Hopeful week ends with deeper funding impasse

USA TODAY - For more and to sign up click here Mike Lillis Last Tuesday’s off-year elections have altered the shutdown fight, just not in the way many on Capitol Hill had hoped. Heading into last week, lawmakers on both sides had felt glimmers of optimism that they were on a path to dissolving the budget impasse. Centrist senators in both parties were negotiating over a potential spending compromise, and…