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What we know about pending government reopening, as record-long shutdown nears end

November 11, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — The longest government shutdown in U.S. history is close to being over as the House is slated to convene on Wednesday to vote on the federal spending bill.

The Senate passed the measure Monday night with eight members of the Democratic caucus joining Republicans.

President Donald Trump said he supports the deal, and pushed for its passage in the House. If it passes and if Trump signs it, federal agencies and services are expected to immediately return.

Here’s what to know about the implications of the bill that addresses SNAP benefits, federal workers and more.

When will the government reopen?

The bill reopens the government through Jan. 30, 2026, starting at the time Trump signs the legislation.

Some agencies, like the Department of Agriculture and Veterans Affairs, will be funded for the remainder of the fiscal year.

When will SNAP benefits resume?

The bill includes a provision to fully fund SNAP benefits through the end of September 2026.

The money will immediately go out to SNAP beneficiaries once the bill is signed.

Federal courts ordered the administration to pay SNAP benefits during the shutdown, however, the Supreme Court paused the order as the appeals litigation continued.

When will federal workers go back to work?

At least 670,000 federal employees were furloughed during the shutdown, according to the Bipartisan Policy Center.

Furloughed workers will be expected to return to work after the bill is signed.

When will employees receive back pay?

Federal workers deemed essential, including Capitol Police officers, TSA workers and air traffic controllers, had been forced to work without pay during the shutdown.

During the shutdown, the administration issued layoffs for federal workers in various agencies.

The Senate bill includes language to reverse Trump administration firings due to the shutdown and ensures that furloughed workers receive back pay.

Trump signaled Monday that he would abide by the Senate reversing his administration’s mass firing.

“I will be. I’ll abide by the deal. The deal is very good,” Trump told ABC News’ Karen Travers.

All federal workers are entitled to back pay under the Government Employee Fair Treatment Act of 2019, which was signed into law by Trump during his first term in office.

The law covers both furloughed employees and those required to work without pay during a government shutdown.

When will air traffic controllers be fully staffed?

The shortage of air traffic controllers, who were not furloughed, was so dire during the shutdown that the Federal Aviation Administration was forced to reduce flights by 10% at 40 airports — leading to thousands of flights being canceled and delayed across the country.

As many as 15-20 resigned during the shutdown, according to the Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy.

Amid the shutdown, Trump said in a social media post on Monday that he was recommending a $10,000 bonus to air traffic controllers who did not take any time off during the shutdown, though he did not provide specifics on how that would be done.

To those who took time off, he said, “I am NOT HAPPY WITH YOU,” and called for them to leave the profession “with NO payment or severance of any kind,” despite ongoing staffing shortages.

Once the Department of Transportation sees staffing levels return to pre-shutdown levels, it will ease the 10% flight cuts.

It is still unknown how the controllers will respond to the shutdown’s waning hours.

When will flights go back to normal?

It is not immediately clear how long it will take for flights return to their normal schedules and capacity once the spending bill is signed.

When asked on Monday by ABC News White House correspondent Karen Travers if he could guarantee to Americans that travel will go back to normal once the government re-opens, Trump responded, “It’ll go better than normal,” and talked about upgrading technology in control towers, though he did not address the personnel issues.

Where do ACA subsidies stand?

Affordable Care Act subsidies demanded by Democrats were not included in the Senate bipartisan deal to reopen the government.

The enhanced ACA tax credits don’t expire until Dec. 31, and if no deal is reached, health premiums will jump for over 20 million Americans.

Sources told ABC News Monday that Senate Republican leadership promised to allow a vote on a bill of Democrats’ choosing related to the ACA in December.

House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters Monday that he would not commit to holding a vote in the House on the subsidies.

– ABC News’ Justin Gomez, Alexandra Hutzler and Sam Sweeny contributed to this report.

US aircraft carrier strike group joins Trump’s campaign against drug cartels

November 11, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — The USS Gerald R. Ford carrier strike group has arrived in the U.S. Southern Command area of operations north of the Caribbean Sea as part of the Trump administration’s campaign against drug cartels, the Navy’s Fourth Fleet announced Wednesday.

The carrier’s deployment to assist in operations against Latin American drug cartels was announced on Oct. 24 while it was on a port of call in Croatia. Since then it has made the lengthy transit through the Mediterranean Sea and across the Atlantic Ocean.

