How is The National Zoo affected during shutdowns?

The National Zoo can be affected in various ways during a government shutdown. Before the COVID-19 shutdown at the zoo, there have been other shutdowns in which the animals still have to be cared for. Many of the animals are effected in  various ways since they are used to more people visiting them. Documents mentioning musems are not relevant.

Find information on how a specific event impacts zoo operations.

Five myths about a government shutdown

1. It won’t happen this time.
The country has weathered several federal shutdowns over the years, and it could happen again. The last threatened shutdown was in 2011; it was narrowly avoided late on Friday, April 8, within an hour of the midnight deadline.
The longest shutdown in U.S. history, which also happens to be the most recent, occurred during Bill Clinton’s presidency and lasted 21 days, from Dec. 15, 1995, until Jan. 6, 1996. It came only a month after a five-day shutdown from Nov. 13 to 19, 1995. From fiscal year 1981 through 1995, during the Reagan, George H.W. Bush and Clinton presidencies, there were nine shutdowns, none lasting longer than three full days. Six shutdowns occurred during Jimmy Carter’s presidency, between fiscal year 1977 and fiscal year 1980, ranging from eight to 17 full days.
This week, the Senate will vote on an amended House bill to keep the government funded. The bill will then go back to the House. But this Congress and this White House have been locked in stalemates too many times for us to feel certain that we’ll avoid a shutdown: Think of the summer 2011 debt-ceiling fight, this year’s sequester showdown and a near-certain battle over the debt limit coming up again this spring. With House Republicans and the Obama administration constantly at odds, why would we think any agreement between them would be inevitable?
2. Shutdowns have little impact on the general public.
Even during a government shutdown, many federal services would be available to the public. Self-funded agencies, such as the Postal Service, would stay open. Uniformed military personnel would stay on the job. And federal guidelines mandate that certain other services continue, including national security functions such as airport screening and border and coast patrol; customs inspections and air-traffic control; and some benefit payments and contractual obligations, such as borrowing and tax collecting (yes, you would still have to pay your taxes).
But there are plenty of other services that would be missing: Citizens couldn’t get or renew passports, and foreign visitors wouldn’t be issued visas, affecting our tourism economy; all of our national parks would close their gates; and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would stop monitoring diseases. Veterans would still receive health benefits, but those going through the application process would have to wait even longer to be granted benefits.
During the shutdowns in the 1990s, vital programs took hits. At the end of 1995, 2,400 workers stopped cleaning up toxic waste at 609 Superfund sites, investigations of delinquent child-support payments stopped, and decisions on whether to allow new medical drugs on the market were interrupted. Eleven states and the District of Columbia suspended unemployment assistance for lack of federal funds.
Payments to federal contractors were delayed, something that can be devastating to small businesses. Exports were also affected: Some companies were unable to ship goods overseas because no one was there to inspect them.
3. Shutdowns save money.
Fact or fiction? A collection from Outlook’s popular Five Myths series.
It seems counterintuitive, but shutdowns do not necessarily save the government money. Preparing for a shutdown takes time and resources that could be spent delivering services, and any savings that are achieved are minimal compared with the size of the federal budget. In fact, shutdowns can actually cost the taxpayer, because even though furloughed workers are not working, the government traditionally pays them retroactively. The Office of Management and Budget estimated the cost of the shutdowns in 1995 and 1996 at $1.4 billion.
During the two shutdowns in the 1996 fiscal year, the government closed 368 national parks, turning away 7 million visitors; local communities lost that tourism revenue. At the same time, $3.7 billion of a total $18 billion in Washington area contracts were delayed or canceled. The halt in processing visa applications for up to 30,000 foreigners resulted in millions of dollars in losses for the tourist industry and airlines.
A lengthy shutdown, coupled with the sequester, would probably hurt, not help, economic growth.
4. Federal workers lose pay.
Some might, but not if past experience is a guide.
The president, presidential appointees, members of Congress and some career executive branch personnel are required to continue working during a shutdown. They would be paid.
Most federal employees, however, are subject to furlough and not entitled to pay. This includes rank-and-file workers as well as senior leadership. For example, a veterans benefits customer-service representative may have to stay home, as could the division’s managers, if those functions are deemed “nonessential.” (Furloughed employees continue to be credited for benefits and seniority.)
But even though furloughed workers are not legally entitled to pay, Congress has traditionally passed legislation after the fact to compensate them.
5. Shutdowns show that there are a lot of nonessential government workers.
During the November 1995 shutdown, the federal government furloughed 800,000 “nonessential” employees. Hundreds of thousands of workers were furloughed during the December 1995 shutdown, too. If we can do without those employees during a shutdown, why can’t we get rid of them entirely?
It turns out that the government’s narrow definitions of “essential” and “nonessential” don’t always match the common-sense meanings. As Treasury’s assistant secretary of management, George Munoz, testified to Congress in 1995: “These are inappropriate terms that mistakenly convey a sense of relative importance among federal employees. They perpetuate the false impression that some federal workers perform jobs that are trivial or unnecessary.”
Now, the federal government tends to use the terms “excepted” and “non-excepted” to get away from the notion that the vast ranks of feds are “nonessential.” Executive branch employees deemed excepted are required to work during a shutdown because, for example, they perform emergency services involving life or property, or they are involved in the orderly suspension of agency operations. Excepted personnel may include a National Zoo worker responsible for feeding animals, while a zoo employee who manages programming may be non-excepted. An Army information manager may be deemed non-excepted, but an agency budget officer may be considered essential because her job involves ensuring that funding lapses don’t result in overspending.
These bureaucratic terms — excepted and non-excepted — don’t make much sense to the public if a needed service can’t be delivered because the government has shut down. In those cases, pretty much everyone is considered essential.
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Dan G. Blair is president and chief executive of the National Academy of Public Administration, an independent nonprofit chartered by Congress. He served as deputy director of the Office of Personnel Management from 2002 to 2006.
President Obama and Congress have until March 27 to reach a budget agreement to avert a government shutdown. If they don’t meet the deadline, federal agencies will halt many public services and send “non-excepted” workers home without pay. Let’s look at some of the misconceptions about what happens when the U.S. government officially closes shop.


Wondering about a government shutdown? First thing to know: It all won’t disappear.

With no deal in sight between the House, Senate and White House to pay the nation’s bills after midnight on Sept. 30, much of the federal government is set to run out of money 10 days from now, and large functions of the federal world could shut down Oct. 1.
What might this mean for you, your family and for the people who keep the government running day to day — even as Democrats and Republicans in Congress bicker over whether to stop funding President Obama’s health-care law and other fiscal issues they cannot seem to resolve?
The latest updates on the battle over Obamacare
Deadlines and showdowns won't make Capitol Hill a fun place to be this fall.
Here are some basics of what a government shutdown might look like:
1. What got us to this point, and who’s at fault if the government closes?
As with most things in Washington, naming who’s at fault would likely depend on your political persuasion.
Under a budget law passed 39 years ago, the House and Senate must approve 12 appropriations bills funding the federal government by Sept. 30, the last day of the fiscal year. It almost never happens.
In the past 17 years — in 10 of which Congress was controlled by Republicans, four by Democrats and two with mixed leadership in the chambers — Congress did not meet its statutory deadline for approving the spending bills.
This year’s confrontation is over the conservative Republican effort to defund the Affordable Care Act. On Friday, the House approved a stopgap bill to fund the government that would strip all funding for the law, large parts of which are set to take effect Oct. 1. The bill is considered to have no chance of passage in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
2. Is the government making preparations to close Oct. 1?
Yes. The Obama administration told agencies this week to begin planning for a partial shutdown. A memo issued to agencies said that “prudent management requires that agencies be prepared for the possibility of a lapse.”
Federal managers must review which of their employees would be essential and required to come to work, and which would be non-essential and sent home during a shutdown.
Agencies are notifying their employees to expect some chaos: On Thursday, for example, State Department Undersecretary for Management Patrick F. Kennedy issued a memo making clear that a lapse in funding to keep the government running could mean that “a number of employees may be temporarily furloughed.”
3. Does the entire government close? Will anyone patrol the borders? Will services disappear and benefits such as Social Security checks stop? What about services to veterans? Can I still see the panda cub at the National Zoo?
In any shutdown, the government does not stop functioning completely. By law, certain agencies must be allowed to operate with unsalaried employees. According to the Office of Management and Budget, those are employees who:
●Provide for national security, including the conduct of foreign relations essential to the national security or the safety of life and property.
●Provide for benefit payments and the performance of obligations under no-year or multi-year contract or other funds remaining available for those purposes.
●Conduct essential activities to the extent that they protect life and property.
Managers would still have to decide how the work is executed, such as who stays on the job and who doesn’t. So while the panda cub and her zoo-mates will get fed, the zoo may not be open to visitors. The borders would still be patrolled. Veterans in hospitals would still receive care.
Government operations not directly paid for by the Treasury, the largest of which is the U.S. Postal Service, also would continue.
In a similar shutdown threat in 2011, the government said that of the roughly 2.1 million non-postal federal employees, all but about 800,000 would be kept on the job.
4. What happens to Americans who are expecting checks for Social Security and other benefits?
These entitlement programs are considered mandatory spending, although payments could slow down if fewer federal employees must handle the work.
In the shutdowns in 1995 and 1996, military veterans saw some health and financial services delayed. However, some services for veterans are funded by budgets that cover multiple years, which means the Treasury would have to pay for them.
5. Would federal workers and contractors be paid?
According to OMB’s missive this week, employees who stay on the job would not get a paycheck at first. But they would be entitled to retroactive pay once the government is running again.
It gets murkier for nonessential employees. They would have to come to the office on the first day of a shutdown for up to half a day to secure files, fill out time and attendance forms and “otherwise make preparations to preserve their work.”
Whether they would recover lost pay is up to Congress and the White House. In past shutdowns, those employees were paid retroactively, but there is no guarantee. They could not substitute paid leave such as vacation time, or even work voluntarily. That’s against the law.
6. Has the government shut down before?
Not in recent years. But the government closed six times between 1977 and 1980, and nine times between 1981 and 1996. Shutdowns in the 1970s and 1980s ranged from three to 17 days. A shutdown in November 1995 lasted five days. The most recent shutdown was from mid-December 1995 to early January 1996. That one lasted 21 days.
The threat has come up repeatedly in recent years as lawmakers and the administration have battled over fiscal policy.
Some say a shutdown now would have a bigger fallout than in 1995. Back then, several appropriations bills had been signed into law, including the two that funded the military, so most of the government stayed open. Many affected agencies operated at a reduced level during the three weeks by spending down savings from previous budgets.
But this time, no appropriations bills have been signed into law. That means the entire government would have no money to operate at midnight on Sept. 30.
7. Weren’t a lot of federal employee furloughed this year?
Yes, almost half of them. The standoff on Capitol Hill is over funding for fiscal 2014, which begins Oct. 1, because Congress has not passed any regular appropriations.
The recent furloughs were the result of another fiscal showdown that set into motion automatic cuts known as sequestration. The largest agency, the Defense Department, furloughed about 650,000 civilian employees for six days.
Government workers are also in the third year of a pay freeze.
8. Do the president and Congress continue working?
The president and political appointees are exempt from furloughs, although that not true for all White House staff. Lawmakers would continue working and would be responsible for deciding who on their staffs is essential.
In past shutdown threats, the judiciary has said it could continue operating for possibly two weeks with some fees and funds from previous years. Afterward, judges would have to go home.
9. How does a shutdown end?
It’s up to Congress and the White House. No doubt there would be plenty of pressure from the public and workforce. There is no law setting a time limit.


