Washington Post Top Online Stories: Mon 4/26/10

The Washington Post lead headline online early Monday morning says "GOP, Democrats at an impasse before key vote." The paper says despite optimism on both sides that a bipartisan compromise will emerge, lack of a deal increases chances of at least a temporary showdown.

The paper says on the fifth floor of the headquarters of the Securities and Exchange Commission, five men and one woman, fueled by Sbarro pizza and Subway sandwiches, worked marathon hours over three months to finalize a case alleging that Goldman Sachs had defrauded clients.

It says President Obama will declare his stake in the November midterm elections for the first time on Monday as his Democratic Party announces an ambitious strategy to appeal to independent voters in its quest to maintain control of Congress.

The paper says bounced out of Congress in the 2006 Democratic sweep, former congressman Charlie Bass is trying to win back his narrowly divided district in November.

It says the CIA is using new, smaller missiles and advanced surveillance techniques to minimize civilian casualties in its targeted killings of suspected insurgents in Pakistan's tribal areas, according to current and former officials in the United States and Pakistan.

And the most read story in the Post early Monday is Elton John's letter to Ryan White, 20 years after his death from AIDS