Typically the Pentagon’s announcements that a carrier group has entered a regional area of operations occur when they have crossed the furthest limits of that area, which for SOUTHCOM means somewhere in the Atlantic east of Florida and Cuba.

The strike group includes three destroyers that will augment the eight Navy surface ships already in the SOUTHCOM region. The sizable U.S. military presence in the region also includes a submarine, reconnaissance aircraft, 10 F-35 fighters and Reaper drones.

It was disclosed last week through imagery that an AC-130J gunship and two other reconnaissance aircraft have been operating from an El Salvador military base co-located at the country’s international airport, presumably as part of operations against the cartels.

The Ford carries more than 60 aircraft that could be used against the drug cartels.

“These forces will enhance and augment existing capabilities to disrupt narcotics trafficking and degrade and dismantle Transnational Criminal Organizations,” Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman, said.

The Trump administration says it has killed 76 people in 19 strikes against alleged drug-running boats in the Caribbean and the eastern Pacific Ocean since it began its campaign in September.

The 4,000 sailors and Marines aboard ships in the Ford strike group join the 10,000 troops already deployed to the Caribbean.

The Pentagon has said that the carrier’s deployment is tied to the operations targeting the drug cartels, but critics have asked if it is intended to be a show of force or potential operations targeting Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro regime.

Experts say that while Maduro is complicit in the drug trade, many of the drugs coming into the U.S. come via Mexico and sea routes in the Pacific, not the Caribbean, which is known more for shipping drugs to Europe.

The administration has flown B-52 bombers near the coast of Venezuela and B-1 bombers over the Caribbean in what appears to be a major show of force by President Donald Trump.

In addition, a special operations aviation unit conducted training exercises in international waters near Venezuela in October, a U.S. official said.

ABC News’ Anne Flaherty contributed to this report.

Search for missing miner in flooded West Virginia coal mine enters 4th day

November 11, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Rescuers are racing to find a miner who’s been trapped in a flooded West Virginia coal mine for days.

Crews are pumping out thousands of gallons of water per minute at the Rolling Thunder Mine to help locate the miner after the site flooded Saturday, according to West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey.

“Rescue operations continue at the Rolling Thunder Mine in Nicholas County, where crews are now pumping water at a rate of approximately 6,000 gallons per minute – a significant increase from earlier efforts as additional pumps became available,” Gov. Morrisey posted Tuesday on X.

“This is another step forward in the ongoing effort to reach the missing miner. As water levels continue to drop, crews are also advancing on the drilling portion of the rescue as they prepare for additional heavy equipment to arrive,” he added.

The identity of the miner has not been publicly released.

At a press conference Monday, Morrisey said dive teams were working to find pockets of air where the miner may be located.

“This has been an around-the-clock response since Saturday, and we’re going to continue to do everything imaginable to help,” said Morrisey. “We’re going to continue to push because we want to make sure that we give the miner every opportunity to live.”

Nicholas County Commissioner Garrett Cole posted a statement on Facebook Sunday night, saying that the missing miner was helping his crew escape to safety.

“According to state wide reporting, the missing miner is said to be a foreman of a crew who worked to ensure that everyone on his crew was getting out of the mine but got trapped behind,” he said.

Rolling Thunder Mine is operated by Tennessee-based Alpha Metallurgical Resources, which operates 19 underground and surfaces mines across West Virginia and Virginia, according to its website.

A spokesperson for Alpha Metallurgical Resources did not immediately respond to ABC News’ requests for comment.

The weekend episode at Rolling Thunder Mine is the second mining incident in West Virginia this month, following the death of a miner at a different mine on Thursday, according to Morrisey.

“Our coal miners are among the hardest-working and most courageous people in our state. They represent the strength, humility, and resolve that define West Virginia. We owe these men and women an enduring debt of gratitude for the sacrifices they make every day to power our communities and our nation,” Morrisey posted on Facebook.

Zachary Jackson was killed in 1993. Now his kids’ mom and her then-boyfriend are in custody.

November 11, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(ALAMEDA COUNTY, Calif.) — Two people have been arrested in a man’s 1993 cold case murder, including the mother of his two children, Northern California authorities announced.

