Monday, Monday -- The Newspapers

Updates

Later, 3:04 pm CT: the original post was posted at 7:15 a.m. -- see date/time stamp. I, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, suggested that the "showdown" was "simply political theater to raise funds going in the 2014 mid-terms. Now at 3:05 pm CT, I see this story: the Democratic National Party is broke. The DNC owes creditors $18 million; the GOP has $12 million in cash to spend. Fortune is reporting:

There's another budget crisis in Washington, and it's unfolding inside the Democratic party. The Democratic National Committee remains so deeply in the hole from spending in the last election that it is struggling to pay its own vendors.

It is a highly unusual state of affairs for a national party -- especially one that can deploy the President as its fundraiser-in-chief -- and it speaks to the quiet but serious organizational problems the party has yet to address since the last election, obscured in part by the much messier spectacle of GOP infighting.

The Democrats' numbers speak for themselves: Through August, 10 months after helping President Obama secure a second term, the DNC owed its various creditors a total of $18.1 million, compared to the $12.5 million cash cushion the Republican National Committee is holding.

Original Post

The Wall Street Journal

The showdown, of course, is the top story. No links; story everywhere. However, this interesting bit of trivia: political fund-raising for both parties is at record levels over the showdown -- wouldn't it be interesting to learn that the whole showdown was simply political theater to raise funds going into the 2014 mid-term elections?

This is why the individual mandate needs to be delayed. This thing is not ready for prime time.

Obama administration officials scrambling to get the health law's insurance marketplaces ready to open on Tuesday keep hitting technical problems, while government-funded field workers across the country say they aren't fully prepared to help Americans enroll in the program.

Implementation of the law is expected to proceed even if the government partially shuts down because Congress fails to pass the necessary spending bills. But insurers, who are counting on the law to usher in new customers, say that even short-lived quirks could sour Americans on participating. That could deter people who are on the fence about buying coverage—especially young, healthy people needed to make the law work.

What is not being widely reported, the on-line exchanges will be run by Solyndra-like companies: government funded; little experience; will collapse once the bills start arriving for unlimited lifetime expenses for pre-existing conditions. These on-line exchanges will attract those facing high medical bills; the low-risk won't enroll. Anyone who understands how spreading risk and how insurance works will see how this mandate was set up to fail.

Look at the names of the big insurers that have dropped out of the exchanges and the ten states in deep trouble as insured are dropped off the rolls: California, Missouri, Connecticut, Maryland, South Carolina, New York, New Jersey, Iowa, Wisconsin, Georgia. Voters in these states will remember the name of the act: OBAMA-care.

So, readers can follow this company -- see how this debacle plays out:

Pradeep Goel arrived from India 23 years ago to study in America. On Tuesday, Mr. Goel, now chief executive of a technology company, has to make sure the software behind two new health-insurance exchanges doesn't crash. 

For the state exchanges to work, normally separate computer systems have to talk to each other and it is EngagePoint Inc.'s job to build software bridges between those systems. When a consumer tries to sign up online for insurance, the state's computers have to interact with federal computer systems to verify the person's Social Security number, citizenship status and income. The state exchange also has to link up to the private insurance companies offering policies on the exchanges.

Within minutes, the program has to produce a final answer, telling enrollees what plans are available, how much in federal subsidies they are eligible for and whether they qualify for Medicaid. There are thousands of different scenarios determining whether a person might qualify for help, Mr. Goel said.

You will note that Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, H-P, IBM, SAIC are not in the news with these exchanges, but instead companies like EngagePoint Inc. founded in 2007. I don't think it is publicly traded.

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The Los Angeles Times

No survivors after fiery crash at Santa Monica airport: business jet; holds up to 8 people. Authorities have not said how many folks were on the plane. I guess that's a state secret. But that's the top story in Los Angeles this morning.

And then this: truancy is at crisis level in California. One-quarter of California elementary students are truant. Wow. Twenty-five percent.

Among counties, Santa Cruz, San Luis Obispo and Calaveras had the highest truancy rates — about 30% — last year. Los Angeles County's rate was 20.5%, with about 166,000 truant elementary students.

Among school districts, three of the five elementary campuses with truancy rates at 90% or higher were in the Pasadena Unified School District, where the overall truancy rate increased to 66% last year from 17% in 2008-09. Eric Sahakian, Pasadena's director of child welfare, attendance and safety, said "dramatic budget cuts" in staff handling attendance as well as financial hardship among families during the recession contributed to the district's elevated rates. The system has launched a new attendance improvement plan this year.

90% truancy? I can't even imagine.

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The New York Times

WASHINGTON — As the nation’s spy agencies assess the fallout from disclosures about their surveillance programs, some government analysts and senior officials have made a startling finding: the impact of a leaked terrorist plot by Al Qaeda in August has caused more immediate damage to American counterterrorism efforts than the thousands of classified documents disclosed by Edward Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor. 

Since news reports in early August revealed that the United States intercepted messages between Ayman al-Zawahri, who succeeded Osama bin Laden as the head of Al Qaeda, and Nasser al-Wuhayshi, the head of the Yemen-based Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, discussing an imminent terrorist attack, analysts have detected a sharp drop in the terrorists’ use of a major communications channel that the authorities were monitoring. Since August, senior American officials have been scrambling to find new ways to surveil the electronic messages and conversations of Al Qaeda’s leaders and operatives.  

I don't think the article mentioned who leaked this information, but I remember the news reports of SecState closing embassies based on intel -- and the leaks must have followed in short order.  

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The Boston Globe

Nothing of interest on front page. Sports (New England Patriots), local (mayor's race).