Getting out of her car, the wife of a furloughed government worker walked toward a small building full of free food.

She approached the door with her head down. An attendant asked for her name, she looked up and began to sob.
"It's ok, it's not your fault," the volunteer said as she wrapped her arms around the crying woman.
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Caroline Smith DeWaal is food safety director of the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nonprofit watchdog and consumer advocacy group.

This week, a mother called us about her child hospitalized with a Salmonella poisoning from his day care's chicken lunch. The child's condition was tenuous, with a blood infection, and treatment was especially challenging as the bacteria was antibiotic resistant.

The mom turned to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nonprofit consumer advocacy group, for information and help because key government's public health agencies and websites are shut down. Does this have an impact on food safety? You betcha!
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The Congressional stalemate has claimed its latest casualty: beer.

The craft beer industry is overseen by the Alcohol, Tobacco Tax Trade Bureau. The TTB is charge of approving labels for new beer products sold across state lines and inspection for new breweries. Consequently, new beer and new business are not rolling out during the shutdown.
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Like in a scene from an apocalyptic parable, dark carcasses of cows and steers lie motionless in silent clusters across swaths of South Dakota.

An early blizzard caught ranchers off guard this week in the state, killing as many as 20,000 head of cattle, a state official says.

But ranchers say they are the real victims.
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