Wall Street Journal

Washington's top leaders insist they want to resolve this year’s budget crisis and want the federal government to stay open after Friday’s deadline. But that doesn’t mean they can easily negotiate the political minefield to reach compromise. Recent polls show most Americans want a compromise to avoid a government shutdown, but drilling down into the numbers shows that there are serious partisan divides that are fueling the tough stands being held by negotiators in their emergency meetings as the hours wind down to the deadline.

Donald Trump, the man none of the pundits took seriously as a presidential candidate, is sitting comfortably in second place, on the shoulder of the leader, in the race for the Republican presidential nomination, according to the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll. Trump is tied at 17% with former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and just behind former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney at 21% among Republican primary voters, according to the poll published Thursday. The survey has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points for the full sample.

Vice President Biden announced Friday that he was naming Shailagh Murray as his new communications director, choosing one Washington reporter to replace another as his lead spokeswoman. Murray has covered Capitol Hill and politics for the Washington Post since 2005, and the Wall Street Journal for six years before that. She replaces Jay Carney, the former Washington Bureau chief for Time magazine, who left Biden's office after two years to become White House press secretary. "Shailagh's years of experience covering a broad array of issues ranging from domestic policy to foreign affairs make her uniquely positioned to lead our communications team," Biden said in a statement.

Phil Jackson agrees with his girlfriend ? who agrees with NBA Commissioner David Stern . Jeanie Buss , the Lakers coach's girlfriend and the team's executive vice president of business operations, said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal that "contraction is something we have to consider" in the NBA. Buss said she would hate to lose teams, but that "we may be in some markets we shouldn't be in. " Jackson was asked...

Facebook is looking into how third-party applications treat its users' information after the revelation that some applications and games were sending those data to advertisers. The 10 most popular apps were forwarding user identification numbers to advertising companies, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. Specifically, such games as FarmVille and Texas Hold 'Em Poker reportedly shared with advertisers a string of numbers and letters used to identify users, the story alleged.

Rupert Murdoch's quest to find a way to get people to pay for news online continued Monday as News Corp. made two investments in digital technology that could be key to the mission. News Corp., parent of the Wall Street Journal and the New York Post as well as newspapers in Britain and Australia, bought Skiff, a maker of software that delivers information to tablets, smart phones and e-readers. The conglomerate also acquired a stake in media entrepreneur Steve Brill's Journalism Online venture, which has been developing a mechanism for newspapers and magazines to collect revenue from their online readers.

In the Wall Street Journal that Rupert Murdoch took over in 2007, one regular feature was the "tick tock," an inside-the-boardroom reconstruction of a big deal. Three years after the News Corp. chairman defied business logic and bid $5.6 billion for Dow Jones, the Journal's supposedly impregnable proprietor, the journalist who covered the deal for the paper has served up a book as devastatingly definitive as any Journal tick tock. Her account comes 18 months after Michael Wolff, a veteran mogul chronicler, delivered his portrait of Murdoch's quixotic deal, "The Man Who Owns the News."

Chris Fargis thought his big job interview was over. But when the partners at Wall Street upstart Toro Trading finished with their questions, they broke out a deck of cards and a green-felt card table. Mind playing a few hands of poker? It was a final test, and Fargis was relieved. The 30-year-old never went to business school or even took a finance class. But he knew poker. He had made a living playing the game online for six years from his Manhattan apartment, betting on up to eight hands at a time.

It is a story that no doubt will shock fans of the St. Louis Rams and Detroit Lions. According to the Wall Street Journal, NFL teams that play in domed stadiums have an advantage over those who don't. In an article bearing the headline, "Is it time for the NFL to ban domes?" the Journal points out that three domed teams -- the Minnesota Vikings, Indianapolis Colts and New Orleans Saints -- are undefeated and another -- the Atlanta Falcons -- are 3-0 at home. The Saints are on pace to break the league record for most points in a season, the Vikings rank second in points and the Colts are third in yardage.