--:-- Lakshmi Singh: Live from NPR News, I'm Lakshmi Singh.
--:-- Lakshmi Singh: With the federal government shutdown over, full SNAP food benefits are being restored. But NPR's Jennifer Ludden reports anxiety over the funding pause are expected to linger.
--:-- Jennifer Ludden: Jacqueline Giamona and her two kids rely on SNAP for nearly all their groceries, and the past two weeks without it were tough. She says depriving low-income people of a necessity like food was an abuse of power.
--:-- Jacqueline Giamona: People are going to distrust the government, and I think people are going to be really angry about it for a long time.
--:-- Jennifer Ludden: Advocate Crystal Fitzsimons with the Food Research and Action Center would like Congress to prevent a repeat.
--:-- Crystal Fitzsimons: It does make me nervous that this could be used as a negotiating tactic again.
--:-- Crystal Fitzsimons: She and others do see one positive. They say all the attention has shown just how vital SNAP is for so many people.
--:-- Jennifer Ludden: Jennifer Ludden, NPR News, Washington.
--:-- Lakshmi Singh: The Eiffel Tower is lit in France colors blue, white, and red as the country observes the 10th anniversary of terrorist attacks in Paris.
--:-- Lakshmi Singh: Commemorations are being held at the sites where a group of ISIS gunmen and suicide bombers targeted crowds at the Bataclan Concert Hall, the stadium, and nearby cafes. 132 people died. Hundreds were injured.
--:-- Lakshmi Singh: Tributes include a new memorial garden across City Hall.
--:-- Jane Araf: On Wednesday night, a day after Iraqis voted in parliamentary elections, initial results are in.
--:-- Jane Araf: A coalition led by the country's current prime minister has won the most seats.
--:-- Jane Araf: But in the Iraqi system, whoever can form the biggest coalition after voting chooses the prime minister.
--:-- Jane Araf: So Sudani will have to persuade other parties to join him to be able to keep the job.
--:-- Jane Araf: Sudani thanked the Iraqi people for his election win.
--:-- Jane Araf: And he called on political parties to put the country's interests before their own.
--:-- Jane Araf: Influential Shia leader Muqtada Sutter, whose movement gained the biggest number of seats in the last parliament, boycotted this election.
--:-- Jane Araf: For NPR News, I'm Jane Araf in Amman.
--:-- Lakshmi Singh: Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt has taken the rare step of commuting the sentence of a death row inmate shortly before he was to be executed by lethal injection this morning.
--:-- Lakshmi Singh: A state parole board had recommended the Republican governor spare Tremaine Wood's life.
--:-- Lakshmi Singh: Wood was convicted for his role in the 2002 death of a 19-year-old man during a botched robbery.
--:-- Lakshmi Singh: He maintains his brother, who died serving a life sentence in prison, killed Ronnie Wiff, a migrant farm worker from Montana.
--:-- Lakshmi Singh: At last check on Wall Street, the Dow is down 433 points, or nearly 1 percent at 47,819.
--:-- Lakshmi Singh: This is NPR News.
--:-- Lakshmi Singh: The Reverend Jesse Jackson has been hospitalized.
--:-- Lakshmi Singh: In a statement, the Rainbow Push Coalition, founded by the 84-year-old civil rights leader, says he's under observation for a neurodegenerative condition he's been managing for more than 10 years.
--:-- Jason DeRose: People in the U.S. are rapidly becoming less religious, according to a new poll from Gallup.
--:-- Jason DeRose: Over the last decade Gallup has found a 17% drop in the percentage of U.S. adults who say religion is an important part of their daily lives.
--:-- Jason DeRose: Now just 49% say it's key.
--:-- Jason DeRose: Gallup says that decline is among the largest it recorded in any country over a 10-year period, and that such a large drop is rare among the 160-plus countries it studies.
--:-- Jason DeRose: Chile, Turkey, and Portugal have seen similar declines.
--:-- Jason DeRose: Gallup's analysis finds that only a few countries have experienced larger losses in religiosity, among them Greece, Italy, and Poland.
--:-- Jason DeRose: Jason DeRose, NPR News.
--:-- Lakshmi Singh: Baristas are calling out Starbucks management instead of customers' names in dozens of U.S. cities today.
--:-- Lakshmi Singh: The Associated Press capturing protests this morning in Philadelphia.
--:-- Lakshmi Singh: More than a thousand unionized workers demanding stronger labor protections were expected to take part in the strike during Starbucks Red Cup Day, one of the coffee chain's busiest sales promotions of the year.
--:-- Lakshmi Singh: Starbucks suggests most stores will not be affected.
--:-- Lakshmi Singh: It says fewer than 4% of its sites are actually unionized.
--:-- Lakshmi Singh: The Dow is down 436 points, nearly 1%.
--:-- Lakshmi Singh: I'm Lakshmi Singh, NPR News.
