Washington, D.C. - Congressman Dave Loebsack delivered stories of Iowans who have been affected by the shutdown directly to President Obama during a meeting at the White House yesterday. More than 1,100 Iowans from the Second District have written or called Loebsack since the shutdown began to express their concern and share their personal stories. Excerpts from some of the letters are below. Included with the letters from Iowans, Loebsack also wrote the President to highlight how the shutdown is having an impact on families in the state. A copy of that letter can be found here.

"Many Iowans are needlessly hurting due to the government shutdown. It is at the height of irresponsibility that Iowans are being hurt by reckless Washington dysfunction. All of this could be solved immediately by taking the simple step of passing a clean funding resolution to reopen the government," said Congressman Dave Loebsack.

"I just got an e-mail from our Crisis Center co-ordinator, informing all of the hotline volunteers, that this shutdown by the Govt means that services from HHS, specifically SAMSHA, are doubtful. This means that the National Suicide Prevention Hotline business offices are furloughed. How do you think that your colleagues would feel if one of their own were in trouble and tried to call Lifeline and be told that Congress has furloughed workers? 'Try to find another way to find help if you're feeling suicidal?' ... this hotline shutdown is just plain rotten."

-Bobbie, Iowa City

"I am a counselor working ... on a small military base.... I am furloughed, so it's obviously impacting me, but it's also impacting my clients, many of whom are active duty service members who have been deployed.

I feel like we government employees are caught in the middle of this very childish drama - through no fault of our own.

Please do your best to end this - I am fed up!!"

- Pella

"I work with WIC families and learned early Monday that the offices would not be printing WIC vouchers for families as a result of the shutdown. This means that women who come in every three months for vouchers for milk, infant formula, cereal, bread, and fresh produce will not be receiving them.

Many of these women time their shopping trips to coincide with receiving WIC. They will be out of milk and out of formula, and look forward to getting some bananas and apples for their families. This is terrible news for them."

-Gale, Davenport

Amidst the sad specter of yet another grid-locked Congress, medical research stopped in is tracks at the National Institutes of Health, and U.S. Park Rangers turning away elderly World War II vets trying to visit their hallowed memorial on the National Mall, DC's top Yoga Instructor said "enough is enough".

Jill Abelson, author of the EXTRA LOVE series of Yoga Instructional Books on yoga alignment and nationally recognized instructor, is leaving the DC political gridlock behind for the more sensible folks of Iowa City this weekend, where she'll appear, instruct and sign copies of her best selling "Extra Love" books at the Iowa City Yoga Festival in Coraville.

"It's so bad mentally in DC right now, that this past weekend Whole Foods put the word out for yogi's to come together, and over 200 showed up at the last minute...Democrats, Republicans, furloughed government workers.  It was a sea of multi-colored mats there", says Abelson.  "How cool is it that when our politicians check OUT, yogis check IN to support transcendental public art in the nation's capital?"

Ask Jill Abelson:

-  What the mindset is in DC, with mass shootings, a government shutdown, cars crashing into the gates of the White House and people catching themselves on fire at the National Mall-all in the past three weeks?

-  How Yoga can help in times of extreme stress, and can bring very different people together in unity

-  What a "Downward Facing Dog" is (hint: it's not a nickname for a member of Congress...but maybe it should be!)

-  Why folks in Iowa City are PERFECT to experience Yoga, and learn about its benefits at the Iowa City Yoga Festival this weekend

Jill Abelson is a nationally recognized yoga teacher, workshop presenter and author based in Washington, DC and San Francisco.   Her best-selling series of books on yoga alignment and assisting, EXTRA LOVE, are available at bookstores, on Amazon and at  www.yogaofliberation.com.  Jill is appearing this weekend at the Iowa City Yoga Festival in Coraville.  You can find out more at www.iowacityogafestival.com.

To speak with Jill, contact Allen Media Strategies Jessica Lloyd at (703) 589-8960 or Jessica@allenmediastrategies.com.

DES MOINES, IA - October 10, 2013 - Mediacom will send one of its Facebook friends to Los Angeles next month to attend a taping of the live talk show The Talking Dead hosted by Chris Hardwick. The unique sweepstakes, sponsored in partnership with AMC, gives The Walking Dead fans a chance to be part of the live action directly following the season finale.