On June 17, 1993, Zachary Jackson, 30, was found shot to death in his home in Hayward, about 30 miles from San Francisco, Alameda County Sheriff’s Detective Pat Smyth said. Authorities believe Jackson was killed around June 14.

Now the mother of Jackson’s children, Veronica Fonseca, and her boyfriend from 1993, Anthony Fox, are in custody for his murder, Smyth said at a news conference on Monday.

“We believe they were both there and that Mr. Fox was the one who pulled the trigger,” he said.

In 1993, Jackson and Fonseca shared a 4-year-old daughter — who was in Jackson’s custody — and a 1-year-old son, who was in Fonseca’s custody, Smyth said.

Fonseca was interviewed several times during the initial investigation, but nothing at the time led investigators to believe she was involved, Smyth said. Fox wasn’t interviewed at the time, Smyth said, adding that investigators at first focused on a dispute between Jackson and his landlord.

“In 1993, they did not have a lot of the things that we have available to us today, investigatively, to find leads,” Smyth explained. “No electronic footprint like we have these days. They relied heavily on witnesses, fingerprint, that sort of thing. DNA was in its infancy.”

“Without any viable leads,” Smyth said, the case went cold.

In 2014, a tipster reported having information about who was responsible and identified Fonseca and Fox, Smyth said.

But over the next year or so, investigators “encountered a roadblock” that stalled the case, Smyth said.

Several more years passed, and in 2021, someone left an anonymous tip on the sheriff department’s website identifying Fonseca and Fox, he said.

Smyth interviewed the tipster, but he said there was still an “impediment in the case.” He did not elaborate on the impediment.

“The case really didn’t move forward until this year, when we developed an investigative plan to try to bring this case forward,” Smyth said.

Over the last few months, “there’s been a lot of investigative resources poured into this case,” Smyth said, and more witnesses cooperated and “told a similar story as to our previous tipsters.”

On Thursday, Fonseca was arrested in New York City and Fox was arrested in Iowa on charges of murder and first-degree residential burglary, according to Smyth and the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office. Fonseca and Fox have not yet been transferred to Alameda County, officials said.

Smyth declined to discuss the evidence against them but called the case a “good example of what happens when good people have the courage to come forward … coupled with law enforcement leveraging all investigative resources to bring a resolution.”

Obama surprises veterans on flight to DC with special Veterans Day salute

November 11, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — President Barack Obama gave a group of war heroes a surprise they will never forget.

The former president surprised a flight of Korean and Vietnam War veterans on an honor flight from Madison, Wisconsin, to Washington, D.C., ahead of Veterans Day, according to a video he posted on X.

“Ahead of Veterans Day, I was honored to welcome a flight of veterans and their families as they arrived in DC. To all those who bravely served our country, thank you to you and your family for your extraordinary service. The sacrifices that all of you have made to protect our country will be honored, today and every day,” Obama posted alongside the video on X.

Obama came aboard the flight and shared a special message on the intercom of the plane for the veterans.

“Hello, everybody. As we approach Veterans Day, I wanted to stop by and just say thank you for your extraordinary service. To you, your family, the sacrifices that all of you made to protect our country is something that will always be honored, and we are very grateful,” Obama can be seen telling the veterans upon touchdown in D.C. in the video.

The veterans were flying to D.C. on behalf of the Honor Flight Network, a nonprofit that provides flights to veterans and their families to visit monuments in the nation’s capital.

“Participation in an Honor Flight trip gives veterans the opportunity to share this momentous occasion with other comrades, remember the fallen, and share their stories and experiences with other veterans. Honored veterans always travel free of charge, thanks to generous donations to our organization,” their website reads.

The nonprofit has flown over 300,000 veterans to D.C. in the past 20 years, according to their website.

Obama also took to his Medium account to reflect on meeting the veterans and thank all who have served in the U.S. military for their service.

“To all those who bravely served our country, thank you to you and your family for your extraordinary service. The sacrifices that all of you have made to protect our country will be honored, today and every day,” Obama said.

The Honor Flight Network did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino expected to depart Chicago in coming days

November 11, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(CHICAGO) — U.S. Customs and Border Protection commander-at-large Greg Bovino is expected to be leaving the city of Chicago in the coming days, multiple sources tell ABC News.

The Department of Homeland Security will continue to maintain a presence in the city, according to sources.

