Believe it or not, October Prime Day is actually a good time to save on Dyson devices. Plenty of cordless vacuums are on sale this year, as well as a few viral hair stylers. But, none of those top my trusty AM09. Dyson’s Hot+Cool AM09 heater and fan is on sale for $300 right now — that’s 40 percent off and one of the best prices I’ve seen.

My love for the AM09 is well documented. At this point, I’ve had it for more than five years and I bought it when it was $280 on super-sale at QVC. Previously, I had a Dyson tower fan that worked well until it kicked the bucket after a few years of use. I took the plunge with the AM09 because I generally had a great experience with the tower fan, and at the time, I had been living in apartments that were consistently chilly during wintertime and downright stifling during the summer months.

Now, my house is not all that much different than my apartments of yesteryear — and my original AM09 is still kicking. It does a great job circulating air in the summer (it’s not an air conditioner, to be clear) and it cuts the chill in my particularly icy office during the winter. I love its handy fan, which attaches magnetically to the top of the fan so you don’t lose it and lets you control the fan speed and heater temperature with just a few presses of a button.

But the real kicker with the AM09 is how lightweight it is: at just under six pounds, it’s incredibly easy to pick up and tote upstairs, downstairs or in the other room, wherever you need it the most. It has literally gone from my home office upstairs down to the main floor of my house and down again into our basement all in the same day for different purposes. Am I a little miffed that, in my impatience, I bought a discounted Dyson heater/fan/air purifier over the summer because I desperately wanted another AM09 and it wasn’t on sale at the time? Yes — but at least you, dear reader, can learn from my shopping woes and get the AM09 instead.

Federal workers say they are frustrated, scared and angry after the White House threatened to withhold their back pay once the government shutdown ends.

Why it matters: Many of these folks are living paycheck to paycheck and can't afford to simply not be paid. It's the latest blow to the country's largest workforce.

• 750,000 federal employees are on furlough — that is, they've been told not work during the shutdown and aren't getting paid. Others are working without pay.

Where it stands: It's "chaos," says Imelda Avila-Thomas, an official with the federal worker union that represents employees at the Department of Labor where she works.

• She tells Axios that that she's been getting blasted with texts from colleagues asking if this is lawful or if they should look for another job.
• "The irony is I work for the Wage and Hour Division. We ensure that people get paid correctly."

The big picture: When employees were furloughed on Oct. 1, they received paperwork guaranteeing that they'd get back pay upon their return, Avila-Thomas notes.

• Now, after Axios reported that the White House was considering not paying furloughed workers, workers don't know what to believe.
• Union officials, former government officials, Democrats and lawyers who are experts in administrative law say that the administration is legally required to provide back pay.
• Even some Republicans agree:  Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) told reporters that threatening not to pay back workers is "bad strategy" and "probably not a good message to send right now to people who are not being paid," Axios' Andrew Solender reports.

Catch up quick: In every other previous shutdown, federal workers who were furloughed received back pay.

• A federal law passed after the last shutdown, in President Trump's first term, was believed to enshrine the practice into law — until Tuesday morning, when Axios' Marc Caputo reported that the administration was taking a different view and considering not paying furloughed workers.
• Asked about not paying furloughed workers, Trump told reporters, "it depends on who you're talking about."
• "For the most part, we're going to take care of our people," the president said. "There are some people that really don't deserve to be taken care of, and we'll take care of them in a different way."

Reality check: The OMB's official guidance still says federal workers should receive compensation.

• Nothing is official yet.

Zoom in: Five other federal employees independently told Axios that they were angry over this latest threat — after a year of layoffs and nasty rhetoric from the White House maligning their work.

• Avila-Thomas notes that half of her colleagues have left this year, taking early retirement or pushed out by the White House.
• The federal workforce overall is already down by more than 200,000 employees this year. Another 100,000 are expected to leave by December, an administration official said recently.

What they're saying: "I think the mood has moved past anxious and well into pissed-off territory," says one federal worker. "I also think it's a bluff."

• "It's telling that this administration's approach to negotiation is to threaten to blatantly break the law," says one employee, currently on furlough from the Bureau of Land Management. "They're just doing this to see what Congress will let them get away with."

What to watch: The unions that represent federal workers have already filed complaints over the administration's threats to fire workers in the shutdown.

• The argument that workers aren't guaranteed back pay violates the law, Everett Kelley, president of the American Federation of Government Employees, said in a statement Tuesday.

Majority Whip John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) hyped the Senate's progress on confirming Trump nominees during a closed-door lunch on Tuesday.

Why it matters: Thanks to new rules through the "nuclear option," the Senate confirmed another big batch of nominees Tuesday evening — putting them ahead of tallies at the same point under the Biden and first Trump administrations.

By the numbers: Barrasso compared the nominee confirmation numbers of the past few administrations, in a presentation slide obtained by Axios.

• The total number of Trump 2.0 confirmations is now at 298 after Tuesday's votes.
• That's more than the 201 nominees confirmed at this point under former President Biden, and the 183 confirmations at this point in Trump's first term.
• Barrasso's slide included images of Trump representing his administrations, and an image of an autopen signing Biden's name.

What to watch: The new bloc of confirmations leaves just 26 people waiting to be confirmed — 16 in the executive branch and 10 judicial branch nominees.