captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: good evening. it is now 14 days and counting for the government shutdown. t-three days and counting to a possible government default. tonight there are signs of real progress toward ending this stalemate. senate leaders have been meeting on and off all day and appear to be near an agreement that could reopen the government and raise the government's borrowing limit the so-called debt ceiling, so that it can pay its bills. but they are not there quite yet and with the threat of default still hanging over america, we have a team of correspondents looking at where the talks stand how we got here, and what might happen if the government can't pay all its bills. first we'll go to nancy cordes at the capitol. nancy, what's new today? >> reporter: well, scott, senate leaders are putting the finishing touches tonight on a deal that would fund the government for the next three months and raise the debt ceiling for four months, just a short time ago on the senate floor the senate majority leader harry reid

>> pelley: good evening, the economy is sill struggling to recover from the great recession. unemployment is over 7%. political battles have shut down much of the government and threatened the first default in u.s. history. so you might ask: why is this woman from brooklyn, new york, smiling? she's janet yellen. president obama nominated her today to keep america's financial system stable in an unstable world as chair of the federal reserve. if the senate confirms her, she will be the first woman ever to lead the central bank, succeeding ben bernanke, and the first democrat in more than 26 years. we asked anthony mason to tell us more about her and the challenges she faces. >> thank you, mr. president. i'm honored and humbled by the faith that you've placed in me. >> reporter: she's one of the most experienced economists ever nominated to head the federal reserve. in 1994, janet yellen was named a fed governor. she later headed president clinton's council of economic advisors and has been the fed's vice chair beside ben bernanke since 2010. if confirmed, the 67-year-old yelle

captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: good evening. there's been another deadly shooting at a school-- this time a middle school in sparks, nevada, east of reno. the police are telling us that a student shot and killed a teacher and then wounded two classmates then, they say, the boy killed himself. john blackstone is on the scene of this breaking story. >> reporter: the first shots were fired by the 13-year-old gunman just before classes were about to begin. deputy police chief tom robinson. >> the best description is chaos. the kids were running out and they were scared, freaked out. so it's too early to say whether or not he was targeting specific people or just going on a -- you know, indiscriminate shooting spree. >> reporter: students say math teacher michael landsberry approached the boy and told him to lower the weapon but the teen shot landsberry in the chest. >> in my estimation, he is a hero. we don't know everything he was doing yet but we know he was trying to intervene. >> reporter: sparks students describe landsberry as

>> pelley: tonight, death >> pelley: tonight, death benefits are cut off for fam families of fallen troops. to the nation. the speaker of the house stood his ground. david martin and anthony mason are on the breaking story. the supreme court heard arguments that the rich should be allowed to give as much as they want to political campaigns. jan crawford on how the justices reacted. the nobel prize goes to the men who explained the origin of everything. mark phillips on the god particle. and our prize goes to 92-year- old betty soskin. this full-time federal employee wants to give washington a piece of her mind. >> the only problem is you feel like you're the only grown-up in the room after a while. while. captioning sponsored by cbs captioning sponsored by cb this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. ley. captioning sponsor >> pelley: good evening. if you missed the movie "groundhog day," it is playing in washington. day 8 of the government shutdown was like 1-7-- the president and the speaker made appearances but neither saw even the shadow of a solution, at least none that the ot

pelley" is next. captions by: caption colorado comments@captioncolorado.com pelley: tonight, she could be the most powerful woman in the world. janet yellen is nominated to head the federal reserve. anthony mason on what this could mean to growth and jobs. a charity steps in to pay death benefits for fallen troops that the government cut off. david martin and nancy cordes have the latest on the government shutdown. while ken chenault, one of america's top financial executives, tells us what's at stake in washington. >> if the u.s. defaults, the system literally unwinds. >> pelley: and a prescription for disaster. jim axelrod on a veteran who survived the gulf war only to die while being treated by v.a. doctors. >> reporter: when he came home, did he continue to take all the medication? >> he followed the doctor's orders. the captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. this is the "c >> pelley: good evening, the economy is sill struggling to recover from the great rece

