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What's open on New Year's Day 2026? Here are open stores, restaurants and fast-food chains.
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Applicants for certain visas will have their online presence reviewed as part ..
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Fine dining that feels like home: the story behind Chef Avishar Barua’s second Columbus restaurant, Agni - Izza Haq

Via Cassia in the Running for USA TODAY’s Best New Restaurant

Late last winter, Via Cassia opened in the former Ca’Mea space in Hudson. And now a mere nine months later, the small trattoria on Warren Stre…
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Cox Communications was ordered to pay $1 billion for not doing enough to stop...
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A blind woman, a ‘dream job,’ and the toll of the government shutdown – USA Today

Jack Gruber, USA Today

A blind woman, a ‘dream job,’ and the toll of the government shutdown

The historic funding crisis inflicted pain on Americans across the country. Christine Grassman still hasn’t fully recovered.

By Zachary Schermele, USA TODAY

FALLS CHURCH, VA – It all started right before dragon boat practice.

Christine Grassman and her husband, Gary, had an important race coming up. In less than a week, the couple would be off to Florida for the national championships.

Much like the Grassmans, who are blind, dragon boating is often misunderstood. It’s confused with rowing, but they’re not the same. Dragon boaters use paddles and face forward; rowers use oars and face backward.

The lesser-known sport is also favored among people with disabilities – “paradragons,” as Christine and Gary call themselves. The two were “bit by the dragon” just after the coronavirus pandemic. Roughly four years later, Christine, at 56, is the president of their team, the “Out of Sight Dragons.”

On the morning of Oct. 11, Christine’s phone lit up with a text just as she and Gary were gearing up for one of their last workouts before nationals. Her supervisor at the U.S. Department of Education relayed a message that their team had received “reduction in force” notices. That’s Washington-speak for a layoff. She instructed Christine to check her own email.

She did. She let a “few choice phrases” slip. Her last day would be Dec. 9.

Video source: USA Today

Christine was distraught. She also wasn’t alone. President Donald Trump’s administration fired more than 4,000 federal workers that weekend, just 10 days into what eventually became the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.

In the past, such ordeals caused furloughs that, while harmful, were only temporary and ended with federal workers eventually getting paid for their forced time away from the office. That’s what happened during Trump’s first term, when the government shuttered for 35 days, setting a record at the time.

In Trump’s second term, the administration’s decision to fire its employees during another historic shutdown became one of the funding crisis’ defining challenges.

The upheaval that people like Christine endured underscored just how harmful Washington gridlock can become for many Americans, including civil servants. That tumult has in turn affected some people with disabilities, who are employed at slightly higher rates in the federal government versus the private sector. Federal law has historically required agencies to plan to meet specific hiring goals for people with disabilities.Read more: Their time at the Education Department may be over. The grieving isn’t.

Claire Stanley, director of advocacy and governmental affairs for the American Council of the Blind, said Christine wasn’t the only blind or low-vision federal employee she knew who was initially laid off during the shutdown. Many others, though not fired, spent weeks without pay.

“All of us were kind of holding our breath,” she said.

Christine spoke to USA TODAY for this story in her personal capacity as an advocate for other blind people – she is the president of the Fairfax chapter of the National Federation of the Blind of Virginia – and as a member of AFGE Local 252, the union for Education Department employees. She said her views are not representative of the agency.

From a ‘dream job’ to nightmares

Christine and Pixie, Jack Gruber, USA Today.

On Oct. 29, four weeks into the government shutdown, Christine sat in her apartment, resting both palms flat on her dining room table. Pixie, her Norwegian forest cat, lounged on a couch nearby, his sandy brown fur complementing the dark maroon upholstery.

For a multitude of reasons, she was on a higher dose of anxiety medication. Worries about caring for her aging parents usually live more toward the back of her mind. Since she was fired, those fears had shoved their way to the front.

Her mother has Alzheimer’s; her father, a longtime firefighter, has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. They both still live in Long Island, New York, Christine’s hometown.

Nightmares were making it harder to sleep. Her stomach hurt frequently.

Despite all those concerns, the previous 24 hours had brought some hope. On Oct. 28, a federal judge in California temporarily paused her firing, along with thousands of others. With most federal agencies still largely closed, though, she wasn’t back on the job yet.

The news offered only limited comfort. It did little to soothe her concerns about the long-term future of the federal law she has helped implement since 2019. Though housed in the Education Department, it’s not really about education at all.

