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To understand House Speaker John Boehner's role in the government shutdown, you have to understand the 30 or so House Republican hard-liners and his relationship with them. Because Republicans have a relatively slim majority in the House, the 30 have more power than their numbers would make it seem.

On Wednesday, President Obama invited the top four congressional leaders to the White House for a chat. But after the meeting, no progress was reported on reopening the government. Hundreds of thousands of federal workers have been idled and services curbed across the country.

The partial shutdown continues. The two sides haven't publicly shifted their positions. So once again we turn to that sage of the baseball diamond, Yogi Berra, for the best line on the news that keeps repeating.

Also: Dave Eggers responds to allegations that he lifted another writer's work; Jim Crace on the new rules for the Man Booker prize; the problem of depicting female beauty in novels.

Former IT consultant Graeme Simsion's debut novel, The Rosie Project, is a scientific romp about a probably-Asperger's-affected genetics professor who falls in love with a free-spirited woman during a search for her biological father. Reviewer Heller McAlpin says it's an "utterly winning screwball comedy."

A Montana couple was on vacation when they stopped at a restaurant and left the dog in the car. When they came back, the dog had eaten 5 $100 bills. Pieces of the money was collected post digestion, and the couple has been reimbursed by the U.S. Treasury.

Just who is Ross Ulbricht? The man who went by "Dread Pirate Roberts" and ran a vast black market bazaar was a well-educated 29-year-old with libertarian leanings. He made a StoryCorps recording last year saying he wanted to make a "positive impact on humanity."

Party committees and outside groups on both sides of the aisle have latched on to the latest Washington budget crisis, using the moment to rile their bases and fill their coffers for the 2014 campaign.

The man behind the online illegal drug website Silk Road is 29-year old Ross William Ulbricht. He's also known as Dread Pirate Roberts. Earlier this week, federal agents arrested him on charges including money laundering and conspiracy to commit drug trafficking.

The fight over Mexican tuna, and whether it is truly fished using dolphin safe practices, rages on. Mexico recently won a two decade long fight to get its tuna labeled dolphin safe. The WTO this month ruled in its favor. But the U.S. still refuses to allow Mexican tuna with a dolphin safe label on store shelves. Mexico says it's had enough and is preparing to retaliate with trade sanctions on U.S. imports. Ensenada, Baja California, was once the thriving heart of the Mexican tuna industry.