welcome to al jazeera america, i'm stephanie, here are the stories we're following for you. government shutdown at a stand still. millions of people logged in, but not everyone gets signed up for government-backed health care. >> only a hoax. a florida airport reopens after reports of suspicious packages. ♪ there is no indication that hundreds of thousands of furloughed federal employees will return to work any time soon. there is no compromise yet on

the federal government shutdown. here are the latest headlines. the white house says president obama has canceled upcoming visits to malaysia and the philippines. the house and senate are back in session. house republicans plan to keep pushing bills to reopen certain parts of the government. and some lawmakers say the shutdown could last for weeks, as congressional leaders are still playing the blame game. >> there is a way for us to work through our differences, and we agree on an awful lot, and as was seen by the war spending bill for the troops that the president signed into law, there are some things we can build on and agree on so the disagreements don't get in the way. >> this is about defunding the affordable care act on a day when millions of people are logging in to find out how they can enroll. it's really a remarkable

historic day where people can receive the promise of our founders of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. >> don't wait. don't delay. don't put our economy or our people through this any longer. i am more than happy to work with them on all kinds of issues. >> randall pinkston joining us live from washington on the latest. good morning any progress to report? >> unfortunately no signs of progress. matter of fact the situation could become more complicated as the nation faces the debt ceiling later this month. the shoutdown is expected to furlough 800,000 federal workers across the nation, including tax checktors and food inspectors. >> i don't understand why the activity of the government

should be stopped because of concerns about one aspect of legislation. >> reporter: the nation's capitol is being hit hard by the shutdown because tourism here is big business. visitors spend $6 billion a year, generating more than 70,000 jobs. from national parks to national museums here in the district it was the same story, doors shut, tourists disappointed. you are taking a bike tour here. was this part of your plan? >> no it wasn't. we just thought since we didn't get into the federally run government buildings this would be the next best way to see what is here. >> reporter: virginia settled for a snapshot out of the smithsonian. >> our son who lives in oregon his job even though he works for the county, he could not work

today because they use the communication system of the federal government, so it is amazing how many people in far-reaching areas of our country, and i would assume the world are effected. >> reporter: amazing and at the world war ii memorial, rather ironic, men who fought for their country had to fight to visit the memorial built to honor them. >> let's hope they solve it and don't hurt too many people. >> reporter: for however long the shutdown lasts. they are trying again to cherry pick some federal agencies for funding. that bill died yesterday, and they are expecting the same thing to happen today, but the republicans are saying it is their attempt to show that democrats really want the shutdown. >> and we're really starting to see the effects of this on the ground. the last shutdown was the longest ever, it dragged on for three weeks, is there a chance this could be longer?

>> possibly as long. we heard from house budget chairman yesterday, paul bebrya that he is talk about combining this impasse with the debt ceiling to try to force a compromise on the affordable care act. so that would be towards the end of the month or longer. so maybe we're looking at a new record. >> randall thank you. and we're going to go live to a press conference held by senate democrats on the federal government shutdown. let's listen in. >> good morning, i want to thank my colleagues for joining me today, senator boxer, i know senator mccain is also with us in spirit. but i particularly want to thank our federal employees that are here who would prefer to be at work today but have been

furloughed for being -- joining us to talk firsthand about what the shutdown of government means. on october 1st, the congress has not passed the budget, the regular order is to pass a resolution that allows government to stay hope as we continue to negotiate budgets for the different agencies. that is the regular order. that's what the united states senate did in sending that resolution over to the house of representatives. due to the reckless behavior of the republicans in the house, they refused to allow a vote on the resolution we passed over, and as a result of the republicans' actions, we have a government shutdown. this government shutdown is hurting. it's hurting our economy. and there have been lots of projections about the impact it has on our economy, $15 million

a day lost in my own state of maryland. it's hurting the taxpayers. the last shutdown was estimated to cost the tax payers $2 billion. there have been a whole litany of vital services that have not been able to be provided as a result of the shutdown, and it's working our federal workers, over 800,000 have been furloughed as a result. in my state of maryland it's estimated that 124,000 federal employees have been furloughed and are not allowed to come in. obviously this is hurting individuals as well as hurting our local economy and our national economy. these are real people. they are not numbers. you hear the numbers, but real people's lives have been effected by this government shutdown. let me introduce one of those

individuals marcelo del canto. he has been a federal employees for eight years. a budget analyst at the substance abuse and mental health services administration. lives in maryland, works in rockville, maryland. marcelo. >> thank you. having been a budget analyst, my job has been to ensure that all of the gront -- grants and contracts that we fund to help the people who suffer from mental illness and substance abuse problems is funded. as a budget analyst i did not have this in my budget to be furlough. my wife is also furloughed.

