Morning Must Reads: September 30

In the news: looming government shutdown; the Justice Department will sue North Carolina; school choice; two Popes will be declared saints

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Mark Wilson / Getty Images

The early morning sun rises behind the US Capitol Building in Washington, DC.

  • “The nation braced for a partial shutdown of the federal government, as time for Congress to pass a budget before a Monday midnight deadline grew perilously short and lawmakers gave no signs Sunday they were moving toward a resolution.” [WSJ]
    • Hidden Hand: How Heritage Action Drove DC to Shut Down [TIME]
    • “Without a complete capitulation by House Republicans, large sections of the government would close, hundreds of thousands of workers would be furloughed without pay, and millions more would be asked to work for no pay.” [NYT]
    • “Speaker John Boehner spent months trying to avoid a government shutdown. Now he’s staring one straight in the eye with no obvious way out.” [Politico]
    • “To understand the shutdown crisis in Washington, go back to the House Republican balanced budget plan last spring.” [Politico]
    • “The Washington region, home to the largest concentration of federal workers and contractors in the nation, could lose an estimated $200 million a day and could see more than 700,000 jobs take a financial hit if the federal government shuts down Monday night.” [WashPost]
    • “According to the poll, which was conducted Friday through Sunday, 46% say they would blame congressional Republicans for a government shutdown, with 36% saying the president would be more responsible and 13% pointing fingers at both the GOP in Congress and Obama…The poll indicates that Obamacare is not popular, with 57% saying they oppose the law, up 3 points from May, and 38% saying they support the measure, down five points from May.” [CNN]
  • “The disclosure in August of a terrorist plot by Al Qaeda has caused more damage to American counterterrorism efforts than the vast trove of data from Edward Snowden, the former N.S.A. consultant, analysts said.” [NYT]
  • “The Justice Department will sue North Carolina on Monday over the state’s new voting law.” [WashPost]
  • Inside the Nation’s Biggest Experiment on School Choice [WSJ]
  • “A British newspaper [The Guardian] wants to take its aggressive investigations global, but money is running out.” [New Yorker]
  • The Magazine That Was [Newsweek]
  • “Pope John Paul II and Pope John XXIII will be declared saints on 27 April 2014, Pope Francis has announced.” [BBC]