Vets Storm Barricaded WWII Memorial

They're not taking your shutdown baloney, dear Congress
By Evann Gastaldo,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 1, 2013 1:01 PM CDT
Vets Storm Barricaded WWII Memorial
Snow drifts pile up at the World War II National Memorial in Washington, Saturday, Dec. 19, 2009.   (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

The World War II Memorial in Washington is currently barricaded, thanks to the government shutdown, but that didn't stop a group of WWII vets from entering it today. The group, part of an honor flight program from Mississippi, had chartered an airplane and made plans too far in advance to change the trip. US Park Police allowed their bus to stop ("I'm a veteran myself," says one), and members of Congress led them into the memorial—where they shouted and "surged" in as the barricades were moved, the Washington Post reports.

In other strange shutdown news, today's Google Doodle honors Yosemite National Park's 123rd birthday ... but, as Salon points out, all national parks are currently closed, so if you click on the doodle and then on one of the top search results, you'll see the following message instead of the park's website: "Because of the federal government shutdown, all national parks are closed and National Park Service webpages are not operating." Click for more on the shutdown. (More government shutdown stories.)

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