Amber Alert systems closed down

[leahjade]

Heard on news today that the missing child alert system is shut down due to government closings, but White House golf course still up and running with its employees supported by taxpayer dollars!

 

[kamik86]

Heard on news today that the missing child alert system is shut down due to government closings, but White House golf course still up and running with its employees supported by taxpayer dollars!

If that is true all that means is that the golf course is some combination of:
1) Not FULLY funded by tax payer dollars and thus had enough money to keep running for a while.
2) Had the funding already from last year and its next funding date hasn't come up yet. (so funding schedule not tied to the fiscal year).

The real problem here is that government is shut down in the first place and that the amber alert system is down not that golf course is still funded... meanings its not like they have X dollars to dole out even with the shutdown and picked the golf course.... no one is getting money they didn't already have.

 

[gwynne]

Heard on news today that the missing child alert system is shut down due to government closings, but White House golf course still up and running with its employees supported by taxpayer dollars!

Not sure where you get your "news"...

The amber alert system was NEVER down. The website was down, big difference. Because of bad press The website is now back up, too.
Frankly, I would certainly hope that anyone who experienced something that would necessitate an amber alert would be calling the police, not googling a website.

Details here: http://thelead.blogs.cnn.com/2013/1...artment-restores-federal-amber-alert-website/

Finally, respectfully, you might consider correcting your thread title. It's totally misleading about a very serious topic.

 

[wiigirl]

Not sure where you get your "news"...

The amber alert system was NEVER down. The website was down, big difference. Because of bad press The website is now back up, too.
Frankly, I would certainly hope that anyone who experienced something that would necessitate an amber alert would be calling the police, not googling a website.

Details here: http://thelead.blogs.cnn.com/2013/1...artment-restores-federal-amber-alert-website/

Finally, respectfully, you might consider correcting your thread title. It's totally misleading about a very serious topic.

Phew....

 

[lauradis]

Hope you are joking or got bad info.

 

[Mama Mouse]

My best advice is to check any and ALL of these stories on snopes.com before posting it anywhere. My facebook feed has been FULL of fake stories like and including this one and I do mean FULL. Out of 25 that I've seen in the last three days, all 25 were false. It's ridiculous.

 

[timmac]

Okay, seriously... apart from being simply misleading, this is a thinly-veiled political post by an OP who frequently breaks the rule about political posts. Can a mod please shut this down (or better yet, remove it entirely)?

 

[crisi]

Okay, seriously... apart from being simply misleading, this is a thinly-veiled political post by an OP who frequently breaks the rule about political posts. Can a mod please shut this down (or better yet, remove it entirely)?

And, doesn't even have the pretense of being budget related - unlike the ACA threads, which frankly, are going to derail.

 

[luvsJack]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/07/amber-alert-shutdown-still-operational_n_4056994.html

The website was down due to the shut downs. And you know what? This website is head and shoulders more important than a golf course. Stop making excuses. This is stupid mess that should not be happening, its ridiculous.

 

[leahjade]

Earlier this morning Amber Alert Website had the following message "Due to the lapse in federal funding, this Office of Justice website is unavailable" Then after bad press this message appeared:

UPDATE: The Department of Justice reports that a person was taken off of furlough this morning to re-open the Amber Alert website. It went live again at about 11 a.m. ET.

Sorry it's fact:

Troops Forage for Food While Golfers Play On in Shutdown
By Jeff Plungis, Mark Drajem & David Lerman - Oct 3, 2013 12:00 AM ET

Grocery stores on Army bases in the U.S. are closed. The golf course at Andrews Air Force base is open.

As far as political posts, this entire board has been political for weeks however it's only when someone decides to tattle to moderator when a fact or opinion is voiced against this administrations' policies do you decide to deem a thread "political."

 

[Shagley]

Heard on news today that the missing child alert system is shut down due to government closings, but White House golf course still up and running with its employees supported by taxpayer dollars!

I'm just curious what news organization reported this?

ETA: Nevermind, you just answered it!

 

[moburg]

My best advice is to check any and ALL of these stories on snopes.com before posting it anywhere. My facebook feed has been FULL of fake stories like and including this one and I do mean FULL. Out of 25 that I've seen in the last three days, all 25 were false. It's ridiculous.

There are only 12 new items on Snopes since the shutdown started, not all are related to the shutdown, and some of those that are related are marked True, Mixed, or Partially True. So, what are the 25 false ones and where did you verify them as false? Just curious.

As for this one, www.AmberAlerts.gov was indeed shut down, redirected to a shutdown notification page. Apparently the system was still up issuing alerts, but the website was definitely down. So perhaps just a poorly worded title in the OP.

 

[Katlyn]

It was down yesterday too, but glad to hear it's back up.

 

[gwynne]

It was down yesterday too, but glad to hear it's back up.

And just to be clear, it was only the website that was down. Of course, the actual amber alert system always was (and still is) working. The title of this thread is very misleading.

 

[tvguy]

And just to be clear, it was only the website that was down. Of course, the actual amber alert system always was (and still is) working. The title of this thread is very misleading.

Well, the Federal Website was taken down, but the Feds have very little to do with the actual Amber Alert system. States run it, the feds just provide the website and some support on interstate cases. But bordering state police departments already share information.
Yes, this was all over Facebook and Twitter, and I had to tell more than one viewer that called this morning that we were NOT wrong in reporting the Amber Alert system was up and running, despite what FB and Twitter posters said.

 

[NHTikiBeckie]

Way to present the facts, OP!

 

[Granny square]

My best advice is to check any and ALL of these stories on snopes.com before posting it anywhere. My facebook feed has been FULL of fake stories like and including this one and I do mean FULL. Out of 25 that I've seen in the last three days, all 25 were false. It's ridiculous.

Omg. Someone on my fb page thought that the mt Rushmore faces were being covered by a tarp held up by helicopters.

Otoh. When one hears about things like he golf course them it is bothersome. If they still had monies left over they were overfunded. Because most places took the cut earlier this year.

 

[gwynne]

Well, the Federal Website was taken down, but the Feds have very little to do with the actual Amber Alert system. States run it, the feds just provide the website and some support on interstate cases. But bordering state police departments already share information.
Yes, this was all over Facebook and Twitter, and I had to tell more than one viewer that called this morning that we were NOT wrong in reporting the Amber Alert system was up and running, despite what FB and Twitter posters said.

Thanks for helping spread the accurate word. I swear, if a viral post on FB said the earth was flat, a number of faithful readers would worry about stepping too far and falling off..... After all, it was on FB!! Lol!

 

[mom2alix]

"Air Force captain Lindy Singleton, chief of public affairs for the Eleventh Wing, explained that the course remains open because it’s financed via user fees."

http://m.nationalreview.com/corner/...lly-shut-down-military-base-remains-open-alec

I looked this up. Apparently the course isn't taxpayer funded so it's still open because the users pay for it, not us.

 

[Granny square]

But states that have offered to pay for their attractions haven't been allowed to. What would be the difference?