. >> pelley: bob, thank you. the target of another u.s. raid over the weekend was a kenyan terror suspect wanted in plot to attack the parliament building there and u.n. headquarters in nairobi. but the mission to capture him in shol ya had to be aborted. more about that now from national security correspondent david martin. >> reporter: his face has never been seen by the public but he goes by the name ikrima and he is a senior planner for the somali terrorist group known as al-shabaab. he will now also be known as the one who got away from seal team 6 who failed to capture anymore a pre-dawn raid. the seals came out of the india ocean in small boats but were spotted as they moved toward the seaside come bound where they believe ikrima lived. a fire fight broke out. with the element of surprise gone, the seals had lost their chance to take him alive. the seal commander could have called in an air strike in an attempt to kill ikrima, but they were too many civilians, including children, in the compound. instead, he ordered his known withdr

. >> pelley: good evening. who knew that breaking out of prison could be so easy? prison officials in florida admitted today they released a convicted murderer after receiving a forged court order. and if you think that kind of thing could never happen again, it did-- with another murderer less than two weeks later. a manhunt is now under by that the orlando area for these two escapees and we have more on this story from our senior correspondent john miller. john? >> reporter: scott, this scheme involves someone with knowledge of the law, legal documents, and the audacity to use the name of a famous judge. it was a less-than-daring escape. in fact, on two occasions-- 11 days apart-- the guards walked the killers out the front gate. joseph jenkins and charles walker, both 34, were serving life sentences at this florida prison when officials released them. it happened after the prison received these forged documents bearing the signature of circuit court judge belvin perry granting a reduction in the two killer's

>> pelley: we'll check in with you tomorrow, nancy, thank you. the shutdown affects far mrnt government. we asked bill whitaker to look into the impact on small businesses. >> we're going to work really hard to make sure it does not affect our employees. >> reporter: lisa papini is vice president of dante valve company. the 42 workers at the small business south of l.a. make safety release valves for the u.s. navy. >> our applications are the catapult steam system of aircraft carryiers, laundry piping within the ship, andñr ao there are nuclear applications for our products. >> reporter: now, grinding these valves to perfection for the navy is grinding to a halt. >> we were surprised to findxd t that nuclear inspectors and government quality assurance inspectors won't be able to come to our facility. so we'll be stay top. >> reporter: the nuclear inspectors will not be coming out? >> that's the message we received and that's not a message we expected. >> reporter: now she has $100,000 worth of valves for the navy that can't be shipped because th

captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: good evening. a team of elite u.s. investigators has s aboard a navy warship in the mediterranean tonight interrogating one of the most- wanted terror suspects in the world. anas al-libi, a 49-year-old libyan, is charged in the 1998 bombings of the u.s. embassies in tanzania and kenya that killed 224 people, including 12 americans. u.s. commandos captured him over the weekend in libya. the government wants face justice, but the slope that he will also information about al qaeda. justice correspondent bob orr has the latest. >> abu anas alibi is being held aboard this navy ship in the mediterranean sea. sources say al-libi, who was part of osama bin laden's inner circumstance until the mid-'90s is being trained by a specially trained team of c.i.a. and f.b.i. counterterrorism experts. the so-called high value detainee interrogation group pressing him for intelligence about the al qaeda network and potential attack plans. al-libi, who spent years as a foreign operative for al qaeda, was captured jus

