We now enter the second week of the federal government shutdown with no end in sight as Congress continues to ignore the obvious need to address federal funding to keep our country running. House Republicans had offered that services are still being provided, mail is being delivered and “so what if a few museums have been closed.” Well, try to tell that to Abbey Whetzel and her son Sam.

(The following was excerpted from an article in the Federal Grants Management Handbook.) The Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service is giving states more authority to halt the fraudulent use of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program benefits, particularly for excessive electronic benefits card replacement requests and trafficking.

Rather than blogging about how infuriating it is to witness Congress’ ineptitude to reach any kind of compromise to prevent the current federal government shutdown, I thought I’d post about something a bit more fun — baseball. We’re now beginning a very exciting time for certain cities and teams that will be battling in the playoffs for a chance to go to the World Series. (I’ve always been a National League fan myself, so whoever makes it from the National League, that’s likely who I’ll root for.)