The shutdown’s unexpected closures

Everyone knows the shutdown has shuttered D.C.'s free museums, monuments and memorials, but there is a significant list of less-expected locales that are also closed. The fact that the National Park Service shut down has wide ranging implications. For example, if an agreement hasn't been reached by this weekend and you had plans to go golfing at East Potomac Park, see fall foliage along Skyline Drive, take your kids to a play at Adventure Theatre or go for a jog along the towpath, then you might need to reconsider. Read on for a list of some of the surprising closures. The Swift Run Gap entrance to Skyline Drive near Elkton, Va., in the Shenandoah National Park posted signs letting visitors know the park is closed. (AP Photo/Daily News-Record, Jason Lenhart) Skyline Drive This is prime time to set out for the Shenandoah to spy the fall colors, but one of the most popular byways for leaf peeping is closed. So are all Shenandoah hiking trails, such as Old Rag and Whiteoak Canyon. According to the News Virginian, the shutdown coincides with the most popular time of year for Shenandoah National Park. Nearly a quarter of the 250,000 annual visitors generally drop by in October. Meridian Hill Park The intricately landscaped park is more of a neighborhood hangout than a national tourist destination, but Meridian Hill/Malcolm X Park is indeed under the purview of the National Park Service. Much to the disappointment of many dog owners in the U Street neighborhood, the park had barricades across it as of last night. Better find a new picnic spot for this weekend. C Canal The canal and towpath, including all visitor’s centers, access roads, Canal Quarters lockhouses and campgrounds are closed. That means no foot, bike or horse traffic. And as a sad addendum, the segment of the Capital Crescent Trail that runs parallel to the towpath (from Georgetown to just beyond Fletcher’s Boathouse) is also closed. And we know you’re probably thinking, “who would notice if I just tiptoe past this barricade?” Consider yourself warned -- law enforcement rangers have not been furloughed. Thompson's Boat Center, Fletcher's Boathouse, etc. The Potomac River may be open, but many of its access points -- like the Thompson's Boat Center -- are controlled by the National Park Service. The closure of the boat house doesn't just disrupt the day for casual kayakers or those hoping


Shutdown slams doors on scientists

Here’s my just-posted story on how the shutdown affects federal scientific programs and agencies such as NIH, NASA, NSF. The overall federal R&D apparatus is so sprawling that it’s impossible to be comprehensive in a relatively quick-and-dirty story like this. But a few key points: 1. If you’re sick, or your kid is sick, and you were hoping to join a clinical trial at NIH — as about 200 people a week normally do — you’re out of luck until the shutdown is over. People already enrolled or with appointments are fine. But new applicants are being turned away, NIH says. How does NIH feel about this? “Awful” says the NIH spokesman. 2. The Mars probe MAVEN is supposed to launch Nov. 18. It takes weeks to get these things ready to launch. If the shutdown lasts only a few days, they’ll probably be fine, but if it drags on and on, there’s a chance MAVEN may have to go into mothballs until the planets align again in two years. You can’t argue with orbital dynamics. 3. In the broad scheme of things, the discretionary budget has been steadily shrinking over time as a percentage of GDP, and along with that has been a decline in federal spending on R&D as a percentage of GDP. Right now federal R&D spending (which includes military, by far the major player in this) is running at about 0.8 percent of GDP. Please look at this graph (and yes I needed assistance merely to post a graph to my blog — talk about someone who needs to do more R&D!!):


For many communities, federal shutdown has a local impact

what is going on away from Washington: The search for a missing woman at Craters of the Moon National Monument was impacted, with 16 of the park’s 19 employees set to be furloughed. On Tuesday, a park employee reported that for a time, no one was looking for her due to the furloughs. The park said Wednesday that 10 workers would be able to stay to help during the search. Military members will continue to be paid, as will many civilians working for the Defense Department, thanks to a bill signed into law Monday. But civilian employees who work at military bases and support the National Guard are being hit hard, something acknowledged by President Obama and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel this week. The commissary at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa has been closed. About 1,500 civilian employees working at the base were furloughed, according to officials, leading to worries for owners and employees of local businesses near the base. Some support offices will close at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson outside Anchorage, Alaska, while the base’s inspector general’s office and housing offices will close. More than 760 civilian military workers There are usually about 18,000 visitors to the Grand Canyon in October, but the park is now closed along with 400 other national parks. These parks employ about 25,000 workers for concessions, and there are other groups (like companies that provide tours) that are similarly reliant upon the parks. And if the shutdown lingers, it could impact services that provide food to low-income families and medical advice for women and children in need. A federal program that provides food for poor women and children in Wisconsin should be able to continue for a few weeks if the shutdown persists, but after that it could stop getting shipments of food, officials warned. In Washington state, a nutrition program that provides health screenings, nutrition education and other support to pregnant women, new mothers and young children has enough money to operate for nine days. A similar program in North Carolina could also shut down this month. American Indian tribes are dealing with a loss of funding for services including financial aid for the needy, foster care payments and nutrition programs. This is just a small sampling of the shutdown’s impact. And we’re only on Day Two of the shutdown. A prolonged shutdown would have a considerable economic impact, according to numerous economists.


Shutdown could cost jobs down the line, report says

The economic impacts of a government shutdown are likely to vary depending on geographic location, how many federal employees live in a given area, and how long the partial halt in operations lasts, according to one economist. Ball State University economist Michael J. Hicks (no relation to the author of this article) made those conclusions based on an analysis of the unemployment rates and employment levels in the nation’s capital during the 11 shutdowns that occurred since 1976. Hicks found that the impacts have not been immediate, but that “employment within Washington, D.C. is negatively affected” within two months of a lapse in appropriations. His models show a reduction of roughly .02 percent in employment for each day of a shutdown for the Beltway. The economic impacts of government closures are also “concentrated in places where employment is dominated by federal workers,” Hicks said. Perhaps surprisingly, the D.C. area does not have the highest concentration of such employees in the United States. The map below shows the nation’s densest regions of federal employment, to give readers a sense of other parts of the nation that are hit hardest by the shutdown. The distinction for highest percentage of federal employees belongs to Colorado Springs, which has a large number of military personnel — such employees are exempt from shutdown furloughs. In that city, 18 percent of workers hold jobs with the federal government. Here are the top cities: 1. Colorado Springs:18.8% 2. Virginia Beach-N.C.:17.2% 3. Honolulu:17.2% 4. D.C. region:14.3% 5. El Paso:13.6% 6. Ogden-Clearfield, Utah:11.5% 7. San Diego-Carlsbad-San Marcos:10.9% 8. Augusta, Ga.-S.C.: 9.1% 9. San Antonio: 7.8% 10. Charleston S.C.: 7.6% To connect with Josh Hicks, follow his Twitter feed or e-mail josh.hicks@washpost.com. For more federal news, visit The Federal Eye, The Fed Page and Post Politics.


The nine most painful impacts of a government shutdown

sounds like a minor inconvenience, but it can have a major economic impact. During the last shutdown in 1995-1996, some 7 million visitors were turned away from national parks. Tourist industries and airlines lost millions of dollars per day, according to the Congressional Research Service. This time around, the National Parks Conservation Association estimates that local communities could lose some $30 million in business for every day of the shutdown. 8) Head Start programs for hundreds of kids will slowly start closing. (Carol Kaliff/AP )- Lead teacher Carmen Prybylski works with children Quinn Watson, left, 3, Sofia Coway, 2, and Kayla Lamour, 3, at Head Start's new building in Danbury, Conn. July 17, 2013. There are some 1,600 Head Start programs around the country providing education, health, nutrition and other services to roughly 1 million low-income children and their families. Those will slowly begin closing during a shutdown. Initially, only about 20 programs would be affected — the programs whose federal grants expire on Oct. 1 and don't get renewed. Over time, more programs would likely be affected. The effects really vary from community to community. In York County, S.C., for instance, pre-kindergarten classes for some 864 kids will be canceled this Friday. (These programs would likely be reinstated once the shutdown ended.) Note that Head Start has already faced cutbacks due to sequestration budget cuts, having eliminated services for some 57,000 children this year. 9) Disability benefits could be interrupted. (Source: Center for American Progress) During the shutdown, the Social Security administration won't have enough staff to schedule new hearings for those applying for disability benefits. And the Veterans Appeal Board will be closed, which means veterans appealing a decision on disability benefits will have to wait until the shutdown ends. Update: 10) Kids with cancer could get turned away from treatment. Here's one last impact to add to the list. As long as the government is shut down, the National Institutes of Health says it will turn away roughly 200 patients each week from its clinical research center, including children with cancer. “We’ve had to tell people, ‘I’m sorry, you can’t come here,’ ” NIH Director Francis Collins told the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. See this post for more information and context. ----- Note that these aren't the only consequences of the shutdown. There are plenty of others: Businesses won't be able to access E-Verify to check