"cbs evening news with scott pelley" is next. captions by: caption colorado comments@captioncolorado.com >> pelley: tonight, anatomy of a meltdown. how preparations were delayed for the obamacare roll-out until it was too late and gave republicans a new line of attention. >> how can the administration punish innocent americans by forcing them to buy from a system that does not work? >> pelley: reports from wyatt andrews and sharyl attkisson. what really happened in benghazi. for the first time, an eyewitness tells lara logan about the attack that killed the u.s. ambassador and three other americans. a kennedy cousin asked to be released from prison as he awaits retrial for the murder of a neighbor. jim axelrod on 38 years of twists and turns. and... ♪ it's been a hard day's night >> pelley: ben tracy tries to jog ringo starr's photographic memory. >> reporter: this is the guy you're wondering about? >> the mystery man. ry man. captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: good evening.

captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: good evening. this is a special western edition. the house and senate spent the day runnin running into full spo a fiasco of their own making. major parts of the federal government will shut down at midnight unless congress passes a bill to keep the government funded. house republicans have refused to do that without a one-year delay in one of the key provisions of the affordable care act, also known as obamacare. there are late-breaking developments in this story and here is nancy cordes on capitol hill. >> reporter: scott, the capitol is locked in what appears to be a never-ending game of chicken. the g.o.p.-led house is voting tonight on the third republican attempt to use a government funding bill to weaken the president's health care law. the democratically-led senate has already said it will block that. >> well, we're at the brink. >> reporter: with time running out, house speaker john boehner announced his party's newest salvo, a bill to fund the government that also delays the individual m

dozens. >> pelley: dozens more? >> yup. >> reporter: today those words held true when penn state announced it had settled or agreed in principle on the nearly $60 million settlement. added university president rodney erikson: in a june, 2012 trial, the then 68-year-old sandusky was convicted of 45 counts of criminal sexual abuse and other charges. he was sentenced to no less than 30 years in prison. to this day he maintains his innocence. matt casey is an attorney for seven of the victims included in this settlement, among them one of sandusky's adopted sons matt. >> they are pleased to now put it behind them but it's a remarkable achievement by courageous young men. >> reporter: university officials said the settlement funds will come from the school's liability insurance, but penn state's problems are far from over. three top university officials, including former president graham spanier, are likely to stand trial next year on charges they covered up years of sandusky's abuse. >> pelley: armen, as you said, sandu

>> pelley: good evening. if you missed the movie "groundhog day," it is playing in washington. day 8 of the government shutdown was like 1-7-- the president and the speaker made appearances but neither saw even the shadow of a solution, at least none that the other would accept. in the meantime, nearly 460,000 federal workers are furloughed. their jobs are not getting done. and the cost to the economy is now estimated to be $8.5 billion. and there are new casualties of this battle-- the families of americans who made the ultimate sacrifice. david martin has their story. >> reporter: four americans killed in combat in afghanistan this weekend are on their way home for the last time. sergeant joseph peters left a wife and 20-month-old son. normally they would receive a $100,000 death benefit, and the government would cover the cost of flying to dover air force base in delaware, where flag-draped cashets come how many home. not now. >> republican, democrat, no matter who we are, shouldn't we be embarrassed about this? shouldn't we be ashamed. >> reporter: as senator john mccain sp

. >> pelley: tonight: the wa in wreck. obamacare computers crash from overwhelming demand as congress crashes the government to get rid of obamacare. >> that's not how adults operate. erate in washington? two teams of correspondents look at the trouble in the health care rollout and the impac the shutdown. >> i don't know that we'll be able to find and stop things that might kill people. >> pelley: there are major developments in that road rage attack that shocked the nation. michelle miller reports. and manuel bojorquez on a town coming to grips with the unexpected loss of a family held dear. >> you won't be able to find one person in this town that they did not touch. captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: good evening, the long-awaited opening of obamacare was accompanied today by the long-threatened closing of the federal government. we'll have complete coverage of the government shutdown in a moment. but, first, americans began shopping online today for health insuranc