this has a devastating impact to have both of us furloughed right now. the job that we do is very important. and there's millions of people that need our services that cannot receive those services today. i speak for myself and my colleagues when i tell you, we need to get this work done. we need to get back to work, and we need to do it now. this has gone on long enough, and we need to get back to work and provide the services that these people need and depend on us to provide. please end this and get us back to work. >> senator barbara mccullski my colleague from maryland. >> we're in the second day of a government shutdown because of slam-down politics. we need to reopen the federal government. the house needs to act. they need to pass the

resolution, take up and pass the legislation sent by the senate that strips a continuing funding resolution of all political motivated riders, have a continuing funding resolution for the next six weeks so we can resolve our fiscal differences, reopen government, keep america's government working so that other people can be working, and keep our people safe and secure. we call upon speaker boehner, let your members vote on the senate legislation. yes or no. if you vote yes, we can move forward. if you vote no, let's take another look at it. let's get the job done. now there are people all over who are federal employees who have been furloughed. furloughed is a word that means

layoff. furlough means layoff. 800,000 americans, well trained, well educated, who show up every day to keep america working so america can be safe, secure, and also meet compelling human need. in my own home state we see it. we see it at the national institutes of health where 71% of the people are furloughed. these are the people who come to work every day, and they range from the great researchers with m.d.'s and phd's to lab technicians making $35,000 to the facility managers, the electricians, the others who keep the lights on -- >> that is senator barbara m mbs -- mccull ski of maryland talking about the effects of the government shutdown according by

a worker who called the shutdown devastating to his family. stocks are sinking, the dow trading down 108 points at this hour. investors are worried the stale meat in washington won't end quickly. when the treasury runs out of money later this month, economists say that would be much more devastating to the economy. if the government shutdown lasts for several days or weeks, furloughed federal workers won't be collecting a paycheck. the average policy of a government please is 70,950 dollars. but not every federal employee earns that much. let's look at the wages for workers at the museums and park services. on average they make $30,920 a year. the shutdown means more than 400

national parks, monuments and sites are closed. visitors staying at mount are near national work have one more day to get out, but as tanya shows us, no one can get in. >> reporter: there is trouble in paradis paradise. the mountain has been hit by an early snow storm. and park visitors are being turned away. ann and her family planned their two-week vacation months ago. flying in from forth meyers, florida. >> our own government is holding us hostage because they can't figure out how to deal with the situation. >> the please are now

furloughed. >> we aren't going to have adequate staffing on to be able to provide the type of access, the type of services or certainly to respond to emergencies that people do get into here. >> reporter: only essential staff and law enforcement are staying on. no one knows if they will get paid for their work. mount raneir is beautiful. the impact spans well beyond the park and its please. businesses like this one outside of the park have notified workers their hours be cut. and they may have to close. >> this whole thing is ridiculous. >> i feel bad for everybody working here too. coming down, i thought they can't do that. >> pat and anthony stay at the longmire inn has been cut short.

thursday the inn will close and all of the visitors asked to leave. >> oh, boy. >> reporter: back at park heard quarters the superintendent is also being furloughed. >> the parks belong to the people, and to not be able to open then that's a very sad situation for the country. >> reporter: in the park's 104 year history, it has only closed four times, two of them now for government shutdowns. the bureau of the interior says it will lose $450,000 in entry fees each day all of the parks are closed. the rollout of the affordable care act hit a glitch. alan has the story. >> reporter: washington is one of the 16 states running their own insurance exchanges and the ceo has warned us all in recent

days that there might be some bumps in the road. sure enough on roll out day there was quite a bump. this woman drove more than an hour to get help enrolling in a new health plan, but where she regularly comes for care, she didn't get very far. we spoke to her through an interpreter. >> translator: it's difficult for me that if i do not get this insurance to cover my health, and i'm not able to get all of the medication that i need. >> reporter: the state's insurance exchange website was overwhelmed by users shortly after it went online, put into maintenance mode while they worked on it. more than 50 volunteers at this hospital went through training to help the patient navigate the websites. but they got the same rude online welcome. sgloovrjs came into the office

and tried to access it myself and little disappointed. >> reporter: this issal level one trauma center, a place with the patients use the emergency room as a drop-in doctor's office. they hope the affordable care act can change that. >> for many of them this will be the first time in their adult life that they have had any kind of coverage at all. >> in mid-afternoon the website came back up, but didn't function smoothly, and they admitted that some users would continue experiencing problems. for this woman it was a disappointing today. she still doesn't have solid answers about enrollment. >> translator: very excited, and i also worry that i'm not able to get it. >> reporter: the state has eight approved insurers shopping 46 different insurance plans and the website is the doorway to

all of that information. right now the door is shut and the closed sign is out. the website has been taken down for tweaking. we don't know when it will be back up again. a team of weapons inspectors is now in syria. the arms monitors will begin finding and destroying these chemical weapons stockpile. their location is being kept secret for safety reasons. officials in florida make an arrest after an airport scare. police say the man is behind the hoax that caused the jacksonville airport evacuation.

