Federal employees bore the brunt of the longest-ever government shutdown. One blind woman still hasn't fully recovered.

NCES appears to be back up.

BREAKING: Senate votes to end longest-ever government shutdown. It must now go to the House, where passage is expected by Wednesday.

BREAKING: Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said that there will be a 10% reduction in flights at 40 major airports if the government shutdown continues.

I joined USA TODAY’s podcast The Excerpt today for a special episode about where things stand with the shutdown on the Hill, where the vibes are shifting ever so slightly as several pain points are putting increasing pressure on lawmakers to turn the lights back on. youtu.be/Ya-wkeGxpT4?...

New -> In response to the impending expiration of SNAP funding, the Blackfeet Nation in MT says it’s culling 18 bison from the reservation’s herd: “The processed meat will be distributed directly to community members to help sustain food access during this period of uncertainty.”

NEW: Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton was scammed out of more than $4,300 in a credit card fraud incident at her D.C. home yesterday, per a police report.

"I want to untie my shoelace because standing in one place for this much time, well, made my shoes a little tight," Merkley said at 2:45 a.m. "That feels a little better. I don't recommend standing through the night and talking. Not a healthy pursuit." www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...

How thieves stole treasures worth millions from the Louvre Museum in just seven minutes www.usatoday.com/story/graphi...

Today's A1:

Today’s A1:

NEW: A federal judge today temporarily paused the Education Department's layoffs of nearly everyone in its special ed division. Judge Susan Illston in the Northern District of California issued the ruling, which applies to thousands of other RIFs, too. Read more: www.usatoday.com/story/news/e...

NEW: In a court hearing in California happening now, District Judge Susan Illston said she's likely to temporarily pause the mass layoffs of more than 4,000 federal employees that the White House started Friday. "What's being done here is both illegal and is an excess of authority," she said.

Read her full statement here:

NEW: Linda McMahon breaks her silence after wiping out her agency's special ed division with layoffs. "No education funding is impacted by the RIF, including funding for special education," she said in a statement. Yet almost all the people who historically oversaw that funding have been fired.

Today's A1:

We've got a comprehensive look this morning at seven key pieces of the shutdown puzzle, and whether they could get us any closer to an end. Check it out here: www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...

I hopped on today’s episode of USA TODAY’s podcast The Excerpt to break down our recent reporting on the government shutdown and how it intersects with the latest Education Department layoffs. Listen here: art19.com/shows/5-thin...

NEW: Check out this explainer on the Education Dept.'s layoffs of special ed staff -> TLDR, as one person put it: "This is a time when parents have to really saddle up & be ready to be the most aggressive advocate for their child that they've ever been." www.usatoday.com/story/news/e...

"This is a time when parents have to really saddle up and be ready to be the most aggressive advocate for their child that they've ever been." —Katy Neas, former deputy assistant secretary in the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services

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NEW: These are all the Education Dept. offices that staffers and managers say have been impacted by layoffs since Friday, according to the union for the agency’s employees. They include workers that supported HBCUs, tribal colleges, charter schools, civil rights reviews, special ed & more.

Photos capture some of the early effects after the federal government went into a partial shutdown at midnight on Oct. 1.

WASHINGTON – With each passing day on Capitol Hill, a government shutdown is looking more likely. Time is running out for Democrats and Republicans in Congress to strike a compromise, and neither side appears to be budging. Read more in USA TODAY: www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...

Chatted about our back-to-school guide on "Connecting America" this morning. Watch here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-og...

From anti-DEI mandates to vaccine skepticism, back-to-school looks quite different this year. I talk through some of the issues on today's episode of USA TODAY's podcast The Excerpt. art19.com/shows/5-thin...

The Department of Education wants to end the requirement that states collect & report data on racial disparities in special education. This a week after they announced that they are going to ask almost 2,000 colleges to vastly expand their data collection around race, admissions, & financial aid.

Many 79-year-old men aren't exactly eager to show off what they're working with below the knee. Donald Trump, per usual, is an exception. www.usatoday.com/story/news/p...

I like better IPEDS data, but ED is already behind schedule on reporting data and has laid off most relevant employees and contractors. So I'm not sure how this will work.

Not a heck of a lot of new info in today's joint status report in the SAVE litigation (which a lot of borrowers seemed to be anxious about)

NEW: Penny Schwinn, the former TN commissioner of education & Trump's pick to serve as deputy education secretary, just withdrew her nomination (she did not give a specific reason). She will instead serve as a senior advisor/chief strategist at the Education Department.

I'm on today's episode of @usatoday.com's podcast The Excerpt breaking down the Brown-Trump admin agreement announced yesterday, why it's important and what comes next. Listen here: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/u...

NEW -> Brown just reached an agreement with the Trump admin to restore its federal funding. Unlike at Columbia, though, Brown won't pay a fine to the feds. Instead, it will donate $50 million over 10 years to workforce development groups in Rhode Island. More here: www.brown.edu/sites/defaul...

The Trump administration sent a letter to Duke University this week notifying the school of $109 million in frozen funding, a White House official tells me (confirming NYT reporting).