Amber alert shut down

[91CoupeMike]

I thought Amber alerts are given out by the local police departments. Not by any branch of government that is shut down

Yep. It's state run.

[Tannerm]

BTW the amber alert deal was a hoax... I havent been following any of this and was briefed by one of my officers the other night. I was dumb founded at this bullshit shutdown stuff! And they think this will make them look better/want more gov't?! I went to dispatch and asked them about amber. THey said it wasnt shut down. Hoax. So take that for what it worth.

[Forever_frost]

Actually, it was because the feds put up a redirect to the page. It's legit as it was covered in the news and the WH actually called someone in to reopen it.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/oct/07/amber-alert-website-down-shutdown

The Amber Alert child abduction notification system remained fully functional during the government shutdown, the Department of Justice insisted on Monday, despite its website, amberalert.gov, being taken offline for a week.

The site was brought back online on Monday morning after a weekend of speculation, criticism and crowing over the weekend, particularly from rightwing commentators.

A spokesman for the Department of Justice told reporters that although the website was down last week, the program itself had not been affected by the shutdown. The official said the website was merely informational, alerting people to the work of the program.

"At no point has Amber Alert system been interrupted during shutdown. To prevent confusion, informational DOJ site has been restored," spokesman Brian Fallon said on Twitter. He said at least two alerts were issued over the weekend.

The restoration of the website came after a weekend of speculation from rightwing commenters.

"Amber Alerts Cancelled: WH First Targets Veterans, Now Targeting Children, in Shutdown," was the headline on an opinion piece on Fox News's website.

The rightwing website TheBlaze also reported that the website had gone offline. It quoted tweets which erroneously stated that the program had also been suspended, including one which said:

Cruz stood 21 hours for freedom. Obama won't stand for missing children. #AmberAlert #shutdown

— Razor (@hale_razor) October 7, 2013

But the fuss was misplaced, the Justice Department said on Monday.

Although the amberalert.gov website did carry a message saying it was unavailable "due to the lapse in federal funding", the DOJ said the site merely carries information "about DOJ's role in providing trainings to states on how to have amber alert system", CNN's Jake Tapper reported.

"Alerts themselves are issued jurisdictionally - by county or state," a DOJ official told CNN. "So [...] not affected by shutdown."

Buzzfeed quoted a DOJ official as saying:

"Amber alerts are uninterrupted. They get issued by states and counties, which do notifications to media, on twitter, highway signs, etc. The dot-gov site is informational, not the law enforcement tool."

This article was amended at 2.30pm ET on 7 October, to correct an error in the amberalert.gov website address

[Slow Five-O]

They can't put anything on the Internet that isn't true.

[Country cracker]

They can't put anything on the Internet that isn't true.

Do you have a date with a French model to?