Bovino’s departure could mean he is set to go to another city, or return to the El Centro sector in Southern California, according to a source.

DHS Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said the agency isn’t leaving Chicago.

“We aren’t leaving Chicago,” she posted citing statistics from “Operation Midway Blitz,” the surge of federal immigration enforcement in the city.

This is a developing story. Check back for updates.

Trump downplays economic woes as partisan spin, saying, ‘Costs are way down’

November 11, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump said the U.S. economy is strong and insisted polls showing Americans are feeling economic pain are “fake” during an interview on Fox News that aired on Monday night.

Trump said bad news about the economy amounted to a “con job by the Democrats,” adding Democrats “feed” major news network anchors with the message the economy is bad and then “every anchor” does “exactly what they say.”

“I’ll never forget, they used a word like ‘manufactured,'” Trump said in the interview. “You remember the word ‘manufacture’? It’s a ‘manufactured’ economy. Nobody uses that word. Every anchor broke in ‘manufactured.’ They do exactly what they say. It’s such a rigged system.”

The U.S. economy grew at an annualized rate of 3.8% in the second quarter in the government’s final estimate, besting a 3.3% rate issued in its second estimate and far exceeding a 3% initial estimate. But consumer prices rose 3% in September compared to a year ago, with inflation at its highest level since January, the most-recent government data showed. The inflation reading came in lower than economists’ expectations.

Trump defended his handling of the economy, saying that costs are “way down” across the board.

“So are you ready? Costs are way down,” Trump said. “Gasoline is going to be hitting $2 pretty soon, or around $2. Gasoline is at $2.70 now and it was at $4.50 under Biden, under sleepy Joe. When gasoline comes down, when energy comes down — and everybody agrees energy is down — we drill, you know, drill, baby drill. We’re going like wild.”

The average consumer price for a gallon of gas in the U.S. was $3.072 on Tuesday, according to AAA, which said the average price was $3.083 a gallon a year ago.

Trump was also pressed about a rollout by his administration for a 50-year mortgage option, something that faced criticism on social media as critics pointed out that the extended payoff timeline would mean Americans would pay more in interest than they would through the life of a shorter loan.

Laura Ingraham, the Fox News host, suggested to Trump that longer loans could be construed as a “giveaway to the banks” and would simply be “prolonging the time it would take for Americans to own a home outright.”

Trump pushed back on Ingraham, saying that “all it means is you pay less per month.”

“You pay it over a longer period of time. It’s not like a big factor. It might help a little bit,” Trump said. “But even with interest rates up, the economy is the strongest it’s ever been. You know, you asked me, just to go back to the beginning of your question, you talked about prices. We’re down on energy. We’re down on interest rates.”

Trump was also pressed about the controversial demolition of the East Wing to make way for the large ballroom that’s being constructed now.

“Well, first of all, the East Wing was a beautiful, little, tiny structure that was built many years ago, that was renovated and expanded and disbanded and columns ripped out, and it had nothing to do with the original building,” he said. “It was a poor, sad sight, and I could have built the ballroom around it, but it would not have been — we’re building one of the greatest ballrooms in the world, by the way.”

“But the East Wing, that building was renovated 20 times, including adding a floor to the top, which was terrible, Trump continued. “It was at a common brick little, tiny windows. It looked like hell. It had nothing to do with the original building, and I didn’t want to sacrifice a great ballroom for an okay ballroom by leaving it right smack in the middle.

200 million wake up to 1st major snow of season, extreme cold

November 11, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — More than 200 million people are waking up to an early blast of winter with the first major snowfall of the season and the coldest temperatures, too.

Parts of Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Michigan saw more than 1 foot of lake effect snow.

Flurries even fell in Nashville, Tennessee, and Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.

On Tuesday morning, the snow is still falling in Buffalo and Syracuse in upstate New York, as well parts of Pennsylvania.

That lake effect snow in upstate New York will continue Tuesday and into Wednesday morning off Lakes Erie and Ontario. Two to 4 inches of additional snowfall is possible before it turns to rain on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, freezing temperatures are invading the Northeast and the South.

The cold blast is also expected to bring daily record low temperatures to dozens of cities in the Southeast, from Knoxville, Tennessee, to the Florida Keys.

Freeze warnings are in place Tuesday morning in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana and Arkansas.