come, it is here. >> yes, let the games begin. he is fighting for his baseball life and some $46 million. a-rod and all of his attorneys were there fighting his 211-game suspension. the hearing is expected to last less than five days, after that the group will decide to uphold, reduce, or overturn the suspension. if the suspension is upheld, rodriguez would lose some $32 million in salary, and he wouldn't be back on the field until he is 40 years old. the big story tonight, people, the rays will be taking on the

rangers in a tiebreaker in arlington, so we decided to bring in our mlb columnist rob parker. the soul survivor of a colorado mountain rock slide is alive today investigators said because her dad shielded her from the car-sized bolders. a shower of rocks came showering

off of mount princeton on tuesday. officials identified the five victims as duane and donna johnson, their 18-year-old daughter and two nephews. two men are arrested after the jacksonville international airport shutdown to remove suspicious packages. zeljko causevic faces charges, but the other arrest is apparently unrelated. robert what is security like at the airport today? >> good morning. security is strong as you can imagine. an interesting almost 24 hours year, and we have some news to break here, but first let's get to some details. the 39-year-old resident of jacksonville, bosnian born but

u.s. resident said he has a bomb in his backpack. he said i have a fwhom here and inside the backpack he had a device that was supposed to be a bomb but was not. also in the pack a cellular phone that he said was a detonator. the airport was evacuated at about 5:41 p.m. this all went down at about 5:15. the suspect was interviewed, placed under arrest, and booked. let me bring in someone as a guest. this is michael stewart, director of external affairs. you have some new news that just came in, if you could explain what you just learned as we were standing here. >> yeah, the primary suspect who was arrested yesterday was evidently trying to -- had been

trying to talk to the fbi and was unsuccessful in doing that, and thought this might be a good way to get in contact with the fbi. and that's what started the incident yesterday. >> so what is the fbi telling you? what were his motives? >> i don't have any of those details, but he thought it -- in his mind appropriate to get in contact with the fbi by starting an incident at the airport. >> okay. we have a second suspect -- or second person that was arrested yesterday, rather. and you just learned more about that individual. >> this was a person who as we understand had some other issues -- happened to be in the security check point line at the time and when the incident happened, decided to run from the security, causing some suspicion whether he was involved with the first individual, and when he was

stopped and detained he was later interviewed and it was determined by the officers that the two individuals were not related and were not connected with the primary incident. >> michael, i appreciate. thank you for your time. >> thank you. >> so here is the thing. the primary suspect being held without bond, his charges including makes a false report about planting a bomb, selling and delivering a hoax bomb, and according to the arrest report, he is being booked today at 1:00 pm and being held without bond here in jacksonville. so a hoax occurred, no one was injured, flights are back in order, and the airport seems to be getting back in control. all right. tom clansy has died. clansy's wife said he passed away at a hospital in bolt more

this morning. he was perhaps best known for the hunt of red october and patriot games. he was 66 years old. we'll be right back. ♪ on inside story, we bring together unexpected voices closest to the story, invite hard-hitting debate and desenting views and always explore issues relevant to you. ]

♪ i'm meteorologist nicole mitchell i hope you are off to a wonderful wednesday. we have a storm system moving across the northern tier of the country. take a look at this, the northern lights, when park calls from the sun are sent through the atmosphere, when they get into the earth's atmosphere, they create their fabulous light displays, closer to the polls. you typically have to be somewhere like minnesota or alaska to see these. they are spectacular if you can see them. as i mentioned you were kind of lucky that we saw this just last

night, because already we have the cloud shield in minnesota, some rain along with that. this is part of a brood system across the northern tier of the country. still have showers in the pacific northwest, but a lot of this as moved out interior northern rockies, and as this has moved along, we have already had a couple of storm systems recently, that has made things cooler so now where the see the winter storm warners, some of those have lowered enough that they are getting into the valleys so watch that along with wind. showers in the northern midwest, and this is going to cool us down a little bit. we were starting to see this push us a little bit more into

the 50s, but over the next couple of days going from the 70s to 80s into more the 50s, so that's a 20 degree temperature drop by the time we get to the end of the week, and you are really going to feel that. but it looks like we'll rebound this is the outlook for the whole month. and the places where it is orange those are expected to be above average. so most of the country is going to stay with mile temperatures. there is a disturbance through the south, that's enough to trigger showers and storms, watch for that. and what we're really watching this is disturbance just on the mouth of the gulf of mexico. we'll see if this develops into a tropical system, but whether or not it does it could bring moisture to the gulf states as we head to the latter part of the weekend. back to you. >> thank you. and thank you for watching al

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