Mediacom's The Walking Dead sweepstakes is open to anyone who visits the company's Facebook page and submits an entry form from October 6-26. Contestants must "like" the Facebook page and also click on the contest entry link. The winner will receive airfare for two, a two-night hotel stay, car rental, two tickets to the December 1 taping of The Talking Dead, and a $200 American Express gift card. Contest information can be found at www.facebook.com/mediacomcable.

The Walking Dead returns Sundays this fall beginning October 13, on AMC.

About AMC

Whether commemorating favorite films from every genre and decade or creating acclaimed original programming, AMC brings to its audience something deeper, something richer, Something More. The network reigns as the only cable network in history ever to win the Emmy® Award for Outstanding Drama Series four years in a row, and boasts the most-watched drama series in basic cable history with The Walking Dead. AMC's original drama series include Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Low Winter Sun and Hell on Wheels. AMC also explores authentic worlds with bold characters through its slate of unscripted original series like Comic Book Men, Small Town Security, Talking Dead, Talking Bad and Freakshow. AMC is owned and operated by AMC Networks Inc. and its sister networks include IFC, Sundance Channel and WE tv. AMC is available across all platforms, including on-air, online, on demand and mobile. AMC: Something More.

About Mediacom:

Mediacom Communications is the nation's eighth largest cable television company and one of the leading cable operators focused on serving the smaller cities in the United States, with a significant concentration in the Midwestern and Southeastern regions. Mediacom Communications offers a wide array of broadband products and services, including traditional and advanced video services such as digital television, video-on-demand, digital video recorders, high-definition television, as well as high-speed Internet access and phone service. Through Mediacom Business, the Company offers affordable broadband communications solutions that can be tailored to any size business.

Mary Stevenson Cassatt was born into an upper-middle-class family near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on May 22, 1844. Though her family objected to her becoming a professional artist, Cassatt began studying painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts at the young age of 15 and continued her studies from 1861 to 1865. Impatient with the slow pace of instruction Cassatt decided to end her studies, and move to Paris. Since women could not yet attend the >cole des Beaux-Arts, she applied to study privately with masters from the school and augmented her artistic training with daily copying in the Louvre.

In 1868 the French art scene was in a process of change: radical artists such as Courbet and Manet tried to break away from accepted Academic tradition and the Impressionists were in their formative years. Cassatt, on the other hand, would continue to work in the traditional manner, submitting works to the Salon for over ten years. She continued to express criticism of the politics of the Salon and the conventional taste that prevailed there but eventually she decided that she needed to move away from genre paintings and onto more fashionable subjects.

In 1877 she was invited by Edgar Degas to show her works with the Impressionists, a group that had begun their own series of independent exhibitions three years earlier. She accepted Degas' invitation and began preparing paintings for the next Impressionist show that took place in 1879. She exhibited in the next two Impressionist Exhibitions that followed, and remained an active member of the Impressionist circle until 1886, being one of the group's staunchest supporters.

After 1900, she concentrated almost exclusively on mother-and-child subjects, some of them reminiscent of Italian Renaissance depictions of the Madonna and Child. Her work was popular with the public and the critics, but she was no longer breaking new ground, and her Impressionist colleagues who once provided stimulation and criticism were dying off. She was hostile to such new developments in art as post-Impressionism, Fauvism and Cubism.

In 1914, after years of health problems, she was forced to stop painting as she became almost blind. Nonetheless, she took up the cause of women's suffrage, and in 1915, she showed eighteen works in an exhibition supporting the movement. She died June 14, 1926 at the age of 82 near Paris, France.

In 1992 the Muscatine Art Center's collections were significantly enriched by a gift of twenty-seven works of art by Toulouse-Lautrec, Matisse, Degas, Boudin, Chagall, Renoir, and other European artists. The collection was a gift from the estate of Mary Musser Gilmore in honor of her parents, Richard Drew Musser and Sarah Walker Musser. The paintings are on permanent display in the Laura Musser Mansion.

EVENT DETAILS:

Lecture: The Life of Mary Cassatt

Who: Carol Ehlers

When: Thursday October 24, 2013

Time: 5:30 PM

Where: The Muscatine Art Center's Music Room

Admission to this program is FREE.

Please contact Katy Loos, Program Coordinator, with any questions or concerns at 563-263-8282 or by email at kloos@muscatineiowa.gov

The Muscatine Art Center is open to the public Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday from 10 AM to 5 PM, Thursday from 10 AM to 7 PM and Saturday and Sunday from 1 to 5 PM Admission is FREE.