SHUT DOWN: With the President and Congress...

SHUT DOWN: With the President and Congress sparring over budgets, federal workers in Ventura County joined their colleagues across the nation Monday wondering if they would have an unpaid vacation for the next few days (A1). . . . Locally, hundreds of workers at the Internal Revenue, Minerals Management, National Park and U.S. Fish and Wildlife services, as well as other agencies, waited for the latest word on what to expect . . . “The e-mail was flying,” said Nollie Owens, a spokeswoman at the Minerals Management Service.

MOVING IN: Fred Sands Realtors is expanding in Ventura County, acquiring two local companies and planning to open new franchises here next year (D7C). . . . The company is optimistic that the downturn in the housing market won’t last. . . . Said company President Fred Sands: “For a lot of people, we’re at the bottom of the valley of despair, but there is light at the end of the tunnel. And it’s not a train.”

CHILLING OUT: Former Secretary of State George P. Shultz, above, and other former officials in the Reagan and Gorbachev administrations met at the Reagan Library to commemorate the day the Cold War ice began to melt (B1). . . . But no sooner had the world leaders left than the “thaw” at the library ended, with plans to blanket the floor with fake snow and erect 30 Christmas trees with international themes, including one in Russian tradition. . . . Said spokeswoman Linda Schuller: “We’ll put the chairs away and transform the auditorium into a white forest.”

THE HEAT’S ON: The white forest inside the Reagan Library may help remind sunny Southern California that frosty nights are just around the corner. . . . But Ventura County residents shouldn’t wait for the first cold snap to change furnace filters, vacuum vents or call a Gas Co. representative to light the pilot. . . . Said district manager Marcia Secord: “We try every year to get people to call early for service, but on a day like today, who’s thinking about their furnace?”