Kick the Can: Federal workers are returning today after President Obama signed a resolution to re-open the government and raise the debt ceiling. Republicans got almost nothing out of a nuclear standoff. After 16 days of a government shutdown and marathon negotiations, the Senate and House did little more yesterday that put off dealing with their problems. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) said the shutdown was “one of the more shameful chapters that I have seen in the years that I have spent here in the Senate.”

  Standard & Poors estimated that the shutdown cost the economy $24 billion, and it cost Republicans in public approval. According to polls, Republicans finished the fight with a 74% disapproval rating and political fractures in their ranks. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said,  “I never understood how this could end well for us.”

It cost the President and Democrats as well, but they get the win after stopping the Republican move to kill the healthcare act. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY) said, “We realized that if we didn’t stand up now we’d be playing the same politics of brinksmanship every quarter.”

The deal funds the government only through Jan. 15 and raises the debt ceiling just enough to last until February. It leaves in place the sequester budget cuts and does nothing to create an actual budget, which the federal government has not had since 2009. Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid said, “This is pain inflicted on our nation for no good reason and we cannot, cannot, make the same mistake again.” But unless the two parties reach agreements in the next three months, the country could be headed back to the future.

House Prayer: A woman believed to be a longtime House stenographer was removed from the chamber during last night’s vote after she started shouting into a dead microphone. She said, “This is not one nation under God. It never was.” As she was hauled away she was heard to scream, “Praise be to God, Lord Jesus Christ.”

Whale Hunt: JP Morgan Chase, the nation’s biggest bank, admitted market manipulation and agreed to a $100 million fine for trades in its London branch that lost the company $6 billion. This brings the bank’s fines to over $1 billion in a case involving a trader nicknamed The London Whale. It’s the biggest prosecution brought under new rules designed to curb practices that led to the 2008 global financial meltdown.

National: Popular Newark Mayor Cory Booker yesterday won New Jersey’s special election to replace Sen. Frank Lautenberg, who died in June. Booker has been mayor of Newark since 2006.

NewsBiz: Glenn Greenwald, the reporter who broke the story about NSA surveillance with leader Edward Snowden, is leaving The Guardian to join a new journalistic venture funded by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar. It’s been described as an all-digital, for-profit operation.

Name Shame: In the continuing controversy over the name of the professional football team in the nation’s capital, word is circulating that the Redskins are dropping “Washington” because it’s an embarrassment.

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