It's already been a chaotic year, said Micah Niemeier-Walsh, who works at the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (Niosh). She was initially fired along with most employees at the agency, but reinstated in May after a court intervened to block most of the firings. For many agencies, like the one that I am employed by, we've been effectively shut down for many months already because of the reductions in force that have already happened, and all of the attacks that we've been seeing on the federal workforce, said Niemeier-Walsh, who is also vice-president of the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) Local 3840. It's become out of control, and I really hope that this shutdown is a wake-up call of how bad things have gotten.
Many major national parks remain open to the public during the government shutdown. Still, exactly what "open" means varies from park to park - and it doesn't mean they're running like usual. If a national park is open, it means the public can access it, but some offer more services than others. For instance, some parks are keeping visitor centers open while others aren't. Many aren't collecting entrance fees.
About 1,800 of Spirit's roughly 5,200 flight attendants will be affected, with involuntary furloughs set to take effect on December 1. "As part of our ongoing restructuring, we are taking steps to align staffing with our fleet size and expected flight volume," the airline said in a statement to Business Insider. "We recognize the impact of this decision on affected Team Members, and we are committed to treating them with care and respect during this process," it added.