. >> pelley: john blackstone in sparks, nevada. thank you, john. president obama stepped out into the white house rose garden today and acknowledged there are major problems with the federal government's web site for signing up for insurance under the new health care law. here's what the president had to say. >> so here's the bottom line: the product, the health insurance, is good. the prices are good. it is a good deal. people don't just want it, they're showing up to buy it. nobody's madder than me about the fact that the web site isn't working as well as it should which means it's going to get fixed. >> pelley: but when? and after how much damage to the president's signature program? major garrett is at the white house for us tonight. major, what is the administration most concerned about? >> reporter: scott, the health care law's financial structure depends on younger, healthier americans signing up so their premium cans support coverage for older sicker americans or americans who are just receiving more expansive coverage under the law. and if

captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: good evening. no one was more lonely on this second day of the partial government shutdown than the president. president lincoln. his memorial, one of the many national park sites, forced to close. 800,000 federal workers nationwide have been furloughed. their lost salaries alone are estimated to cost the economy $300 million every day. protester vicki maturo, at the federal building in los angeles summed it up for a lot of folks. the white house is open. this is a live picture. president obama called congressional leaders of both parties there this evening to try to break the impasse. that meeting has just end and the our senior white house correspondent bill plante is there. bill whrark do we know? >> reporter: scott, we know the meeting lasted a little over an hour and ended in an impasse. speaker boehner has just said it was polite but the president stuck to his position of not negotiating over the shutdown. in an interview earlier today, mr. obama described the shutdown as entirely unnecessar

captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: good evening. we could be just six days away from a perfect storm: when the government shutdown runs smack into the first-ever government default. pressure is building on house republicans to end their standoff with the president and here's why. a new gallup poll finds public opinion of the g.o.p. is dropping. in september, 38% of americans had a favorable view of republicans. but now it's just 28%. a 10-point drop in just one month. senate republicans brought the president a new proposal today for ending the shutdown, now in its 11th day, and they brought him a plan for raising the government's borrowing limit to avert that default. the president spoke by phone with speaker john boehner about a proposal for house republicans. nancy cordes is on capitol hill for us tonight. major garrett at the white house. first we'll get to nancy. nancy, what's on the table? >> reporter: scott, it's very unusual to see house and senate republicans competing for the president's attention. but senate republicans--

. >> pelley: while a top official adopted a new description. >> accountable for the debacle. >> pelley: nancy cordes is on capitol hill. sharyl attkisson learned details of the prelaunch test that failed. does headgear in youth football and soccer prevent concussions? dr. john lapook has major new study. christians are persecuted in egypt. their churches torched. clarissa ward investigates. and in this town the sun doesn't rise above the ridge. now mark phillips reports thanks to a clever trick winter is so bright they have to wear shades. ♪ let the sun shine in captioning sponsored by cbs s this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: good evening this was the day that republicans were waiting for. the day they could grill the secretary of health and human services about the disastrous roll out of the health insurance website. kathleen sebelius was surrounded by photographers as she appeared before the house energy and commerce committee. she acknowledged that the website has been, quote, a debacle that two weeks of prelaunch testing was not enough and that she is re

. >> pelley: good evening. once again, the country is trying to make sense of an irrational act of violence by someone with mental health issues. we may never know for sure why miriam carey, a 34-year-old single mom from connecticut, drove to washington yesterday and set off a security scare from one end of pennsylvania avenue to the other. but 24 hours later, we know a lot more about her. here's homeland security correspondent bob orr. >> reporter: 10 months before she was shot and killed by police near the u.s. capitol, miriam carey told connecticut officers she was being electronically monitored by president obama. ( gunfire ) now investigators want ton if those delusions helped trigger thursday's police chase and shooting. overnight, investigators spent 12 hours searching carey's stamford, connecticut, apartment looking for clues. sources say in december, 2012, carey was taken for a mental health evaluation after complaining to police that she and her home were under surveillance by the white house. carey s