Wonkbook: Why the shutdown will be so hard to end, in one perfect quote

big business failed to stop its worst nightmare in D.C. How might Americans react? A guide from 1995. John Boehner, between a rock and a hard place on shutdown and debt limit. Sen. Reid leading Democrats on shutdown. Interview: ...And the shutdown is a victory of sorts for the Tea Party. Interview: Who gets hurt from a shutdown? The poor. Shutdown makes U.S. more vulnerable to terrorist attacks, intelligence officials warn. @pourmecoffee Wall Street fears go beyond shutdown. Debate: ...And guess what's coming? Even more budget cuts. @jbarro JOHNSON: The U.S. makes itself unexceptional. MATTHEWS: The shutdown is the Constitution’s fault. CHAIT: Why the shutdown is leading to default. @SuzyKhimm DIONNE: Why this shutdown is different. Music recommendations interlude: Traffic interlude: 2) Obamacare overloaded Obamacare’s biggest problem right now isn’t glitches. It’s traffic. ...And here's how officials are responding. Obamacare leaves millions of poor without insurance. Watch: What impact has Obamacare had on jobs? WESSEL: Obamacare, gamechanger? MULLIGAN: Obamacare will make the poor lazy. Humor interlude: 3) Pelosi knocking at Goodlatte's door What's in the House's latest immigration reform proposal? Explainer: House Democrats unveil immigration plan in hopes of pressuring Republicans. Good questions interlude: 4) Hiring slows, but who can blame them? U.S. businesses add 166k jobs. SEC data to drive debate about high-speed trading overhaul. Guess which city’s housing prices rose twice as fast as New York’s in the last 13 years? Wow just wow interlude: 5) The bottomless pit of NSA surveillance NSA had test project to collect data on Americans’ cellphone locations, director says. The email service that resisted the NSA. NSA to hire token civil-liberties watchdog. Reading material interlude: The best sentences Wonkblog read today. Wonkblog Roundup Obamacare’s biggest problem right now isn’t glitches. It’s traffic Grover Norquist on Ted Cruz: ‘He pushed House Republicans into traffic and wandered away House Democrats have released their own immigration bill. Here’s what it does Guess which city’s housing prices rose twice as fast as New York’s in the last 13 years The shutdown is the Constitution’s fault Why big business failed to stop its worst nightmare in D.C Democrats can use this one weird trick to end the government shutdown It’s not just D.C. Here’s where the shutdown is hitting across the country ‘We’ve already essentially adopted that Ryan budget Et Cetera Tom Clancy dies. Got tips, additions, or comments? Wonkbook is produced with help from Michelle Williams.


The shutdown is now clogging up the data economy. Thanks, Congress!

(WhiteHouse.gov) Thanks to the government shutdown, nearly a dozen federal Web sites are offline and 19 of them are no longer being updated. But a less obvious casualty of the widespread furloughs are the online tools that automatically relay government data to the public. Federal agencies maintain hundreds of application programming interfaces, or APIs. Whenever you see an interactive map that's based on Census statistics or pollution data or other official information, that's often the result of a government data feed. These days, however, when a map or a program phones in to the feed for updates, it's often met with a "sorry, we're closed" message — just like the kind human visitors see when they visit Data.gov. Craig Isakow runs the D.C. office of a Boston-based company called WegoWise, which helps offices, schools and other public buildings become Energy Star-recognized with the Environmental Protection Agency. Using the agency's API, Isakow submits characteristics about a building's size and energy usage, and the API returns a numerical score from 1-100 that can be read like a fuel-efficiency rating for cars. Last year, Isakow said, nearly a third of all such Energy Star scores were generated using the API; the rest were computed by logging in by hand. Now both methods of performance certification are down as a result of federal furloughs. That means delays, lost revenue and greater uncertainty for WegoWise. "If [the shutdown] is prolonged, it's definitely going to slow our sales to commercial buildings," said Isakow. "Taking down these systems the private sector depends on affects people's pocketbooks immediately." Losing access to the Energy Star API also has consequences for state and local governments that have made Energy Star scores a requirement for commercial buildings within their jurisdiction. That includes Austin, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington, D.C., which have all instituted some kind of mandatory commercial Energy Star reporting. In the nation's capital, the reporting deadline was Oct. 1; that date has now been pushed back to seven days after the resumption of federal operations. Meanwhile, APIs for important health monitoring applications are also down. The Centers for Disease Control maintains an API for its national cancer registry, which tracks various cancer-patient statistics. Data about new cancer cases may still be being compiled by cities and states, but it's not making its way into the national database because the servers are unresponsive, said Maksim Tsvetovat, founder of the D.C.-based


When will Congress feel pressure to end the shutdown? It could take weeks.

We're already seeing the effects of the government shutdown. More than 700,000 federal workers have been sent home without pay. National parks and memorials are barricaded. The National Institutes of Health is turning away cancer patients from clinical trials. Congress’s spending impasse shuts down the national parks. (Someone tell Smokey Bear.) (Steve Helber/Associated Press) But when do these effects become so overwhelming that the political pressure on Congress becomes unbearable? How long can members of Congress hold out before they simply have to reach a deal and end the shutdown? That's a harder question, and there's reason to think that Congress can hold out for quite some time — a week, perhaps more. During the last shutdown in 1995-96, only a small portion of the country felt the impacts at first. It wasn't until contractors and businesses started laying people off that the political pressure became more acute. That could take awhile. On the flip side, however, the shutdown will become increasingly painful and politically volatile as it drags on. If the impasse extends past the middle of the month, millions of paychecks will get delayed and veterans' benefits could get disrupted. So it's not clear Congress and the White House can hold out forever, either. The politics of the shutdown (Ricky Carioti - THE WASHINGTON POST) It's worth noting that some politicians are already feeling pressure from the shutdown. As of Thursday, 19 Republicans in the House have come out in favor of a "clean" continuing resolution that would fund the government without demanding changes to Obamacare — a position Democrats have said they would accept. Four of those Republicans in favor of ending the shutdown hail from Virginia, which has 144,573 federal workers, the second-most of any state in the country. Four other Republicans come from Pennsylvania, which ranks seventh on the list. But it's unlikely that the furloughs of 770,000 federal workers alone will sway Congress — after all, lawmakers have felt little urgency to resolve the sequestration budget cuts, which have also sent thousands of federal workers home without pay. That's why many observers think we'll have to wait until the shutdown affects a broad swath of middle-class Americans. "It's when you start getting Republican-type folks who are directly affected," says Vin Weber, a lobbyist and former Republican Congressman. "People who are trying to get a small-business loan and can't get processed. Then [Republicans in Congress]


PostScript: Milbank and the desire for government

For the first time, the Lincoln Memorial has been totally closed to visitors during a government shutdown. (Jim Watson/Agence France-Presse) Day three of the shutdown, guys. It’s getting pretty silly. How silly, PostScript? So silly that, as Dana Milbank chronicles, the tea party members of Congress are fiercely trying to remind us why we like the federal government. Seriously, though. The new Republican strategy is to bemoan this stupid shutdown and the harm it is doing to things people like, such as treating children with cancer, national memorials and, erm, the city of Washington D.C., which actually hasn’t closed down yet — much to PostScript’s relief since she has to get her car inspected next week and has no clue if, for example, Virginia will give you tickets for not having the correct stickers when D.C. has stopped giving out the correct stickers. It’s a cruel world. But anyway, the District is somehow on the list of photogenic things people like and Republicans are loudly attempting to fund, only to be stymied by Democrats. Or anyway that’s the rhetoric, since everyone knows the piecemeal funding bills aren’t going to pass and this is all about who gets blamed for the children that we all agree shouldn’t be allowed to die, but they will because we’re arguing about whose fault it is. Man, this situation makes PostScript clausey. But the Republican argument right now relies on the fact that there are some things, like cancer research and national memorials, that are very important and that the federal government is the best way to get these things done. Things like host a Leonardo da Vinci notebook, for example, which rarely gets exhibited outside Italy but is sitting right now in the National Air and Space Museum, running out its time in this country, unseen. It leaves Oct. 23, by the way. Okay! Now that we all agree it’s nice to have a federal government sometimes, even for things that aren’t strictly necessary, where can we go from here? Dave Harris0413 If Republicans get to decide what parts of the government can function, they’ve pretty much achieved their goal of nullifying the last election and taking over the country. They don’t even have to get elected or be able to pass any laws, they just have to threaten to hurt somebody if they don’t get their way. Who wants to “negotiate” with hostage-takers?


Shutdown stopping flow of weather information as dangerous storms threaten nation

National Weather Service spokesman Chris Vaccaro, called back to service today (after being furloughed) to assist with communications during tropical storm Karen. Despite these dire forecasts, several Federal weather information sources are silent. Most National Weather Service Web sites and services are fully functional and up-to-date We will not be Tweeting or responding to @ replies during the government shutdown. See http://t.co/SNylEPEHt6 for more info. We will not be Tweeting or responding to @ replies during the #governmentshutdown. Pls see http://t.co/0IoFYJ6v8S for more info. Thank you. Similarly, the National Weather Service’s Facebook page, with 193,000 fans, has not been updated since prior to the shutdown. Vaccaro said “any social media directly related to the mission of protecting life and property” would be maintained. But, thus far, social media feeds from NOAA and NWS headquarters have stagnated. Local National Weather Service offices were continuing to provide mission-focused updates, Vaccaro said. “Updates to our national Facebook page will soon commence,” Vaccaro said. In addition to the social media stoppages, several Federal websites that historically have provided information and updates about hazardous weather are also down or not being updated: * The NOAA.gov portal, which often serves as a hub for life-threatening storm information and resources; it is redirecting to weather.gov, which is fully functional * NOAA’s Environmental Visualization Laboratory, which provides storm imagery on a daily basis * NASA’s Hurricane Web site, which provides news and visuals about tropical weather systems * NASA Goddard Space Flight Center’s weather imagery While the volume of normally available weather information is clearly reduced, both the Weather Service and FEMA have brought back staff to assist with the likely landfall of tropical storm (or hurricane) Karen. The Weather Service called back Vaccaro, and its spokesperson at the National Hurricane Center, Dennis Feltgen. Politico reports FEMA coordinator Matthew Green has returned to work. The impacts of the shutdown on the National Weather Service captured the attention of Senator Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.) “We need to re-open the federal government,” Mikulski said in a briefing Wednesday. She later added: “This is hurricane season. Hurricane Sandy happened in October.” Mikulski then introduced Amy Fritz, a furloughed employee at the National Weather Service, who performs hurricane storm surge modeling. Fritz describes the impact of the shutdown on her work and her life in the video below, beginning at the 4:35. Mikulski, Democratic Senators, Furloughed Federal Employees Discuss Impact of Government Shutdown