During zoo closure, panda cub got chubby, a tortoise died and some animals acted freaky

“We are so excited to be back here,” director Dennis Kelly said. “It’s been a hard 17 days. The animals have missed the people. The staff has missed the folks.”
Sophie, the gregarious California sea lion, seemed to miss visitors.
The flamingos got used to the solitude.
And Siete, the maned wolf — he of the repellent odor — took to howling at unusual times.
Officials at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo said Friday that there were subtle and not-so-subtle changes for the animals during the 17 days it was closed because of the government shutdown. Some believe that the absence of human beings had an impact.
But did the animals miss us?
The National Zoo's giant panda cub has grown and passed several developmental milestones since the panda cams went dark because of the government shutdown, according to zoo officials.
Do we need to think they missed us?
Perhaps they didn’t care.
While we were gone, there were two deaths and one departure, and a pair of lions mated.
Three elephants took an important walk. And the 8-week-old giant panda cub grew from three pounds to five.
The zoo reopened at 10 a.m. Friday to a mob of eager visitors who had started gathering an hour beforehand to participate in the return of one of the most visible signs of the government shutdown.
A person wearing a panda costume, along with members of the Friends of the National Zoo with faces painted to look like pandas, greeted the waiting crowd.
With television cameras rolling and dozens of sign-carrying zoo staffers poised to greet the throng, zoo director Dennis Kelly stood with a red-and-white bullhorn and looked at his watch as the moment approached.
The zoo’s giant panda cub, Bao Bao, turns 1 year old.
“Okay, everybody: Let’s do a countdown!” he called out at the main entrance. And as the crowd chanted “Three! Two! One!,” he slid open the black metal gate that is flanked by two giant statues of lions.
Bystanders cheered, and scores of people pushing baby strollers and clutching their morning coffee surged in.
Soon, the zoo again echoed with the sounds of crying children and the lectures of zookeepers. And the aroma of popcorn drifted through the air.
“We are so excited to be back here,” Kelly said. “It’s been a hard 17 days. The animals have missed the people. The staff has missed the folks. We can’t do our mission of saving species without our visitors coming. ”
The zoo, part of the federally funded Smithsonian Institution, had been closed since the shutdown began Oct. 1.
Officials said the hiatus seemed to have affected animals in different ways.
Don Moore, associate director of animal-care sciences, said it was hard to say if some animals missed people. “We missed people,” he said of the staff.
Sophie, the sea lion?
“I think you could probably, safely say [she] missed people,” he said. “She’s very, very human-oriented, and she’s been looking for people..
“I would go walking down there, and she would just follow me around the entire exhibit. And I’m not even one of her keepers.
“The maned wolf was howling during the day, instead of the evening,” he said. “I guess you could interpret that as, ‘Well, there’s nobody else around, so it’s safe to do this.’ I don’t know what the maned wolf is thinking.”
The maned wolf, native to South America, is famous at the zoo for its heavy skunklike odor.
The flamingos seemed to get used to the quiet of the shutdown and then would become agitated when staff members walked by.
“They have pretty small brains in those big birds,” Moore said. “There are about 65 or 70 . . . flamingos here. So your flock is only as stable as the least-stable member.”
The zoo’s two African vultures, Natalie and Tuck, “have been kind of a little freaky,” Moore said.
They seemed to be “on high alert” as more keepers showed up for work. “My own opinion is vultures might be a little smarter than flamingos,” he said. “They’re more predatory birds. A little bit larger brain there.”
Neither the maned wolf nor the vultures came out during the reopening.
During the shutdown, there were some deaths at the zoo.
Sable, a large Aldabra tortoise about 100 years old, had been suffering from renal failure and an upper respiratory infection. She had been at the zoo since 1956 and died Oct. 7 in the zoo’s veterinary hospital.
Friday morning, zookeepers found one of its two new wrinkled hornbills, a female, dead in the Bird House. The birds are endangered, and the zoo had just taken in a pair.
A significant departure also occurred.
Kigali, a female lowland gorilla, was moved from the zoo Wednesday to the Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita as part of a breeding program. “They’ve got a male that wants a girlfriend,” Moore said.
“It’s always a massive thing when you’re moving a gorilla,” he said. “It takes a lot of preparation, a lot of safety measures. The good news was we didn’t have to cordon off the zoo, because we were closed to the public.”
There were no births at the zoo during the shutdown, Moore said, but two lions mated. “So we’re trying to make babies.”
The zoo’s Asian elephants took a giant step: For the first time, the three females — Ambika, Shanthi and newcomer Bozie — went for a stroll together along the zoo’s elephant walk. Bozie recently joined the herd and is still getting acclimated.
And the unnamed giant panda cub expanded in size, fur and popularity.
The zoo’s Internet panda cams, which show live feeds from the panda compound, have been deluged since being back online Thursday morning.
The Web feed, which shows the cub with her mother, Mei Xiang, can host 850 viewing slots for each of the two cameras. To ensure access for the maximum number of people, viewers can watch for only 15 minutes at a time.
The panda cub looked different since her last appearance on video. At last glimpse, she looked like a large rodent, with minimal black-and-white coloring. On Thursday, she looked like a little version of her mother.
Neither the cub nor her mother was on view Friday. But visitors crowded at the outdoor part of the giant panda compound to see the cub’s father, Tian Tian, who lounged across a log, basking in the sun and the attention.


