Sequestration Effects: Cuts Sting Communities Nationwide

WASHINGTON -- It's now an article of faith that dire sequestration warnings were overblown .

New studies downsize potential job losses because of the federal budget cuts. Agencies have figured ways to ensure that the more alarming effects (no food inspectors! ) are avoided. Government organizations are coming up with methods to delay severe disruptions. Congress isn't debating a replacement. The media have lost interest or have reduced it to a political argument . The economy was supposed to be brought to its knees by the $85 billion in cuts. Instead, we trudge along in a new normal.

This is a dramatic misunderstanding of what's actually happening. The grips of sequestration are just now beginning to be felt and the effects are already quite dramatic.

Organizations and companies have begun laying off workers, while many more have decided not to staff vacant positions. Schools on military bases are contemplating four-day weekly schedules. Food pantries have closed, as have centers that provide health services. Farmers have been forced to go without milk production information, causing alarm in the dairy industry and the potential of higher milk prices. Workers at missile-testing fields are facing job losses. Federal courts have closed on Fridays. Public Broadcasting transmitters have been shut down. Even luxury cruises are feeling the pinch, with passengers forced to wait hours before debarking because of delays at Customs and Immigration. Yes, sequestration is creating the possibility of another poop cruise.

On the national level, sequestration may be defined by canceled White House tours and long lines at airports that never materialized. But on the local level, it is beginning to sting.

"Absolutely we're feeling the effects of it," said Cathy Hoskins, executive director of the Salt Lake Community Action Program, which just closed a food pantry in Murray, Utah. "And our employees are trying to absorb the biggest parts of the cuts by taking furloughs and having the agency contribution to their retirement plan suspended."

"Oh, most definitely" we've felt the cuts, said Michael Jenkins, communications director of the SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium. The group is closing the Bill Brady Healing Center that provides alcohol and drug treatment to Native Alaskans.

The Huffington Post set out to do an extensive review of sequestration stories from the past week, with the goal of finding 100. What seemed like a daunting task was completed in hours. No one region of the country has been immune. Rural towns in Alaska, missile test sites in the Marshall Islands, military bases in Virginia, university towns across the country, and housing agencies in inner cities are all beginning to feel the cuts.

"We are trying not to lay any employees off, but we will have reduced work schedules. We will also close our offices. there will be days when it is closed every month or several times a month," said LaShelle Dozier, the executive director of the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency, whose organization helps families in need cover the cost of rent and is facing a $13.9 million cut this year. "But if we do not come up with some type of solution or remedy by July, it will equate to 1,700 families losing housing vouchers, which is over 4,800 actual tenants."

Like Dozier, many officials now grappling with how to handle sequester cuts have used budget trickery and operational dexterity to postpone the pain. But sequestration still is very real to them and, more significantly, the people and communities they serve.

"The bulk of our families are disabled," Dozier noted. "Over 60 percent of our families -- either the head of the household or someone else -- is disabled."

Dozier's story and 99 others from the past week are below.

1. Air Force base jobs lost in Tullahoma, Tenn. -- The Aerospace Testing Alliance announced it is cutting 128 of 1,809 civilian jobs at Arnold Air Force Base in Tullahoma starting April 19. It has also put in place a 20 percent pay cut and weekly furloughs for workers at a research facility. [Link ]

2. Loss of jobs in Rock Island, Ill. -- The U.S. Army garrison, Rock Island Arsenal, announced that it is firing 175 employees, 44 of whom are temporary workers, 131 of whom will see their jobs unrenewed when their terms expire. [Link ]

3. Medical response times lengthened in central Nebraska. -- Medical responders have had response times lengthened because of the closing of a control tower at the Central Nebraska Regional Airport. [Link ]

4. Food pantry closed in Murray, Utah. -- The Salt Lake Community Action Program closed its food pantry, one of five locations that serve more than 1,000 people every month. Executive Director Cathy Hoskins told The Huffington Post that in addition to the closure, the organization has stopped paying into employees' retirement plans, won't fill an open job and told some staffers to take a week's unpaid leave. "I've had one person retire, we're not replacing them. We're not doing any hiring at all," Hoskins said. "We're trying very hard to boost our volunteers, but this is hard work working in a pantry. And if you get a volunteer, usually it's a short-term volunteer because it's just very very difficult work. ... No raises, no increases, none of that stuff. We're cutting everything we possibly can." [Link ]

5. Research employees lost in Durham, N.C. -- The Duke Clinical Research Institute is planning to "downsize" 50 employees. [Link ]

