AP News in Brief at 6:04 p.m. EST

The request is the latest in a flurry of legal activity over how the program that helps 42 million Americans buy groceries should proceed during the historic U.S. government shutdown. Lower courts have ruled that the government must keep full payments flowing, but the Trump administration is asking the Supreme Court to keep them frozen for now.

The high court is expected to rule Tuesday.

The seesawing rulings so far have created a situation where beneficiaries in some states, including Hawaii and New Jersey, have received their full monthly allocations and those in others, such as Nebraska and West Virginia, have seen nothing.

Brandi Johnson, 48, of St. Louis, said she’s struggling to make the $20 she has left in her SNAP account stretch. Johnson said she has been skipping meals the past two weeks to make sure her three teenage children have something to eat. She is also helping care for her infant granddaughter, who has food allergies, and her 80-year-old mother.

While Trump threatens controllers, US flight cancellations will drag on even after shutdown ends

Air travelers should expect worsening cancellations and delays this week even if the government shutdown ends, as the Federal Aviation Administration moves ahead with deeper cuts to flights at 40 major U.S. airports, officials said Monday.

Day four of the flight restrictions saw airlines scrap over 2,100 flights Monday after cancelling 5,500 from Friday to Sunday. Some air traffic controllers — unpaid for more than a month — have stopped showing up, citing the added stress and need to take second jobs.

President Donald Trump pressured controllers Monday on social media to “get back to work, NOW!!!” He said he wants a $10,000 bonus for controllers who've stayed on the job and to dock the pay of those who didn't.

The head of the controllers union said they're being used as a “political pawn” in the fight over the shutdown.

Controller shortages combined with wintry weather led to four-hour delays at Chicago O’Hare International Airport on Monday, with the FAA warning that staffing at more than a dozen towers and control centers could cause disruptions in cities including Philadelphia, Nashville and Atlanta.

Senate inches closer to vote on government shutdown deal

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate was drawing closer to a vote on legislation to end the shutdown on Monday after a small group of Senate Democrats broke a 40-day stalemate late Sunday evening and voted with Republicans to move forward with reopening the government.

It is unclear when the Senate will hold final votes on the bill, but Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he hopes passage will take “hours not days."

“The American people have suffered for long enough. Let’s not pointlessly drag this bill out,” he said as the Senate opened on Monday morning.

The legislation would still need to clear the House before the government could reopen. Speaker Mike Johnson urged lawmakers to start returning to Washington “right now" given travel delays, but he said he would issue an official notice for the House's return once the Senate passes the legislation.

“We have to do this as quickly as possible," Johnson said at a news conference. He has kept the House out of session since mid-September, when the House passed a bill to continue government funding.

Supreme Court rejects call to overturn its decision legalizing same-sex marriage nationwide

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday rejected a call to overturn its landmark decision that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide.

The justices, without comment, turned away an appeal from Kim Davis, the former Kentucky court clerk who refused to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples after the high court's 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges.

Davis had been trying to get the court to overturn a lower-court order for her to pay $360,000 in damages and attorney's fees to a couple denied a marriage license.

Her lawyers repeatedly invoked the words of Justice Clarence Thomas, who alone among the nine justices has called for erasing the same-sex marriage ruling.

Thomas was among four dissenting justices in 2015. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Samuel Alito are the other dissenters who are on the court today.

Arctic air hits much of the US, bringing snow to some areas and very chilly temperatures to Florida

Some of this autumn’s coldest weather yet is bearing down on the United States, enveloping the eastern two-thirds of the country with Arctic air on Monday and affecting millions of people.

National Weather Service forecasters said the weather could bring record low temperatures in the U.S. Southeast, including all of Florida, where temperatures in parts of the state were near 80 degrees (27 C) just a day ago.

The cold air brought gusty wind and red flag warnings in the Great Plains on Monday, and forecasters said the Great Lakes and Appalachian Mountain regions could see 4 inches (10 centimeters) to 8 inches (20 centimeters) of snow.

Around Lake Erie, forecasters warned of possible lake-effect snow, where copious amounts can fall in relatively narrow bands, drastically increasing snowfall near the water while leaving other nearby areas untouched.

Cold weather warnings were issued for Ohio, West Virginia and Kentucky, with freezing temperatures predicted for a large swath farther south, from Texas and Oklahoma to Alabama and Georgia.

Deployment of West Virginia National Guard members in nation’s capital can continue, judge rules

A judge on Monday allowed the continued deployment of more than 300 West Virginia National Guard members to patrol the streets of Washington, D.C., as part of President Donald Trump’s push to send the military into Democratic-run cities.

Kanawha County Circuit Judge Richard D. Lindsay made the ruling after hearing arguments in a lawsuit by a civic organization that argued Republican Gov. Patrick Morrisey exceeded his authority when he authorized the Guard’s deployment in August.