Consequences of the government shutdown strike the private sector

Kelly Dodge has a case of shutdown anxiety. She is a project manager at a Colorado tech firm that produces software for the federal government, and none of her coders are getting paid.
She is increasingly worried that they will find jobs that are more stable elsewhere.
“It’s hard to find people who can do this work,” said Dodge, whose team is developing a tool to help private companies comply with the Endangered Species Act. “I have a highly motivated and exceptional team that really cares about working for the government and doing something for natural resources. But they feel disrespected.”
As the partial government shutdown enters Day 14, its effects are starting to cascade far beyond the hulking agency buildings in Washington. Private companies with federal contracts are coping with chaos, confusion and uncertainty, while businesses large and small that rely on the operations of the vast federal bureaucracy are starting to feel sand in their gears.
Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.) predicted Thursday that the shutdown could last for “months and months.” While the broader U.S. economy has yet to feel sharp effects from the scaled-down federal government, economist Mark Zandi of Moody’s Analytics said that the impact could be significant if the shutdown drags on.
“If it extends into the spring, it’ll start to do real damage and have real impact, because it probably signifies other things are going off the rails — the acrimony in Washington is run amok,” Zandi said.
It’s difficult to know how that disruption might play out, he added.
“Take the housing market, for example. The fact that the IRS isn’t open and verifying tax returns and W-2 statements may mean that we might not get home closings,” he said. “The housing market could be severely disrupted, particularly during the spring selling season.”
The shutdown is also affecting workers up and down the pay scale. In addition to the approximately 800,000 federal workers who are either furloughed or facing the prospect of working without pay, low-wage employees such as cafeteria workers and custodial staffers work for private contractors that — unlike federal employees — have little hope of getting back pay when the shutdown ends.
Pablo Lazaro, 49, works full time at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian, but the museum hasn’t been open since New Year’s Day. His employer, Restaurant Associates, is a contractor that manages Smithsonian cafeterias.
“It’s really sad because most of the cooks, they have only one job. I’m lucky because I have a second job,” said Lazaro, who works the evening shift at Grille District at Reagan National Airport. Lazaro, who is married with two daughters, said his family cut back on expenses a month ago, buying less expensive Christmas gifts. His older daughter got a $100 used iPhone for Christmas instead of a new one.
“It isn’t connected yet. There is no line. I can’t afford it right now,” he said. “But she’s happy.”
The partial shutdown that began Dec. 22 has really been a sequence of shutdowns. The early repercussions were muted by the holidays and by the ability of some institutions, national parks and agencies to remain at least partially operational for a few days or longer through table-scrap funding, volunteer help and donations. But the budgetary squeeze is intensifying. The National Gallery of Art in Washington closed Thursday, a day after a similar move by the Smithsonian Institution’s many museums and the National Zoo.
“It’s really only yesterday and today that things are getting out of holiday mode and into serious business,” said David Berteau, president and chief executive of the Professional Services Council, which represents about 400 firms that contract with the federal government. “For many agencies affected by the partial shutdown, their flexibility has been used up. And now they’re having to start issuing more stop-work orders, with no end predictably in sight.”
Contractors — including security guards, suppliers and researchers — form a vast shadow government and must abide by byzantine regulations about whether and how to continue operations during a funding shortfall. The contractors have expanded in size and power in recent decades in a push by small-government conservatives to outsource federal functions to the private sector. Four out of every 10 people who work for the federal government are private contractors, according to 2017 research by New York University professor Paul C. Light.
The federal government spends about $300 billion a year just on contracts for services, Berteau said.
“This shutdown is harder in two ways. One is the uncertainty of how long it’s going to last and when it’s going to end. The other is the ambiguity, because it’s partial — it’s not a full government shutdown,” he said. “There’s insufficient communication from the government to the companies over what to plan for.”
Unlike federal civil servants, private-sector workers have limited expectation of receiving back pay from Congress or their employers when the shutdown ends.
“I don’t think there’s any way I can get back pay,” said Daniel Highlands, 45, a contractor who handles fraud analysis in the Boston office of the Securities and Exchange Commission and earns $50,000 a year. “I wouldn’t say that I live paycheck to paycheck, but missing one could really hurt.”
Federal contractors often work side by side with civil servants and sometimes feel as if they are second-class citizens. The jobs can be unstable, particularly for people working for small companies.
The government relies heavily on this shadow workforce not just to clean offices and prepare food in cafeterias but to provide expertise that the government lacks, particularly in hard-to-hire areas such as engineering and information technology, where federal agencies have lagged behind the private sector.
The shutdown will affect scientific research across the country. Major conventions scheduled for the coming days — such as ones held by the American Meterological Society and the American Astronomical Society — will be disrupted by the absence of government scientists who are not allowed to travel or perform any work.
Anne Jefferson, associate professor of geology at Kent State University, teaches a watershed hydrology class that requires students to use data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration website over the course of the semester. But when students go to the website to do their work, data no longer pops up.
Instead there’s a notice that says, “Access is not available at this time due to a lapse in appropriation.”
Jefferson said university professors who use such federal data — deemed to be nonessential under the rules of the partial government shutdown — may soon have to restructure their coursework if the shutdown continues. And Jefferson said that graduate students will have to rethink their research projects or risk missing deadlines. Jefferson is facing a Jan. 31 deadline for a research project that she is required to write with a furloughed government scientist.
“I can’t talk to her,” Jefferson said. “Do we continue to work on the proposal without her? Do we throw in the towel? If we do, that opportunity will be moved back a year. We lose out and science loses out.”
Florida-based Food and Drug Administration consultant Daniel Kamm said he can no longer submit applications for new medical devices while the government is closed. A diagnostic X-ray machine and an accessory for a defibrillator are among the devices that are now on hold.
“I’m afraid there will be a backlog when they reopen,” Kamm said. He noted that he was able to pay annual registration fees to the FDA for several foreign companies so they can continue to sell their FDA-approved devices in the United States. However, it is still technically illegal for them to do so because no one at the FDA has processed their 2019 registrations.
“The funny thing is they accept my money, but they aren’t providing the service,” Kamm said.
Richard Furstein, 26, who leads tours around Independence Mall in Philadelphia, said business has suffered and visitors have complained about closed facilities. Normally in January and February people can enter Independence Hall, but the building is closed, he said. And they can’t get up close to the Liberty Bell, either. They can view it only through windows that do not provide a good angle on the famous crack in the bell.
Visitors from Australia and New Zealand recently said they were disappointed with the closures, and one offered a rather tart observation, Furstein recalled, saying, “Your country broke off because of a minor tax disagreement, and now your government is closed because of a minor wall disagreement.”
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10 ways the government shutdown will impact your daily life

A protester sends a message to lawmakers outside the U.S. Capitol.<br />(Melina Mara / The Washington Post) Congress’ failure to reach a compromise on government funding last night means a number of federal agencies will close their doors for the indefinite future. That augurs big and costly consequences for federal workers. But it also impacts everyone who uses services administered or funded by the federal government -- which is to say, just about everyone. Here’s a quick guide to how the shutdown could impact you even if you're not a federal worker. 1) You may not receive certain government benefits, particularly if the shutdown lasts late into October, or you’ll see a delay in benefits. 2) There could be delays processing your Pell Grant and student loan payments. 3) Your passport or visa office might close. 4) You’ll eat food that was produced in neglected factories. 5) You won’t be able to visit national parks or drive on roads that cut through them. 6) You won’t be able to use some government Web sites or Twitter accounts. Due to a lapse in government funding, this account will not be active until further notice. 7) You won’t know if the flu is brewing in your area. 8) You won’t be able to ask the IRS for help with your taxes. 9) You won't be able to get certain types of loans. 10) You won’t be able to watch the Panda Cam. Of course, there are many critical government services that will not be impacted by the shutdown. Those include the Postal Service, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (better known as food stamps) ... and, ironically, the Affordable Care Act, which goes into effect today and kicked off this whole shutdown mess to begin with.

A protester sends a message to lawmakers outside the U.S. Capitol.<br />(Melina Mara / The Washington Post) 1) You may not receive certain government benefits, particularly if the shutdown lasts late into October, or you’ll see a delay in benefits. 2) There could be delays processing your Pell Grant and student loan payments. 3) Your passport or visa office might close. 4) You’ll eat food that was produced in neglected factories. 5) You won’t be able to visit national parks or drive on roads that cut through them. 6) You won’t be able to use some government Web sites or Twitter accounts. Due to a lapse in government funding, this account will not be active until further notice. 7) You won’t know if the flu is brewing in your area. 8) You won’t be able to ask the IRS for help with your taxes. 9) You won't be able to get certain types of loans. 10) You won’t be able to watch the Panda Cam.


The Panda Cam is dark. But not everything is shut down at D.C. attractions.

You can’t see the Wright Flyer at the National Air and Space Museum, or snap a selfie with Henry, the African bush elephant at the Natural History Museum, or even peek at the pandas at the National Zoo.
On Wednesday, the partial government shutdown hit many of Washington’s cultural attractions when the Smithsonian museums — and the zoo and its popular Panda Cam — closed to the public.
The National Gallery of Art — which, like the Smithsonian museums, stayed open during the busy holiday week — will close Thursday if an agreement hasn’t been reached. The museums, which are partially federally funded, used reserve money to keep operating when the shutdown began Dec. 22. The holiday season is typically one of the busiest times of the year for Smithsonian museums. (Officials reported 1.1 million visitors between Dec. 22 and Jan. 1.)
But the closure doesn’t mean the entire Smithsonian Institution has gone dark. About 2,000 of the Smithsonian’s 6,000 employees are not paid by the federal government, so those staffers — including museum directors, senior-level administrators, fundraisers and employees of its magazine, television channel and Folkways music label — haven’t been furloughed and are working as usual.
Construction is underway at the Air and Space Museum, which this month begins a long-planned seven-year renovation. And at the National Museum of Natural History, exhibits are still being installed in the popular Fossil Hall, which is set to reopen June 8 after a five-year renovation.
“The contract has been signed and we’re able to move forward, using nonfederal dollars, to allow the exhibit installation to move forward,” said Jim Wood, communications director at the Natural History Museum.
But, Wood said, things could get difficult if the shutdown goes on for an extended period.
“Where it gets a little tricky,” he said, “is . . . when you have other components, like curatorial review of wall text,” as most curators are furloughed federal employees. “In the short term, we’re okay.”
Some Smithsonian workers, including minimal security and maintenance personnel, are exempt from the shutdown because their jobs are considered essential, said Smithsonian spokeswoman Linda St. Thomas. The largest number of exempt employees are at the National Zoo, taking care of the animals.
Animal care remains a priority, but the widely watched Panda Cam and other zoo cameras are no longer broadcasting.
Employees at the National Museum of American History reported to work Wednesday for a four-hour “orderly shutdown,” after which they set out-of-office replies on their phones and email and then left, some taking  office plants with them. Furloughed staff are not allowed to work, even on a volunteer basis, so progress on upcoming exhibitions will be stalled, a museum spokeswoman said. During the shutdown, social media accounts will be dark and no new content will be shared.
If the shutdown doesn’t end quickly, exhibitions at the National Gallery of Art that are scheduled to come down will require registrars and other staff to uninstall the items, said gallery spokeswoman Anabeth Guthrie, who added that it’s too early to tell whether any exhibitions will be delayed.
Many projects that are not in public view also have been affected by the shutdown. Four students from Los Angeles are expected to begin internships Monday with the Smithsonian Latino Center and its museum partners, who are federal workers.
“We’ve found people who are willing to help us, but it means the students won’t have the internships we had thought,” said Eduardo Diaz, the center’s director, adding that his office also will provide space for workers who can’t access their museum offices.
“We are improvising and picking up the slack where we can,” he said. “We’ve been through this before, so we know how to manage, not only the work itself, but the mental aspect as well.”
Meanwhile, several thousand museum workers are in limbo.
“We’re hopeful that this gets resolved as soon as possible,” Wood said, “so we can get back to serving the American people through science and access to our exhibits and programs.”
peggy.mcglone@washpost.com


