Afternoon snacktime updates

coffeeandsnacktime20131004In shutdown news: still no immediate relief on the horizon.

Adding to the tension on Capitol Hill, a woman identified as 34-year-old Miriam Carey drove with her one-year-old child through a security checkpoint yesterday. Although she was unarmed, she was shot and killed outside of the Hart Senate Office Building. The child was physically unharmed.

The Federal Aviation Administration plans to relax its rules against the use of electronics during flights. The FAA intends – when the partial government shutdown ends, whenever that may be – to hold a race among airline carriers, challenging them to demonstrate that iPods and laptops won’t cause trouble.

UN inspectors working to eliminate Syria’s stockpile of chemical weapons report that they have made some progress: Syrian authorities appear to be cooperating. The team’s main goal right now is to undercut the country’s capacity to manufacture chemical weapons by November 1st.

An historic legal case has been resolved after decades in the courts. Starting this week, over $1 billion is being distributed to thousands of black farmers who faced discrimination by the USDA.

In regional news, 350 New York National Guard soldiers are leaving today to train in Fort Hood, TX. After their training, they’ll be deployed to Kuwait.

257 children in a Jefferson County Head Start program could face “an educational furlough” if Congress fails to end the federal shutdown before October 11th.

New York State Education Commissioner John B. King Jr. urged school districts not to opt out of the new Common Core program.

And here are the stories we’re working on for Monday morning, on The Eight O’clock Hour:

The Great Lakes are getting warmer, and there are other changes too. In a brand new series, Michigan Radio’s Environment Report will look at how these changes affect the fish in the lakes, and the people who depend on them.

Brian Mann has the latest update in our Prison Time Media Project series.  He reports from Cheateaugay in northern Franklin County, where the community is holding a rally this weekend to try to save their state prison.  It’s slated to close next year, costing the rural town more than 120 jobs.

Whooping cough is on the rise again in many parts of the U.S., including New York.

Martha Foley and Amy Ivy check in for their weekly gardening chat.

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