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Sept. 30, 2025, 8:49 PM EDTBy Monica Alba and Raquel Coronell UribeWASHINGTON — National parks will remain partially open during the government shutdown set to begin Wednesday, according to an Interior Department contingency plan posted Tuesday evening.Open-air sites will remain open to the public, but buildings that require staffing, such as visitor centers or sites like the Washington Monument, will be closed. Health and safety will continue to be addressed for sites that remain operational, meaning restrooms will be open and trash will be collected, the Interior Department said.The contingency plans specify that park roads, lookouts, trails and open-air memorials will stay open but emergency services will be limited. The department added that if public access begins to pose a safety, health or resource protection issue, an area must close.Critical Senate vote fails as shutdown deadline looms02:02The contingency plan says that about 64% of the National Park Service workforce is set to be furloughed and that those kept on would perform “excepted” activities, such as law enforcement or emergency response, border and coastal protection and surveillance, and fire suppression and monitoring.The published plans come hours before a funding lapse across the federal government. Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought told agencies in a memo Tuesday night to begin implementing their shutdown plans.Recent shutdowns led to confusion about the public’s access to national parks. During the last shutdown, in his first term, President Donald Trump ordered parks to remain open. Trails and outdoor sites stayed open ,and some staff members stayed on to clean restrooms and empty trash cans.Still, many park employees were furloughed, resulting in trash piling up and restrooms filling up with human waste. Some parks, including California’s Joshua Tree, eventually had to close because of damage made by unsupervised visitors.That shutdown was the longest in U.S. history, lasting 34 days.During the 2013 shutdown, the park service took a different approach to park access. At the time, park gates were closed and bathrooms were locked. Trash went uncollected, and fencing went up around some sites, like the Lincoln Memorial.In both shutdowns, there was more notice about the plan, whereas the contingency plans published Tuesday night came just hours before a shutdown.The park service workforce, which could experience significant furloughs, is already more depleted than usual. The National Parks Conservation Association, an advocacy organization, estimated in July that the park service lost 24% of its permanent staff as a consequence of the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce the federal workforce through the Department of Government Efficiency.The park service reinstated a number of purged employees, however, The Associated Press reported this month.The park service did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday night on the number of job cuts and how many people were rehired.The National Parks Conservation Association said Monday that the impacts of keeping parks open last time were “disastrous” and that some parks suffered damage that took months or even years to recover from.“A government shutdown would leave our parks understaffed and vulnerable, putting our most cherished places and millions of visitors at risk. If a national park has a gate or door, it must be locked until a funding deal is reached and our parks can be staffed and protected,” it said in a news release.Meanwhile, a letter signed by more than 40 former park superintendents urged Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to close parks, too, arguing that keeping them open during past shutdowns caused harm to them and jeopardized visitor safety.“If you don’t act now, history is not just doomed to repeat itself, the damage could in fact be much worse,” the letter said.Monica AlbaMonica Alba is a White House correspondent for NBC News.Raquel Coronell UribeRaquel Coronell Uribe is a breaking news reporter. 

- Latest News - October 1, 2025

Open-air sites will remain open to the public, but buildings that require staffing, such as visitor centers or attractions like the Washington Monument, will be closed.