Disruptive, disappointing, chaotic: Shutdown upends scientific research

Kay Behrensmeyer was supposed to be preparing for a three-week expedition to look for evidence of ancient humans in Kenya. Instead, she spent Thursday packing her research permits, her fossil-collecting supplies, and maps she’d spent weeks compiling and annotating by hand into a FedEx box, which she shipped to a junior colleague on the project. Behrensmeyer, curator of vertebrate paleontology at the National Museum of Natural History, wasn’t going anywhere. The federal government was shut down.
In research labs and at field sites across the world, the week-long government shutdown has ground scientific progress to a halt. Thousands of scientists are among the hundreds of thousands of federal employees and contractors who must stay at home without pay. The furlough is expected to persist into the new year, which would mean a rocky start to 2019 for American science.
“It’s distressing, dispiriting, deflating,” said Behrensmeyer, who has spent two years planning this trip. She was supposed to leave on Saturday but was instructed not to go when it became clear that the Smithsonian would run out of stopgap funding before a budget agreement was reached.
The partial shutdown, caused by President Trump’s rejection of a bipartisan spending deal that did not allocate billions of dollars for a U.S.-Mexico border wall, also curtailed scientific operations at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Agriculture Department, the National Science Foundation and the U.S. Geological Survey. Furloughed government scientists are prohibited from checking on experiments, performing observations, collecting data, conducting tests or sharing their results.
If the budget impasse extends into the new year, scientists say, it could harm critical research.
“Any shutdown of the federal government can disrupt or delay research projects, lead to uncertainty over new research, and reduce researcher access to agency data and infrastructure. . . . Continuing resolutions and short-term extensions are no way to run a government,” Rush Holt, chief executive of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, said in a statement.
Alice Harding, an astrophysicist at Goddard Space Flight Center who is among roughly 15,000 furloughed NASA employees, worries about missing rare astronomical phenomena — starbursts proceed with or without a federal budget. Just days before the government closed, she and her colleagues at the Fermi space telescope observed a pulsar flashing in an unprecedented way. She scrambled to get a follow-up observation using NASA’s NICER instrument in her last days at work.
“But if the government ends up shutting down for more than a week, we won’t get a second one,” Harding said.
Crucial research windows will slam shut on Earth, too. A crop-eating pest called the brown marmorated stink bug emerges only in the spring. Scientists must prepare for the insects' annual debut, and missing it would set researchers back an entire year, the Entomological Society of America warned. “A lot of incredible science happens in our government every day,” Robert K.D. Peterson, the organization’s president, said in a statement. “But when the government shuts down, even partially, that work is derailed.”
In Alexandria, Va., the National Science Foundation headquarters is closed. About 1,400 employees are furloughed, a spokesman said. “Ongoing operational and administrative activities will be minimal unless the suspension of these activities will imminently threaten the safety of human life or the protection of property,” the agency said in a statement.
The NSF is a funding agency, and its closure will have a massive effect on research if the shutdown lasts for an extended period. Review panels, which convene to approve or reject scientific grant proposals, were not scheduled in the final week of 2018. Should the shutdown extend into 2019, panels in January will have to be canceled and rescheduled, disrupting the flow of science. The NSF does not distribute grant payments to scientists during a shutdown.
The U.S. Antarctic Program remains operational “for the foreseeable future,” according to a statement from Kelly Falkner, director of the NSF’s Office of Polar Programs.
The National Institute of Food and Agriculture, part of the Agriculture Department, is running on a skeleton crew. Only four of the 399 NIFA staff members, according to the USDA shutdown plan, report to work during a shutdown. As at the NSF, the NIFA grant program tends to be quiet during the final week of the year — but January is a critical time in its grant review process.
The Agriculture Department’s in-house body of scientists, the Agricultural Research Service, shrinks by 82 percent to just over 1,100 people. Those exempt from the furlough will maintain laboratories, greenhouses and care for research animals; there are time-sensitive data to collect as well as crops and cells to tend. The USDA shutdown plan allows studies involving human subjects to continue. The Agriculture Department did not respond to a request for comment on Thursday, perhaps because the USDA shutdown plan furloughs all but two of the 58 people who work in its communications office.
Federal science agencies are “basically closed for business today,” Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Tex.), the likely next chair of the House Science Committee, said in a Dec. 22 statement. “As I’ve noted in previous shutdowns, as our competitors in other countries surge ahead in their R & D investments, we have basically shut down a large chunk of our federal science and technology enterprise.”
Smithsonian museums and the National Zoo, supported by prior-year funds, remained open as scheduled this week. But if the shutdown continues into the new year, the museums and zoo will close on Jan. 2. All research will cease, but employees who feed and care for animals at the zoo and the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute are exempted.
“It’s like being put in the penalty box and not being told when you can come back out on the ice,” said Nick Pyenson, curator of fossil marine mammals at the National Museum of Natural History and author of “Spying on Whales.” Smithsonian scientists cannot communicate with collaborators. Researchers in the field — who are spread across the world — must return home. “That’s really frustrating.”
Thousands of atmospheric scientists are scheduled to converge in Phoenix starting Jan. 6 for the annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society. Hundreds of those scientists work in the federal government, mainly in agencies such as NOAA, which includes the National Weather Service, and NASA. More than 800 of the presenters and speakers on the docket are federal employees. If the shutdown continues, those scientists will not attend.
This meeting is where scientists hatch new ideas for lifesaving methods and warnings, said Dan Sobien, the president of the National Weather Service Employees Organization. “Any delay in that research could someday cost someone their life, and that person could be you or me,” Sobien said. Not having NWS meteorologists there to collaborate “will likely cost many more lives than the absence of any border wall, anywhere.”
Keith Seitter, the executive director of the American Meteorological Society, said the effect of the shutdown on future advances is impossible to calculate, “but we know that it is significant.”
“The interactions that occur at these meetings foster new science and new services across the enterprise that greatly benefit all of society,” Seitter said. “Having one of those sectors not represented at the meeting greatly impedes progress” on saving lives, supporting the economy and building an understanding of the environment.
At least 26 events at the meeting will be affected or wholly canceled because of the federal scientists' absence, including events such as a “town hall” session on global weather models, where NOAA scientists hope to talk with colleagues about progress, challenges and ideas surrounding its new forecasting system. The United States has fallen behind in weather forecasting over the past couple of decades, outpaced by the United Kingdom and Europe in technology and computing power.
The student and early-career branch of the conference will be severely affected — many of the mentors for that group are federal employees in NOAA or NASA. A managing meteorologist at one of the National Weather Service offices, who wished to remain anonymous to speak openly about the shutdown, said the opportunities for young people to meet and interact with professionals are scant outside of conferences like these.
“You are removing a large body of people whom they can meet as future mentors, giving them exposure to what federal agencies do,” the manager said. “It’s hard to recruit talented people, and AMS and [the National Weather Association] are our two biggest opportunities to interact with these bright young people who are our future workforce.”
More generally, the manager added, “the entire weather enterprise is impacted” when a whole sector is absent.
If the shutdown lasts into the second week of 2019, it could also weaken the winter meeting of the American Astronomical Society, which organizers bill as “the Super Bowl of astronomy.” AAS’s executive officer, Kevin Marvel, said that two of the meeting’s seven invited speakers and roughly a third of its 3,100 participants are federally funded scientists who would be unable to attend if funding is not restored.
“There could be a lot of empty poster boards, missing oral talks,” Marvel said. “It’s just going to be a mess.”
The conference is the biggest annual gathering of astronomers in the United States and offers an important chance for researchers to meet with federal officials who operate their field’s most important instruments, such as the Hubble Space Telescope and the National Radio Astronomy Observatory.
“Without the government scientists that make the missions go and make the telescopes operate,” Marvel said, “you’re missing a big component of what makes the meeting valuable.”
Much astronomical research will go forward despite the lapse in federal funding. Operations staff for ongoing space missions are deemed essential, and observing time at ground-based telescopes is awarded far enough in advance to allow for several weeks of uninterrupted research. Facilities like the National Radio Astronomy Observatory have implemented short-term cash management measures to continue normal operations during the shutdown.
But a prolonged closure could stretch these temporary measures to their breaking points, scientists said. Even though instrument operators are allowed to stay on the job, without working scientists they won’t have new targets for their telescopes.
For a time, it seemed as though the shutdown might also put a damper on two high-profile space events: the OSIRIS-REx spacecraft’s arrival into orbit around its target asteroid, Bennu, on Monday; and the New Horizons probe’s historic encounter with a faraway space rock called Ultima Thule, the most distant object ever explored by humans, early on New Year’s Day. Though NASA scientists and engineers who operate the missions are considered essential and able to work, the people who run its vaunted publicity operation — which includes NASA TV and its Twitter account with 30 million followers — were among those furloughed without pay.
Alan Stern, a Southwest Research Institute scientist and the principal investigator for New Horizons, said the absence of publicity from the agency would be “incredibly disappointing.”
But on Friday, NASA Administrator James Bridenstine announced that forward funding of the projects would allow for coverage of both missions.
“Yay!!” Stern tweeted.
Read more:
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House Science Committee’s likely next chair wants a return to science
Everything you need to know about a government shutdown


