WASHINGTON (AP) — Across America the government’s work ispiling up, and it’s not just paperwork.
It’s old tires and red Solocups littering a stretch of river in Nebraska. Food poisoning microbesawaiting
analysis in Atlanta. The charred wreckage of a plane inCalifornia, preserved in case safety investigators
return.And it’s the dead eagle in Wendi Pencille’s freezer.Pencilletends to injured birds in her upstate New
York home. When a bald eagledies, she sends the federally protected remains to a special eaglerepository
near Denver that ships feathers and carcasses to Indiantribes for their sacred ceremonies.But the federal
bird shippers are on furlough while much of the U.S. government, like her fallen eagle, is on
ice."Icouldn’t send it, because it would just rot in a mailbox somewhere,"said Pencille. So the
volunteer wildlife rehabilitator put the 9-poundbird in the freezer alongside food for the owls, hawks and
two liveeagles recovering at her Medina home."I’d like to get it out of there," Pencille said.
"We definitely need the space."A week into a partial government shutdown, some messy stuff is
stacking up.Toxicwaste is on hold at the Environmental Protection Agency’s Superfundsites, although work
continues at those deemed an imminent threat tohuman life. The federal shutdown is fouling up some state and
localclean-ups, too. For example, volunteers ready to pick up trash onsandbars and islands along 39 miles of
the Missouri River in northeastNebraska were told to stand down when they lost the use of federalboats.The
Labor Department delayed its monthly count of how manypeople are looking for work, which was due Friday and
highly anticipatedby stock traders. The Agriculture Department stopped cranking outtallies of livestock
auctions and crop yields, which are vital numbersto farmers and buyers. The Centers for Disease Control
isn’t trackingthe nation’s flu cases, just as the season is getting started.Other diseases are going
unmonitored, too, such as microbes that could signal a multi-state outbreak of food poisoning.Thestaff of 80
that normally analyze foodborne pathogens sent by stateshas been furloughed down to two. They are
concentrating on looking forthe biggies, such as possible salmonella, E. coli or listeria outbreaks.Other
germs, including shigella and campylobacter, go ignored for now."The blind spots are getting bigger
every day as this goes on," said CDC spokeswoman Barbara Reynolds in Atlanta.Timberwill wait to be
felled if the shutdown lasts much longer, since theForest Service is starting the shutdown of logging
operations this week.IRS refunds and farm subsidy checks are backing up. The future is onhold for some
immigrants, because hearings that could lead to theirdeportation have been postponed.The somber work of
federal safety investigators has nearly come to a standstill.InCalifornia, the wreckage of a private jet
that crashed into a hangar atSanta Monica Airport, killing four people, is being preserved off-sitefor
National Transportation Safety Board investigators who packed up andleft when the shutdown began Oct.
1.Almost all of the board’s400 employees were furloughed, NTSB spokeswoman Kelly Nantel said.Investigators
examining a train collision in Chicago were kept on thejob, however, because of urgent safety concerns
raised by that accident.Comparedwith what furloughed federal workers must deal with, the eagle in herfreezer
is just an inconvenience, Pencille, president of the Bless theBeasts Foundation, said Friday.A bigger worry
for her: What willhappen to wounded eagles and ospreys in the nearby Iroquois NationalWildlife Refuge while
the shutdown keeps hunters and birdwatchers out?"Without people over there," Pencille said of the
birds, "if they get injured, nobody is going to find them."___AssociatedPress writers Mary Claire
Jalonick and Joan Lowy in Washington andJustin Pritchard in Los Angeles contributed to this
report.___Online: Bless the Beasts Foundation: http://blessthebeastsinc.webs.com___Follow Connie Cass on
Twitter: https://twitter.com/ConnieCassCopyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rightsreserved. This
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