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Sept. 30, 2025, 9:13 PM EDTBy Tim StellohThe sister of a Texas man whose wife allegedly killed him with a fatal dose of insulin testified Tuesday that before his 2023 death she’d grown increasingly worried about him after learning of Sarah Hartsfield’s ominous past.Jeannie Hartsfield took the stand in a courtroom east of Houston on the first day of testimony in Sarah Hartsfield’s murder trial in the death of Joseph Hartsfield, 46, and described learning of an alleged murder plot targeting another husband.The revelation came after Sarah Hartsfield, who has pleaded not guilty in Joseph Hartsfield’s death, disclosed to her sister-in-law that she’d also fatally shot a former partner in self-defense, Jeannie Hartsfield testified.Sarah Hartsfield in court.Rebeccah Glaser / DatelineThe sibling initially didn’t think much about the self-defense shooting, she testified. But she said she grew very concerned after Sarah Hartsfield told her that she’d been investigated by the FBI in an alleged murder plot.“Things didn’t seem right,” Jeannie Hartsfield said from the stand. More on Sarah HeartsfieldAfter 5-time bride is charged in husband’s murder, other deaths get a fresh lookSarah Hartsfield’s marriages and romances often ended under grim circumstancesMurder suspect’s son has been waiting for his mom’s arrest his whole lifeHartsfield fatally shot her fiancé in 2018The apparent plot referred to allegations that Sarah Hartsfield attempted to enlist her fourth husband to kill her third husband’s new wife in Sierra Vista, Arizona.The allegations, which Sarah Hartsfield has denied, were made by the third husband, Christopher Donohue, in an affidavit in support of a protection order that he filed in 2021. The fourth husband, David George, has said that he had no intention of carrying out the murder.A spokesman for the Sierra Vista Police Department has previously said a federal agent asked the department to monitor Donohue’s home with a “close patrol.” No charges were filed in the case. The FBI has not commented on the case.Donohue and George have both been subpoenaed to testify in Sarah Hartsfield’s murder trial.The self-defense shooting referred to the 2018 killing of Sarah Hartsfield’s fiancé, David Bragg. During a bond hearing in 2023, Sarah Hartsfield testified that she fatally shot Bragg in self-defense after an argument over her third husband’s decision to visit their children in Minnesota outside of normal visitation. After Sarah Hartsfield’s indictment in Joseph Hartsfield’s death, the county attorney who cleared her in Bragg’s killing — he previously said she had “no reasonable possibility of retreating” — said the case was “active” again. Victim Joseph Hartsfield.KPRCDouglas County Attorney Chad Larson has not responded to requests for comment on the status of that investigation.Tuesday’s testimony came after prosecutors began laying out their case against Sarah Hartsfield, described by Chambers County Assistant District Attorney Mallory Vargas as a performer whose “true identity” was concealed by her whirlwind relationship with Joseph Hartsfield.Within a year, the prosecutor said, the pair’s relationship had soured. As Joseph Hartsfield was preparing to leave her, Vargas alleged, Sarah Hartsfield intentionally caused his death.Officials have said that Joseph Hartsfield — who had diabetes — died on Jan. 15, 2023, from complications of toxic effects of insulin, the life-saving medicine that helps regulate blood sugar and has been used as a difficult-to-detect murder weapon. Joseph Hartsfield’s manner of death was listed as undetermined. Defense lawyer Case Darwin said that prosecutors were “telling a story” and suggested that Joseph Hartsfield’s death could be linked to poor management of his health issues. He didn’t take care of himself, Darwin said, and he’d previously been hospitalized for diabetes-related complications. Joseph Hartsfield had administered his own insulin, Darwin said, and there was no evidence showing who gave him the fatal dose.Sarah Hartsfield talks a lot, Darwin said, and she is “adamant she didn’t do this.”Tim StellohTim Stelloh is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital.Susan Leibowitz contributed.

- Latest News - October 1, 2025

The sister of a Texas man whose wife allegedly killed him with a fatal dose of insulin testified Tuesday that before his 2023 death she’d grown increasingly worried about him.

