Hope Springs: Day 11. Talks between White House and Congressional aides continued through last night and President Obama is scheduled to meet today with the entire Republican caucus. House Republicans have offered a deal to raise the debt ceiling through December to avoid default, but the President is expected to press for an immediate re-opening of the government as well.

  With more than 50% of Americans blaming them for the shutdown, Republicans are under pressure to reach a deal, but they are holding out for something they can claim as a victory. The Dow Jones rose 323 points yesterday on hopes of averting a debt default and is up again this morning.

Nobel Peace: The Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the group helping to get rid of Syria’s chemical stockpile. Malala Yousafzai, the 16-year-old Pakistani schoolgirl shot by the Taliban for advocating education for girls, had been considered a favorite. Yesterday she was given the $65,000 Sakharov Prize, Europe’s top human rights award.

Unorthodox: Two New York Rabbis have been arrested and accused of organizing the kidnap and torture of Orthodox Jewish men to convince them to give their wives a divorce. Desperate wives and their families paid up to $70,000 to obtain what is known as a “get”, permission to divorce. Thugs sometimes used a cattle prod.

Hard Time: Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick was sentenced yesterday to 28 years in prison for racketeering and extortion. Kilpatrick’s corruption and bad decisions contributed to the city’s financial collapse. He said at his sentencing that the people of his bankrupt city are hurting and, “A great deal of that hurt I accept full responsibility for.”

Sunk: Two former Naval Academy football players accused of sexually assaulting a female midshipman now face a court martial. The two are accused of having sex with the drunk 20-year-old second-year student against her will at an off campus “yoga and toga” party. Originally the woman was reprimanded for drinking while the men were allowed to continue playing for the football team.

Auto Eros: Cleveland Kidnapper Ariel Castro may have died in an act of autoerotic asphyxiation, not suicide, according to an investigation of his death. The investigation also found that prison guards falsified records of how often they checked on Castro the day he died. They were supposed to look in on him every 30 minutes.

The Obit Page: Former Mercury astronaut Scott Carpenter, the second American to orbit the earth, has died of the effects of a stroke at age 88. Because of technical problems at the end of his 1962 flight, Carpenter took manual control of his capsule and missed his landing by 288 miles, putting him in the doghouse with NASA. Carpenter was resting in his rubber raft with his feet up when he was found in the Caribbean. It was Carpenter who famously said upon the launch of the first American into space, “Godspeed John Glenn.” Now Glenn is the only survivor of the Mercury 7.

Bionic Soldier: The US Army is developing an “Iron Man” suit of armor that would give a soldier super strength. The suit would have an exoskeleton that attaches to arms and legs, as well as body-monitoring sensors and integration with a weapon system. Batteries not included.

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