The poor might’ve been hardest hit by the housing crisis, but the rich complain most

If we learned one thing from the housing crisis, it's that less-affluent people bore the brunt of subprime loans and the foreclosure wave that followed, which some banks still haven't made right. Nonetheless, a new analysis shows that people in wealthy neighborhoods complain a lot more about all aspects of the mortgage process, from brokers to servicers to underwriters. The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been taking and tabulating complaints about all different kinds of financial services for a couple years now. They don't collect demographic information, but the consulting firm Deloitte was able to break down mortgage-related complaints by Zip code, and found that the areas with the highest median incomes were the loudest: The wealthy whine more. (Deloitte) The pattern is similar with age -- areas with older people were also the source of the most complaints. It's possible that older people may also have the most trouble with their loans, though, so that's not quite as surprising. One could imagine any number of reasons for the disparity (the Bureau itself declined to speculate). Rich people tend to be more Web-savvy and have more time on their hands, but the CFPB also takes complaints via phone and fax, so it's broadly accessible. The more likely explanation is that word of the complaints database -- and those of other regulators that feed into the CFPB's -- has simply penetrated further in wealthy communities. (And yes, it could just be that rich people feel more entitled to the help.) The banking industry has consistently carped about the complaints database, especially after the U.S. Public Interest Research Group used it to call out the most vexing banks. Camden Fine, president of the Independent Community Bankers of America, thinks it's mostly a bunch of bellyaching anyway. "I would be shocked if the CFPB said that some significant percentage of the complaints they get are horrendous, horrible wrongdoing," Fine said. "Any time you set up an 'olly olly oxen free' system, you're going to get every nutcase in the world calling those complaint lines. Almost all of them are going to be something that could be resolved by banks, or the nutcases. If we had an open line, we'd be flooded by every nutcase in the world. Everybody has a story, and everybody wants some attention." Which is, of course, the same challenge faced by crowdsourced sites like Amazon.com and Yelp, which have


Silicon Valley shrugs off Washington shutdown

Scene outside the shut down Capitol. Matt McClain- The Washington Post “I am still not over the fact people aren’t hyperventilating about this in coffee shops while high on coffee-grind fumes” said Washington Post editor Emi Kolawole on Twitter, in response to a message I had written saying she should relax and stop worrying about government shutdowns—now that she is in Silicon Valley. Kolawole, a long time Washington, D.C., resident, is on a one-year sabbatical at Stanford University. Her comments illustrate the stark difference in the reaction to the government shutdown between the two coasts. True, most of Silicon Valley’s inhabitants aren’t experiencing the misery that furloughed government employees are. But the Valley seems totally oblivious to what is happening in the nation’s capital. Note the reaction of the tech blogs. The only coverage on TechCrunch was an article about how a government website for comparing health insurance prices wasn’t functioning properly; VentureBeat wrote exactly one sentence “Government employees are not getting paid today, but the private sector is booming with 8 major funding announcements”; Gigaom had a three-line post complaining that NASA won’t be able to redirect asteroids. It’s not that Silicon Valley won’t be affected. Regulations that affect the tech industry are stalled; visa processing for the immigrants that tech companies need has ground to a halt; national parks that Californians frequent are closed; and websites like those that TechCrunch complained of—as well as important government services—will be unavailable. Companies that depend on government contracts will also take a major revenue hit. At Singularity University, which is on the grounds of the NASA Ames Research Center (where I head innovation and research), we have been scrambling desperately for alternative teaching space because of maintenance problems in our classroom building. NASA has had to furlough nearly all employees. Yes, all these are minor inconveniences compared to the turmoil that Washington, D.C., and other parts of the nation are experiencing. But the reaction of the tech blogs very aptly reflects the Valley’s “don’t care” attitude about government. What the Valley cares about—and what its tech blogs have fixated on—is the complicity of technology companies in NSA snooping. A common belief is that government needs to stay away from the tech industry. Perhaps it is best this way. Rather than fighting unproductive and destructive battles about budgets and health insurance, our innovators are chugging along inventing technologies that will make industries


The Switchboard: Five tech policy stories you need to read today

(Photo by anthony kelly) European organizations file lawsuit against Britain over vast digital surveillance. Intellectual Ventures curbs patent buying amid fundraising effort. Piracy isn’t killing the entertainment industry, scholars show. California's new "online eraser" law should be erased. Twitter files for $1 billion IPO, revealing ambitious spending in pursuit of fast growth.


Two years after his death, Steve Jobs is becoming more abstract. That’s good for Apple.

(Paul Sakuma/AP) Two years ago tomorrow, Steve Jobs lost his battle with pancreatic cancer. To commemorate Jobs's passing, Apple CEO Tim Cook is circulating an e-mail honoring Jobs's ingenuity. 9to5Mac obtained a copy of the memo: Team- Tomorrow marks the second anniversary of Steve’s death. I hope everyone will reflect on what he meant to all of us and to the world. Steve was an amazing human being and left the world a better place. I think of him often and find enormous strength in memories of his friendship, vision and leadership. He left behind a company that only he could have built and his spirit will forever be the foundation of Apple. We will continue to honor his memory by dedicating ourselves to the work he loved so much. There is no higher tribute to his memory. I know that he would be proud of all of you. Best, Tim It's clear that while Cook's business decisions are of his own making, the company is still heavily influenced by Jobs's legacy. Indeed, we're still debating whether Apple can survive without him. But Cook's memo is also an important symbolic step for the company. Outsiders — and a good many insiders too, probably — focus a lot today on Apple's tactics, mostly through the prism of Jobs. Would he have approved of this? Would he have done that? One thing the language of mourning accomplishes, however, is an easing of that pressure. Jobs is being transformed from a baseline against which all Apple's actions are judged into a cultural guide. That's going to be really liberating for the company.


Ceremony marking rescue of Danish Jews postponed by shutdown

Yet another shutdown shutout has hit the diplomatic community, this one with royal implications. A ceremony next Wednesday to commemorating the 70th anniversary of the massive evacuation effort that rescued most of Denmark’s Jews from the Nazis has been postponed. Like so many other events, it was scheduled to take place on government property — the Cannon Office Building. Luminaries lined up for the occasion were Minority Whip Steny Hoyer — son of a Danish immigrant — and Princess Benedikte, the younger sister of Queen Margrethe II. Earlier this week, the National Gallery was forced to cancel a party for its new Byzantium art exhibit, where Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras was to be a guest of honor. More Reliable Source:


Report: Shutdown costing $150 million daily in lost wages in D.C. area

(Win McNamee/Getty Images) The federal government shutdown results in about $150 million in lost wages every day, according to a new private-sector analysis. Some 373,000 federal jobs are in the D.C. metro area, which includes counties in Northern Virginia and Maryland, according to Charlie Dougherty, an economist with the economic and financial analysis firm IHS Global Insight. If the government stays closed for two weeks, Washington’s fourth-quarter economic growth will be a full percentage point lower than it would be otherwise, he found. “[T]he effects will ripple out to industries not directly involved, such as the leisure and hospitality sector, which depends on the disposable incomes of federal workers to operate and might see a drop in sales receipts,” he said in his analysis. Federal employment has fallen every month this year and is 3 percent down on an annual basis, Dougherty notes.


Everything you need to know about the NSA and Tor in one FAQ

NSA to identify people who had been browsing a Tor hidden service for child pornography. It looks like the compromise of Freedom Hosting was one use of the NSA's powerful capacity to attack users of the Tor Browser Bundle. So this attack depends on the target visiting an NSA-controlled Web site? Ordinarily it would, but according to Bruce Schneier, who has been working with the Guardian's investigative team, the NSA has the ability to impersonate Web sites it doesn't control to inject malicious code. "The NSA places secret servers, codenamed Quantum, at key places on the internet backbone," Schneier writes. These servers intercept requests for legitimate websites and respond before the legitimate server can reply. The Quantum server's response redirects the target's browser to an NSA-controlled web server that sends the browser malware. That sounds like a sophisticated attack. What kind of infrastructure is required to carry it out? Executing this type of attack, known as "man in the middle," requires working closely with Internet backbone providers. Major telecommunications companies apparently allow the NSA to install equipment in their facilities and tap into the streams of data they transmit. The NSA also has a secret network of sophisticated Web servers to deliver the malware, Schneier writes. Servers in this system, code-named FoxAcid, install malware capable of burrowing deep into the target computer, making it difficult to detect or remove. The malware can spy on the user and report back to the NSA with information. Schneier reports that "By 2008, the NSA was getting so much FoxAcid callback data that they needed to build a special system to manage it all." Could that same infrastructure be turned against people who aren't using Tor? It seems that way. While the specific attacks disclosed today focused on users of the Tor Browser Bundle, the Quantum and FoxAcid program could be used to attack any user whose browser had vulnerabilities known to the NSA. And new browser vulnerabilities are discovered on a regular basis. In other words, there's a good chance the NSA could use systems like Quantum and FoxAcid hack into the computer you're using to read this right now if it wanted to. Where can I read the NSA documents that Ed Snowden leaked regarding Tor surveillance? We've got an annotated copy of two of the documents available here, here, and here. Additional documents are available from the Guardian here and here.


