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With the government on the brink of a shutdown this week as Congress remains at an impasse on a funding deal, federal departments and agencies have begun the mandatory process of planning to bring nonessential functions to a halt. Every department and agency has its own set of plans and procedures. That guidance includes information on how many employees would get furloughed, which employees are essential and would work without pay, how long it would take to wind down operations in the hours before a shutdown, and which activities would come to a halt. Those plans can vary from shutdown...

(NEXSTAR) — As lawmakers continue to try to avoid a government shutdown at the end of the month, many are growing concerned about how it could affect them, especially when it comes to federal monthly payments they receive. The government could shut down by the end of next week, if Congress isn’t able to pass a spending bill. House Speaker Kevin McCarthy vowed Wednesday he would not give up trying to persuade his colleagues to pass a temporary funding bill. So what would that mean for your Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, or Veterans Affairs payments? In short, they will not...

When the head of a nation at war comes to town, it’s serious business. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, having just been in New York at the United Nations General Assembly meeting, is taking a detour to Washington, D.C., before returning home to Kyiv to make one more plea for continued U.S. assistance in his continued battle to control his country from the grasp of Russian President Vladimir Putin. We need to hear him out. In New York, Zelensky warned us. He told the world that “mass destruction is gaining momentum,” and that “the aggressor is weaponizing many other things and...

Former Gov. Nikki Haley (R-SC), a Republican presidential candidate, said Wednesday on Fox Business Channel’s “Varney & Co.” that if Congress shut down the government, it would be an “embarrassment.” Haley said, “It’s not difficult to cut spending, you have to want to do it. Congress has been lazy for a long time. Biden has sent us down the socialism creek, but our Republicans have done this to us too. They need to get in a room, they need to figure it out.” She added, “Taxpayers don’t want to hear about whether you’re going to shut down government or not...

Veteran Republican strategist Karl Rove warned House Republicans that they will only hurt themselves if they allow the government to shut down this fall amid budget battles within their conference and with the Senate and White House. “Republicans are going to shoot themselves in the foot in the run-up to the 2024 election if they continue to think that shutdowns are a great way to put themselves in front of the American people,” Rove said in a Fox News interview on Sunday.

A seemingly unrelenting wave of debt is piling onto America’s balance sheet. New data from the U.S. Treasury Department show the federal debt increased by over $296.524 billion from August 8th to September 8th, reaching a total of $32.940 trillion. The new numbers come as JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon issues a warning on America’s fiscal trajectory. At a conference hosted by Barclays, Dimon told reporters that America’s rapid rate of spending is bound to have a significant impact on households. “I just think people make a mistake to look at real-time numbers and not look at the future. And...

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a letter to his Democratic colleagues Thursday that a potential government shutdown later this month would be the fault of “political games” by House Republicans. “When the Senate returns next week, our focus will be on funding the government and preventing House Republican extremists from forcing a government shutdown,” Schumer wrote in the letter, first reported by Politico. House Republicans have threatened a shutdown when the federal budget runs out Sept. 30 unless they get the budget cuts they want. Schumer vowed to pass bipartisan appropriations bills and urged the House to...

Furniture manufacturer Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams (MG+BW) abruptly shut down three of its North Carolina plants over the weekend. Employees were shocked to find paper notices tacked to entrance gates and doors, notifying them that the company had ceased operations. This abrupt closure affected North Carolina locations, including the main plant in Taylorsville, the frame plant in Hiddenite, and the NCDC Statesville, as well as remote home office workers. The signs posted at the Taylorsville plant and other facilities were dated Saturday, August 26, and read: Mitchell Gold + Bob Williams has recently and unexpectedly learned that we are...

Thousands of municipal workers in Los Angeles plan to down tools on Tuesday, joining a summer of labor actions that has involved Hollywood writers, Hollywood actors, and hotel employees across the city. The Los Angeles Times reported: SEIU Local 721, a union representing county and city employees across Southern California, said that more than 11,000 Los Angeles city workers will participate, including sanitation workers, heavy duty mechanics, traffic officers and engineers. The city work stoppage comes amid a frenzy of organized labor activity in Los Angeles and across the country, including the first simultaneous strike of Hollywood writers and actors...

