Showing the strain

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  • A mural decorates a downtown parking garage in Huntsville, Ala., Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2019. Economic statistics lag real-time events, so it’s hard to gauge the effects of a partial government shutdown that’s been going on less than a month. But in Huntsville, a city of about 195,000 people where more than 5,000 workers are affected by the closure, frustration and worry are building. (David Goldman/AP)
  • Michael Northern, vice president of WJP Restaurant Group, stands next to an empty table at dinnertime at Rocket City Tavern near numerous federal agencies in Huntsville, Ala., Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2019. “It’s a fog with no end in sight,” Northern said. The lunch crowd is still OK, he adds, but dinner dollars have dried up and business is off at least 35 percent. “People are just going home and nesting, trying to conserve resources,” Northern said. (David Goldman/AP)
  • A worker walks through the empty lobby of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ National Center for Explosives Training and Research in Huntsville, Ala., Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2019. About 70 federal agencies are located at the Army’s sprawling Redstone Arsenal, and more than half the area economy is tied to Washington spending. (David Goldman/AP)
  • Katie Barron watches a rebroadcast of President Donald Trump’s address to the nation on the partial government shutdown as she works from home in Madison, Ala., Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2019. Barron works for a private company not connected to the government but her husband is a National Weather Service meteorologist forced to work without pay because his job is classified as essential. (David Goldman/AP)
  • A parking lot is empty at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, which has been impacted by the partial federal government shutdown at the Army’s Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Ala., Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2019. The influx of people and federal dollars that arrived with NASA transformed the city into a technical and engineering hub that only grew as Army missile programs expanded on the base. (David Goldman/AP)
  • A worker monitors research operations aboard the International Space Station from NASA’s Payload Operations Integration Center in Huntsville, Ala., Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2019. With parts of the government closed, the jobs of some 800,000 workers hang in the balance. A little more than half are still working without pay, and hundreds of thousands will miss paychecks Friday. (David Goldman/AP)
  • A worker cleans the floors at NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, which has been impacted by the partial federal government shutdown at the Army’s Redstone Arsenal in Huntsville, Ala., Wednesday, Jan. 9, 2019. Located at the base of a mountain in the lush Tennessee Valley, Huntsville was just another Alabama city until the government decided to build rockets at Redstone Arsenal at the dawn of the space race. (David Goldman/AP)