11:30 LRN Newscast

Three flights at Monroe Regional Airport had to be cancelled today because T-S-A agents did not show up for work. City officials are blaming the federal government shutdown. Over 150 passengers were affected and TSA agents from Shreveport and Alexandria were called in to man the security checkpoint stations in Monroe.

The Sunshine Bridge in St. James Parish will be shut down for the weekend. Matt Doyle has more.
Cut 1 (30) “I’m Matt Doyle.”

About 125 to 150 federal workers in the small Allen Parish town of Oakdale have been without a pay check for a month now, because of the federal government shutdown. Oakdale Mayor Gene Paul says the federal workers he spoke with are not blaming just Democrats or Republicans, but Congress as a whole, because workers shouldn’t be caught up in this dispute over border wall funding…
Cut 4 (09) “…their bills.
Paul says federal workers have received an extension to pay the city’s utility bills.

150 dogs were seized in an animal cruelty bust, and now the St. John the Baptist Animal Shelter is seeking volunteers and donations to help with the influx of abused dogs. Shelter Manager Rachael Sance says the dogs are at a healthy weight, but arrived with a number of ailments.
Cut 6 (13) “…mange.”
Sance says it’s the largest single influx of dogs the shelter has ever seen, the next largest being 40 last year from another cruelty case.