New York Times: “As the Trump administration seeks to fill a national shortage of air traffic controllers, officials are targeting a new talent pool: gamers.”

“The Federal Aviation Administration on Friday is making a recruiting push aimed at avid players of video games, as the agency strives to fill thousands of vacancies that lawmakers have said leave the traveling public less safe. In a new YouTube ad, the agency is using flashy graphics and the promise of six-figure salaries to convince video game enthusiasts to apply their trigger fingers in service of air safety.”

CBS News: “The shortage of TSA officers is still slowing security lines at major airports, where staffing shortages are more severe than the national average, but wait times seemed to be stabilizing Monday.”

“TSA officers were calling out absent at elevated rates Sunday, even as there were signs that part of their back pay over the 45-day partial shutdown was beginning to reach their bank accounts.”

New York Times: “Most of the Transportation Security Administration’s 60,000 workers began receiving back pay on Monday, easing the financial strain that has troubled them since the partial government shutdown began more than six weeks ago.”

“But with the shutdown persisting, the workers don’t know when they’ll be paid next.”

Tom Homan, the Trump administration border czar, said Sunday that although President Trump signed an order to pay Transportation Security Administration workers, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents will continue to assist “until the airports feel like they are 100%,” CBS News reports.

Said Homan: “Look, we’re going to continue a nice presence there, and until the airports feel like they’re 100%, you know, in a posture where they can do no normal operations.”

“President Trump signed an executive order to pay Transportation Security Administration workers, a White House official said, bypassing a gridlocked Congress after the latest proposal to fund the broader Department of Homeland Security ran aground,” the Wall Street Journal reports.

Wall Street Journal: “Several Senate Republicans are pressing the White House to declare a national emergency to free up money to pay Transportation Security Administration agents if lawmakers fail to reach a deal.”

“Invoking the National Emergency Act, the people said, could give the administration flexibility to use unspent government funds to temporarily pay TSA employees. The potential move comes as tens of millions of Americans prepare to travel for spring break, as well as the Easter and Passover holidays, and face long lines due to workers calling out sick.”

CBS News: “An internal watchdog report in the Department of Homeland Security identified serious vulnerabilities in TSA’s screenings at airports nationwide, among them, one created by a change in the shoes-off policy — and the agency has yet to respond five months later.”

Bloomberg: “The Transportation Security Administration warned new airport screeners won’t be ready in time for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, as the agency grapples with staffing shortages during a prolonged Department of Homeland Security shutdown.”

“Delta Air Lines is suspending its dedicated flight assistance service for members of Congress as airport security lines grow longer amid the ongoing partial government shutdown,” The Hill reports.

New York Times: “The war in Iran is disrupting air travel around the world, but airlines in regions like the Middle East and elsewhere in Asia are being hit much harder than those in the United States.”

“For weeks, Iran has blocked a substantial share of the global oil trade through a vital choke point, the Strait of Hormuz, causing the price of jet fuel to roughly double. Because fuel is a large part of the cost of flights, airlines are among the first businesses to feel the impact of the war.”

“But airlines and the countries they operate in are exposed in different ways to rising fuel costs, flight restrictions and weakening demand.”

Wall Street Journal: “President Trump has rejected one of the possible offramps for the standoff over funding the Department of Homeland Security, leaving an impasse unresolved that has led to hourslong lines at some airports as security staff don’t show up for work.”

Bloomberg: “President Donald Trump said he did not want Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents detailed to airports to wear masks as they assist with security screenings — even as he continued to support officers using face coverings during deportation operations.”

Rachel Bade: “If President Trump thought dispatching ICE agents to airports would force Democrats to blink in the never-ending DHS shutdown standoff, he’s in for a rude awakening this week.”

“After Trump floated the idea this weekend — sending immigration enforcement to help with long airport lines caused by the shutdown — I checked in with a bunch of Democratic lawmakers and top staffers. Their response wasn’t just unfazed; at times, it was downright giddy.”

Said one Democratic official: “Great — do it! Let’s fuck around and find out.”

Said another: “Armed agents at airports will crush tourism and freak people out.”

And a third: “Can they please show up in masks?”