More than 40 million low-income food assistance beneficiaries are expected to receive less help with grocery bills — or no help at all — in the coming days.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is threatening to withhold billions of dollars in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) contingency funding, which Congress has already allocated for emergency scenarios, if the government shutdown stretches into November.

There is between $5 billion and $6 billion currently in that fund, experts say. That’s not enough to cover the estimated $8 billion in SNAP benefits due out next month, but it would allow for partial payments to help low-income Americans defray food costs. 

On Friday, however, the USDA released guidance saying it won’t use those funds to cover SNAP benefits if the government shutdown extends beyond Oct. 31 — a move that appears designed to maximize the pressure on Senate Democrats to support a GOP spending bill to reopen the government.

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It was, on occasion, used by presidents to rehearse important speeches such as the State of the Union address; and at other times, as a spot for visitors to dump their hats, bags and coats. But for more than 80 years, the White House movie theater was mostly a place where the first family and their guests went for entertainment.

Demolition began this week of the White House Family Theater — along with the rest of the White House's East Wing where the snug, shoe-box-shaped auditorium was located — to make way for a new $300 million ballroom. It marks the end of an era in American movie theater history.

Since its conversion from a cloakroom by Franklin Roosevelt in 1942, the private, 40-ish-seat theater has screened everything from newsreels and documentaries to westerns and musicals. It has been through several facelifts, most recently ditching cream and red floral curtains, and beige walls and seating for all-round "movie-palace red" ornamented with goldSince its conversion from a cloakroom by Franklin Roosevelt in 1942, the private, 40-ish-seat theater has screened everything from newsreels and documentaries to westerns and musicals. It has been through several facelifts, most recently ditching cream and red floral curtains, and beige walls and seating for all-round "movie-palace red" ornamented with gold molding and dark wood trim following a renovation overseen by first lady Laura Bush in 2004. molding and dark wood trim following a renovation overseen by first lady Laura Bush in 2004.

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There are many ways to characterize Proposition 50, the single ballot initiative that Californians will be voting on this election season.

You could say it’s about redrawing congressional district lines outside the regular once-a-decade schedule. You could say, more precisely, that it’s about counterbalancing Republican efforts to engineer congressional seats in their favor in Texas and elsewhere with a gerrymander that favors the Democrats. You could, like the measure’s detractors, call it a partisan power grab that risks undermining 15 years of careful work to make California’s congressional elections as fair and competitive as possible.

\The way California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, and the Democrats are selling it to voters, though, boils down to something much simpler and more visceral: it’s an invitation to raise a middle finger to Donald Trump, a president fewer than 40% of Californians voted for and many loathe – for reasons that extend far beyond his attempts at election manipulation. For that reason alone, the yes campaign believes it is cruising to an easy victory.

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Zohran Mamdani called former Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s latest attacks against him “disgusting” and “racist” in the closing days of the New York City mayor's race, which show Mamdani leading in polls.

Cuomo on Oct. 23 said Mamdani, 34, couldn’t handle a crisis like the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the city nearly 25 years ago. Cuomo, running as an independent, appeared on the conservative radio show, “Sid and Friends in the Morning,” the morning after a heated final debate with Mamdani, the Democratic nominee and a member of the state Assembly, and Republican Curtis Sliwa.

“God forbid, another 9/11, can you imagine Mamdani in the seat?” Cuomo, 67, asked.

“I could,” host Sid Rosenberg said. “He’d be cheering.”

After laughing, Cuomo responded, “That’s another problem.”

Mamdani, a democratic socialist state assemblyman, would be the first Muslim mayor in New York City history if polls hold until the Nov. 4 general election. Nearly one in 10 New Yorkers are Muslim, and many faced profiling and surveillance in the aftermath of the 2001 attacks. Data also indicates rising Islamophobia.

TVNL Comment:  You would think there was no place in NYC for Islamophobia.  Yeah, you'd think so, but apparently racism is alive and well here.   Don't let it get to you, Assemblyman Mamdani.  We really are better than this, with a few obvious exceptions.

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