The partial shutdown of the Federal Aviation Administration proves Republicans do not really care about reducing the federal deficit, liberal commentator Markos Moulitsas said Thursday on his Daily Kos website.

Moulitsas, who founded the liberal blog at the height of the popularity of the Bush administration in 2002, said if Republicans really wanted to reduce the debt, they'd want the $30 million a day that the shutdown is costing the government in federal coffers.

"Rather than be overt in their anti-union agenda, Republicans claim they are holding the FAA reauthorization hostage in order to cut $16.5 million in funding for a small number of rural airports," Moulitsas wrote Thursday.

A woman accused of groping a Transportation Security Administration officer in Phoenix, Ariz., said this week that she reacted strongly to being checked at airport security because she was abducted as a child and doesn't like to be touched now.

Arizona resident Yukari Mihamae, 61, was arrested earlier this month after she allegedly grabbed the left breast of a TSA officer during an argument about TSA's screening procedures while she was attempting to board a flight.

On a Boulder, Colo., radio station she volunteers for, Mihamae said was not used to being touched and felt threatened by the TSA agent.

"I have a very strong sense of endangerment," she said, according to a report from Denver ABC affiliate KMGH Channel 7. "I have a high alert system for my safety. People don't usually come near me that close."

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said lawmakers should “set aside their own egos” and compromise.

Transportation Secretary LaHood warned airlines not to use money that normally goes into the Aviation Trust Fund to pad profits.

Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) has proposed that the government continue paying the nearly 4,000 Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) workers who have been furloughed since Saturday.

Rockefeller and 12 other Senate Democrats introduced S. 1433, which would allow payment of salaries and benefits for the FAA workers. Under the bill, amounts now in the Airport and Airway Trust Fund could be used to pay them.

Your morning transportation speed-read:

Bus companies in New York said they did not know about a rule Gov. Andrew Cuomo used to suspend them.

A Transportation Security Administration officer is accused of using his badge during off-duty hours.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is pushing to reduce the number of children being left in hot cars.

General Motors is boosting production of its Volt electric car.

Democrats allege money not allocated to the Federal Aviation Administration because of a congressional impasse is going to airlines’ profits.

Obama on Friday will announce new vehicle fuel-economy standards for model year 2017-2025 cars and light-duty trucks.

The National Labor Relations Board said this week that a Seattle judge's ruling that its case against airplane manufacturer Boeing should go forward supported its contention that documents about the issue should be made available to a congressional oversight committee only as they come out in the case.

Administrative Law Judge Clifford Anderson rejected a motion from Boeing last month to dismiss the NLRB case, which alleges that the company decided to build a plant in South Carolina to retaliate for labor strikes at its existing facilities in Washington state.

House Oversight Committee Chairman Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) has launched an investigation into the case, saying it appears to be politically motivated. Issa has threatened to subpoena documents about the case, but the NLRB has said it would provide only "discoverable" information.

In a letter to Issa that was obtained by The Hill, NLRB Acting General Counsel Lafe Solomon said Anderson's ruling showed the panel's stance was correct.

"It remains my belief that premature disclosure of the Boeing case file would severely impact the parties' due process rights and the Agency's legal process," he wrote to Issa in a letter dated Tuesday.