(New top to this post added at 2:20 p.m. ET)

The U.S. Secret Service just confirmed that Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez has been arrested in connection with the gunshots fired Friday night in Washington — one of which apparently hit a window at the White House.

In a statement sent to reporters, the agency says:

Though the U.S. economy faces lots of problems, as we said yesterday, there are some encouraging signs out there too.

The Republican leader of the Ohio Senate says it is too soon to say whether his chamber would vote before
the end of the year on a bill that would ban abortions in the state after the first detectable heartbeat.

Senate President Tom Niehaus said Tuesday that a group of lawmakers he's convened continues to research the measure.

"Syrian activists say that army defectors have attacked an intelligence complex in the Damascus suburbs in what appears to be one of their boldest assaults so far against government security forces," al-Jazeera reports.

There was a scant 0.1 percent dip in the consumer price index in October from September, the Bureau of Labor Statistics just reported.

The major reason for the dip: "The energy index turned down in October after increasing in each of the three previous months as the gasoline and household energy indexes declined after a series of seasonally adjusted increases."

Good morning.

Our early headlines:

-- 'Murmurings' Of A Deal On Taxes And Deficit Reduction.

-- Penn State Scandal: Key Witness Says He Did Talk With University Police.

After yesterday's drama — the move by police to clear lower Manhattan's Zuccotti Park of the Occupy Wall Street protesters who had been camping there for nearly two months — things are much different today.

President Obama has one less thing to worry about, thanks to an Australian insurance company. On his visit down under, he's insured against a crocodile attack. When he gets to the town of Darwin, he'll be presented with a $51,000 policy.

In an email to a friend, Mike McQueary says he did speak with Penn State University police after seeing what he says was former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky sexually assaulting a young boy in the team's locker room.

Harrisburg's Patriot-News writes that McQueary, who at the time of the 2002 incident was a graduate assistant with the football team and later became an assistant coach, says in the email that:

Target is scheduled to open at midnight on Black Friday. Target employee Anthony Hardwick of Nebraska started the petition asking the retail chain to open later. He says before working all night, he'd have to miss a Thanksgiving gathering to get enough sleep.