GROUND HOLD:  Hundreds of air flights were cancelled today following the Transportation Department announcement that it is slashing traffic by 10 percent at 40 airports to relieve stress on air controllers and travelers during the government shutdown. Among  the airports affected are New York, Washington, Atlanta, Chicago, Charlotte, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, Phoenix, and Seattle. 

  More than 1,100 flights are cancelled today and 10,500 delayed. Major airlines claimed that most customers would not be affected. 

  Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy told CBS News this morning that some controllers have been working six days a week, 10 hours a day and that became “concerning” for safety. He said, “We are in an unprecedented situation because of the shutdown.”

  With all this going on President Trump posted on his Truth Social that, “I am thrilled to announce an incredible Trade and Economic Deal between the United States and Uzbekistan.”

  Negotiators in Congress have been talking about a deal to re-open the government, but so far they have nothing to announce. Federal workers are going without pay and federal food aid has been stopped, but interestingly the chaos in air travel was influential in ending the government shutdown during the first Trump administration.

THE HUNGER GANMES: A federal judge in Rhode Island ordered the Trump administration to find enough money to fully restore the SNAP food aid benefits by today. The administration immediately appealed.

  Judge John McConnell Jr. said the government “failed to consider the harms individuals who rely on those benefits would suffer,”  and that President Trump showed “intent to defy a court order” when he posted on Truth Social that SNAP benefits would not restart until after the federal shutdown was over. 

RETIREMENT: California Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, who has represented San Francisco for 38 years, is the first and only woman to be Speaker of the House, announced yesterday that she will retire next year at the end of her current term. She’s 85.

  Pelosi made her announcement in a highly-produced yet not very personal video posted on Twitter/X. “My message to the city I love is this: San Francisco, know your power,” she said. “We have always led the way, and now we must continue to do so by remaining full participants in our democracy and fighting for the American ideals we hold dear.”

  Pelosi is one of the canniest politicians ever to serve in Washington. She was the leader of the House Democrats for 20 years, eight of them in two stints as Speaker. She was instrumental in getting passage of the Affordable Care Act, the healthcare insurance known as Obamacare. 

  In her years in Washington Pelosi has seen wars, the AIDS crisis, gay marriage, and the injection of technology into everyday life and the economy … and extreme political polarization of today.

  She has never been shy about clashing with Donald Trump, calling him “a vile creature” in a CNN interview just this week. She presided over two of Trump’s impeachment votes in the House. 

  “The retirement of Nancy Pelosi is a great thing for America,” Trump told Fox News host Peter Doocy. “She was evil, corrupt, and only focused on bad things for our country.” 

THE REGIME:

— President Trump yesterday announced a deal with two major drug makers to lower prices on popular weight-loss drugs for Medicare and Medicaid patients as well as people who pay with their own money.

  Officials said that within months, Americans would be able to use their own money to buy Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Eli Lilly’s Zepbound — both taken by injection — directly from the makers for an average of $350 a month. 

  Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Americans will lose 125 million pounds by this time next year.

  One of Trump’s guests in the Oval Office, a pharmaceutical executive, collapsed during the announcement and reporters were hustled out of the room.

— The Supreme Court yesterday gave President Trump the green light to require that passport applicants list their sex as what was designated on their birth certificate.

THE OBIT PAGE: The Dallas Cowboys and fans are in shock after the suicide of Marshawn Kneeland, a defensive end. He was 24.

  Kneeland had actually scored a touchdown Monday night against the Arizona Cardinals scooping up a blocked punt in the end zone.

  Police say that on Wednesday night Kneeland had evaded officers in an automobile pursuit involving a traffic violation. He later crashed his car and ran off. 

  Kneeland was known to have mental health trouble. Investigators say they had received calls from Kneeland’s girlfriend saying said she had received a message from Kneeland claiming he would “end it all.” He was found dead of a self-inflicted gunshot at 1:31 am. 

THE WAR ROOM: Under heavy fire, Ukrainian troops are being slowly pushed out of the battered city of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine, a rail hub that is considered a gateway to the contested Donetsk region that Russia is trying to take.

  The city has been reduced to rubble and its  population of 60,000 is down to about 1,300. 

THE SPIN RACK: Upstate New York’s powerful Republican Rep. Elise Stefanik announced that she’s running for governor against incumbent Democrat Kathy Hochul “Our campaign will unify Republicans, Democrats, and Independents to Fire Kathy Hochul once and for all to Save New York,” Stefanik said in a statement. 

BELOW THE FOLD: A federal jury in Washington yesterday found former DOJ employee Sean Dunn not guilty of assault in throwing a submarine sandwich at a Border Patrol agent in protest to the surge of troops in the streets. The 37-year-old Dunn was fired by the DOJ after the August incident.

  Border Patrol Agent Gregory Lairmore had testified that  Dunn’s  sandwich “exploded” all over him, leaving him smelling of “onions and mustard.” Attorney Gen. Pam Bondi had said Dunn was “an example of the Deep State.”

  Aha! So that’s why there’s a Subway sandwich shop on every corner.

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