Trump officials weigh keeping national parks open even if government shuts down

As a Friday deadline for a government shutdown approached, the Trump administration began setting plans in motion to halt scores of federal functions — even as it scrambled to keep hundreds of national parks and monuments open to the public to minimize anger over the disruption of services.
With government funding set to expire at midnight Friday, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke was still working out details of a plan to permit the parks to function without rangers or other staff on site. With many parks in peak season, drawing thousands of visitors, the lack of finality was causing wide confusion across the park system. Officials from three sites said Thursday they were unsure how to proceed.
"We don't have a plan yet," said Abby Wines, spokeswoman for Death Valley National Park in California, which is seeing 80,000 visitors a month. "We just got a memo about this yesterday. Today's the first day we're seriously thinking about this."
Other federal agencies were preparing plans to close. Across Washington, senior officials were pulling out the detailed manuals that tell them whom to send home and whom to keep on the job if the government runs out of money, either because their mission is essential or is funded by a source other than Congress. About 800,000 federal workers were furloughed during the last shutdown in 2013, which lasted 16 days. Roughly the same number would be affected today.
The full impact of a shutdown would not be apparent until Monday. In the District, the Smithsonian's 17 museums and the National Zoo would remain open Saturday and Sunday, using funds from previous appropriations. They would close on Monday — though the zoo animals would still receive food and care. The National Gallery of Art also is planning to stay open this weekend to accommodate crowds flocking to its popular "Vermeer and the Masters of Genre Painting: Inspiration and Rivalry" exhibit, set to close Sunday.
Monday also would bring the cessation of some other services: Some long-term recovery efforts would be affected in areas stricken by catastrophic hurricanes, wildfires or mudslides, officials said. The Internal Revenue Service would send home thousands of employees, leaving questions about the new tax law unanswered.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would furlough about 61 percent of its staff — roughly 8,400 people — in the midst of one of the harshest flu seasons in recent years. And the Education Department would furlough 90 percent of its staff in the first week — though employees serving 13 million students who use financial aid to pay tuition bills would stay on the job.
The most crucial government functions would be performed throughout any shutdown: Air traffic controllers and airport security screeners would come to work; the borders would be patrolled; military operations would continue. Federal prisons and veterans hospitals — the only agencies for which Congress has approved funding — would also stay open. The Agriculture Department would continue inspections of meat, poultry and eggs, and the Forest Service would keep fighting fires.
The U.S. Postal Service — which is not directly funded by Congress — would continue to deliver the mail. And special counsel Robert S. Mueller III would continue his probe into Russian meddling in the 2016 election uninterrupted, since it is funded with a permanent, indefinite, appropriation.
The shuttering of iconic parks proved to be a political flash point during government shutdowns in 1995 and 2013. On both occasions, Republicans controlled Congress and a Democratic president sat in the White House; both times, Republicans shouldered much of the blame for ruining people's vacations.
This time, White House budget director Mick Mulvaney proposed keeping the parks open in the event of a budget impasse, according to an administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. That triggered discussions between top officials at the Interior Department and the Park Service and administration lawyers to determine whether and how to preserve public access to national parks.
In an interview, Sen. Michael F. Bennet (D-Colo.) described the effort as a calculated ploy to obscure the real impact of failing to reach a spending deal.
"It's purely motivated by politics," Bennet said. "But no matter what they do, there will be no way to cover up the many catastrophic effects of a shutdown."
President Trump and congressional GOP leaders, however, argued that Democrats were spoiling for a shutdown fight because it would distract the public from the recently passed tax bill.
"I really believe the Democrats want a shutdown to get off the subject of the tax cuts," Trump told reporters ahead of a campaign stop in Pennsylvania. "That is not a good subject for them, the tax cuts."
With Republicans now in control of the White House and both chambers of Congress, many fear they would shoulder the blame for failure to strike a deal to keep the government open.
Mulvaney pledged in an interview on Fox Business this week that a shutdown "would look very different under a Republican administration than it would under a Democrat." He cited national monuments, which he said would stay open.
Late Thursday, as lawmakers labored to forge an agreement to avert a shutdown, administration officials said they were laying plans to keep many parks open for hiking, wildlife watching, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing.
Depending on the location, park concessions — hotels, gas stations, gift shops and food stores run by private companies — might stay open as well, officials said.
"We fully expect the government to remain open. However, in the event of a shutdown, National Parks and other public lands will remain as accessible as possible while still following all applicable laws and procedures," Interior spokeswoman Heather Swift said in an email. "Visitors who come to our nation's capital will find war memorials and open-air parks open to the public."
The department "will still allow limited access wherever possible" to national parks, refuges and other public lands, Swift added, including on roads that have been cleared of snow. "Wilderness type restrooms . . . will remain open," too, she wrote. But "services that require staffing and maintenance such as campgrounds, full service restrooms, and concessions will not be operating."
Open gates at national parks and monuments would stand in stark contrast to the last government shutdown, in 2013. The Obama administration erected barricades around popular sites to mark the closures, which quickly became potent symbols of government dysfunction. In Washington, busloads of elderly veterans, many of them in wheelchairs, angrily pushed aside barricades to tour the World War II Memorial on the Mall.
Late Wednesday, Lena McDowall, Interior's deputy director for management and administration, sent park officials a "draft contingency plan" outlining how they could stay open.
But she cautioned that the plan was still in flux: "The Solicitor's Office is still reviewing and continues to make additional suggestions and edits, so this is probably not the last version you will see."
Experts on the national park system said providing access when the parks are not adequately staffed could pose serious risks to tourists as well as to the parks themselves. Park staff provides safety guidance to visitors, including which trails are safe and what sort of equipment is needed to traverse them.
Theresa Pierno, president of the National Parks Conservation Association, said in an email that "the vague direction" superintendents are receiving from headquarters puts them "in an impossible situation."
"They'll be forced to make on-the-fly decisions about what areas of national parks warrant protection. And then they'll need to determine how to protect those places with virtually no staff," she said, adding that the policy "raises some serious questions not only about what resources get protected, but also the legality of this partial closure scenario."
John Czwartacki, a spokesman for the White House budget office, said it makes sense that the administration is not going to use shuttered parks as political ammunition the way Obama did five years ago.
"There is no desire to weaponize closing of public parks or monuments for partisan, political reasons," he said.
In the event of a shutdown, different parks may adopt different policies, according to officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss private deliberations. Some free-standing gift shops could remain open, while those in parks' visitor centers would have to close because there would be no park staff to let workers in.
Easily accessible scenic areas would stay open, they said, while isolated backcountry trails could close because of safety risks and fewer staff members in position to respond in emergencies.
A privately run lodge could stay open, so long as it did not rely on the Park Service for snow and trash removal, the officials said. And visitors could be encouraged to bring their own grocery bags to collect trash.
Acting Glacier National Park Superintendent Eric Smith said visitors would be able to drive along the eight miles of the park that are open, and they would be able to snowshoe and cross-country ski. The visitor center, lodges and gift shops would be closed, but toilets would be accessible, and two law-enforcement rangers would be on duty to respond to emergencies.
"People who have driven a long way to see the scenery won't be completely disappointed," Smith said.
lisa.rein@washpost.com
juliet.eilperin@washpost.com


‘Hoping that this will end soon’: D.C. tourists, residents find workarounds as shutdown drags on

On the first Friday of the year, tourists roamed the Mall searching for signs of life.
The Smithsonian museums were closed. So, too, was the carousel on the Mall, its painted horses frozen in place.
Tourism in the District typically slows in January. Hotels have fewer guests, and restaurants are less crowded. Washingtonians and visitors alike shop a little less.
But the partial government shutdown has deepened the lull.
Business owners, taxi drivers and others who rely on foot traffic have watched revenue slump as parts of the government ground to a halt. Should the shutdown persist for “months or even years,” as President Trump said it could Friday, its effect on the District will only worsen.
This isn’t the District’s first go-round with a government shutdown, though it’s already one of the longest.
In 2013, the federal government suspended operations for 16 days as Congress sparred over the Affordable Care Act. The longest shutdown was in 1995. It lasted three weeks.
Previous standoffs have taught business owners and tour guides how to adapt.
“Six years ago it was like, ‘Oh my God, the city’s shut down. We’re going to have to cancel our trip.’ But now, we’ve all been here before and people are realizing a lot of what D.C. has to offer has nothing to do with the federal government,” said Elliott Ferguson, president of Destination DC, the city’s tourism arm. “They’ve realized a government shutdown doesn’t mean we’ve put a padlock on New York Avenue.”
Hotels are seeing fewer cancellations than in past shutdowns, Ferguson said, and fewer tour groups have called Destination DC in a panic. Two conventions scheduled this month are expected to bring about 27,000 people and $33 million to the city.
“Right now, we’re all hoping that this will end soon,” Ferguson said. “But in the meantime, we want everyone to know D.C. is open for business.”
Getting that message out has been a challenge for small businesses, especially those near closed attractions.
Yael Krigman, owner of Baked By Yael, a bakery across from the National Zoo, said she’s leaned more heavily on catering and “cake pop parties” in lieu of the usual zoo-goer foot traffic.
It hasn’t been easy.
“It’s not as though January was going to be our best season anyway, but that’s why we really rely on the zoo even more than in other months, because people aren’t sending gifts and throwing parties as much as they do in December or February,” Krigman said. “But people still go to the zoo — when it’s open.”
Private museums have worked with tour guides to fill gaps in tourists’ schedules left by shuttered public attractions. The Newseum and Madame Tussauds wax museum are offering free admission for furloughed federal workers.
“During shutdowns, we always see an increase — especially of tour groups who are trying to change their itineraries at the last minute,” said Sonya Gavankar, director of public relations for the Newseum.
The National Geographic museum isn’t fully operational, with two rotating exhibits closed for construction, but spokeswoman Lexie de los Santos said the museum also has seen a “significant increase in the number of people visiting.”
Still, museum
officials and city leaders say no one wants to see the shutdown persist.
“During a shutdown, there are no winners and our nation’s federal workers, including the 170,000 federal employees who work in Washington, DC, pay the highest price,” D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser wrote in a letter to Trump last week.
Dawit Kassa, 41, a full-time Lyft driver from Arlington who works primarily in downtown Washington, said his earnings have been halved since the shutdown began.
During periods that would normally be busy, Kassa has sat idle up to 40 minutes between calls. Usually, he said, he has another ride lined up by the time he’s dropping a customer off.
“It’s so slow,” he said. “And it’s not just me. You know, drivers talk. We call each other. I have friends who drive taxis and Uber and we all call each other to ask, ‘Hey, do you have a ride?’ Everyone who works out here on the street is suffering.”
Unemployment claims in the District since the shutdown began exceeded 1,200 as of Friday, which marked a full pay period for unpaid federal workers.
Claims typically spike during shutdowns because federal workers are not guaranteed back pay and government contractors lose their source of income.
During the 16-day shutdown in 2013, the city processed about 5,000 unemployment claims. District officials expect to meet or exceed that number, depending on how long the present shutdown lasts. About 800,000 workers around the country are affected, with about a quarter of the federal government shuttered.
As the sun set Friday, a smattering of tourists posed for pictures on the Mall outside wrought iron fences.
Minwa and Khafe Oshingbemi, a married couple from Nigeria, took turns taking photos that appeared to show each being pricked by the top of the Washington Monument. It was their first time in Washington.
“What are we going to do?” Minwa Oshingbemi said with a shrug. “We’re here now.”
A few feet away, a tour guide on a Segway rolled past, trailed by a line of visitors.
“Usually, this is just overflowing with people,” he said. “Not today.”
marissa.lang@washpost.com