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Sept. 30, 2025, 10:07 AM EDT / Updated Sept. 30, 2025, 8:50 PM EDTBy Scott Wong, Frank Thorp V and Kyle StewartWASHINGTON — The federal government is barreling toward a shutdown Tuesday night, with President Donald Trump and Democratic leaders engaged in a fierce blame game and trading insults about each other.Hours before the midnight deadline, the Senate on Tuesday gaveled out for the evening with plans to return on Wednesday. A shutdown is all but assured to begin after midnight.It’s unclear where the parties go from here. The Senate Tuesday evening voted down competing Republican and Democratic plans to stave off a shutdown.House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., said he hoped the defeat of the GOP bill — for a second time this month — “will open lines of communications” with Republicans. That has not yet happened.“Leader Schumer and I have made clear we are ready, willing and able to sit down and with anyone, anytime, any place to fund the government and to address the Republican health care crisis,” Jeffries said shortly before the Senate votes.Senate fails to pass funding bill, shutdown imminent00:36Bipartisan talks have been at a standstill in the 24 hours since the Big Four congressional leaders met with Trump at the White House Monday.The impacts of a shutdown would be felt by many. None of the millions of federal workers would be paid, and hundreds of thousands of them would be furloughed. In recent days, White House officials had tried to allow military personnel to continue receiving pay during a shutdown, according to a source familiar with the discussions, but those efforts were unsuccessful. So service members wouldn’t be paid during a shutdown, either.And the White House has threatened to fire federal workers in a shutdown as well. Asked Tuesday morning how many government employees his administration would lay off, Trump responded: “Well, we may do a lot, and that’s only because of the Democrats.”The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated Tuesday that a government shutdown would lead to the furlough of about 750,000 federal employees.Responding to Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, who asked for the assessment, the CBO said of the furloughed workers: The “total daily cost of their compensation would be roughly $400 million. The number of furloughed employees could vary by the day because some agencies might furlough more employees the longer a shutdown persists and others might recall some initially furloughed employees.”Federal agencies, including the Defense and State departments, have already posted their plans for how they will operate.In the final hours before a shutdown, the two parties traded insults rather than serious proposals.Trump shared a crude post on Truth Social Monday night that showed Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., with fake AI-generated audio, saying Democrats “have no voters anymore, because of our woke, trans bulls—” and that if they give undocumented immigrants health care, they would vote for his party.The post depicted Jeffries wearing a sombrero and a mustache as he stood silently by Schumer’s side. Mariachi music played in the background.The video referenced a Trump talking point that Democrats are demanding health care for undocumented immigrants in exchange for their votes to keep the government open. Democrats have called that a lie. They have pushed to extend expiring Obamacare subsidies and to undo Trump’s Medicaid cuts, not to pay for health care for people who are in the country illegally.Schumer responded to the video on X, writing: “If you think your shutdown is a joke, it just proves what we all know: You can’t negotiate. You can only throw tantrums.”Jeffries had tough words for Trump during a news conference on the steps of the Capitol on Tuesday morning. “Mr. President, next time you have something to say about me, don’t cop out through a racist and fake AI video,” Jeffries said, surrounded by dozens of rank-and-file Democrats. “When I’m back in the Oval Office, say it to my face.”The House leader also shared a photo on X of Trump with Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender. “This is real,” Jeffries wrote above the photo, which was taken at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in 1997. (Trump has said he and Epstein had a falling out, and he was unaware of the financier’s crimes.)The personal insults indicated that the two sides were nowhere close to an agreement to keep the government’s lights on past Tuesday’s deadline.“It looks to me like we’re headed for a shutdown,” said Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., earlier Tuesday. “And you know me, I’m the most optimistic person you know.”High-stakes White House meeting as government shutdown deadline looms02:18Political theater dominated on Tuesday. Democrats filed onto the House floor during a pro forma session as the party’s top appropriator, Rep. Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut, attempted to offer her party’s plan to keep the government open. But Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Va., who was presiding, did not acknowledge her and quickly adjourned. “Shame on you!” some Democrats jeered at Griffith. Democrats on the floor had a poster with Speaker Mike Johnson’s face on it and the words: “Missing Person.” Johnson, R-La., was in the Capitol on Tuesday and attended the Trump meeting a day earlier. But the House left town Sept. 19 after passing a seven-week funding bill and is not set to return until Oct. 7. By Tuesday evening, the GOP-controlled Senate made a last-gasp attempt to avert a shutdown but came up short. The upper chamber voted down competing Democratic and Republican funding plans, a repeat of earlier this month when the same bills failed to reach the 60-vote threshold needed to pass.The GOP bill had cleared the House on a party-line 217-212 vote on Sept. 19, but it was rejected Tuesday in the Senate 55-45, shy of the 60 votes needed to break a Democratic filibuster. Three members of the Democratic Caucus — Sens. John Fetterman, D-Pa., Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., and Angus King, I-Maine — joined Republicans in voting yes; just one Republican, Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, voted no with Democrats.The rival Democratic bill to fund the government was also rejected, on a party-line 47-53 vote.If a shutdown occurs, “that’s a sad day for the country, it truly is. We have to find a better solution,” said Fetterman, who voted for both bills. “As a senator, I think that’s one of our core responsibilities, keep the government open … and then debate and figure out some kind of compromise.”Republicans have argued that Democrats could avert a shutdown by simply voting for the House-passed continuing resolution, or CR, which would fund the government at current levels through Nov. 21.But Democrats said they are trying to stave off a looming “health care crisis.” Specifically, Democrats want any CR to include an extension of Obamacare subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year. They have also pushed for rolling back some of the cuts and changes to Medicaid that were enacted in Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” earlier this year.Speaking to reporters in the Capitol after Monday’s meeting with Trump, Schumer said Trump appeared to be “not aware” of the impacts of expiring Obamacare subsidies on everyday Americans. And he urged Trump to try to convince GOP leaders on Capitol Hill to back a deal to extend those subsidies.”It’s now in the president’s hands,” Schumer said, with Jeffries at his side. “He can avoid a shutdown if he gets the Republican leaders to go along with what we want.”Scott WongScott Wong is a senior congressional reporter for NBC News. Frank Thorp VFrank Thorp V is a producer and off-air reporter covering Congress for NBC News, managing coverage of the Senate.Kyle StewartKyle Stewart is a producer and off-air reporter covering Congress for NBC News, managing coverage of the House.Brennan Leach, Gabrielle Khoriaty and Sahil Kapur contributed.

- Latest News - October 1, 2025

The federal government is barreling toward a shutdown tonight, with President Donald Trump and Democratic leaders engaged in a blame game and trading insults.

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