Federal employee morale is high!
From Axios:
Shutdown, Day 11 ... Human waste, overflowing garbage, illegal off-roading and other bad behavior in fragile areas is beginning to overwhelm some of the West's iconic national parks, AP's Ellen Knickmeyer and Jocelyn Gecker report:
The partial government shutdown has left the areas open to visitors but with little staff on duty.
"It's a free-for-all," Dakota Snider, 24, who lives and works in Yosemite Valley, said, as Yosemite National Park officials announced closings of some minimally supervised campgrounds and public areas.
Why it matters: Unlike shutdowns in some previous administrations, the Trump administration was leaving parks open to visitors.
"It's really a nightmare scenario," said John Garder, senior budget director of the nonprofit National Parks Conservation Association. "We’re afraid that we’re going to start seeing significant damage to the natural resources in parks and potentially to historic and other cultural artifacts."
Spotted:
"In Sequoia, home to [California's] ancient giant sequoias, General Highway was closed because overflowing trash bins were spreading litter and posed a threat to wildlife."
"[T]he icy, jammed roadway was seeing up to three-hour delays."
"Campers at Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California's deserts were reporting squabbles as different families laid claims to sites, with no rangers on hand to adjudicate."
"Some visitors have strung Christmas lights in the twisting Joshua trees, many of which are hundreds of years old."
"At Yosemite, ... crowds of visitors were driving into the park to take advantage of free admission."
"Visitors were allowing their dogs to run off-leash in an area rich with bears and other wildlife, and scattering bags of garbage along the roads."
"In Yellowstone National Park, private companies have picked up some of the maintenance normally done by federal workers."
"The contractors that operate park tours by snowmobile, buses and vans are grooming trails, hauling trash and replacing toilet paper at pit toilets and restrooms along their routes."
From Axios:
Shutdown, Day 11 ... Human waste, overflowing garbage, illegal off-roading and other bad behavior in fragile areas is beginning to overwhelm some of the West's iconic national parks, AP's Ellen Knickmeyer and Jocelyn Gecker report:
The partial government shutdown has left the areas open to visitors but with little staff on duty.
"It's a free-for-all," Dakota Snider, 24, who lives and works in Yosemite Valley, said, as Yosemite National Park officials announced closings of some minimally supervised campgrounds and public areas.
Why it matters: Unlike shutdowns in some previous administrations, the Trump administration was leaving parks open to visitors.
"It's really a nightmare scenario," said John Garder, senior budget director of the nonprofit National Parks Conservation Association. "We’re afraid that we’re going to start seeing significant damage to the natural resources in parks and potentially to historic and other cultural artifacts."
Spotted:
"In Sequoia, home to [California's] ancient giant sequoias, General Highway was closed because overflowing trash bins were spreading litter and posed a threat to wildlife."
"The icy, jammed roadway was seeing up to three-hour delays."
"Campers at Joshua Tree National Park in Southern California's deserts were reporting squabbles as different families laid claims to sites, with no rangers on hand to adjudicate."
"Some visitors have strung Christmas lights in the twisting Joshua trees, many of which are hundreds of years old."
"At Yosemite, ... crowds of visitors were driving into the park to take advantage of free admission."
"Visitors were allowing their dogs to run off-leash in an area rich with bears and other wildlife, and scattering bags of garbage along the roads."
"In Yellowstone National Park, private companies have picked up some of the maintenance normally done by federal workers."
"The contractors that operate park tours by snowmobile, buses and vans are grooming trails, hauling trash and replacing toilet paper at pit toilets and restrooms along their routes."
The House prepared to pass legislation Thursday that would reopen the federal government, but the partial shutdown is set to continue after President Trump vowed to veto the measure over its lack of funding for a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.
Two Senate Republicans broke with Trump and party leaders Thursday, saying it was time to end the shutdown even if Democrats would not sign off on the more than $5 billion in border funding Trump is demanding.
The comments from Sens. Cory Gardner (Colo.) and Susan Collins (Maine) — the only two Senate Republicans who are up for re-election in 2020 in states Trump lost — pointed to cracks in the GOP strategy, as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has said the Senate will only consider a plan that Trump supports.
There is a new issue regarding the shutdown - Women's bathrooms for Members of Congress. With all the new women in the House, there aren't enough toilets and sinks. Forget about the wall, this is becoming the #1 issue.
So the gals want their own bathrooms? How small minded of them. I guess they now support exclusionary bathroom facilities.
Just heard Sarah Huckabee Sanders claim that CBP arrested over 4,000 suspected or known terrorists crossing the southern border last year.
I get that they are lying their asses off at this point out of desperation, but that one... Yeesh.
One flaw the Justice Department acknowledged was the report’s assertion that between 2003 and 2009, immigrants were convicted of 69,929 sex offenses, which “in most instances constitutes gender-based violence against women.”
But, Allen said in his letter, “the alleged misrepresented data constitute mere editorial errors which the [law] does not obligate the agencies to withdraw or correct.”
Still, he added, “the department appreciates being made aware of such errors so they will not be repeated.”
Berwick said the errors were “not merely editorial.” The nearly 70,000 offenses spanned a period from 1955 to 2010 — 55 years, not six; the data covered arrests, not convictions;
Chicken ends when nobody gets a tax refund.
Just heard Sarah Huckabee Sanders claim that CBP arrested over 4,000 suspected or known terrorists crossing the southern border last year.
I get that they are lying their asses off at this point out of desperation, but that one... Yeesh.