6. Contractor jobs lost in southwest Oklahoma. -- Northrop Grumman Information Systems Lawton, Okla., site issued 26 layoff notices. The defense contractor CGI is anticipating that sequestration would affect 270 workers at its Lawton site. [Link ]

7. Health care jobs cut in Hampton Roads, Va. -- Officials at Hampton Roads Planning District Commission announce that 1,600 jobs in the region's health care sector will disappear. "It won't be job cuts," said James A. Clary, an economist with the group. "It will be not filling the positions." [Link ]

8. Health care workers laid off in Saranac Lake, N.Y. -- Adirondack Health, a medical center at Lake Placid, announced that was laying off 18 workers after firing 17 in December. [Link ]

9. Rehabilitation center for Native Americans closed in Sitka, Alaska. -- The SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium announced that on April 30, it is closing the Bill Brady Healing Center, a residential drug and alcohol treatment center for Alaska Natives. Michael Jenkins, communications director, said the approximately 20 people who work there will be transferred to other positions in the organization, furloughed or fired. "For the most part, because of our location here in southeast, alcohol and drug abuse has a very high incidence. So taking this away is going to make it difficult," he said. [Link ]

10. Education jobs lost in Sioux City, Iowa. -- The Iowa Early Intervention education program is bracing for the loss of 11 teaching positions, while the Sioux City Community School Board is looking at potentially 30 staff positions being eliminated. [Link ]

11. Convention industry suffers nationwide. -- The cancellation of government trade shows and the reduction of private travel has begun taking a hit on the convention venue industry. [Link ]

12. Tourism jobs take a hit in Savannah, Ga. -- Fort Pulaski National Monument announced that it was hiring fewer seasonal employees this summer to deal with $68,000 in sequestration cuts. "It will have an impact," Acting Superintendent Terri Wales told The Huffington Post. "We will lose one permanent positions and our staff is only 16. We will be short a couple seasonal positions this summer. we won't be able to perform as many interpretive programs as we do in the summer months. Our grass will be growing a little higher." [Link ]

13. Workers furloughed in Syracuse, N.Y. -- The Hancock Field Air National Guard Base will furlough 280 workers in the coming months and Syracuse city schools will lose over $1 million. [Link ]

14. Cuts to workers at a missile-testing site in the Marshall Islands. -- The U.S. ambassador to the Marshall Islands has been told that 15 percent of the workforce at the Reagan Test Site at Kwajalein Atoll could lose jobs. [Link ]

15. Families that rely on Head Start targeted in Bethlehem, Pa. -- Allentown-based Community Services for Children has warned that 100 children in Lehigh Valley could lose their place in the Head Start program there. [Link ]

16. Meals on Wheels cut in central Maine. -- Spectrum Generations, central Maine's agency on aging, will essentially have to cut 9 percent of its budget, meaning that programs like Meals on Wheels may not deliver to all the seniors who rely on it. [Link ]

17. Fewer staffers for Head Start in Rio Grande Valley, Texas. -- A local Head Start chapter froze the hiring of 19 staff positions in order to meet sequester cut demands. [Link ]

18. Medical jobs at risk in Providence, R.I. -- Lifespan, the nonprofit parent of major medical facilities including Rhode Island Hospital association, acknowledged significant budget problems caused, in part, by sequestration. The funding issues could reportedly result in the loss of 3,000 jobs at that association by 2021. [Link ]

19. Shorter school week at Fort Bragg, N.C. -- The military is considering shifting to a four-day school week, which would affect 84,000 students on military installations worldwide and 5,000 at Fort Bragg. Teachers may also face furloughs in the coming months. [Link ]

20. Fewer children enrolled in Head Start in Cincinnati, Ohio. -- The Cincinnati-Hamilton County Community Action Agency is figuring out how it will cut its Head Start program, which may affect teacher positions, bus routes and students enrolled in the program. Right now, as many as 182 students may be dropped from the program, although Michelle Hopkins of CAA told The Huffington Post that the organization is still waiting for final budget numbers. "They are in limbo," she said of the families that rely on Head Start. "They're worried; they don't want to lose their Head Start slot." She added that her biggest concern is what will happen to the children who are cut because of sequestration. "Will they end up in sub-quality care? Will they end up with an older family member who doesn't have the skills to teach them the skills they need at this point?" [Link ]