Editor’s Note: Read the rest of the story, at the below link.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: A blind woman, a ‘dream job,’ and the toll of the government shutdown

#2025 #america #blindWoman #civilServants #departmentOfEducation #donaldTrump #dragonBoating #dreamJob #education #federalGovernmentShutdown #fired #furloughed #health #history #laidOff #libraries #library #libraryOfCongress #nationalFederationOfTheBlind #opinion #pixie #politics #reductionInForce #resistance #science #tollOfShutdown #trump #trumpAdministration #unitedStates #usaToday #virginia

When do new episodes of Landman come out in the UK?

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.mirror.co.uk/tv/tv-news/landman-season-2-episode-schedule-36263815

What Really Caused the American Civil War? The Truth Behind the Conflict #civilwar #usa #USAToday #usanews #usarmy https://www.gsnsp.com/american-civil-war/

#USAToday 中午去斯坦福吃饭堵了一阵子车 https://t.co/y9qt9BJ24F

Coverage of #AkaskaTyphoon #USAToday youtube.com/shorts/fgdXK...

See video of Alaska flooding c...

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Social media has been another nail in the slowly closing coffin of traditional..
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Banned books: Why you should read these targeted titles now – USA Today

Why you should read these banned books now

USA TODAY Staff, USA TODAY

As journalists, it’s our job to seek out the truth even when it’s uncomfortable. We value diverse perspectives, are open to new ideas and respect intellectual freedom. So it should come as no surprise that the thought of banning a book would get us riled.

What happens when a book is challenged in school boards and public libraries? Titles can be removed from school curriculums or library shelves. Most public schools and libraries have boards made up of elected officials or members appointed by elected officials. It is by the power of these officials that a book can go from challenged to banned in a school district or public library.

Sure, there is the argument you can just purchase a book if it’s taken off public shelves. But that is true only for those with financial resources. For many, particularly children and young adults, school and public libraries are the only means to access literature.

With that in mind, current and former USA TODAY staff picked a challenged or banned book that was meaningful to them. In the books’ defense, we’ve written why they deserve a place in our schools, libraries and society.

‘Looking for Alaska’ by John Green

Young people don’t typically seek out stories about grief, but I did after being hit with the sour reality that terrible things can happen to those you love and the world just moves on. Clinging to my signed first-edition, which I reread multiple times and used quotes from in my journal, is something of a core memory to my 12-year-old self. This book is challenged for explicit writing, but it offered the “stick-it-to-the-man”ness I needed to defy expectations and endeavor to be better than the generation that came before. Over a decade after my first read, I can still feel the protest that John Green’s words invoked to seek growth and understanding above all. And that grief never leaves you, it only grows with you. – Sam WoodwardCheck out: USA TODAY’s weekly Best-selling Booklist

Junie B. Jones series by Barbara Park

Growing up, Junie B. Jones felt more like a spunky pal than a book character. It’s not a moral lesson I remember, but just plain fun. This series has been banned on the basis that Junie is not a good role model. She’s loud and uses words like “dumb” and “stupid.” What are we telling girls if we say the only books they can read have polished, quiet protagonists? What do we stand to lose if we tell girls they can’t be messy? Series author Barbara Park once told USA TODAY a story is valuable even if it “gives the reader nothing more than a smile or two.” I couldn’t agree more. – Clare Mulroy

‘A Court of Thorns and Roses’ by Sarah J. Maas

ACOTAR – as its known by fans – starts when a woman named Feyre is kidnapped and taken to a faerie realm where a blight is plaguing the land. First, she is just figuring out how to survive, but soon she falls in love with Prythian and its subjects. What unfolds is an epic (and spicy) romance, found family, meaty twists and an adventure that brings an immersive world full of magic to life.

Read ACOTAR the first time to enjoy the ride. Read it the second time to pick up on every hint into the greater Maasverse. Read it the third time because you can’t go a year without saying hello to your favorite characters. – Niki Gunter

Editor’s Note: Read the rest of the story, at the below link.

Continue/Read Original Article Here: Banned books: Why you should read these targeted titles now

#2025 #America #BannedBooks #BannedBooksWeek #Books #DonaldTrump #Education #Health #History #Libraries #Library #LibraryOfCongress #Opinion #Politics #ReadBannedBooks #Reading #Resistance #Science #Technology #Trump #TrumpAdministration #UnitedStates #USAToday

Feeling great yet y'all?
New #CDC data shows that #measles infections reached a new recent high in the U.S., with more than 1,500 cases reported amid outbreaks in #Arizona, #Texas and #Utah. The disease was declared eradicated in 2000, but declining #vaccination has resulted in its spread. #USAToday