How the shutdown is forcing Congress to cut back

The government shutdown now wrapping up its fourth day has forced lawmakers to cancel committee hearings, play tour guide for constituents, go without their catered hot lunches and to ration precious commodities. Some of the final tourists to get in to the U.S. Capitol the normal way this week. (Post) The scramble is on, especially at the House and Senate gyms, where trainers and attendants are on furlough, according to several lawmakers who frequent the facilities. Knowing they'd likely be temporarily out of a job within hours, House gym laundry staffers left behind about 250 cleaned and pressed towels. But lawmakers say they were mostly used up by Wednesday. One senator, who asked not to be identified in order to candidly discuss locker room behavior, confirmed that several members are allowing their towels to air dry over locker doors. Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), one of the gym’s most frequent visitors, said, “There’s no attendants, there’s no one there, but you can go in and use it if you want to. Just as you could jog outside." Tourists kept coming to Capitol Hill this week, even though the multimillion dollar Capitol Visitors Center is closed to the general public. But constituents lucky enough to prearrange a visit with their lawmaker are permitted access. Once inside, there are no red-coated tour guides to show them around, forcing some lawmakers and junior staffers to give tours. Many junior staffers and interns already escort visiting constituents, but many lawmakers – including Reps. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) and Joe Wilson (R-S.C.) and Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) -- have been tagging along and holding court in front of some of the largest paintings adorning the Rotunda or the elaborate House and Senate staircases. On Thursday, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) led a group of schoolchildren from the House to the Senate side, guiding them through the Rotunda and out to the Senate steps, where they earned a rare audience with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.). While hundreds of lawmakers who have asked that their pay be withheld during the shutdown, their staffs are also being severely curtailed. Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) has cut her 38-member staff to six; Barrasso said he temporarily slashed his staff in half. With so many staffers out of the office, Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W. Va.) opted to take a few shifts answering the phones in his front lobby. “Good morning, thank


Congress likely to pay workers sent home during the shutdown

The government shutdown continues, but at least one major question has been resolved. The House voted unanimously Saturday to provide back pay for the nearly 800,000 federal "non-essential" workers who have been sent home. (AP) The Senate is expected to approve a similar bill, and President Obama has already said that his administration would "strongly support" the legislation. This bill won't end the shutdown, but it will have a few notable effects if it gets signed into law. Among other things: It's better news for federal workers. The downside is that no one knows when the shutdown will end, and furloughed workers may have to stretch out their finances until then. (Many workers can collect unemployment benefits during the shutdown, although they'll have to repay it once they finally get their next paycheck.) It's good news for the economy. Providing federal workers with back pay will blunt much of that damage (or at least shift that growth into the next quarter). However, the House bill won't blunt other economic effects of the shutdown, such as the millions each day that tourist locales around closed national parks are losing. It's bad news for the deficit. The House and Senate could, of course, end all that by approving bills to fund and reopen the government. So far, however, the two chambers are at an impasse. Update: The Pentagon's move won't necessarily affect military contractors, however. Note that Lockheed Martin is now planning to furlough 3,000 of its own workers next week due to the shutdown. (Those contractors won't be entitled to back pay.) Further reading: --Everything you need to know about the government shutdown. --Everything you need to know about the upcoming debt-ceiling fight.


Government shutdowns are even worse for Washington’s museums than you think

No art for you! The government is closed (Associated Press) This week, the National Gallery of Art turned away the prime minister of Greece, Antonis Samaras, and Adrienne Arsht, the philanthropist who underwrote the gallery’s most recent blockbuster exhibition, “Diaghilev and the Ballet Russes.” Samaras was supposed to view a Byzantine art exhibit co-sponsored by groups from his country. Arsht was set to throw a large party for patrons who wanted to visit “Diaghilev” one last time. Both were canceled due to the government shutdown. And therein lies a lesson about why the shutdown is even worse for Washington's museum sector than you might think. In short: The Smithsonian and other federally funded museums rely in significant part on private funding — but the shutdown inhibits their ability to raise even the private funds. While government agencies typically receive all their funds from government, Washington’s federally chartered museums are 501(c)(3) groups that operate as nonprofits. The Smithsonian museums and the National Gallery of Art receive about 70 percent of their funds from the government, which go toward maintenance and capital projects. But the other expenses — new art, public programming, major exhibitions — are financed by private funds and donations. And these museums are already one week behind in meeting their annual goals, as the shutdown inhibits their ability to raise private funds. While most museum workers are home and the visitors are locked out, the privately funded staff is still working. About 10 percent of Smithsonian employees are reporting to work, and some of these employees are paid through private trust accounts. That means federally funded museums are paying employees money while not open and operating. The people who spend money in gift shops and restaurants can’t come in as long as the museums are closed. Gift shops and vendors generate millions of dollars for federally funded museums each year. Somewhere in their budgets, museums are going to have to recoup these losses. The worst possibility, though, is that a prolonged shutdown could affect philanthropic giving. Just as Arsht couldn’t see the exhibit she underwrote, 12,000 people are being turned away from the National Gallery alone each day. 80,000 are locked out from the Smithsonian museums every day. Philanthropists may think twice before donating to museums that shut down due to congressional squabbling. One of the big selling points at the Smithsonian and the National Gallery is that these


museums rely in significant part on private funding — but the shutdown inhibits their ability to raise even the private funds. While government agencies typically receive all their funds from government, Washington’s federally chartered museums are 501(c)(3) groups that operate as nonprofits. The Smithsonian museums and the National Gallery of Art receive about 70 percent of their funds from the government, which go toward maintenance and capital projects. But the other expenses — new art, public programming, major exhibitions — are financed by private funds and donations. And these museums are already one week behind in meeting their annual goals, as the shutdown inhibits their ability to raise private funds. While most museum workers are home and the visitors are locked out, the privately funded staff is still working. About 10 percent of Smithsonian employees are reporting to work, and some of these employees are paid through private trust accounts. That means federally funded museums are paying employees money while not open and operating. The people who spend money in gift shops and restaurants can’t come in as long as the museums are closed. Gift shops and vendors generate millions of dollars for federally funded museums each year. Somewhere in their budgets, museums are going to have to recoup these losses. The worst possibility, though, is that a prolonged shutdown could affect philanthropic giving. Just as Arsht couldn’t see the exhibit she underwrote, 12,000 people are being turned away from the National Gallery alone each day. 80,000 are locked out from the Smithsonian museums every day. Philanthropists may think twice before donating to museums that shut down due to congressional squabbling. One of the big selling points at the Smithsonian and the National Gallery is that these museums are funded by the federal government, and because of that, will always be free and open to visitors who otherwise couldn’t afford an entrance fee of $15 or more. Shutdowns are a reminder that there are drawbacks to federal reliance, and that Smithsonian leadership is beholden to the whims of Congress. Prolonged closure could lead some patrons to send their gifts to the Met or MoMA, particularly if they foresee government shutdowns becoming a common feature of American politics. If you're a big donor for art-related causes, after all, you want people to actually be able to see the fruits of your donations — not be locked out due to government dysfunction.


The ‘non-essential’ parts of government that shut down are actually quite essential

There’s a saying that “the federal government is basically an insurance company with an army.” And during the ongoing federal government shutdown, these basic functions are mostly still operating. There's a lot more at stake than just parks (The Washington Post) The people with guns and a claim to the state’s monopoly on violence show up to defend property arrangements at home and the national interests abroad. And, due to the way they are funded, the marquee social insurance programs, Social Security and Medicare, are still running. So what is actually shut down? And how would we describe what functions are currently not being carried out? It's hard to understand what the “non-essential state” actually is from current press coverage. The stories dominating the headlines are about national park closings and zoo cameras going offline, giving the sense that the "non-essential" parts of government are simply about facilitating leisure and vacations. And, like looking into the wrong end of a telescope, the stories of individual people and programs put on furlough doesn’t communicate to the public what kind of overall functions are being abandoned by the state during the shutdown. So what kind of state has been shut down? The state that regulates the economy It’s impossible to imagine the economy without the state. The state’s role in the economy is massive, ranging from knowledge to rules to coordination to efficiency to determining the nature of property rights to checking market failures. But there are two modern trends that especially require a federal government to play an important role in the economy. The first is the discovery and understanding of the business cycle during the Great Depression. As Timothy Shenk noted in the recent issue of Dissent, before the Great Depression, the word economy “was typically used as a synonym for efficiency—think of economy-class travel today. People rarely talked about the economy, and those who did generally used it as a synonym for the much more prominent concept ‘society.’ Within just a few decades, however, the economy had emerged as the central object of domestic politics.” One reason is because policymakers started tracking national economic trends through measurements. Understanding that the economy is a connected thing, and that it can be functioning at high and low levels, was a great achievement of 20th-century economics. However it can only work if we are actively measuring it and responding with appropriate policy


National park visitors spend more than $35 million a day. When the parks are open

National Park Service employees close the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial on the National Mall October 1, 2013. (Credit: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images.) On a typical October day, visitors to California’s national parks spend nearly $4 million in that state, an analysis of official data shows. Nationally, more than $35 million is spent each October day in the areas where the nation’s more than 300 national park sites. The analysis, conducted by the nonprofit National Parks Conservation Association, shows how much some local economies rely on national parks, many of them closed due to the federal government shutdown. The analysis draws from two official sources data: local-area visitor spending data were pulled from an official February report on 2011 local spending; and visitor estimates were created by averaging 2011 and 2012 October data, typically available on the National Parks Web site, which is partially out of operation due to the shutdown. The economic boon of October visitor spending varies greatly. Visitors to Washington, D.C.’s national park sites spend roughly $4.5 million in the area on a typical October day, more than in any state. California comes next with $3.9 million a day, followed by North Carolina, where visitor spending contributes an estimated $2.7 million daily. In Arizona, visitor spending contributes $2.5 million daily, while visitor spending in Tennessee adds $2.4 million to the local economy. The spending totals may differ depending on the month, as some parks are more popular during different parts of the year. Visitors to the Great Smoky Mountains spend more than $3.3 million a day in the local area, according to the analysis. The Grand Canyon region gets roughly $1.2 million in visitor spending and Yosemite receives roughly $1.1 million locally. Of course, the temporary shutdown doesn’t necessarily mean local economies are losing the full $35 million in daily spending. Some vacationers no doubt continued with their trips, spending money in other ways. And, as the authors of the February report point out, people rarely take trips exclusively to national parks. “For multi-purpose trips, it is difficult to determine what portion of the spending should be attributed to the park visit,” they wrote. “This is especially a problem for historic sites and parks in urban areas or parks in multiple-attraction destinations.” The authors note that they tried to account for some obvious other complications, too. Visits to parkways and urban parks were assumed to be day trips