>> pelley: he's saying, "pay attention to me." >> hauser: exactly. >> pelley: humpbacks give birth to one calf a year. so their comeback has been slow but steady. before the whaling ban, there were maybe 5,000 left in the world. but now, it's estimated there are 80,000. the biggest threats to them these days are collisions with ships, and the kind of miles- long fishing line that wrapped up this whale. >> hauser: they get wrapped up, and then they get held underwater and they need to come up for air. otherwise, they suffer and they drown. >> pelley: hauser hopes that the satellite tags will mark migration routes so that man can steer clear. history may show that we stopped the global slaughter just in the nick of time. humpbacks are now found in every ocean. their numbers back to about 30% of what they had been before whaling. it's a sign that a fascinating and beautiful part of the planet is on the mend. ♪ [ male announcer ] when we built the cadillac ats from the ground up to be the world's best sport sedan... ♪ ...people noticed. ♪ the cadillac ats -- 2013 north american car

>> pelley: tonight: buyer beware. an attempt to fix the health insurance web site leads to more troubles. >> it's incredibly misleading for people trying to get a sense of what they're paying. dean reynolds reports some universities are putting degrees on sale. and five months ago we showed you grayson clamp, whose brain implant allowed him to hear for the first time. >> daddy loves you! >> pelley: how does life sound now? dr. jon lapook listens in. >> it's like a little miracle every time he hears something to me. captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: good evening. president obama called in reinforcements today for what he calls a tech surge to attack problems with the new health insurance web site. the insurance industry agreed to form technical teams to help fix the site. since it went online october 1, people attempting to shop for insurance under the new patient protection and affordable care act have had trouble logging in. some who did log in had the screen loc

captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: good evening. it all sounded pretty good the day healthcare.gov went online. president obama said people were flocking to the site, and any "glitches," as he called them, would be fixed and they would have the site running more quickly in just a few hours. today, 24 days later, the man the president brought in to rescue his health insurance program acknowledged the painfully obvious. the problems are far worse and run deeper than we were told. jeffrey zients said they will take weeks, if not longer, to fix, and he's shaking up the team overseeing these repairs. here's sharyl attkisson. >> reporter: the government has brought in consultant jeffrey zients to spearhead repairs of healthcare.gov, and today, what he told reporters on the conference call was a game- changer. the web site's problems amount to way more than a glitch. >> it will take a lot of work, and there are a lot of problems that need to be addressed. there's a punch list of fixes, and we're going to punch them out one by one. >> repo

the federal reserve. >> a lot of brain power in that family. >> pelley: absolutely. but what do her critics say? >> she has critics who think she's too dovish, too liberal, in effect. but even those who disagree with her have respect for her. a former fed governor said "she argues without being argumentative." and we could use more of that in washington. >> pelley: has she said or done anything recently that suggests how quickly she wants to unwind this fed support for the economy? >> remember, she is one of the architects of this policy and she's been extremely vocal about the fed needing to act to bring down the unemployment rate. i think she's going to be very cautious about pulling back. >> pelley: anthony, thanks very much. the federal reserve was founded by congress 100 years ago this year to stabilize the financial system after a series of panics. and what it does matters. bad fed policy is blamed for creating the great depression in the 1930s while chairman ben bernanke is credited for stopping the same thing from happening in 2008. day 9 of the partial gover

>> pelley: good evening, for 31 days now, the obama administration has been telling us americans by the millions are visiting the the new health insurance web site despite all of its problems, but no one in the administration has been willing to tell us how many policy vbz purchased, and this may be the reason. cbs news has learned enrollments got off to an incredibly slow start. sharyl attkisson atained documents that haven't been seen by the public until now. early early enrollment figures are contained in notes from twice a day war room meetings from medicare and medicaid services after the web site failed on october 1. they were turned over in response to a document request from the house oversight commit pep the web site launched on tuesday. publicly, the government said there were 4.7 million unique visits in the first 24 hours. but at a meeting wednesday morning, the war room notes say 6 enrollments very occurred so far. they were with blue cross blue shield of north carol, caresource, and health care service corporation. by wednesday afternoons enrollments were up to approximate