21. Work-Study jobs cut in Chapel Hill, N.C. -- University of North Carolina will cut 31 work-study jobs in the next academic year because of an $84,000 sequestration-related cut. "We have made lots of offers [to students] but we could use so much more in work study," Shirley Ort, the school's associate provost and director of scholarships and student aid told The Huffington Post. [Link ]

22. Health care industry suffers in Dallas. -- The Board of Managers at Parkland Memorial Hospital received word that it would lose $2 million this year. The Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council, meanwhile, said that 50,000 health care jobs could be lost in all of Texas if sequestration lasts through 2021. [Link ]

23. Housing employees face possible layoffs in Joliet, Ill. -- The Housing Authority of Joliet, already struggling, is going to lose nearly $900,000 due to sequestration. It recently sent layoff warnings to employees. [Link ]

24. School aid slashed in Knoxville, Tenn. -- The University of Tennessee's financial aid office announced it would slash 33 student awards across two programs for the 2013-14 school year [Link ]

25. Layoffs expected in Fort Lee, Va. -- Fort Lee alerted the state that it projects a combined 168 layoffs in the next 60 days. [Link ]

26. Scientific research at risk in Long Island, N.Y. -- Officials at Brookhaven National Laboratory's Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider have begun airing concerns that their facility in Upton (which supports 860 jobs) is at risk of being gutted. [Link ]

27. Less camping in Connell, Wash. -- Scooteney Park has remained closed to campers because of sequestration. Day use remains intact. [Link ]

28. Weeks of Head Start dropped in Iron County, Mo. -- The Ironton Head Start Center said it will drop three weeks of coverage due to sequestration. [Link ]

29. Air show cancelled in Rapid City, S.D. -- Officials at Ellsworth Air Force Base have cancelled the Dakota Thunder air show this year. It has been held every few years for decades at the base. [Link ]

30. Funding for child care lost in Arizona. -- The Department of Economic Security expects to lose nearly $3 million in child-care funding. That means the state must come up with extra funds in order to keep about 1,000 children of working parents in child care. [Link ]

31. Medical and scientific research at risk in California. -- A group of biomedical researchers report that California stands to lose $180 million in medical and scientific research. [Link ]

32. Fewer volcanoes monitored in Fairbanks, Alaska. -- The Alaska Volcano Observatory, which monitors volcanoes because ash cloud eruptions can impair intercontinental aviation, announced that it is cutting back some of its real-time monitoring because of sequestration. [Link ]

33. Loss of jobs in Knoxville, Tenn. -- Tellico Services Inc., announced that it was laying off approximately 85 of its 200 workers, citing a lack of orders from the military. [Link ]

34. Hit to medical center in Indiana. -- D. Craig Brater, dean of Indiana University's School of Medicine, warned that, "sequestration will have a disproportionate impact on our academic medical center and our ability to care for our sickest and most vulnerable patients, both now and in the future." [Link ]

35. Fewer students in Head Start in Laramie, Wyo. -- The local Head Start is losing at least $36,700 -- eliminating 5 percent to 5.9 percent of this year's budget. The group is still figuring out how to absorb the cuts, looking at eliminating an entire classroom or cutting staff positions. [Link ]

36. Cut to unemployment benefits in the Virgin Islands. -- Weekly unemployment checks for Virgin Islanders will be cut by 10.7 percent. [Link ]

37. Poverty-fighting program suspended in West Virginia. -- West Virginia workers with VISTA -- the national service program designed to fight poverty -- remain in limbo due to sequestration. For the rest of the fiscal year, there will be no new VISTA projects in the state, no new VISTA workers starting service and those whose terms end will not be allowed to renew for another year with the group. [Link ]

38. Furloughs at Head Start in Allegany County, Pa. -- The non-profit ACCORD Corp. announced that 60 employees at the Head Start program would be forced to take a week off of work without pay and that several management positions were being reduced from 12 months to 10 months in length. "We took the tact, in the short term, to not eliminate any staff positions between now and September in hopes that some budget will be resolved," Charlie Kalthoff, executive director, told The Huffington Post. "We eliminated some work days and cut back on staffing hours but didn't eliminate positions." [Link ]

39. No military aircraft at show in Louisville, Ky. -- Thunder Over Lousiville organizers said they have been told that they will not get military aircraft for the show this year, due to sequestration. [Link]

40. Public services cut in Erie, Pa. -- The Erie County Department of Human Services estimates that it will lose $1.9 million to $2.7 million in the 2013-2014 fiscal year because of sequestration, meaning the agency will likely have to "end up cutting programs, providing less services." [Link ]

