Your essential catch-up of the week's news

As the government shutdown stretched into a second week, FCW continued to document the effects, including worries about vulnerability to cyberattacks, the message it sends to young professionals and the difficulty workers face getting needed identification credentials.

But that wasn't all that was going on. A bipartisan group is set to introduce legislation intended to rein in the NSA's ability to collect data about Americans’ electronic communications, while the agency had to postpone the opening of a new data center because of unexplained power problems. The Postal Service is upgrading its already formidable supercomputing capabilities, and lawmakers are looking for an explanation of the shaky launch of HealthCare.gov.

Last but not least, FCW is now ready for your nominations for the 2014 Federal 100 award. Don't delay!

Elsewhere: Wired reports on an advanced military uniform under development that would "turn a special ops commando into Iron Man."