Shutdown forces cancellation of student environmental ed trips

(Carolyn Kaster/AP) Add this to the toll that the government shutdown is taking on people: Several environmental education programs in the greater Washington region have been canceled or altered because they were set in national parks that are now closed. Thousands of students visit Piscataway National Park in Prince George’s and Charles counties each year on school trips to learn about the environment, history and agriculture through two local foundations, in cooperation with the National Park Service. October is the month these trips begin, and already hundreds of students have been impacted by program cancellations. The nonprofit Accokeek Foundation welcomes students on its campus and certified organic farm in Piscataway Park to learn about history and agriculture. The Hard Bargain Farm Education Center of the nonprofit Alice Ferguson Foundation holds environmental education programs in Piscataway Park from its 330-acre working farm on the banks of the Potomac River across from Mount Vernon, the Virginia home of George Washington. More than a third of the young people who participate in these programs come from under-served areas in Virginia, the District and Maryland. As the government shutdown continues, more programs will have to be canceled, or, if possible, rescheduled. So while public schools are open during the shutdown, education is being affected.


Obama administration decides NSA spying is ‘essential,’ but oversight of NSA is not

lot less important — than a lot of the work being left undone by the government shutdown, both in the intelligence community and outside the intelligence community.” By Friday, the office of Director of National Intelligence James Clapper, which is facilitating the panel, reversed course and determined that panel members' staff should be furloughed, according to Politico's sources. While in theory the members are unpaid, so the panel could continue without support staff or payment for travel expenses, that seems unlikely. Clapper was among those warning about possible gaps in national security due to furloughs during a Senate Judiciary Hearing last week. At that point, despite an exception for "national security," Clapper claimed that 70 percent of civilian intelligence workers were furloughed because they weren't deemed to be addressing imminent threats to life or property. Gen. Keith B. Alexander, NSA's director, echoed his concerns at the hearing, and gave some figures specific to the NSA: “We have over 960 PhDs, over 4,000 computer scientists, over a thousand mathematicians. They are furloughed." By that estimate, around 6,000 NSA employees have been sent home with letters like this one, although the actual total is classified. We also don't actually know how many people the NSA employs — that information is classified, too. But we do have a pretty good ballpark figure thanks to a 2012 60th anniversary book saying that the number is more than 30,000; a 2012 joke about the range being "somewhere between 37,000 and one billion" from deputy Director Chris Inglis; and a 2013 Der Spiegel report of 40,000 that may have relied on documents from former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. We're going to rely on the Der Spiegel number since it is the most recent, so that means roughly 15 percent of the NSA has been furloughed. Substantial? Sure. But nowhere near the 97 percent of NASA employees or the 94 percent of EPA employees furloughed. And over the weekend, the NSA's parent agency, the Department of Defense, announced that it was recalling some 90 percent of civilian employees affected by the furlough. So it's entirely possible most of that 15 percent are back on the job now, although the NSA and DoD did not respond to Washington Post inquiries about their current shutdown status. So while it appears that the NSA will remain largely functional during the shutdown, the inquiry into the agency's spying activities will not.


Obama’s top climate and energy adviser to leave White House

ranging from air quality to global warming, played an instrumental role in pushing for stricter fuel efficiency standards for automobiles to limits on mercury and other toxic emissions from power plants. In a statement, White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough praised Zichal's work. “Heather is one of the President’s most trusted policy advisors," McDonough said. "The President values her expertise and counsel and is grateful for her service... Heather will be missed here at the White House, but our work on this important issue will go on. We will continue to make important progress in reducing carbon pollution to help keep our air and water clean and protect our kids, helping communities prepare for a changing climate and leading international efforts to address climate change.” Environmental Protection Agency administrator Gina McCarthy described Zichal as key in bringing different sides to the table to hammer out environmental and energy policy. “Obviously Heather was the one person in the White House who kept the focus on all of these issues,” she said, adding that while she was "tremendously influential," her departure will not affect how the administration's climate plan moves forward. “We’re into implementation. We’ll miss Heather being there, but it’s not going to slow us at all.” Zichal, the president's deputy assistant for energy and climate change, served under former Environmental Protection Agency head Carol M. Browner until early 2011 and then took over the issue for the White House. A former aide to then-Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), she worked on Obama's 2008 campaign and has served at the White House since Obama took office in 2009. Reuters first reported Zichal's departure Monday afternoon. Zichal, who helped orchestrate the president's climate action plan, did not want to leave before it was launched in late June. "She was a trusted adviser to the president on an issue he clearly cares about," said an individual familiar with her decision. Joshua Freed, vice president for clean energy at the centrist think tank Third Way, quipped that since "one year in any administration should be measured in dog years, Heather has spent the equivalent of 35 years working at the White House. That's a long time. At a certain time, everyone feels the need to have a change of scenery." Freed added that given McDonough's prominent role managing the administration's climate policy, "There remains a strong voice in the White House on the issue."


D.C. area forecast: Autumn re-enters scene, but cloudy, damp pattern after today

- Today’s Daily Digit - A somewhat subjective rating of the days weather, on a scale of 1 to 10. - 8 Our new air mass is a big change, but it is far more seasonally appropriate - Express Forecast - Today: Partly sunny. Highs: 67-72. - Tonight: Partly cloudy, cool. Lows: 48-53. - Tomorrow: Partly to mostly cloudy. Highs: 65-70. FORECAST IN DETAIL - Temperature Map - Temperatures: Latest D.C. area temperature map. See interactive map on our Weather Wall. Monday’s healthy rain event was the most productive since the first half of July around the Washington, D.C. area, and it ushered in a swift shift to cooler conditions. However, the responsible front and associated energy is struggling to leave the East Coast. This presents prognostication challenges for the next number of days. There may be some lingering cloud cover today, before a ripple develops along the stalled front offering more clouds Wednesday and even some rain or drizzle risks by Thursday and Friday – which could even linger into Saturday. Some may cheer more rain chances, but forecast confidence is lower on getting these details correct and determining the state of the coming weekend. Today (Tuesday): Tonight: For related traffic news, check out Dr. Gridlock. Keep reading for the forecast through the weekend… Tomorrow (Wednesday): Tomorrow night: A LOOK AHEAD Thursday Friday The weekend


Will contractors receive back pay for the government shutdown?

The House on Saturday unanimously passed a bill to pay all federal employees retroactively for the government-shutdown period, however long it might last. If the Senate approves that legislation, hundreds of thousands of public servants will be compensated for time they were forced off the job during the funding lapse. But what about the army of contractors who provide a long list of services for the government ranging from safeguarding computer networks to building military machines? F-35 Joint Strike Fighters, developed for the U.S. military by Lockheed Martin. (REUTERS/Lockheed Martin/Darin Russell). A number of factors affect whether private-sector workers remain on the job during a shutdown, including whether they support “essential” government functions and whether their duties are funded through past appropriations or scheduled for payment with future funding bills. The House legislation does not authorize back pay for contractors, meaning firms must decide for themselves whether to provide compensation for personnel affected by the shutdown. Most will either pay the workers, let them take paid leave or place them on furlough, according to industry experts. Connie N. Bertram, a partner at Proskauer Rose who specializes in labor and government contracting issues, said private-sector employees who go unpaid aren’t likely to be compensated when the shutdown ends. “In most instances, [the firms] will not, because they’re only paid for the hours the employees work,” she said. Put another way, businesses cannot bill the government for hours they didn’t work — even though federal employees would be able to do so under the House bill. Stan Soloway, president of the Professional Services Council, said large firms are better suited to keep employees on their payrolls during work stoppages, but he added that such moves can only last a few weeks in most cases. “The smaller the company, the more difficult it is,” Soloway said. “Absent revenue, it almost doesn’t matter the size of a company at a certain point.” It is unclear how many private-sector employees could be affected by the lapse in congressional appropriations, but the federal government spent about $518 billion on contracting in 2012. To put that in context, the amount has nearly doubled since the mid-1990s after adjusting for inflation, according to federal procurement data. President Obama signed a bill last week That’s a positive sign for defense contractors, many of whom may be kept on the job and compensated on time under the military-pay bill. Bertram


NSA's Utah Data Center is shown in this Thursday, June 6, 2013 file photo taken in Bluffdale, Utah. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, FILE) Meltdowns hobble NSA data center. IT giants back project to slash Internet costs worldwide. Airbnb's 15,000 "landlords" in New York face scrutiny from prosecutors. Judge rules for Amazon Web Services over IBM in CIA cloud case. Microsoft announces Azure for U.S. government.