41. Possible furloughs in Orange County, Calif. -- More than 2,600 civilian employees at Southern California military bases may be forced to take unpaid leave in the coming weeks. [Link ]

42. Disruption to public broadcasting in Virginia. -- Blue Ridge PBS is shutting down two transmitters that carry the station's over-the-air digital signal to southwest Virginia and Tennessee. [Link ]

43. Flight 93 Memorial less accessible in Stoystown, Pa. -- The National Park Service is reducing the number of hours the public can visit the Flight 93 National Memorial, which honors the heroism of the passengers aboard United Flight 93 on Sept. 11, 2001. The monument will start operating its longer summer hours on May 1, instead of April 1 as planned, and it will likely hire fewer seasonal staff employees and have fewer interpretative programs. [Link]

44. Unemployment benefits reduced in Lancaster, Pa. -- Approximately 99,000 people in Pennsylvania will see their unemployment compensation reduced by 10.7 percent. In Lancaster County, it was reported that some 2,700 people may lose needed benefits. [Link ]

45. Research funding cut in Gainesville, Fla. -- The University of Florida said that it is expecting a $14 million cut in federal research funding. It has more than 1,000 active research projects. [Link ]

46. Airport tower closed in Frederick, Md. -- Less than a year after it opened, sequestration is forcing the closure of Frederick Municipal Airports control tower. It's the busiest general aviation airport in the state, with about 130,000 annual flight operations. [Link ]

47. Air show cancelled in Cleveland, Ohio -- The 2013 Cleveland Air Show has been cancelled. [Link ]

48. School jobs slashed in Hampton Roads, Va. -- Faced with a budget shortfall and another $2.5 million lost due to sequestration, Hampton City Schools are slashing $10 million and more than 193 positions. Eighty-six teacher jobs and 59 instruction support staff are up for elimination. [Link ]

49. Medicare patients turned away in Manchester, Conn. -- With sequestration cutting Medicare payments to doctors, at least one private practice sent out a letter saying it would no longer be able to afford treating Medicare patients, effective April 1. [Link ]

50. No overtime for customs agents in Long Beach, Calif. -- Customs agents at the ports of Long Beach and Los Angeles are seeing their overtime cut. [Link]

51. Furloughs in Portsmouth, N.H. -- At the Pease Air National Guard Base, commanders said they expect military technicians to be the hardest by sequestration, which is furloughing some civilian employees. One-third of the full-time force at the base is technicians. [Link ]

52. Tourists face fewer services in Harkers Island, N.C. -- Cape Lookout National Seashore will have fewer staffers and reduced operations during its busy season. It's expecting a 5 percent cut to its $2.4 million budget and officials expect to lose two seasonal employees and another unfilled permanent spot. [Link ]

53. Officials may have to return federal dollars in Montana. -- Montana and other states that receive funding through the Secure Rural Schools Act may have to give back money to Uncle Sam. The U.S. Department of Agriculture is asking Montana to return $1.145 million due to sequestration. [Link ]

54. Risk to campers in Oklahoma. -- The opening of campgrounds along the Arkansas River is being delayed with the possibility that they may not open at all. [Link]

55. Army band cancels concert in Orangeburg, S.C. -- The Army Band's free concert at the Orangeburg-Wilkinson High School has been cancelled. [Link]

56. Fewer people served by housing authority in Huntsville, Ala. -- [Link ] Five percent of the Huntsville Housing Authority's budget will be gone for 2013, in part due to sequestration. The agency estimates it will be serving approximately 300 fewer people as part of the federal Section 8 housing voucher program. [Link ]

57. Blue Ridge Parkway tourism hit in Virginia and North Carolina. -- Some of the National Park Service programming that is traditionally free to the public along the Blue Ridge Parkway has been put on hold for this year. There will be fewer seasonal employees, meaning some facility closures as well as reduced services and hours. [Link ]

58. Less access for people with disabilities in Loyalsock Township, Pa. -- The township anticipates that it won't be able to make as many curbs handicapped accessible as planned because of a reduction in Community Development Block Grant funds. [Link ]

59. Possible layoffs in southwestern Illinois. -- Federal contractor Aero NavData may lay off 45 employees next month due to budget cuts. Corrections officers at the federal prison in Greenville, Ill., will be furloughed for 14 days. [Link ]

60. Cuts to education in Harlan County, Ky. -- Officials at Harlan County Schools said they anticipate that sequestration will affect "a lot of employment" in its programs, from special education to various federal grant projects. [Link ]

