Eric Anderson and and Brian Nearing report for the Albany Times Union that if the Hudson River freezes over this winter, unpaid Coast Guard workers will break the ice for ship passage. The U.S. government has been shut down for almost three weeks, after the president pulled out of a budget agreement with Republicans and Democrats in the legislature. Right now, agents at the Federal Bureau of Investigation in Albany are working without being paid. Customs and immigration officials at the Port of Albany, and Transportation Security Administration employees screening passengers and luggage at Albany International Airport, are working without pay right now. In all, there are 6,600 federal employees in the Capital Region, and that is about 1.4 percent of the workforce. A report on the PCB cleanup of the Hudson River is also being held up, and EPA officials cannot say when that report might be completed, because they are not at work to comment on the issue, because of the shutdown. Read the full story in the the Albany Times Union