Spectacular sunset shuts down summer in Washington, D.C. (PICTURES)

Looking down H Street NW as the sun sets over Washington, D.C. on October 7 (John J Young via Flickr) October suffered an identity crisis in its first week, confusing itself with July. The average high October 1 through 6 was 88 degrees. But Monday’s cold front, complemented by gusty downpours, put an abrupt end to the summery wave. Marking the transition from summer to fall-like weather came an impeccably-timed sunset, casting light on the departing frontal clouds in a blend of stunning yellow, orange, red, magenta, and purple hues. We received scores of photos capturing this spectacle from around the region and share some of our favorites here. Thanks to all who submitted photos on our Twitter, Facebook and Flickr feeds. Sunset over the Potomac River on October 7, 2013 (Parker Moore via Facebook) Sunset from Arlington (John Sonderman via Flickr) Sunset over Potomac, Md. (Christopher Wood via Facebook) Sunset from Manassas, Va. October 7, 2013 (Nabil Dubraque via Facebook) Amazing sunset in the Shenandoahs on approach to Dulles. @capitalweather http://t.co/BCzFEayuRG After really bad weather this morning, here's the flipside: amazing sunset over D.C.!! @capitalweather http://t.co/HaFkba5Y8O Well that progressed quickly. Couldn’t get enough of tonight’s sunset! @capitalweather http://t.co/MR1uIA8uBB Clearing storms make for the best sunsets. @capitalweather #nofilter http://t.co/ppkP5BvQlK Quite the sunset in #Arlington after a rainy day. @capitalweather @ARLnowDOTcom http://t.co/LvArOmesY5 @capitalweather Beautiful indeed! http://t.co/L7Aio6PZxf I could get used to these sunsets... http://t.co/2nO80UCIyB @capitalweather And looking twds Rosslyn http://t.co/AbA8rmqO7M @capitalweather Sunset. Looking towards Key Bridge from Georgetown. http://t.co/pXQnaAtQ9V @capitalweather Fiery sunset in Silver Spring http://t.co/k8PTMKMDPm @capitalweather @dougkammerer @ameliasegal what a great evening after a nasty manic Monday #sunset http://t.co/LjTCuMjknN 2 of my best sunset shots tonight. Breathtaking colors, no filter. @capitalweather http://t.co/249AnwwNNY @capitalweather excellent sunset tonight. http://t.co/GnqL8wIqqn @dougkammerer @ameliasegal @capitalweather Tonights sunset here in Virginia. http://t.co/mxSXczB0h4 Ok, Sky. I guess we can call it even after what you did to me earlier this morning. #sunset #vawx http://t.co/BSxlybZroV


10 ways the shutdown is making us less safe

feeds — which have hundreds of thousands of followers — have been shut down, as have those of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 5. Mines are going uninspected. If it looks dangerous, that's because it is. (Ricky Carioti/The Washington Post) While the Mine Safety and Health Administration continues to investigate emergencies and fatal accidents, it's had to stop its quarterly and biannual inspections of mines, which means they could miss problems that might lead to accidents down the line. 6. Nobody's watching for disease outbreaks. The Centers for Disease Control furloughed 68 percent of its staff, so it isn't able to track flu outbreaks or detect new foodborne illnesses as winter sets in. 7. Embassies aren't as well protected. The U.S. compound in Benghazi, post-attack. (Mohammad Hannon/AP) The State Department says that it won't be able to put as many embassy guards on duty as it normally might — and were requested by congressional Republicans in the wake of Benghazi — making them more vulnerable to attacks. 8. Money could be leaking out to terrorists. It'll be harder to stop this from happening. (AP) A Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control has been severely depleted, which an official said undermines "broader efforts to combat money laundering and illicit finance, protect the integrity of the U.S. financial system, and disrupt the financial underpinnings of our adversaries." Specifically, they're unable to issue new sanctions against countries such as Syria and Iran, or even enforce those already in place. 9. We're not recalling potentially faulty products. No one's keeping tabs on these (L.M. Otero/Reuters) The Consumer Product Safety Commission won't be able to recall all products that might pose a risk to humans, and the National Highway Transportation Safety Board isn't reviewing consumer complaints about vehicle defects that might otherwise prompt an alert. 10. Park closures force dangerous detours. This is my morning. (Lydia DePillis/The Washington Post) Even if a closed national park in itself doesn't endanger humans, it will often lead people to take suboptimal alternative measures — like pulling cars off the George Washington Parkway up onto the grass at Gravelly Point because the parking lot is closed, or running through a narrow tunnel with speeding cars because a path is fenced off. * This has been clarified to better reflect the Food and Drug Administration's shutdown plan, which says 578 staff will remain to carry out some inspections.


Vincent Gray demands meeting with Obama, congressional leaders on shutdown

Vincent Gray is upping the rhetoric as the District’s shutdown-avoidance options run out. (Astrid Riecken/The Washington Post) One week into the federal shutdown, District Mayor Vincent C. Gray (D) has issued a public demand for meetings with President Obama and leaders of the House and Senate, hoping to prod them into exempting the city budget from the ongoing impasse. The letter “In no other part of our country are Americans facing the loss of basic municipal or state services due to the federal government shutdown,” Gray wrote Tuesday to Obama, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) and House Speaker John A. Boehner (R-Ohio). “Families in Chicago, Cincinnati and Las Vegas are not worried that their local governments won’t be able to maintain basic services like schools, police and fire protection, or trash collection — and neither should families here in the District of Columbia.” In his letter, Gray appears to foreclose on the possibility that the District government might remain open after the reserve funds are depleted — perhaps in an act of civil disobedience that has seen some support from city leaders. Once the fund is exhausted, Gray writes, “there will be severely negative consequences for us.” Gray also identified some new and dramatic consequences should the shutdown continue — including, for the first time, suggesting that public safety might be placed in jeopardy: Federal grants “essential for the continued protection of strategic and high-visibility targets” have been placed on hold while the congressional showdown plays out. Gray also said the District could soon be prevented from making a quarterly scheduled payment to the city’s 60 charter schools, “many of which will be unable to absorb this blow to their finances.” The District government is affected by the federal shutdown because, under the terms of home rule, its budget is ultimately appropriated by Congress even though the vast majority of its funds are locally raised or are federal grants and programs also available to states. The House passed a bill last week that would fund the D.C. government through Dec. 15, but Senate Democrats and the White House have thus far adopted a strategy of rejecting the House’s piecemeal funding bills. A Gray administration official not authorized to comment publicly said last week that the mayor had personally spoken to Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett, urging Obama to support and sign a D.C. funding bill. But the administration has held


Just knowing about fact-checkers makes politicians less likely to lie

to mislead the public when they know fact-checkers are watching. Here's how it worked. In fall 2012, Nyhan and Reifler looked at nine states that had their own PolitiFact affiliates. They randomly selected a group of those states' legislators and sent them notes informing them of the study and reminding them of the presence of PolitiFact affiliates and the negative consequences to their careers that could result from lying. Members of a second, placebo group were sent letters that informed them of the study but did not mention PolitiFact or any negative consequences of lying. A third group got no letters at all. The idea was to see if the group that got the reminders about PolitiFact acted any differently from the other groups. They did. Those receiving the warning letter were 55 percent less likely to get a negative rating from their state's PolitiFact affiliate during the 2012 election season. Their odds of having the accuracy of statements they had made questioned, either by PolitFact or other media, fell by 75 percent. This probably substantially underestimates the power of fact-checkers, since, by necessity, they lump in politicians who read the warning carefully with those who just ignored it.. "We can only estimate the effect of being assigned to receive the treatment letter," the authors write. "It is unlikely that every state legislator to whom we sent the treatment letter received it and read it carefully. If the negative consequences of inaccurate statements were salient and accessible to all elites, the potential effects on their behavior would likely be even larger." What's more, fact-checkers of necessity can't evaluate every statement a candidate makes, which makes the fact that there was a still an effect on fact-check grades, even when candidates know their odds of getting evaluated are low, all the more striking. This isn't a slam dunk. It's entirely possible that the treatment group responded by discerning what kinds of false statements fact-checkers tend to challenge, and limiting their falsehoods to other areas. But the study makes clear that there's at least some response to the presence of fact-checkers, even if that kind of premeditated lying muddies the waters a bit. And the results suggest that higher volume fact-checking operations, which can evaluate a greater share of candidates' statements, would be more effective still. The main takeaway to get from this is that we need two, three, many Glenn Kesslers!


What’s happening in the Treasury bill market today should terrify you

they are becoming less confident that these short-term securities will pay on time. Ironically, this can create self-fulfilling problems for the Treasury. Treasury bills roll over every week, on Thursdays. Here's how it works: The government issues the bills for a "discount," then refunds the par value when they come due. So, for example, an investor might pay $995 for a bill that returns $1,000 in three months, for an equivalent of about a 2 percent annual interest rate. But if buyers don't want to roll over their bills -- if they don't trust the government enough to pay the usual high price for that debt -- then the government's cash crunch becomes even more severe. If, for example, investors were only willing to pay $950 for a 90-day, $1,000 bill (about a 20 percent annualized interest rate), then the government would run into its legal debt limit even faster than it is now scheduled to. We're nowhere near that point now. The rate has risen to 0.3 percent, not to single-digit, let alone double-digit, percent levels. But the abruptness of the move, in a market that usually is rock-solid and stable, is startling nonetheless. As researchers at the Bipartisan Policy Center put it in a new report: "As the X Date approaches without action on the debt limit, one risk is that buyers of government debt will be less likely to participate in Treasury auctions and, for those that continue to participate, more likely to demand higher interest rates, increasing the cost of servicing the existing debt. The amount of debt maturing during this period will increase as Treasury schedules additional short-term auctions in the days ahead." In the 2008, post-Lehman Bros. crisis, major banks -- even those that seemed to be fundamentally solvent -- were facing a liquidity crisis, as short-term access to cash became a challenge. Buyers of Treasury bills have no evident concerns about the longer-term solvency of the United States. But the action on the bill market over the last several days, and especially Tuesday, looks like the early phase of a liquidity crisis. Of course, it is one that can be averted very easily: All Congress has to do is raise the debt ceiling to ensure that the investors who buy Treasury bills get paid on time, every time, and that the Treasury can issue the debt it needs to pay the obligations that