"The question before this court is whether or not state law allows West Virginia to do this,” Lindsay said. “The court has found that.”

The judge added: “This court believes that the federal law allows for the request made by the president to the governor,.

West Virginia is among several states that sent National Guard members to the nation’s capital. While the state National Guard has said its deployment could last until the end of November, it is consulting with the governor’s office and others on the possibility of extending the stay.

Former French President Sarkozy released from prison pending appeal in conspiracy case

PARIS (AP) — France’s former President Nicolas Sarkozy was freed from prison Monday after a Paris appeals court granted him release under judicial supervision, less than three weeks after he began serving a five-year sentence for criminal conspiracy in a scheme to finance his 2007 election campaign with funds from Libya.

Sarkozy, 70, left La Santé prison by car and later quickly stepped into his home in western Paris. The brief scene was in contrast to his very public incarceration 20 days earlier, when he walked down the alley near his house hand-in-hand with his wife and former supermodel Carla Bruni-Sarkozy as he waved to supporters.

The former president, who denies wrongdoing, is banned from leaving the French territory and from being in touch with key people including co-defendants and witnesses in the case, the court said.

An appeals trial is expected to take place later, possibly in the spring.

Sarkozy became the first former French head of state in modern times to be sent behind bars after his conviction on Sept. 25. He was jailed on Oct. 21 pending appeal but immediately filed for early release.

Canada loses measles elimination status after ongoing outbreaks

Canada is no longer measles-free because of ongoing outbreaks, international health experts said Monday, as childhood vaccination rates fall and the highly contagious virus spreads across North and South America.

The loss of the country’s measles elimination status comes more than a year after the highly contagious virus started spreading.

Canada has logged 5,138 measles cases this year and two deaths. Both were babies who were exposed to the measles virus in the womb and born prematurely.

Measles elimination is a symbolic designation, but it represents a hard-won battle against the infectious disease. It is earned when a country shows it stopped continuous spread of the virus within local communities, though occasional cases might still pop up from travel.

Measles typically begins with a high fever followed by a telltale rash that starts on the face and neck. Most people recover, but it’s one of the leading causes of death among young children, according to the World Health Organization. Serious complications, including blindness and swelling of the brain, are more common in young children and adults over age 30.

The FDA removes a long-standing warning from hormone-based menopause drugs

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hormone-based drugs used to treat hot flashes and other menopause symptoms will no longer carry a bold warning label about stroke, heart attack, dementia and other serious risks, the Food and Drug Administration announced Monday.

U.S. health officials said they will remove the boxed warning from more than 20 pills, patches and creams containing hormones like estrogen and progestin, which are approved to ease disruptive symptoms like night sweats.

The change has been supported by some doctors — including FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, who has called the current label outdated and unnecessary. But some doctors worried that the process which led to the decision was flawed.

Health officials explained the move by pointing to studies suggesting hormone therapy has few risks when started before age 60 and within 10 years of menopause symptoms.

“We’re challenging outdated thinking and recommitting to evidence-based medicine that empowers rather than restricts,” Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said in introducing the update.

MLB, sportsbooks cap bets on individual pitches in response to pitch rigging scandal

Major League Baseball said its authorized gaming operators will cap bets on individual pitches at $200 and exclude them from parlays, a day after two Cleveland Guardians were indicted and accused of rigging pitches at the behest of gamblers.

MLB said Monday the limits were agreed to by sportsbook operators representing more than 98% of the U.S. betting market. The league said in a statement that pitch-level bets on outcomes of pitch velocity and of balls and strikes “present heightened integrity risks because they focus on one-off events that can be determined by a single player and can be inconsequential to the outcome of the game.”

“The risk on these pitch-level markets will be significantly mitigated by this new action targeted at the incentive to engage in misconduct,” the league said. “The creation of a strict bet limit on this type of bet, and the ban on parlaying them, reduces the payout for these markets and the ability to circumvent the new limit.”

MLB said the agreement included Bally’s, Bet365, BetMGM, Bet99, Betr, Caesars, Circa, DraftKings, 888, FanDuel, Gamewise, Hard Rock, Intralot, Jack Entertainment, Mojo, Northstar Gaming, Oaklawn, Penn, Pointsbet, Potawatomi, Rush Steet and Underdog.

Cleveland pitchers Emmanuel Clase and Luis Ortiz were indicted Sunday in U.S. District Court in Brooklyn on charges they took bribes from sports bettors to throw certain types of pitches. They were charged with wire fraud conspiracy, honest services wire fraud conspiracy, conspiracy to influence sporting contests by bribery and money laundering conspiracy. The indictment says they helped two unnamed gamblers in the Dominican Republic win at least $460,000 on bets placed on the speed and outcome of certain pitches, including some that landed in the dirt.