scott pelley" is next. captions by: caption colorado comments@captioncolorado.com >> pel , assassination by defibrillator. former vice president dick cheney tells "60 minutes" his surgeon shielded his heart implant from terrorist attack. he tells sanjay gupta his health was worse than we knew. >> did you worry about your physical health impacting your cognition? >> pelley: mark strassmann on how two killers got away from the cops twice. an f.b.i. warning today, laser attacks against u.s. airliners are increasing. elaine quijano reports. and steve hartman "on the road,." >> looking for coffee orders. >> reporter: with the seven-year coffee break. how dan dewey ordered an extra shot of kindness for strangers in need. >> that's all you need is just a smile. and i have a memory bank full of wonderful smiles. captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: good evening. usually, the news is about what happened today, but sometimes it's about what happened years ago that w

captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: good evening. the patient has been suffering from extreme sluggishness, enormous stress, and at times, it's appeared headed for a breakdown. so it was time to call in a specialist to fix the federal government's new health insurance web site. the president today named a trusted aid, jeffery zients to oversee the rescue of his signature program. a cbs news poll out tonight finds that approval of obamacare has grown from 36% in july to 43% now, but more than half, 51%, still disapprove. and only 12% think that the sign-up is going well. here's wyatt andrews with the man who took on what could be the toughest job in america. >> reporter: jeffery zients, the man tapped to fix the obamacare web site, is the former acting director of the white house budget office, but he's better known for leading three business management companies. white house spokesman jay carney acknowledged that better management at the department of health and human services is who the web site needs right now. >> h.h.s. will be t

the system, he said, is broken. >> pelley: anthony, thank you. you can see more of anthony's interview with alan greenspan this coming weekend on sunday morning. business leaders have found themselves allied with some traditional foes on finance-- democrats. together they're pressuring republicans to end the budget and debt impasse. here's sharyl attkisson. >> reporter: heavy hitters on wall street are looking to persuade congress with lobbyists like scott talbot who represents citibank, wells fargo, and visa. >> everyday that we're up there talking to somebody it is a constant, continuous drum beat to deliver the message. >> reporter: talbot was at a white house meeting of big business lobbyists friday. obama administration officials urged them to press lawmakers far negotiated solution to the fiscal standoff. the chamber of commerce in the same white house meeting joined the united way and the a.f.l.- c.i.o. and sent this letter to every member of congress. it urges they end the shutdown immediately because "no one benefits and everyone will be

. >> pelley: dozens more? >> yup. >> reporter: today those words held true when penn state announced it had settled or agreed in principle on the nearly $60 million settlement. added university president rodney erikson: 6- in a june, 2012 tryall, the then 68-year-old sandusky was convicted of 45 counts of criminal sexual abuse and other charges. he was sentenced to no less than 30 years in prison. to this day he maintains his innocence. matt casey is an attorney for seven of the victims included in this settlement, among them one of sandusky's adopted sons matt. >> they are pleased to now put it behind them but it's a remarkable achievement by courageous young men. >> reporter: university officials said the settlement funds will come from the school's liability insurance, but penn state's problems are far from over. three top university officials, including former president graham spanier, are likely to stand trial next year on charges they covered up years of sandusky's abuse. >> pelley: armen, as you said, s

this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: good evening this was the day that republicans were waiting for. the day they could grill the secretary of health and human services about the disastrous roll out of the health insurance website. kathleen sebelius was surrounded by photographers as show appeared before the house energy and commerce committee. she acknowledged that the website has been, quote, a debacle that two weeks of prelaunch testing was not enough and that she is responsible. but she said the problems will be fixed by the end of next month. nancy cordes is on capitol hill. >> under oath secretary sebelius said the buck stops with her. >> let me say directly to these americans, you deserve better. i apologize. i am accountable to you for fixing these problems. >> that mea culpa didn't satisfy republicans who questioned why to be at hhs or centers for medicare and head dade have been fired. tennessee's marsha blackburn. >> who was in charge as it was being built. >> was in charge. >> at that time who is the individual -- >> snider is -- michelle schneider is th

