Talk about a bad time to shut down the government. A powerful weather pattern is expected to scatter some major storms across the country, starting with Tropical Storm Karen (currently barreling towards Louisiana as it turns into a hurricane) but meteorologists tasked to watch the storms are at home and without work. Thanks to the government shutdown over stalled budget negotiations, administrators who help connect offices and government websites are furloughed and even Ready.gov, the citizen-preparedness site where people are supposed to go to learn what to do in an emergency, is “not being actively managed.” Ummm…is this a good time to panic? [Quartz]
Hurricanes aren’t the only thing we have to worry about in day four of the government shutdown. Parents are now scrambling to find child-care and education services for their children during the day. A casualty of the federal government shutdown is that thousands of low-income children are without care due to the abrupt cutoff of Head Start preschool programs. Wow. [BusinessWeek]
Remember the gay Florida teenager who was charged with sexual relations after the parents of her 14-year-old girlfriend found out they were dating? Well, Kaitlyn Hunt, now 19, entered a plea deal on Thursday that will land her four years in jail, two years of house arrest and a pesky electronic monitoring device. Here’s her story…[HuffPost]
Looks like a lawsuit is the boss now. Rick Ross, Meek Mill, Wale, Omarion and Stalley are being sued for allegedly bailing on a huge London concert on September 12. Read about it here…[TMZ]
A school bus attendant in Long Island is being accused of breaking the arm of a 5-year-old autistic boy because he was “pounding his hand against the window.” The attendant claims that he was blocking the boy from shattering the glass. But the mother has an entirely different story. See here…[Gawker]
PHOTO CREDIT: Getty
