Cheat Sheet - The Country’s Best Colleges

Today: Senate Reaches Budget Deal , Houston Paper Revokes Cruz Endorsement , National Book Awards Finalists Announced October 16, 2013 DOWN AND DIRTY 1. The Country's Best Colleges Climbing walls and organic mac-n-cheese are cool, but what really defines a great college in 2013 is how well it prepares you for life after commencement. With that in mind, The Daily Beast crunched the data for nearly 2,000 colleges and universities across the country, factoring in everything that students actually care about—from affordability to future earnings to diversity to activities—to come up with a list of the very best schools in terms of real value. Plus, read the full methodology. Read it at The Daily Beast IT'S A GO 2. Senate Reaches Budget Deal Hallelujah! The Senate on Wednesday reached a deal to end the government shutdown and raise the debt ceiling—and what's more, House Speaker John Boehner is ready to push it forward in the House. There's no indication at this point that Republicans will block it—even the obstructionist Sen. Ted Cruz. The agreement funds the government through January 15, and raises the debt ceiling through February 7. A separate Senate motion is in the works to commit the two chambers to working on long-term revenue deal.  Read it at Politico NEVERMIND 3. Houston Paper Revokes Cruz Endorsement Ouch, no hometown love. Ted Cruz's hometown paper, the Houston Chronicle, took back their endorsement of him on Wednesday—claiming they only endorsed him with "many reservations" in the first place. Yikes. The op-ed calls for a return to the principles of Texas conservative Kay Bailey Hutchinson, who Cruz beat in the primary (the Chronicle endorsed her in the primary, Cruz in the general election). "We feel certain she would have worked shoulder-to-shoulder with Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, in crafting a workable solution that likely would have avoided the shutdown all together," the paper writes. Too late guys, too late—unless we get to write an alternative history where this whole shutdown nightmare doesn't happen. It doesn't hurt to dream, right? Read it at Houston Chronicle NOMINATED 4. National Book Awards Finalists Announced The National Book Foundation announced on Wednesday the 2013 National Book Award finalists, with five nominees in each of the four categories: fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and young people's literature. They were winnowed down from longlists of 10. The winners will be named at a gala dinner and ceremony in New York on Nov. 20. Read the full list here. Read it at National Book Foundation CRIME 5. Libya Eyes Al-Liby Defense As accused al Qaeda operative Anas al-Liby appears in a New York City court to face terrorism charges, Libya's government is weighing whether to fund his defense. The Daily Beast's Jamie Dettmer reports from Tripoli. Read it at The Daily Beast BIG BUCKS Ebay Founder Bankrolling Greenwald In "new media venture." TECH BUBBLE Twitter Losses Grow in 3rd Quarter Still not profitable as IPO nears. Hunk '50 Shades' Movie Has New Frontrunner Meet Jamie Dornan. SORRY NOT SORRY Rielle Hunter: I'm Sorry About Everything But is writing a second book anyway. OLDIES Rock Hall of Fame Nominees Announced Nirvana, Hall & Oates make list. Rolling Stone Coldplay Honored for 'Hunger Games' Song Upworthy Congress Did Something so Spectacularly Creepy That it's too Unbelievable to Make Up Conde Nast Traveler Qatar Inspires Pilgrims for Hajj and for Damien Hirst GET The Cheat Sheet A speedy, smart summary of news and must-reads from across the Web. You'll love the featured original stories on politics, entertainment, and more from The Daily Beast's diverse group of contributors. GET Culture Beast Weekly cultural recommendations from The Daily Beast. New Yorkers in the Wild by Allison McNearney The Best Beards in Sports by Sujay Kumar Dry Ice Goes Boom by Abby Haglage

ABOUT US | CONTACT US | SUBSCRIBE Copyright 2013 The Daily Beast Company LLC 555 W. 18th Street , New York NY 10011 Privacy Policy

If you are on a mobile device or cannot view the images in this message, click here to view this email in your Web browser. To ensure delivery of these emails, please add thedailybeast@e2.thedailybeast.com to your address book. If you have changed your mind and no longer wish to receive these emails, or think you have received this message in error, you can safely unsubscribe here.