It is a virtual small town, complete with residences, a restaurant, a
laundry, medical and dental offices, numerous small businesses, even a
counseling program for drug and alcohol abuse. But on Tuesday, it was
more like a ghost town where almost everyone is unemployed because of
the government shutdown.
Even the horses looked depressed.
The mood was alternately somber and angry for the jockeys at
Canterbury Park, so much so that when I asked veteran jock Paul Nolan
what he would like to say to the geniuses who run the state, he replied:
"You mean besides the four-letter words?"
They are among the innocent victims of the state closure, many of
them low-paid workers and independent contractors who simply do not earn
a living if their horses don't run. Since jockeys and some trainers who
own their horses are considered independent business owners, they also
don't qualify for unemployment.
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