• Syndicated columnist Tina Dupuy calls in at 10am ET / 7am PT to talk about why the Heritage Foundation suddenly hates the individual mandate

• Sexy Liberal John Fugelsang joins us in the Los Angeles Bureau at 11am ET / 8am PT for Fridays With Fugelsang

• House GOP and White House negotiators worked behind closed doors late Thursday to try to hammer out a deal that could potentially reopen the government in the coming days and delay an Oct. 17 deadline to raise the nation’s debt limit.

• The GOP has been badly damaged in the ongoing government shutdown and debt limit standoff, with a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finding that a majority of Americans blame the GOP for the shutdown, and with the party’s popularity declining to its lowest level at 24% approval.

• President Barack Obama has signed into law a bill that would restore funding for emergency payments to the families of deceased soldiers as the government shutdown continues.

• A New Jersey judge has reaffirmed her call for the state to start issuing same-sex marriage licenses on Oct. 21, but the Gov. Chris Christie is taking another crack at putting the mandate on hold. Both developments are the latest in a flurry of legal activity over whether the state should allow gay couples to marry.