John Murtha Airport Lives On

ABC News' Jonathan Karl reports: The Senatetoday rejected a measure to strip $1.4 million in federal funding for the John Murtha Airport in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.

The Murtha Airport was the subjectof a World News “your money” story in Apriland has become a symbol of government waste derided as an “airport for nobody.”

Murtha Airport has an average of just 20 passengers a day, but it has received nearly $200 million in federal money over the last 15 years (including $800,000 in stimulus funds), almost all of it because of its powerful namesake, Democratic Representative John Murtha.

The measure, which was rejected by a vote of 43 to 53, would have stripped the annual $1.4 million subsidy the airport gets under the FAA’s Essential Air Service program for its three flights a day to Washington Dulles airport. Those flights to Washington, by the way, are the only commercial flights from the Murtha Airport.

FAA: Flights at Ronald Reagan Airport Halted for 20 Minutes After Reports of Shots

ABC News' Lisa Stark reports: The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed to ABC News that flights departing from the Washington D.C. Ronald Reagan National Airport were stopped for 20 minutes as a precautionary measure after media reports of shots fired by the Coast Guard on the Potomac River.

FAA officials say 17 outbound flights were affected but arrivals were not impacted. Departures stopped at around 10:08 a.m. and resumed at 10:29 a.m.

The Coast Guard said no shots were fired, as reported by some media outlets around 10:00 a.m., and that it was just undergoing a routine exercise.