The high temperature on Tuesday will only hit 48 degrees in Raleigh, North Carolina; 50 degrees in Atlanta; 53 degrees in Jacksonville, Florida; 57 in Orlando, Florida; and 68 in Miami.

And the Mid-Atlantic and southern New England are facing wind gusts of 35 to 50 mph on Tuesday, making the cold temperatures there feel even colder.

$900 million Mega Millions jackpot up for grabs in Tuesday’s drawing

November 11, 2025 by WDNY Radio

$900 million Mega Millions jackpot up for grabs in Tuesday’s drawing — A person plays Mega millions lottery at a gas stations on July 11, 2023. (Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

(NEW YORK) — The estimated $900 million Mega Millions jackpot is up for grabs in Tuesday night’s drawing after no winners were selected on Friday.

The numbers drawn Friday were: 16, 21, 23, 48 and 70, plus the gold Mega Ball 5.

The jackpot was last won on June 27.

The prize has a cash value of $415.3 million which can be offered as a one-time lump sum payment or an immediate payment followed by 29 annual payments.

The odds of winning the jackpot at 1 in 290,472,336, according to Mega Millions.

Mega Millions is played in 45 states, Washington, D.C., and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Tickets are $5 for one play.

The largest Mega Millions jackpot prize ever won was $1.6 billion prize won on Aug. 8, 2023.

Drone crashes in Romania as Russia attacks Ukraine, defense ministry says

November 11, 2025 by WDNY Radio

(LONDON) — A drone crashed on the territory of NATO member Romania during Russia’s overnight attack on Ukrainian targets along the Danube River, the country’s defense ministry said in a statement on Tuesday.

Radars “signaled the presence of groups of drones in the area neighboring the national airspace, which led to the preventive activation of air defense systems,” the ministry said in a statement posted to its website.

One “aerial vehicle” was reported impacting in the Grindu area, around 3 miles south of the shared border, the ministry said.

“Teams made up of military personnel went on-site and reported the presence of possible drone fragments,” it added. “The area was secured and investigations are to be conducted in the early hours.”

“Weather conditions in the southeast of the country prevented the aircraft conducting air policing missions from scrambling,” the ministry said of its air force assets.

Alert messages were sent to residents of Romania’s northern Tulcea County, along the Danube River which forms the border with Ukraine, the ministry said. On the other side of the river, “a large number of explosions were observed” around the port of Izmail, it added.

The drone incursion came as Ukraine defended another night of intense Russian attacks. Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 119 drones of various types into the country overnight, of which 53 were shot down or suppressed.

The air force said 59 drones impacted across 18 locations, with drone debris reported falling in one location.

The Odesa region — which borders Romania to the west and encompasses Ukraine’s Danube River ports — was among the main targets of Monday night’s barrage, the air force said.

Russian drone and missile incursions into Romanian airspace have become a relatively common occurrence as Moscow expands its long-range strikes into Ukraine.

Romania’s Defense Ministry told ABC News in September that it had recorded at least 11 violations of the country’s airspace by drones since the start of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

A ministry spokesperson said there had been approximately 50 attacks involving Russian drones on Ukrainian territory near Romania’s borders up until mid-September, of which 30 saw drone debris falling on Romanian territory.

Such incidents have become “almost routine” for Romanians, Constantin Spinu, a former spokesperson for Romania’s Defense Ministry, told ABC News.

“There is a war going on right across the border, so this situation is no longer a surprise for Romanian public opinion,” he added.

The Defense Ministry and wider government, though, “are taking this very seriously,” Spinu added.

Repeated incursions of Russian projectiles have prompted questions as to NATO’s readiness to defend its airspace. In September, Poland became the first NATO nation to shoot down Russian drones over its territory.

Romania is yet to down any intruding Russian munitions. “There is always a risk-benefit calculus — and that is to be sometimes in seconds,” Spinu said. “Whenever you shoot something in the air, you have to take into consideration that you might not hit the target and your projectile can be a danger.”

As NATO scrambles to revitalize its military-industrial base and refill its arsenals, there is also the question of resources.

“You don’t use an F-35 missile or an F-16 missile that costs millions” against a relatively cheap drone, Spinu said. “But should that €2,000 drone represent a real danger for the population, I think it is worth using a multi-million piece of equipment.”

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