Shuttered zoos are hemorrhaging money, and they want federal help for endangered species work

Critics

Three months after stranding on a Delaware beach, a gray seal dubbed Pippi Longstocking is recovering at the National Aquarium in Baltimore and will soon be released to the wild. She may be the facility’s last such patient for the foreseeable future.
The aquarium has lost more than $8 million and furloughed one-third of its staff since closing in March because of the coronavirus pandemic. Although its 20,000 animals — including 13 endangered sea turtles convalescing in a new rehabilitation center — are still being cared for, the institution’s rescues of stranded seals and other federally protected marine mammals can’t happen now.
The National Aquarium is one of more than 200 major U.S. zoos and aquariums that — like most attractions that rely on ticket sales — have suffered huge losses amid shutdowns to combat the spread of the coronavirus. But these zoos say they have been hit harder than many other shuttered institutions because their occupants — more than a million animals nationwide, some owned by the U.S. government — still need food, water, heating, cooling and veterinary care.
Helping wild animals such as Pippi is important to the aquarium, said president and CEO John Racanelli, but it takes “existential” resources that are vanishing. “Many of our peers are in tougher shape,” Racanelli said. “But all of us are confronting the fact that if we’re not operating, we’re dying.”
Many zoos have laid off or furloughed most staff members except those who care for animals, but they are hemorrhaging money even as some partially reopen, according to the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, which represents 229 facilities in North America. Their future tenuous, some of their first cuts are likely to be to wildlife conservation programs, some of which buttress federal efforts to rebuild endangered species populations, said Dan Ashe, the association’s president.
“The bottom line is that it’s been financially devastating for our members,” Ashe said. Most zoos, he said, have three to six months of financial reserves, and the federal paycheck protection funds received by about 70 percent are running out. “The casualty, I’m almost certain, will be the ability to support conservation work. Because that’s fueled by gate revenue,” he said.
Critics
Breeding of endangered species is on hold at many zoos. The Endangered Wolf Center, near St. Louis, in May flew nine critically endangered Mexican wolf pups to Arizona, where they were placed with wild foster mothers. But it was able to afford the trip only because donors provided private planes.
The Saint Louis Zoo pulled nearly $900,000 in money designated for conservation programs, including one dedicated to monitoring and reintroducing the endangered American burying beetle. Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium permanently closed its plant conservation center, known for its work to propagate a Bermuda fern not seen in the wild since 1905.
“If it weren’t for zoos, the federal government couldn’t take care of species that face extinction in the wild,” said Jeffrey P. Bonner, president of the Saint Louis Zoo, which says it spends more than $500,000 a year caring for animals on the endangered species list, including 1,840 Ozark hellbender salamanders. “We are on the front lines, and we aren’t getting any help.”
The zoo association is part of a coalition of cultural institutions asking Congress to provide relief in a future stimulus package. It also asked last month for $30 million for zoos and aquariums that participate in endangered species recovery or house animals rescued or confiscated by the government. Many of those animals are the property of the federal government, and without help, zoos may no longer be able to afford caring for them, Ashe wrote in a request.
By the association’s calculation, rescue and rehab of protected sea turtles costs 40 aquariums a total of $450,000 a month. Breeding and caring for endangered black-footed ferrets: $200,000 a month. A new government-managed program at 18 aquariums to house and propagate corals experiencing massive die-offs in the Florida reef tract totals more than $1 million a month, the Association of Zoos and Aquariums said.
And then there are about 80 giant Thai catfish at the Georgia Aquarium. The fish, critically endangered in the wild, were confiscated as babies from an illegal fish farm by federal authorities more than a year ago and taken by the aquarium for holding at an off-site facility. They weigh about two pounds now, the aquarium says, but they can become more than five feet long — and take up far more space than one aquarium can provide.
Ashe said the aquarium’s efforts to place the fish at other aquariums have mostly been unsuccessful. Thailand doesn’t want them, and euthanizing them — which the Georgia Aquarium does not want to do — would require explicit federal permission. An aquarium representative said the catfish are being cared for by a team of specialists, which hopes to find new homes for them while they are still small.
Not all zoos are in dire straits. Some, such as Smithsonian’s National Zoo in the District, are government-funded. Others, including the Indianapolis Zoo, say they have sufficient reserves to last for much of the year with belt-tightening, though they would welcome government help.
“It’s a challenging time to ask for additional funding when we know that the human cost is incalculable,” said Rob Shumaker, president of the Indianapolis Zoo, which has about 250 staffers. “But when we talk about the human cost, it’s about 250 families that are relying on us here at the zoo.”
Some zoos have come up with ways to stanch the bleeding. The San Antonio Zoo, which earns all of its revenue from ticket sales and donations — much of it tied to Texas oil money that has tanked in the markets — opened a wildly popular “drive-through zoo” in May. About 1,000 vehicles a day tooled through safari-style, their passengers buying Dippin’ Dots from vendors who approached vehicle windows and getting out one-by-one to use bathrooms, to allow for sanitizing between each pit stop. The money helped, but the zoo, which partially reopened in late May, is “still coming out of this millions of dollars in the hole,” said CEO Tim Morrow.
“Zoos are seeing that as soon as they open, everyone thinks everything is okay,” said Bert Vescolani, president and CEO of the Denver Zoo, which is working on a reopening plan that will involve herding visitors through paths formed by hay bales and keeping indoor areas closed. “The fact of the matter is, we will be at half our attendance, so we won’t be able to cover our expenses even being open.”
The Calgary Zoo announced in May that it would send its two pandas to China after flight cancellations made it difficult to procure sufficient bamboo to feed the animals. Leaders of zoos represented by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums insist their financial woes will not lead to animals suffering or to euthanasia, which one German zoo recently said was an option. But they said they would be far less able to take in animals from smaller, private zoos that might have even deeper troubles.
Ron Kagan, director of the Detroit Zoo, said he is confident donors or the government would step in before zoo animals starved. “Ultimately, society would decide that this just can’t happen,” Kagan said. “We can’t have animals die, and certainly we can’t kill them.”
But even major zoos may be permanently changed by the pandemic. The still-closed Detroit Zoo has put forth a strong public face — it’s sharing educational videos about flamingo rescues and animal ultrasounds on Facebook, and newborn prairie dogs are starring in one of five livecams. But it has laid off half of its staff and is losing more than $2.5 million a month.
“We can’t help but watch the resources drain and begin to wonder when does this become a life-threatening crisis for the organization,” Kagan said. Asked where additional cuts could cut from, he said: “I’m sure we’ll be smaller, meaning we’ll have fewer people, and we’ll have less money.”
At the Endangered Wolf Center, which has helped increase the wild population of Mexican wolves from near zero in the 1970s to more than 160 last year, the resident canines’ diets have changed a bit. With fewer donated deer carcasses from hunters coming in, the 41 Mexican and red wolves are eating more dry chow and hunting more raccoons in their wild-like habitats, said Regina Mossotti, director of animal care and conservation.
The small center remains closed to the public, whose entry fees fuel its $1 million annual budget. But the staff — about one-sixth smaller following layoffs — was elated to have been able to place the wolf pups with wild packs in Arizona, she said.
“When things like covid happen, those animals still need to be cared for, and the recovery efforts and conservation efforts still need to push forward,” Mossotti said. “We still need to save these endangered species. And the pandemic has made that very challenging.”