. >> pelley: jan, thanks very much. the white house has said that the web site crashed because the program is so popular. but last night the secretary of health and human services offered an additional explanation to cnn's sanjay gupta. >> it is certainly a tool and we think it can be an easy tool for people who are tech savvy and want to use the web site and we're determined it be a lot easier than it is right now. what i know, though, and s that lots of people and people i talk to everyday are not tech savvy. >> pelley: but being "tech savvy" wasn't a requirement the president mentioned three weeks ago. >> just visit www.healthcare.gov and you can compare side by side the same way you'd shop for a plane ticket on kayak or a t.v. on amazon. >> pelley: secretary sebelius said she couldn't predict when the web site would be working smoothly. major garrett is at the white house for us tonight. major what management savvy is the white house bringing to bear on this? >> scott, there will be outside technology experts who wi

for now, let's go back to scott pelley and the evening news. captions by: caption colorado comments@captioncolorado.com >> reporter: the surest sign that the stalemate was over-- use speaker john told house republicans it was time to give up. here's how he put it to an ohio radio station. >> we fought the good fight. we just didn't win. >> reporter: house conservatives had held up government funding in a failed attempt to defund or delay the president's health care law. the move wasted billions of dollars and split their party. new hampshire republican kelly ayotte: >> shutting down the government was not a smart strategy, and not the right direction, and i hope we never do this again. >> reporter: the compromise deal fund the government for just three months, raises the debt ceiling for four months, initiates immediate debt talks, and adds a token antifraud measure to obamacare. >> this is far lets than many of us had hoped for, frankly. but it's far better than what some had sought. >> reporter: as republican leader mitch mcconnell explained

. >> pelley: good evening. the head of the agency that oversees the government's health insurance web site appeared before congress today. marilyn tavenner, the administrator of the centers for medicare and medicaid services apologized for all of the problems with the site. she placed the blame on tardy contractors. that did not satisfy members of the house committee who were frustrated when tavenner would not answer some of the key questions. nancy cordes on capitol hill for us tonight. nancy. >> reporter: scott, the main thing members wanted to know was how many americans have managed to navigate this system and actually sign up for insurance. they asked her dozens of times, but she wouldn't answer. >> i want to apologize to you that the web site has not worked as well as it should. >> reporter: marilyn tavenner insisted today the obamacare web web site's poor performance had nothing to do with her unwillingness to share enrollment figures. >> we will not have that until mid-november. we have people who are s

captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: good evening, in the battle over the budget, every clock in washington is ticking towards the first government default in u.s. history. every clock but this one. the ohio clock, as it is known, has stood in the senate for two centuries, but it stopped because the people who wind it have been furloughed by the government shutdown. that shutdown started nine days ago when republicans in the house refused to fund the government unless they could roll back obamacare. next week, the government will not be able to borrow enough money to pay its bills unless congress raises the so-called debt ceiling. these two crisis-- the shutdown and the debt ceiling-- were discussed at the white house late today by the president and republican leaders. we have reports from both ends of pennsylvania avenue. we're going to go first to major garrett at the white house. major, the meeting just broke up. what's happened? >> reporter: well, scott, this is a very, very fluid situation. white house aides are scrambling at th

. >> pelley: we have a team of correspondents covering the historic rollout of obamacare. first, wyatt andrews with more about the problems the president promised to fix. >> reporter: as millions of people flooded the system, the government web site for obamacare-- health care.gov-- temporarily broke under the strain. the main page went from "apply now" to this: please wait. and then for a time the system went down. "please try again later" it said. and this is the web site used by 34 states. several states running their own exchanges also had delays. in washington state, the web site closed down. administration officials said the federal site was overwhelmed by 2.8 million visitors-- a number they never expected. white house senior advisor david seamus said the problems drew an allout response from web site technician at the department of health and human services. >> we expected a slow rampup and what we saw today was an overwhelming response that exceeded even what we've seen in medicare in any given day. so it was a good start. we identified problems. tomorrow's going

