Politics

Government Shutdown Orders Increasingly Ignored By Private Citizens, Local, State Agencies

Staying open

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Call them the shut-down rebels: Individuals, businesses, cities and state agencies that are defying federal orders to shut down and go home. They are taking a page from the playbook of veterans who last week ignored "closed" signs at the WWII Memorial and–figuratively speaking—jumped the barricades.

In North Carolina, Bruce O'Connell on Friday defied U.S. Park Service orders telling him to close down his inn and restaurant. O'Connell and his 90-year-old mother own the Pisgah Inn on the Blue Ridge Parkway southwest of Asheville. Though the Inn is private, it sits on federal park land and is thus subject to Park Service orders.