61. White House staffers receive furlough notices in D.C. -- The Obama administration announced that 480 employees in the Office of Management and Budget were given notice that they'd have to take 10 days off from April 21 to Sept. 7. In addition, White House staff were forced to curtail the use of air cards due to sequester. [Link ]

62. Career development in Portsmouth, N.H. -- The Portsmouth Naval Shipyard's Women's Resource Network is losing money that it uses for a program designed to interest female students in science, technology, engineering and mathematics careers. [Link ]

63. Help for the unemployed reduced in Utah. -- The State Department of Workforce Services announced a 12.8 percent cut in emergency unemployment compensation would begin on April 28. [Link ]

64. U.S. history education cut in Williamsburg, Va. -- The Colonial National Historical Park announced that, in order to meet a $336,706 budget cut, it would reduce visitor services. [Link ]

65. Uncertainty for dairy farmers nationwide. --The U.S. Agriculture Department traditionally collects data and puts out monthly reports on milk production. Dairy farmers use those reports to determine production, while milk processors and brokers use them to set prices. Under sequestration, these reports have been suspended, alarming farmers. Not having the reports can have significant impacts because there is no way of knowing what the supply will be, said Greg Bussler, a Wisconsin statistician for the USDAs National Agricultural Statistics Service. [Link ]

66. Army entertainment cancelled in Clover, S.C. -- The United States Army Field Band and Soldiers Chorus has canceled the concert scheduled for April 8. [Link ]

67. Teaching jobs slashed in North Carolina. -- U.S. Rep. G. K. Butterfield (D-N.C.) briefed local teachers about the possibility of $25 million in education cuts and 350 teaching jobs being lost in the state. [Link ]

68. Parks face fewer resources in Montana. -- Glacier National Park announced that it was reducing seasonal staff and trail maintenance to meet a $700,000 budget cut. [Link ]

69. Ships called back to San Diego, Calif. -- The USS Thatch was called back to its home port, at the directive of the Navy. In addition, the San Diego-based USS Rentz and USS Jefferson City had their deployments cancelled for April. [Link ]

70. Hospitals slashing services in Florida. -- The president of the Florida Hospital Association estimated that state hospitals would suffer a $2 billion hit during the next decade. [Link ]

71. Education jobs lost in Klamath and Trinity River, Calif. -- The Klamath-Trinity Joint Unified School District is laying off one district administrator and several teachers. [Link ]

72. Airport closure in Lewiston, Idaho. -- The Lewiston Nez-Perce Airport announced it would close in April. [Link ]

73. Dire warnings in Fairfax County, Va. -- Fairfax County Executive Ed Long warned northern Virginians to "prepare for the worst, hope for the best" and to "set aside" money for the tough times sequestration will bring. [Link ]

74. Housing hit in Sacramento, Calif. -- The Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency is preparing to lose $13.9 million in funds that it uses to help poor families pay rent. "We subsidize the rent," the group's executive director, LaShelle Dozier, told The Huffington Post. "If we stop that, then you have a landlord with a tenant who can't pay the rent. And then they have to go through the eviction process." [Link ]

75. Head Start staffers lose retirement funds in central Florida. -- Local Head Start staffers are absorbing as much of the pain from sequestration as possible, so that the families they serve won't be as affected. Mid-Florida Community Services will stop contributing to the retirement funds of its 225 Head Start staffers as of the first pay period in April. [Link ]

76. Loss of jobs at Natchez Trace Parkway, Tenn. -- The Natchez Trace Parkway is stopping its job creation. Five vacant permanent positions will not be filled, along with 15 seasonal employee jobs. Staff also will close and reduce services and operations. [Link ]

77. Education hit in Kentucky. -- Kentucky Department of Education officials hosted a webinar in which state officials told them they would get a cut of roughly $31.8 million. [Link ]

78. Uncertainty at aging centers in Twin Falls, Idaho. -- The College of Southern Idahos Office on Aging is expecting a 4.9 percent reduction in budget. But officials there had yet to hear a definitive answer. [Link ]

79. Justice impaired in Los Angeles. -- The biggest federal court in the nation will close its clerk's office for seven Fridays over the next few months in order to save money. Chief Judge George King in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles said sequestration will "impair our ability to provide the services that we have been providing." [Link]

80. Community organizations cut in Kalamazoo, Mich. -- Kalamazoo Neighborhood Housing Services' Lease/Purchase Program will get no funding this year after having received $200,922 in federal funds last year. [Link ]

