Senators Near Fiscal Deal, but the House Is Uncertain  —  WASHINGTON — Senate leaders neared the completion Monday night of a bipartisan deal to raise the debt ceiling and end the government shutdown while the rest of the world braced for the possibility of an American default that could set off a global financial disaster.

NSA collects millions of e-mail address books globally  —  The National Security Agency is harvesting hundreds of millions of contact lists from personal e-mail and instant messaging accounts around the world, many of them belonging to Americans, according to senior intelligence officials …

Sarah Palin: Barack Obama flirts with impeachment  —  President Barack Obama is risking “impeachable” offenses with the way he is handling the debt limit debate, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said in a post on her Facebook page Monday.  —  “Defaulting on our national debt is an impeachable offense …

How federal cronies built — and botched — Healthcare.gov  —  Many contractors for Healthcare.gov site seem to have been picked based on past government work rather than IT expertise  —  The biggest problem with Healthcare.gov seems simple enough: It was built by people who are apparently far …

Panetta rebukes Obama's handling of shutdown  —  Leon Panetta served in Washington with nine presidents, starting with Lyndon Johnson.  He has been a member of Congress, Office of Management and Budget director, White House chief of staff, director of the Central Intelligence Agency and secretary …

Government shutdown unleashes racism  —  Question: If Ted Cruz and John Boehner were both on a sinking ship, who would be saved?  —  Answer: America.  —  Harsh?  Look around you at what is happening to America and you will see harsh.  I am not talking about closed parks and monuments.

Three GOP Faces Who Are Outshining Their Party  —  Paul, Christie and Ryan Manage to Improve Their Standing During the Shutdown  —  At this point, it's both an understatement and a statement of the obvious to say the government-shutdown showdown hasn't been good for the Republican Party.

Poll: Republicans losing no-win game  —  All of Washington's elected leaders earn negative marks for handling budget negotiations, but the public's ire toward Republicans in Congress has hardened quicker than disapproval of President Obama and Democrats through a fortnight of failed negotiations.

Obamacare Needs a Drop-Dead Date  —  Exactly how bad are things on the federal health-care exchanges?  The working assumption among most journalists, including me, is that they would be fixed in a few weeks — that is, by the end of this week.  But yesterday's New York Times brought …

British authorities break up terror plot  —  British law enforcement agencies averted a plot to orchestrate a large-scale terror attack similar to the assault on Kenya's Westgate mall, an official said Monday.  —  Police were questioning four men in their 20s on suspicion of terrorism …

Angela Ahrendts to Join Apple as Senior Vice President of Retail and Online Stores  —  Apple® today announced that Angela Ahrendts, CEO of Burberry, will be joining Apple in a newly created position, as a senior vice president and member of our executive team, reporting to CEO Tim Cook.

Five thoughts on the Obamacare disaster  —  1. So far, the Affordable Care Act's launch has been a failure.  Not “troubled.”  Not “glitchy.”  A failure.  But “so far” only encompasses 14 days.  The hard question is whether the launch will still be floundering on day 30, and on day 45.