If you’re monitoring the Obamacare enrollment process closely, you want to see evidence that the rate of enrollments are picking up. That would be consistent with expectations, and with how things worked when RomneyCare was launched in Massachusetts: higher rates of enrollment as you get deeper in to the open enrollment period and as deadlines approach.

There are some early indications that the pattern is going according to form. It’s early, and it’s only a few states, ones with their own exchanges, where access has generally been better than via HealthCare.gov. Too early to be definitive, but it’s what you’d expect to be seeing.

As you may have heard, state Sen. Creigh Deeds, the Democratic nominee for governor in 2009, is in critical condition at a Charlottesville hospital after being stabbed in his home, and his son Gus is dead from a gunshot wound. Details remain sketchy. Ongoing coverage at TPMLivewire.