So, I’m having a friendly debate with somebody about this “IF YOU GO AFTER ME, I’M COMING AFTER YOU!” post by Mr. Trump…My friend, a retired police officer, is a great guy, salt of the earth, etc. He thinks it’s an understandable representation of Trump’s frustration. And maybe it is. But the question remains, did Trump’s attorneys have the chance to see that post before he pushed “send”? Did anybody above the age of 14? Does anybody honestly think had his attorneys seen it, they’d have said, “Yes, Mr. President, we think that’s a really swell post; put that jazz...

Remarks by President Trump at Press Briefing, March 24, 2020:"Our country wasn’t built to be shut down. This is not a country that was built for this. It was not built to be shut down.America will again, and soon, be open for business — very soon — a lot sooner than three or four months that somebody was suggesting. A lot sooner. We cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself. We’re not going to let the cure be worse than the problem."

After 127 years in business, San Francisco's Anchor Brewing Company is shutting down. According to a press release, the brewery has been facing challenging economic factors and declining sales since 2016. "This was an extremely difficult decision that Anchor reached only after many months of careful evaluation," Anchor Brewing spokesperson Sam Singer said. "We recognize the importance and historic significance of Anchor to San Francisco and to the craft brewing industry, but the impacts of the pandemic, inflation, especially in San Francisco, and a highly competitive market left the company with no option but to make this sad decision to...

Governments’ use of the pandemic to claim sweeping new emergency powers has had destructive effects.. Long before Covid struck, economists detected a deadly pattern in the impact of natural disasters: if the executive branch of government used the emergency to claim sweeping new powers over the citizenry, more people died than would have if government powers had remained constrained. It’s now clear that the Covid pandemic is the deadliest confirmation yet of that pattern. Governments around the world seized unprecedented powers during the pandemic. The result was an unprecedented disaster, as recently demonstrated by two exhaustive analyses of the lockdowns’...

A majority of Americans – 54 percent – would prefer a partial government shutdown until federal spending reduces than avoiding a shutdown by authorizing higher levels of government spending, according to a recent survey by Rasmussen Reports. The majority comprised more than a third of Democrats – 36 percent – and almost two-thirds of Republicans – 74 percent. A total of 57 percent of Democrats and only 17 percent of Republicans would prefer increased spending would prefer more spending.

Fauci say, Ronnie do https://t.co/gpPSDwEaHw pic.twitter.com/lHeI0F8kGQ— MAGA War Room (@MAGAIncWarRoom) May 26, 2023

PSA: RON DESANTIS CANNOT HIDE FROM HIS RECORD—Ron DeSantis is flailing on the eve of his “big” day. No wonder his billionaire backers are running for the hills—and into the arms of his 2nd place competition. He just isn’t ready for the moment. https://t.co/ne7Mlv4vYR pic.twitter.com/6mlir0QMPF— Taylor Budowich (@TayFromCA) May 23, 2023

American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten was hit with a Twitter fact-check on Monday after she claimed she tried to get students back into the classroom during the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Weingarten made the hyperbolic claims in a tweet on Monday, acknowledging a post from Kyle Belokopisky — the executive director of the New York State Congress of Parents and Teachers — on the supposed 3-year anniversary of planning to reopen New York schools. “We worked together 3 years ago to get our kids back to in person schooling in a way that was safe for...

[more context in following thread] Oliver Darcy @oliverdarcy MORE: BuzzFeed boss @peretti just sent out a note to staff, announcing the shuttering of BuzzFeed News is part of layoffs where 15% of staffers are being cut across the company. Peretti says, "For BuzzFeed News, we have begun discussions with the News Guild about these actions."

Apart from the extreme limitations on personal freedom and travel, this means either a colder, hungrier population or massive depopulation. Two days ago I posted what I thought would be quite an innocuous twitter thread about the implications of the U.K. government’s target of “net zero” by 2050. Reminder of what ‘net zero’ really means. ... Key points: all airports except Heathrow, Belfast & Glasgow to close by 2030. NO FLYING at all by 2050. No new petrol/diesel cars by 2030; by 2050 road use restricted to 60% of today’s level. 2. Food, heating and energy restricted to 60% of...

The shift to remote work is costing New York City more than $12 billion each year. Office workers are spending $4,661 less per person in the areas near their offices than before the pandemic began, according to a Bloomberg analysis of a Feb. 12 WFH Research study. The Big Apple has seen the largest reduction in spending across the country, with a deficit of $12.4 billion a year. "Less spending by workers in the central areas means a lot less sales tax revenue," Jose Maria Barrero, a professor at Mexico’s Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo and a member of the WFH Research...