Drug overdoses kill more people than auto accidents in 29 states

2010, per 100,000 residents: (Source: Trust for America’s Health) Men between ages 25 and 54 have the highest number of overdose incidents, though the rates of overdose among women the same age is rising at a faster clip. Residents of rural counties abuse pain medication almost twice as much as residents of urban counties, the report found. And a quarter of all teenagers has misused a prescription drug at least once in their lifetime; about one in eight reported taking Ritalin or Adderall without a prescription at least once, while about one in 12 high school seniors have used Vicodin for nonmedical purposes. The spike in drug deaths comes even as states are moving to restrict the availability of painkillers. Thirty-two states have passed laws requiring a patient to show a valid identification to a pharmacist before filling a prescription. Every state except Missouri has a prescription drug monitoring program, which helps identify patients who skip from doctor to doctor looking for a prescription and spotlights doctors who dole out lots of painkiller prescriptions. “These drugs are phenomenally important for managing pain, but they are also misused,” said Jeff Levi, executive director at the Trust for America’s Health. New Mexico and Vermont have the strictest rules aimed at prohibiting prescription drug abuse, the Trust found. New Mexico is one of 16 states that shares information about prescription drug abuse across state lines, while Vermont has implemented every one of the group’s recommendations. But in a sign of just how prevalent the use of prescription drugs are, death rates have spiked even in those two states. Drug overdose mortality rate change, 2000-2010: (Source: Trust for America’s Health) South Dakota, Missouri and Nebraska have the fewest rules governing prescription drugs. South Dakota has a prescription drug monitoring program, but that program isn’t mandatory for pharmacists. Patients in South Dakota and Nebraska don’t need a physical exam before getting a painkiller prescription, either. There may be a silver lining to the cloud: The National Survey on Drug Use and Health found a decrease in the number of Americans abusing prescription drugs from 2010 to 2011, though Levi cautioned against reading too much into a single data point. “We may be seeing the payoff on some of this. We may not have seen the reduction in deaths yet, but we’re seeing a reduction in the number of people who have drug dependence,” he said.


How Del Campo made Esquire’s list of America’s best new restaurants

Take, for example, Le Diplomate on 14th Street NW, which has won over not only the critics (Sietsema gave it 3 stars; the Washingtonian bestowed 2 1/2 stars on it) but also the public (four stars on Yelp, based on 322 reviews). Or look at Red Hen in Bloomingdale, which also scored well with critics (2 1/2 stars from Sietsema; 3 stars from Washingtonian) and the public (four stars on Yelp, based on 72 reviews). To round out the Del Campo comparisons: Albisu's place scored 3 stars from the Washingtonian and currently rates 3 1/2 stars on Yelp (based on 74 reviews). All in all, the critics and the public essentially agree on the general quality of these three contenders for the crown of best new restaurant in Washington. (There are other title contenders, of course, such as Range, Kapnos, Daikaya and Table, the latter of which scored a best new restaurant nod from both City Paper and Bon Appetit.) So how did Del Campo come out on top in Mariani's estimation? It's a matter of timing, a limited dining window and, duh, personal choice. Mariani visited Washington in June, which was before Mike Isabella's Kapnos opened in early July. But he had only a few days to gobble down a lot of calories, which he was more than game to do. Mariani e-mailed me and said he went to Range, the Grill Room at the Capella hotel, NoPa Kitchen + Bar, Fuego Cocina y Tequileria, Daikaya and the now-shuttered Azur. "Most were very, very good, but Del Campo just stood out as unique, not just in D.C. but in the USA right now," Mariani wrote. "Great concept, grand design, absolutely wonderful chef, Victor Albisu, who was so gracious last night at the party in NYC when he said that, 'Not in my wildest mathematical calculations could I imagine back in Peru that I would ever be standing among these chefs here in New York at Le Cirque.'" Mariani said he checked with Sietsema before dining in the District, but decided to dismiss the Post critic's suggestion to visit Le Diplomate. Mariani said he "looked at the menu to find it was pretty much an exact replica of Stephen Starr’s place in Philly." As for Red Hen? "I'm not sure I heard about Red Hen." So now it's your turn: What's your pick for the best new restaurant in Washington?


China is worried about the U.S. shutdown. And it should be.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, left, with Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak at a summit Obama was supposed to have attended. (Mohd Rasfan/AFP/Getty Images) The shutdown of the U.S. government, and now the imposing possibility of a U.S. default, have generated a lot of discussion about what this means for the balance of power between the United States and China. It certainly doesn't seem to bode well for American interests that we're hobbling our own economy and putting some of our foreign policy on hold as China becomes more assertive about projecting its own influence. And that's a real issue for the United States. But, on balance, the U.S. crisis is probably causing China more problems than benefits. That explains why Chinese leaders have been outspoken about urging the U.S. to fix this – and it's a reminder that the U.S.-China relationship is still as much or more about mutual interests than competing ones. It comes down to economics vs. geopolitics. First, here's the bad news for the U.S.: This helps China in geopolitical terms. President Obama had to cancel his plan to attend a geopolitically important summit in Southeast Asia this week because of the shutdown. Chinese leader Xi Jingping is now the star of the summit, which is more than just symbolic. As Columbia University Prof. and China expert Andrew Nathan put it, "It’s not about the cancellation of a particular trip." Rather, "It will be hard to sell anyone in Asia on any spin other than that this is a sign of deep structural weakness in the American system." This is a moment when Southeast Asian nations have to decide if they want to bandwagon with the United States or inch under China's growing influence. None of these countries doubt that the U.S. is richer and more powerful than China, and will be for a long time (officials in Beijing are typically the first to acknowledge this). What they worry about is that America will lose interest in the region; the less committed Washington seems, the riskier the U.S. will look to Asian countries, and the more likely they'll be to just accept China as the new regional power, since Beijing is at least in it for the long haul. So Obama skipping the summit sends exactly the wrong message: that the U.S. is too distracted by internal issues to follow through on our commitment to Southeast Asia.


D.C. fails to pay Metro; funds held up due to shutdown

Metro trains have been less crowded since the federal government shutdown began. (Washington Post – Luz Lazo) Metro is short $74 million after the District failed to make its quarterly payment to the transit agency’s annual operating budget. D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray said the payment wasn’t made because the city didn’t have the funds, due to the federal government shutdown. The District is impacted by federal shutdowns because its budget is appropriated by Congress. Those appropriations have stopped. City officials said other services are in danger of not being paid as well. The payment to Metro was due Oct. 1. Metro has a $2.7 billion operating and capital budget that is funded by revenue from riders paying fares to ride buses and trains; federal grants; and subsidies from the District, Maryland and Virginia. The payment that was due from the District on Oct. 1 is part of the $274 million the city pays annually to help fund Metro’s $1.6 billion operating budget. The city also makes payments into the capital budget to service Metro’s debt for major projects. Not receiving the $74 million could mean the agency will have to juggle funds. Some officials are worried that the shortfall could mean Metro will have to cut back service. Metro spokesman Dan Stessel said Tuesday in an e-mail that there is no “immediate issue” with service to passengers without the $74 million from the District but cautioned that Metro is “closely monitoring” the situation. “There is no impact on service at this time,” he said of the lack of payment. “We are evaluating the impact on the budget.” Tom Bulger, a Metro board member who represents the District, said the money was “being held hostage to the whims of Congress.” He said the city was getting caught in the federal government’s shutdown and “now it is having reverberations to Metro.” “This is the unintended consequences in shutting down the government,” he said. “It reverberates through everyone’s lives. It is an unintended effect of a government shutdown that affects local citizens.” Muriel Bowser, a D.C.Council member who also serves on the Metro board, said “the only solution to getting the money paid [to Metro] is for the federal government to open up or exempt D.C. from this shutdown so we can have access to our own local dollars.” Bowser, a Democrat who represents Ward 4 on the city council, said there was


Forget the haters. Grocery self-checkout is awesome.

Longtime Slate technology columnist Farhad Manjoo, who recently took his talents to the Wall Street Journal, leans pro-robot. He likes ATMs over the old bank tellers, he wrote Tuesday, and finds airline kiosks easier to deal with than flight attendants. Actually very efficient! (Lydia DePillis) At grocery store self-checkout stands, though, he draws the line. They work well enough in a pinch—when you want to check out just a handful of items, when you don't have much produce, when you aren't loaded down with coupons. But for any standard order, they're a big pain. Perversely, then, self-checkout machines' shortcomings are their best feature: because they're useless for most orders, their lines are shorter, making the machines seem faster than humans. ... Supermarket checkout—a low-wage job that doesn't require much training—sounds like it should be similarly vulnerable to robotic invasion. But it turns out that checking out groceries requires just enough mental-processing skills to be a prohibitive challenge for computers. In that way, supermarket checkout represents a class of jobs that computers can't yet match because, for now, they're just not very good substituting key human abilities. Accomplishing part of a job well, however, is exactly what robots should be around to do. Let me explain. For being such a lousy substitute for human labor, automated checkout systems have certainly proven popular. According to the Food Marketing Institute, 6 percent of U.S. supermarkets offered self-checkout lanes in 1999, and by 2007, 95 percent had them. Self-checkout machines are a good financial investment, paying back their $30,000 to $60,000 sticker price fairly quickly, and generating pure savings on wages after that. But they've far from replaced human cashiers entirely. Last year, self-checkout machines accounted for between 12 and 30 percent of sales. And there are actually more grocery store cashiers in America now than there were a decade ago -- 831,770, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, up from 824,050 a decade ago. So how have these robots affected the grocery store economy? According to supermarket consultant Jim Hertel, stores don't achieve huge labor savings from their self-checkout lanes. Cashiers who are no longer needed tend to be given other tasks, like keeping aisles tidy. And there will always be checkers around to help people with shopping carts piled high with a month's worth of food for a house full of teenagers, for whom a professional cashier is more efficient. "Especially


The country’s biggest problem? Our government.