As shutdown threatens tourist sites, visitors squeeze in their last moments

By all accounts, Saturday was a near-perfect day to be a tourist in Washington. It was unseasonably warm, and the sun cast a soft orange glow on the monuments and cupola, creating the postcard-like scene that draws so many visitors to the city. Legions of strollers took to the winding paths of the National Zoo, where a tiger’s deep bellow rang out over the chatter of visitors.
But the partial government shutdown cast a shadow on the day.
So far, the Smithsonian Institution’s museums, research center and zoo have been spared from the shutdown that has furloughed thousands of federal employees. But if the closure continues beyond New Year’s Day, all Smithsonian institutions will shutter, locking visitors out of tourism mainstays like the National Zoo, the National Museum of American History and the National Museum of African American History and Culture. The National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden ice rink, where visitors can skate in the shadow of the National Archives building, will also close.
“We have no control over this,” said Linda St. Thomas, spokeswoman for the Smithsonian Institution.
She lamented that closures were bound to disappoint visitors next week, many of whom make visiting the free museums a central part of their trips to the nation’s capital. Tourists often have their heart set on seeing the 45-carat Hope Diamond at the National Museum of Natural History, or the portraits of the Obamas at the National Portrait Gallery.
“The Smithsonian museums are a big part of a person’s trip to Washington,” St. Thomas said. Luckily, it is slow season, she said, so a closure will affect far fewer travelers.
The partial shutdown is set to be one of the longest in history, the result of an impasse between President Trump, who is demanding billions for a border wall, and congressional Democrats, who refuse to authorize the funding. There were few signs the shutdown would end anytime soon, with Trump tweeting threats to shut down the entire southern border if he did not get funding for the wall. Lawmakers are not scheduled to return until at least Jan. 2.
The shutdown has meant about 800,000 federal workers are without paychecks during the holiday season, plunging many low-wage workers into economic peril.
The Smithsonian is set to be the latest tourism casualty of the shutdown, which has also suspended the work of the National Park Service. That meant hikers at Great Falls Park in Virginia were locked out of park restrooms and that rescue and emergency services were limited. At Joshua Tree National Park in California, the holiday season is the busiest time of the year with families on break camping and rock climbing.
But this year, the rangers have been sent home and volunteers have been buying and restocking toilet paper and even scrubbing toilets. One camper put up an American flag upside down, as a sign of distress.
Bruce Damon, owner of Nomad Ventures, a backpacking supply shop that works in the park and said that since the government shutdown, “we have had some people volunteer to keep the park clean because of the bathroom situation.”
“It feels like we are just pawns,” said Damon. “The parks are so underfunded as it is, it just feels like such a slap in the face.”
He said they sold at cost “wag bags,” which allows volunteers and campers to clean up waste.
There’s also been a host of illegal camping practices and visitors putting Christmas lights around endangered Joshua trees they are supposed to leave untouched, said Joe De Luca, who started a group called Climbers’ Collective.
He said he felt strongly that the park should be closed down.
“Closing Joshua Tree during the busiest part of year would upset people . . . so it’s open without staff, and 90 percent do fine, but 10 percent do some damage to a delicate environment,” said De Luca.
The Smithsonian Institution employs about 4,000 federal employees, many of whom will be furloughed after Jan. 1, joining the 350,000 others who have been off the job since the start of the shutdown. As in other federal departments, essential staff will remain on the job.
At the National Zoo, that means caretakers — including veterinarians and nutritionists — will remain on hand for the lions, tigers, bears and other creatures. Museum security staff will also stay on the job, as will the approximately 2,000 Smithsonian staff whose work is not funded by the federal government.
Lucy Asmat, a 53-year-old nurse visiting from Lima, Peru, watched prairie dogs peek out of dirt holes in their mound-like habitat Saturday. She said a closure would be deeply disappointing for tourists who had traveled great distances to see Washington.
“I understand there are priorities,” Asmat said. The attractions “are not just for Americans. They are for foreigners, like us, who want to see all the beautiful things that you have in the United States. The wall should not be a priority.”
Heather Randell, 35, came to the zoo Saturday with her husband and 7-month-old son Jules. Randell, an environmental sociologist at the University of Maryland, said a potential zoo closure worried her, but not as much as other consequences of the shutdown, like federal employees going without paychecks.
“I care more about inaction over environmental issues,” Randell said.
Some tourists enjoying the very attractions that could shut their doors Wednesday said they back the president’s stance on the wall, even if it means they will have to change their itinerary.
Ralph Pariente Jr., who traveled from Miami, explored the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden with his wife and 10-year-old son, his neck wrapped in an American flag scarf. He said he backs Trump and believes the border wall is necessary to stop or slow illegal immigration.
“I agree with the shutdown,” Pariente said. “I feel bad for the employees who aren’t getting paid. . . . But nothing ever gets done.”
moriah.balingit@washpost.com
emily.wax@washpost.com


The nine most painful impacts of a government shutdown

The federal government shut down on Tuesday and will stay closed until Congress can reach an agreement on how to fund day-to-day operations. So who gets hurt most by the shutdown?
Everyone's heard that the panda cam at the National Zoo has powered down, but that's hardly the most serious consequence of a shutdown. The biggest disruptions are less visible — the workers going without pay, the patients turned away from research clinics, and so on. Here's a rough list:
1) More than 2 million federal workers will see their paychecks delayed — and 800,000 of them might never get repaid.
Federal employees protest the sequester outside the Department of Labor on March 20. (Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg).
This is, by a fair margin, the biggest immediate consequence of a shutdown. So long as Congress keeps the government closed, many federal workers simply won't get paid during the shutdown (save for those in agencies with independent funding, like Postal Service employees).
There are two classes of federal workers to consider. First, there are the 1.3 million "essential" civilian employees who keep working during the shutdown. These workers may see their paychecks delayed, but they'll eventually get paid once the government reopens.
It's a different story for the 800,000 or so workers deemed "non-essential." These employees have to come in for a few hours on Tuesday, get their files in order, and then go home without compensation, indefinitely. And it's unclear if they'll ever receive back pay. That's completely up to Congress. Non-essential workers did get paid retroactively after the 21-day 1995-'96 shutdown. But this time around, some conservative are reportedly skeptical at the idea of paying federal employees for "work they didn't do."
This could be a fair-sized financial hit for many workers, depending on how long the government stays shut down. Note that many of these federal employees have already gone through a three-year wage freeze and months of furloughs imposed by the sequestration budget cuts.
The economic impacts could also be sizable. Economist Mark Zandi argues that the furloughs could shave 0.3 percentage points of fourth-quarter GDP growth (although some of that activity would come back if the workers get back pay). Maryland, where many federal workers live, could lose up to $5 million per day in income and sales tax revenue.
Note that this doesn't include federal contractors, who will also start furloughing employees as contracts dry up. (During the 1995-'96 shutdown, one-fifth of contracts were put on hold.) It's still unclear how many companies will be affected, but the numbers are large. Fairfax County, Va., alone has 4,100 contractors that bring in about $26 billion per year.
2) Millions of veterans may not receive benefits if the shutdown lasts more than two weeks.
(The Washington Post)
Officials at the Department of Veterans Affairs have quietly told Congress that they likely won't have enough money to pay disability claims or make pension payments for veterans if a government shutdown lasts for more than two or three weeks. That could affect some 3.6 million veterans who receive these benefits.
In a briefing with Congress, VA officials warned that many veterans depend almost entirely on these checks for their livelihood, and many have not been given enough time or information to prepare.
3) The CDC will halt its flu program just as flu season gets underway.
(Rogelio V. Solis, File/Associated Press)
Every fall, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention monitors the spread of flu and figures out how best to direct vaccine programs around the country. During the shutdown, however, the agency will be "unable to support the annual seasonal influenza program," according to a memo from the Department of Health and Human Services.
We're sorry, but we will not be tweeting or responding to @ replies during the government shutdown. We'll be back as soon as possible!
And it's not just the flu. The CDC also has to stop providing "support to state and local partners for infectious disease surveillance." And the agency will have a "significantly reduced capacity to respond to outbreak investigations, processing of laboratory samples, and maintaining the agency’s 24/7 emergency operations center."
(The CDC will, however, continue its overseas malaria and AIDS programs, as those are funded independently.)
4) Some food-safety operations would cease.
Ken Trevarthan/AP - Water can cause harm by entering the egg through its porous shell, increasing the risk of contamination.
During the shutdown, the Food and Drug Administration will have to cease most of its food-safety operations. That includes "routine establishment inspections, some compliance and enforcement activities, monitoring of imports, notification programs (e.g., food contact substances, infant formula), and the majority of the laboratory research necessary to inform public health decision-making."
This past December, the FDA shut down a nut processor in New Mexico after records showed that the facility was shipping products infected with salmonella. That sort of monitoring and enforcement could become much harder.
Now, that doesn't mean all food-safety oversight stops. The U.S. Department of Agriculture will still maintain thousands of inspectors to check out meat and poultry facilities, and the Food Safety and Inspection Service is still allowed to recall workers in the event of an emergency. So there's still a fair bit of oversight capacity in place. But many routine FDA activities on this front will come to a halt.
It's not just food safety either. A wide swath of regulatory agencies will close during the shutdown. The Environmental Protection Agency will stop monitoring air pollution and pesticide use. The Labor Department won't be around to enforce wage and hour laws or occupational safety. The Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which oversees America's vast derivatives market, will close up.
It's very possible that nothing will go awry while these regulators are closed. But that's hard to say for sure.
5) Nutritional programs for women, infants and children could be disrupted after a week.
Some programs will continue to receive federal funds, but those for the Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children would be cut off during a shutdown. (Tracy A. Woodward/The Washington Post.
During the shutdown, the Department of Agriculture will stop supporting the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) program, which helps pregnant women and new moms buy healthy food and provides nutritional information and health care referrals to those who need it. The program aids some 9 million Americans.
That won't hit immediately. The USDA estimates that most states have funds and authority to continue their programs for "a week or so," but they'll "likely be unable to sustain operations for a longer period. "Contingency funds will be available to help States—but even this funding would not fully mitigate a shortfall for the entire month of October."
Update:
The agency notes, meanwhile, that food stamp aid for 47 million low-income Americans would be unaffected through the month of October, since that program still gets stimulus funds that won't run out until next year.
6) Financing for small businesses could be hampered.
Durham Bulls Athletic Park in Durham, North Carolina. (Bill Russ / VisitNC.com)
The Small Business Administration has provided guarantees for some $106 billion in loans to more than 193,000 small businesses over the last four years. It also runs programs to help small firms win government contracts, help veteran-owned businesses, and boost international trade.
All that would cease in a shutdown. Although the SBA would continue to back existing loans in its portfolio, it wouldn't initiate any new loan guarantees. The one exception here is the Disaster Loan Program, which steps in during natural disasters and other emergencies — that would continue to operate.
For those reasons and others, a recent poll found that fully 41 percent of small-business employers with less than $5 million in annual revenue said that an extended shutdown (three months or more) would force them to pull back on their hiring plans. No one expects a shutdown that long, but even a shorter hiatus could disrupt some economic activity.
7) The tourist trade would take a hit.
Closed! Well, unless Arizona wants to pay to operate it. (Ron Watts / Corbios)
The National Park Service will close more than 400 national parks, museums and sites across the country, including Yosemite National Park in California, Grand Canyon park, Alcatraz in San Francisco, and the Statue of Liberty in New York. Day visitors will have to leave immediately. Campers will have two days to pack up and get out.
That sounds like a minor inconvenience, but it can have a major economic impact. During the last shutdown in 1995-1996, some 7 million visitors were turned away from national parks. Tourist industries and airlines lost millions of dollars per day, according to the Congressional Research Service.
This time around, the National Parks Conservation Association estimates that local communities could lose some $30 million in business for every day of the shutdown.
8) Head Start programs for hundreds of kids will slowly start closing.
(Carol Kaliff/AP )- Lead teacher Carmen Prybylski works with children Quinn Watson, left, 3, Sofia Coway, 2, and Kayla Lamour, 3, at Head Start's new building in Danbury, Conn. July 17, 2013.
There are some 1,600 Head Start programs around the country providing education, health, nutrition and other services to roughly 1 million low-income children and their families. Those will slowly begin closing during a shutdown.
Initially, only about 20 programs would be affected — the programs whose federal grants expire on Oct. 1 and don't get renewed. Over time, more programs would likely be affected. The effects really vary from community to community. In York County, S.C., for instance, pre-kindergarten classes for some 864 kids will be canceled this Friday. (These programs would likely be reinstated once the shutdown ended.)
Note that Head Start has already faced cutbacks due to sequestration budget cuts, having eliminated services for some 57,000 children this year.
9) Disability benefits could be interrupted.
(Source: Center for American Progress)
During the shutdown, the Social Security administration won't have enough staff to schedule new hearings for those applying for disability benefits. And the Veterans Appeal Board will be closed, which means veterans appealing a decision on disability benefits will have to wait until the shutdown ends.
Update: 10) Kids with cancer could get turned away from treatment.

