  —  Editor's note: Tom Mann is a senior in governance studies at the Brookings Institution and the W. Averell Harriman Chair.  His most recent book, co-authored with Norman Ornstein and now out in paperback, is “It's Even Worse Than It Looks …

The Emerging Offer  —  It hasn't been announced, and you won't hear about it today, but the final volley of the fiscal impasse, at least for House Republicans, is already being brokered.  And according to my top sources — both members and senior aides — it won't end with a clean CR, or with a sprawling, 2011-style budget agreement.

Dems plan discharge petition to force vote on ending shutdown  —  House Democratic leaders will begin circulating a discharge petition Friday in hopes of forcing a vote on a “clean” spending bill.  —  GOP leaders have so far refused to stage a vote on the Senate-passed continuing resolution …

Obamacare Poster Boy Chad Henderson and His Dad Haven't Signed Up for Obamacare, Says His Father  —  An exclusive Reason.com interview with Bill Henderson.  —  Chad Henderson is the media's poster boy for Obamacare.  Reporters struggled this week to find individuals who said they had been able …

Priests threatened with arrest if they minister to military during shutdown  —  In a stunning development, some military priests are facing arrest if they celebrate mass or practice their faith on military bases during the federal government shutdown.  —  “With the government shutdown …

Source: Meds for mental disorders found in D.C. driver's home  —  Washington (CNN) — Authorities searching the home of a Connecticut woman who rammed barricades and led police on a chase near the U.S. Capitol found discharge papers from a 2012 mental health evaluation that listed prescriptions …

Wallace indicted again in killing of Angola guard in 1972 by bill lodge blodge@theadvocate.com  —  New Orleans resident Herman J. Wallace, released from a life sentence Tuesday by a federal court order, was reindicted Thursday by a West Feliciana Parish grand jury in the 1972 murder of a prison security officer.

Tea Party's Ross Says Debt Worth Yielding on Obamacare  —  U.S. Representative Dennis Ross, a Florida Republican, said he would support a broad spending deal that didn't include changes to the health-care law, becoming the first Tea Party-backed House lawmaker to publicly back off the fight …

NSA and GCHQ target Tor network that protects anonymity of web users  —  • Top-secret documents detail repeated efforts to crack Tor  —  • US-funded tool relied upon by dissidents and activists  —  • Core security of network remains intact but NSA has some success attacking users' computers

Arizona Gov. Brewer, local businesses fight to reopen Grand Canyon  —  Oct. 1, 2013: Sebastian Ramirez, 27, of Austin, Texas, hikes out of the Bright Angel Trail in Grand Canyon National Park.AP  —  With the partial suspension of U.S. government services showing no signs of ending …

Economic Confidence Plummets as Gov't Shutdown Begins  —  Current -34 three-day average is worst since December 2011  —  PRINCETON, NJ — Americans' confidence in the U.S. economy has dropped sharply as the partial government shutdown caused by Congress' inability to pass a spending bill has become reality.

And Then Steve Said, ‘Let There Be an iPhone’  —  The 55 miles from Campbell to San Francisco make for one of the nicest commutes anywhere.  The journey mostly zips along the Junipero Serra Freeway, a grand and remarkably empty highway that abuts the east side of the Santa Cruz Mountains.