81. Head Start positions lost in Wichita, Kan. -- The Head Start program in Witchita is ending services for 74 children and eliminating 10 staff positions due to sequestration. [Link]

82. Tax revenues drop in Taos, N.M. -- Local government is not expecting to get $80,000 in compensation for the absence of tax revenue from federally owned public lands. [Link ]

83. Housing services cut in New Orleans. -- Authorities at the Housing Authority of New Orleans, facing a 17 percent reduction in its housing services budget, recalled 700 Section 8 housing vouchers for rental assistance. [Link ]

84. Unemployed warned in Idaho. -- The state Department of Labor warned 6,000 extended benefit claimants that their payments would be reduced by 10.7 percent beginning March 31. [Link ]

85. Special ed cut in Sacramento, Calif. -- Sacramento City Unified School District announced that it would cut special education teacher training and help for low-income families as part of a $2.6 million sequester hit. San Juan Unified, meanwhile, was facing a $830,000 loss in special ed funding, and $920,000 in funds to support low-income students. [Link ]

86. Homeless shelters hit in Stillwater, Okla. -- Mission of Hope, a shelter in the community, announced that it was losing $12,500 in grant money because of the sequester. [Link ]

87. Housing aid chopped in San Benito, Texas. -- The San Benito Housing Authority said it would have 88 percent of the budget it had from last year because of sequester. [Link ]

88. Small hospitals concerned in southern Illinois. -- Local hospital CEOs relayed fears to Rep Bill Enyart (D-Ill.) that they $128,000 in sequester cuts would be debilitating with the state already not making payments. [Link ]

89. Housing employees furloughed in Indianapolis, Ind. -- Indianapolis Housing Agency announced that it would furlough employees nine days this year in addition to implementing a hiring freeze. [Link ]

90. Cuts to essential services Ann Arbor, Mich. -- Washtenaw County is grappling with a 5 percent cut to programs that help poor individuals. Mary Jo Callan, director of the Office of Community and Economic Development, estimated that 11,000 fewer meals will be served through the Senior Nutrition Program and 630 fewer people will be helped through the Employment Service Program. [Link ]

91. Temporary jobs lost in Anniston, Ala. -- The Anniston Army Depot announced it would not renew the contracts of 371 temporary workers past March 30 due to sequester cuts and war drawdown. [Link ]

92. Head Start hit in Morris County, N.J. -- Head Start Community Program of Morris County executive director Eileen Jankunis said that the program was contemplating turning away 17 to 34 children because of the loss of $113,000 in federal funds. Five teacher jobs were also potentially at risk. [Link ]

93. Housing aid hit in northwest Georgia. -- The Northwest Georgia Housing Authority Finance Director Phillip Steers told the board about the possibility that it could have to work off of 82 percent of its budget. [Link ]

94. Courts closing in Salt Lake City, Utah. -- Utah officials announced that they would limit Friday federal court openings beginning in April. Criminal cases will have to be heard on the other four days of the work week. [Link ]

95. Housing help cut in Sherman, Texas. -- Officials announced that they could lose 31 vouchers from their Section 8 public housing program.[Link ]

96. Teachers lose jobs in Granite City, Ill. -- The Granite City School Board voted to lay off nine teachers and four district employees at the end of the week to help with budget cuts and a $400,000 sequestration hit. [Link ]

97. Horse help reduced in Reno, Nev. -- The Bureau of Land Management reduced hours at the Palomino Valley National Wild Horse and Burro Adoption Center near Reno because of budget cuts and low adoption rates. [Link ]

98. Fewer spots for medical students in Albany, N.Y. -- Hospitals with medical schools anticipate that sequestration won't let them take on as many students as residents. Officials are warning that in Albany, where there's a shortage of doctors, there will be fewer residency spots and in the long run, potentially, fewer doctors since residents tend to stay in the area in which they train. [Link ]

99. Dirtier restrooms at parks in San Francisco. The Golden Gate National Recreation Area's $25 million budget is losing $1.4 million due to sequestration. Due to furloughs and the decision not to fill vacant positions, services such as sweeping, maintenance, trash pickup, restroom cleaning will be reduced. [Link ]

100. Cruise passengers inconvenienced on the high seas. -- Passengers on a Carnival Cruise ship were forced to wait several hours on board, despite being docked, because of delays at Customs and Immigration. Officials blamed the sequestration for the delays. [Link ]