Here's one last impact to add to the list. As long as the government is shut down, the National Institutes of Health says it will turn away roughly 200 patients each week from its clinical research center, including children with cancer.
“We’ve had to tell people, ‘I’m sorry, you can’t come here,’ ” NIH Director Francis Collins told the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday. See this post for more information and context.
-----
Note that these aren't the only consequences of the shutdown. There are plenty of others: Businesses won't be able to access E-Verify to check the immigration status of potential hires. The National Institutes of Health will stop accepting new patients for clinical trials. The Bureau of Land Management will stop issuing permits for oil and gas companies on public lands.
How painful the above impacts are depends on your perspective. Obviously the people affected will care a lot. But how big an outcry will there be from the broader public? Over at Business Insider, Joe Weisenthal suspects that "there's no obvious one thing [about a shutdown] that will be so annoying to the public that the two sides would quickly have to come to a deal." If that's true, a shutdown could last for quite some time.
It's also worth noting that we've already seen disruptive cuts this year after Congress allowed sequestration to hit — and lawmakers haven't exactly rushed to reverse those haphazard budget cuts. Indeed, much of Washington appears to have made peace with sequestration. That makes it hard to guess exactly how long a shutdown might last.
Related: Absolutely everything you need to know about how a government shutdown works.


I'm looking for information about the prevalence of marathon runners who cheat.

A 61-year old runner was discovered to have cheated in the Marine Corps Marathon. I am looking for information about other cases of cheating in marathon races.  Documents with information describing methods of determining cheating has occurred, reactions of accused cheaters and any consequences they received are all relevant. Information about individual cheaters discovered and the possible prevalence of marathon cheating also is of interest. To be relevant, the document must describe a marathon in the USA.

Find articles related to this question on marathon cheating cases.

A 70-year-old shattered an age-group record. The Los Angeles Marathon says he cheated.

In March, a 70-year-old named Frank Meza finished the Los Angeles Marathon in 2 hours 53 minutes 10 seconds — unofficially the fastest-ever time for a man his age. But almost immediately after the race, some began to question Meza’s time, noting that he had twice been disqualified and eventually banned from a marathon in Sacramento.
After an investigation, the Los Angeles Marathon’s organizers disqualified Meza on Monday, saying in a statement that, based on video evidence and an eyewitness account, he had left the course and then reentered it in a different location and had posted a midrace five-kilometer split time that would have set the world record at that distance for the 70-to-74 age group, “an impossible feat during a marathon.”
Meza told the Los Angeles Times he merely left the course in search of a restroom and ran the race on the sidewalk before finding one.
“I didn’t cut the course,” he said.
Meza, a lifelong runner and retired physician who had worked to provide health care to low-income Southern California residents, didn’t start running marathons until around 60. He began to attract attention when his marathon times went from about 3½ hours or longer to less than three hours, setting personal bests with times of 2:53.33 at the 2014 California International Marathon in Sacramento and then a 2:52.47 in Los Angeles a few months later. But the marathon in Sacramento questioned the irregular splits he posted in 2014 and 2016, eventually disqualifying him from both and banning him from the race. The marathon in Los Angeles, meanwhile, did not have the evidence to disqualify him but asked that he run the 2016 version of the race with an official observer. Meza instead chose to skip that marathon to run in a race in Northern California.
According to the Times, the Los Angeles Marathon has again asked Meza to run with an observer if he chooses to enter the 2020 race.
“That’s my only silver lining,” he said.
Other races Meza has run have come into question, as well. Derek Murphy, a business analyst who described himself to the Times as a “plodding” runner, began a website called Marathon Investigation a few years ago to document cheating allegations against marathon runners, advancing his sleuthing to the point where marathon organizers have paid him for his investigations. If a runner posts irregular split times, he checks the marathon’s route map for potential shortcuts and goes over time-lapse and video documentation provided by race organizers from along the course to see if the runner either disappeared for a stretch or started running irregularly fast.
In May, Murphy wrote about Meza’s time in Los Angeles, noting that the marathon was run in record-breaking heat and using photo evidence to claim that Meza was cutting the course. (One photo shows Meza emerging from the sidewalk to rejoin the race along Hollywood Boulevard.) He has also questioned Meza’s time from the Mesa-Phoenix Marathon in February, when he again set an age-group record with a time of 2:53.54. Murphy claims photo evidence proves that Meza’s split times were significantly slower than his overall time and that he did not appear when he should have on an official race video camera set up at the 22-mile mark, alleging that Meza skipped that portion of the course.
Meza now has been disqualified from three marathons and a number of his other races have been questioned. Why would a 70-year-old man, a lifelong runner and former high school track coach who has spent his life helping others, allegedly take shortcuts to set records few would care about apart from a small number of dedicated marathoners? Meza won’t admit to cheating, but he’s mostly quiet about his motivation, too.
“My take on all this, it was supposed to be fun,” he told the Times. “Obviously it’s not fun anymore.”
Read more from The Post:
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We had another Rosie Ruiz — a cheater, that is — at the St. Louis Marathon

In the world of running, there are few names more infamous than that of Rosie Ruiz, the woman who crossed the line first in the 1980 Boston Marathon, only to get disqualified for re-entering the race near the finish. St. Louis now has a Rosie Ruiz of its own in Kendall Schler.
Schler’s first-place finish in the GO! St. Louis Marathon was wiped off after officials determined Wednesday that she could not have actually run the entire course, or even most of it. According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Schler is thought to have crept onto the course after the final checkpoint.
Schler also had a third-place finish at last year’s event disqualified, after officials went back and could find no evidence that she crossed any checkpoints and couldn’t identify her in any photos. From the Post-Dispatch:
“It’s a difficult situation for everybody, including the people who run a fair race and don’t get the recognition they should receive,” said Nancy Lieberman, president of GO! St. Louis. “I said to her, ‘It looks like you perpetrated a fraud.’ I have nothing legitimate that says she officially started and ran 26.2 miles in 2014 or 2015.”
Lieberman said incidents of dishonest runners happened but called this “an extreme case.” …
Lieberman said that nothing about Schler’s story made sense. She had her bib and number on her leg, contrary to marathon guidelines, and covered by a shirt. She told Lieberman she had removed the timing strip from the bib in each of the last two years.
Schler, from Columbia, Mo., had been manually given a time of 3 hours 13 minutes 4 seconds in 2014, easily fast enough to have qualified in her age group for the Boston Marathon, and she had been entered in that race, which will be held on Monday. Schler won’t be allowed to run in Boston, or in any future organized events in St. Louis.
The actual women’s winner this year in St. Louis was Andrea Karl, a Washington University graduate student who crossed the line in 2:54:28. However, she received no initial fanfare and wasn’t even photographed finishing, because Schler had crossed the line ahead of her.
Kendall Schler should be barred from all @USATF certified events for cheating + stealing Andrea Karl's moment. http://t.co/ItQAIqHafW
“There’s a euphoria the winner gets, breaking the tape and having the crowd cheer,” Lieberman told the Post-Dispatch. “The true winner did everything right and didn’t get her due.”