One in three Americans (33 percent) say dysfunctional government is the country's biggest problem right now, according to a new Gallup poll. That's an all-time high and enough to surpass the economy as the country's top concern. It's pretty clear that the jump in concern about government is tied to the standoffs over the government shutdown and the debt ceiling. Last month, 16 percent of Americans cited government dysfunction as the top problem -- less than half of the percentage who say the same thing now. Nineteen percent now say the economy is the nation's top problem. What's clear from the data is that (1) the country is not happy with the way its leaders are conducting their business and (2) their actions are coming to be viewed as a genuine problem, not merely a minor snag. As we've written before about polls showing this level of concern or dissatisfaction, the question is when and if lawmakers will feel enough pressure from their constituents to compromise and budge from long-held positions.


Try 45 pumpkin beers at Scion and Crios this weekend

Forty-five different pumpkin beers, $5 each: How's that for a Thursday happy hour? Sister restaurants Scion and Crios are hosting the Fall Beer Festival from Thursday through Saturday, with an extensive selection of Oktoberfests and fresh seasonal harvest ales, but the biggest draw should be the extensive selection of pumpkin brews. (Lisa Bolton/The Washington Post) Scion will have up to nine pumpkin beers on draft, while Crios will have eight different kinds. Each will stock 14 more in bottles, with no duplicates between the two bars. Bottles and drafts have a flat price of $5, though drafts will be served in either pints or 10-ounce snifters. Some beers are only available in 22-ounce bottles for $10, though you can also get a half-bottle pour for $5 on Thursday night. Beer manager Tim Liu cautions that the lists will change as various kegs kick, but they will all be available at some point over the weekend. The only annoyance is that it's going to be impossible to do a vertical tasting of some popular breweries: Fans of Washington state's Elysian brewery will find the Night Owl Pumpkin Ale and the tasty Dark O'the Moon Pumpkin Stout at Scion, and Great Pumpkin Imperial Pumpkin Ale and the curious Hansel & Gretel pumpkin-and-ginger pilsner at Crios. But when these beers are $5 through Saturday, it's really hard to complain. Beer geeks will be excited about finding so many hard-to-find pumpkin beers in the same place – Terrapin! Flying Dog! Evolution! Shipyard! – but this is also the place to take your friends who say they don't like pumpkin beers because they're too sweet, or because they all taste like pumpkin spice latte: the diversity of flavors here is truly outstanding. Scion's draft pumpkin beers Scion's bottled pumpkin beers Crios' draft pumpkin beers Crios' bottled pumpkin beers


Switchboard: Obama refuses to save older Samsung products from patent-related ban

(Dado Ruvic / Reuters) Published every weekday, the Switchboard highlights five tech policy stories you need to read. Older Samsung phones banned from U.S. as trade order goes into effect. Did The NSA Help With The Silk Road Investigation? California driving Internet privacy policy. House Intel chairman warns ObamaCare system vulnerable to hackers. How the feds busted a top Silk Road seller.


States start to feel shutdown pinch

Tuesday that it had suspended a program that provided food stamps to low-income women with infants and young children. Most of the 264,000 enrollees have received their benefits for this month, the Raleigh News & Observer reported, but the 20 percent who haven’t — about 50,000 people — are out of luck. In Arkansas, 2,000 newborns won’t receive infant formula that was supposed to be funded by federal dollars. The end of funding for the Women, Infants and Children Program means 425,000 Nevadans enrolled in the program won’t get benefits if the government is still shut next month. Another 362,000 Silver State residents enrolled in food stamp programs would see their benefits cut. Keeping both programs open would cost Nevada $50 million per month — money Gov. Brian Sandoval (R) says the state just doesn’t have. “Particularly at the end of the month, I think that’s really when we are going to start to see … some catastrophic issues going on for the state,” Sandoval told the Las Vegas Sun. Across the nation, state-funded rape crisis centers that receive money through the Violence Against Women Act began closing over the weekend, as Justice Department offices ran out of money and sent furloughed employees packing. Many of the 2,000 shelters that rely on VAWA and the Family Violence Prevention Services Act rely on federal funding that has been cut off. Two tourists were issued citations for $275 each when they slipped under a gate to hike in Red Rock Canyon, just outside of Las Vegas. “Obviously we were bad, bad old ladies with our visors and our water bottles,” Gina Borchers told the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Nine citations have been issued to trespassers in Grand Teton National Park, while officials in San Juan County, Utah, are considering taking over several national parks, including Lake Powell and part of Canyonlands National Park. Federal furloughs also mean some of the more obscure functions of government are grinding to a halt. The Federal Aviation Administration is responsible for approving sales of private aircraft and certifying pilots and planes; those employees were deemed non-essential, meaning sales of private aircraft have ground to a halt. And new craft beer makers, who must get the approval of the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau to open new breweries and market new recipes, won’t be able to act; the bureau is closed until the shutdown is resolved.


TALOS is the Army’s plan to create an Iron Man suit

(U.S. Army) For years, military technologists have been experimenting with load-bearing exoskeletons that can help soldiers run farther and carry more gear. Now they're hoping that the systems will help keep them alive, as well. The. U.S. Army is developing a new type of suit that's capable of measuring vital signs, applying wound-sealing sprays and — most importantly — stopping bullets. An Army statement reveals that the Massachusetts Institute of Technology is also in on the project. Its scientists are designing a kind of "liquid armor" that stiffens the moment it encounters something hard, like shrapnel. U.S. Special Operations Command, which requested the suits, hopes to complete a prototype next year — at which point it'll be two more years before a "more advanced" model will be built, according to Foreign Policy. The suit itself won't likely be armed. But with other units advancing apace with technologies like giant shipboard lasers, that future can be fun to think about.


15 ways the Federal shutdown is hampering the National Weather Service

National Weather Service office in Gaylord, Michigan Large parts of the Federal government are shut, but the National Weather Service – in the spirit of protecting life and property – continues to work. In one sterling example of dedication and tenacity, forecasters at the NWS office in Rapid City, South Dakota hiked to work and/or slept there overnight to ensure uninterrupted operations during a historic, paralyzing blizzard. But – from a lack of janitorial services to canceled travel to broken data streams – the shutdown has unleashed a torrent of obstacles, making it more difficult for forecasters to effectively do their jobs. The National Weather Service Employees Organization, a labor union, asked its members how the shutdown was disrupting their work and it received scores of responses. Here’s a summary of some of the major issues raised, drawn from the union’s survey: * Weather research to support forecasting operations has stopped, as most researchers are furloughed. * Travel to major meetings, where forecasting methods and research are presented and discussed, has been canceled or will be canceled (unless government re-opens) * Public outreach efforts have been canceled, such as training weather observers (spotters), school visits and office tours. * Vacant positions at understaffed offices are not being filled. * Preventative maintenance on weather radar and instruments (such as Automated Surface Observation Systems, used at many airports) has stopped in many cases. * Janitorial services have stopped at some offices. In one case, forecasters were mopping bathroom floors. * Online forecaster training modules are inaccessible in some cases. A mandatory onsite training was canceled at at least one office. * River gauges – for monitoring flooding – have broken and cannot be serviced. * Some data (model output statistics) from the European computer model – highly regarded for its accuracy – are unavailable, as the computer server resides at a furloughed office. * Some data for forecasting wildfires are unavailable. * Historic climate data from National Climatic Data Center, which is shut, are unavailable. * No monthly pest control and regularly scheduled garbage pickup occurred at at least one office. * Upgrades to more modern computer and software systems have been put on hold at some offices. * Activities to support the NWS cooperative observer program – through which it receives weather observations from more than 11,000 volunteers – have been suspended. It is impossible to maintain/repair equipment. * Storm damage


Marijuana has been mentioned in 1,730 pieces of state legislation this year

Kristi Kelly, co-founder of medical-marijuana dispensary Good Meds Network in Colorado. (Matthew Staver/The Washington Post.) While Washington and Colorado work out how to regulate marijuana sales — as we reported this morning — at least 11 other states are considering legalizing it for recreational use, according to an analysis from Thomson Reuters’ WestlawNext. Using marijuana for medicinal purposes is already legal in nearly half the country — 24 states and the District of Columbia — the analysis shows. Another 16 states have proposed legislation allowing it. Just 10 states have no proposals whatsoever to legalize pot for either use, and Idaho has passed a law making clear its opposition to legalization. So far this year, marijuana has been mentioned in 1,730 pieces of legislation — a significant increase over the past four years relative to other drugs — according to WestlawNext. By comparison, cocaine got 723 mentions this year, peyote got 168 and hemp only got 117. (That’s all as of Sept. 22, 2013, and includes introduced, substituted and adopted versions of the same bill.) (Source: WestlawNext. Data as of Sept. 22, 2013; counts include introduced, substituted and adopted versions of the same bill.) Here are a handful of other interesting facts about marijuana proposals across the country, courtesy of WestlawNext: - New Mexico, Rhode Island and West Virginia have commissioned studies to investigate the impact of legalizing pot. - The proposals all suggest a cutoff age of 21. - Most proposals give regulatory authority to the state’s revenue, tax or liquor control agencies. - Just two states, Maine and Massachusetts, propose creating new regulatory bodies - Pot taxes range from 15 percent in New Hampshire to 25 percent in Nevada. (A Maine proposal would tax it at $50 per ounce.) Here’s a map of proposals by state. Green states have enacted or proposed legislation allowing medicinal use; states with pot plants on them have enacted or proposed legislation allowing recreational use. For the curious, the 24 states that allow marijuana for medicinal use are: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Vermont, Virginia and Washington. Washington, D.C., has legalized medicinal marijuana, too. Marijuana legislation abounds, as of Sept. 22, 2013. (Credit: Thomson Reuters’ WestlawNext.)