. >> pelley: bork thank you. we also understand that the child is still in the custody of the child welfare department. thank you. we also don't know why a man set himself on fire this afternoon on washington's national mall. witnesses say the man poured gasoline on himself not far from the smithsonian air and space museum. he was flown by helicopter to a hospital. no word on his condition. all of this insanity is happening in a city that was already in turmoil. this is the fourth day of a partial shutdown of the federal government that resulted from that dispute over obamacare. the only movement we saw today was the president and vice president heading to a sandwich shop for lunch. otherwise, neither side is budging, not the president and the democrats, not the speaker of the house, and the republicans. nancy cordes has been watching all of this for us on california today. >> both sides seem to believe if they just hold firm the public will side with them so they act as if theor willing to work together, but the

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>> pelley: good evening. how did it all go wrong? republican-controlled house today held the first congressional hearings about the disastrous rollout of the federal government's online health insurance market. contractors who built the web site were in the hot seat testifying under oath. they raised their hands, then pointed their fingzer at the obama administration. wyatt andrews was there. >> reporter: the two main contractors who built the inner workings of the obamacare web site told congress their parts testify site worked well, but that the government never tested the dozens of parts together, called end-to-end testing until just days before the october 1 deadline. satoshsharyl campbell represents c.g.i. federal. she was asked about the end-to-end testifying by republican congressman greg walden. >> it occurred the last two weeks in september. >> did that give your company adequate time to make sure everything was integrated and would work? >> it would have been better to have more time. we would have loved to have months to b

. >> pelley: nan see, thanks very much. we wonder what the white house had to say about that system crash two weeks before the launch. major knaret has been asking about that. >> reporter: we asked the top health care adviser to president obama how it was decided to launch the health care web site when the administration knew it had failed some key early tests? who decided to go ahead with the launch when the site crashed with fewer than 200 people on it and was the president notified that that crash occurred shortly before the october 1 launch? >> there was rigorous testing, but, major, look, there wasn't -- >> reporter: it crashed. and there had to be a decision to say go ahead once that site crashed. >> there wasn't-- it's clear now there wasn't enough testing. and the bottom line is the president of the united states last week went out in front of the american people and said here's what we're going to do to fix it. the good news, is when it's up and running we'll have until march 31 to make sure that people are covered

. >> pelley: wyatt, thank you. yesterday the president found himself having to explain how angry he is with the health web site. the white house tried to take the edge off that embarrassment by peopling the podium with folks that it said would benefit, and janice baker was touted as the first to enroll in delaware, though mr. obama did say it took her a few tries. we were curious, so we called baker today and she told us it took her seven hours over 11 days to enroll online. she had to call the hot line for help. but she says it was worth it. baker had been rejected by insurance companies three times before for a preexisting condition, and that is illegal under obamacare. a republican attempt, of course, to roll back the health care law was what led to the two-week government shutdown. in our poll tonight, 31% of americans told us they approve of the job that democrats in congress are doing, 18% approved of republicans. only 14% had a favorable view of the tea party. 36 thrix% unfavorable. tea party republicans are

captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: good evening, the long-awaited opening of obamacare was accompanied today by the

captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: gd

captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: good evening. there's been another deadly shooting at a school-- this time a middle school in sparks, nevada, east of reno. the police are telling us that a student shot and killed a teacher and then wounded two

. >> pelley: good evening.

captioning sponsored by cbs this is the "cbs evening news" with scott pelley. >> pelley: good evening. once again, the country is trying to make sense of an irrational act of violence by someone with mental health issues. we may never knowor