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The U.S. Department of Agriculture was forced to send home tens of thousands of employees because of Tuesday’s government shutdown. As a result, the…

In a report, the department warns that a default could do damage to the economy to rival the Great Recession.

Texas Republican Rep. Randy Neugebauer told a Park Service ranger she should be ashamed for carrying out orders that the World War II Memorial, like other national parks and monuments, be closed. That led to a tense exchange with a passerby, who said it's lawmakers who are to blame. See the video.

The partial shutdown continues. The two sides haven't publicly shifted their positions. So once again we turn to that sage of the baseball diamond, Yogi Berra, for the best line on the news that keeps repeating.

To understand House Speaker John Boehner's role in the government shutdown, you have to understand the 30 or so House Republican hard-liners and his relationship with them. Because Republicans have a relatively slim majority in the House, the 30 have more power than their numbers would make it seem.

The Clinical Center at the National Institutes of Health in Maryland is often the last resort for patients who have mysterious, rare or terminal diseases. Patients sometimes call it the "House of Hope." But the government shutdown may mean that prospective patients will be turned away.

From Acadia in Maine to Zion in Utah to the North Cascades in Washington, America's 401 national park areas have gates blocking entrance roads. National forest and Bureau of Land Management lands would nearly be impossible to close because there are so many access points.

The House speaker emerged from the White House after a 90-minute meeting with President Obama saying, "They will not negotiate." Democrats said they would confer with Republicans, but after they open the government.

Beyond voicing frustration, the traditional Republican power players on Capitol Hill and in the business community haven't been able to do much so far to end the current congressional standoff.

Instead of castigating all of Congress over the latest fiscal stalemate, President Obama is focusing his ire on Tea Party Republicans. That's energized Democrats, who are more unified than they've been in a long time. Still, that doesn't mean that they're making any headway in ending the shutdown.