At 12:01 am on Tuesday, the possibility became a reality,

and the sides in this U.S. government face-off were blaming each other.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: One faction of one party in one house of Congress in one branch of government

shut down major parts of the government,

all because they didn`t like one law.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The president refused to compromise.

Senator Reid has not even, he`s already said he`s not going to go to conference,

he`s not going to go to the constitutional event where we`re supposed to come together and compromise.

AZUZ: About 2.6 million government employees were expected to keep working during the shutdown.

More than 840,000 were facing furloughs, sent home from work without pay.

One group definitely gets a paycheck during a government shutdown - Congress.

And Athena Jones explains why.

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Congress` approval ratings may be at historic lows,

but that won`t stop members from getting paid,

even during a government shutdown.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They`ll still get paid. Is that appropriate?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.

JONES: I worked the phones and hit the halls.

If there is a shutdown, members of Congress still get to collect their paychecks.

What do you think about that?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I actually think nobody is above the law, and that means the president, the attorney general, as well as us.

All of them ought to be putting that on hold until this is resolved.

JONES: And what will members of Congress do with their money?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am urging my fellow members of Congress to donate their pay to charitable causes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I am going to be writing a check back to the U.S. Treasury and giving my pay back and standing in solidarity with everyone else.

JONES: So why do senators and representatives get to collect their paycheck while hundreds of thousands of federal employees will have to go without?

Blame the Constitution.

Ordinary members of Congress in both chambers make $174,000 a year.

Congressional leaders make more.

No Congress can change its own salaries.

It can only vote to change the pay of future sessions of Congress.

Senator Boxer says she`ll probably give her paycheck to charity,

but that is no consolation to government workers like Dee Alexander (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If we`re not getting paid, I don`t think Congress should be paid either, because I think they need to kind of feel what we`re feeling.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It is time for the Shoutout.

What is the most valuable brand in the world?

If you think you know it, then shout it out.

Is it McDonald`s, Apple, Coca-Cola, or Facebook?

You`ve got 3 seconds. Go.

According to a report about corporate branding, Apple is the new No. 1 when it comes to the most valuable brands.

That`s your answer and that`s your shoutout.

AZUZ: What`s in a brand? Value for one thing.

For the past 13 years, since consulting company Interbrand started ranking what it calls the best global brands, Coke was it.

The world`s most valuable brand.

But just this year, Apple ripened, reaching the top spot thanks in part to the release of its newest iPhone.

And Google found its way into the report`s second most valuable spot.

This does not mean Coca-Cola has lost value.

Interbrand says Coke gained value over last year by 2 percent,

but Apple jumped 28 percent compared to 2012;

Google a whopping 34 percent.

And when you look at how the estimated values of these brands break down,

you see Apple at the top, with an estimated worth of $98.3 billion.

So what?

Well, the shift shows the starring role technology is taking in our lives.

The majority of this year`s top 10 most valuable brands are associated with high technology.

Interbrand says their products change buying behaviors and how we communicate with each other,

but the rankings are not necessarily the last word on popularity.

If you turn to Facebook for a measure, Coke has more than 73 million likes;

Google has around 15 million,

and Apple has a comparatively tiny 9.7 million.

In fact, when you look at who likes FaceBook itself, you`ll see 95 million thumbs ups.

Almost as much as the other three brands combined.

Hispanic Heritage month celebrates the culture and traditions of Americans from Spanish speaking countries.

Today we`re checking out five English words that come from Spanish.

Maybe you can tell the difference between a gator and a crock,

but did you know that alligator comes from a Spanish word, allegarto (ph)? It means the lizard.

You`re used to eating in a cafeteria.

If you were at a Spanish speaking country, you`d pronounce it cafeteria, and it would be a coffee shop, not a lunch room.

There is no y in the Spanish word canion (ph), but there is in the English word canyon.

Canion (ph) means a long tube or pipe, and canyons are deep valleys, kind of like a half-pipe.

We talked about hurricanes a lot on our show.

The word goes back to Spanish sailors who learned about uracans (ph) from Caribbean natives.

Finally, patios. In the U.S., they`re usually off one side of a house.

In Spanish architecture, patios are often open courtyards inside a house.

But the word is spelled the same in both languages.

This edition of Career Connections recognizes the achievements of Latino and Hispanic Americans.

We`re profiling Diana Heredia for her work in the fashion industry.

Heredia is a textile director for world famous fashion designer Jason Wu.

She`s traveled to places like Italy, Paris, Switzerland, not too bad.

And Diana tells you her role is more than glitz and glamour.

DIANA HEREDIA, TEXTILE DIRECTOR FOR JASON WU: I am the director of textile development at Jason Wu at New York City.

My main responsibility is managing the scheduling of all the raw material that goes into producing a collection.

That could be anything from working on the color palette to working on prints.

Developing new treatments for leathers and skins.

Went to Syracuse University thinking I`m going to be an architect,

and after my freshman year, I decided that wasn`t really for me.

And that`s how I ended up in fashion.

Funnily enough, I grew up around fabrics and sewing machines my entire life.

Both of my parents sew.

So I didn`t think I would dedicate my life to this field,

but I guess it was a part of me all along.

I get to design four different collections, work on four different collections a year.

So you know, there is a lot of research that goes into it, you know, it`s a challenge every time.

Some ideas that Jason presents me with require a little bit more historical research, like for the fall 2012 collection, it was based off of the Qin dynasty in China.

What I love the most about my job is that there is very little redundancy to my day to day.

I`m going to say the obvious, but it was working on Michelle Obama`s gown.

I`ve been to the museum twice this year, and every time it`s like a little bit emotional.

My advice would be to if you do have a passion, don`t ignore it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: See if you can ID me.

I am a body of water located on the U.S. East Coast.

Specifically, I`m an inlet that borders parts of Maryland and Virginia.

I was the site of the Civil War battle between the Monitor and Merrimack warships.

I`m the Chesapeake Bay, and my name comes from an Algonquin word which means great shellfish bay.

AZUZ: At least 10 different rivers flow into the Chesapeake Bay.

Explorer and conservationist Philippe Cousteau was examining some of the environmental concerns during their journey.

Along the way, he`s breaking down some of the terminology and he`s helping us show you real life examples of stuff that`s right out of your science book.

PHILIPPE COUSTEAU, CONSERVATIONIST: I`m Philippe Cousteau here for CNN STUDENT NEWS on an EarthEcho expedition,

and the word of the day is tributary, because we`re in Virginia on a tributary of the Rappahannock River, in the Shenandoah National Park,

and I am with Park Ranger Sally Hurlbert here.

Sally, tell me a little bit about what is going on.

SALLY HURLBERT, PARK RANGER: Well, we`re looking up at the (inaudible) falls,

and the water that you see cascading down the falls is actually on a journey all the way to the Chesapeake Bay.

COUSTEAU: So this feeds into the Rappahannock river.

HURLBERT: Yes.

COUSTEAU: And then into the Chesapeake, and ultimately into the ocean.

HURLBERT: Right.

AZUZ: Teachers, you can find more about the EarthEcho project and Philippe Cousteau`s work at CNNstudentnews.com.

Go to the resources box, and look for the earthecho.org link.

Today`s roll call is very presidential.

We`ve got two schools named after U.S. presidents.

The first is Herbert Hoover High.

It`s home of the Huskies, and it`s in Glendening (ph), West Virginia.

Before he was president, Dwight Eisenhower was a general, and in Albuquerque, New Mexico, the Eisenhower Generals make today`s roll call.

Finally, the Titans from Tollgate High School in Warwick, Rhode Island take us home.

Not unusual to see surfers in Huntington Beach, California.

It is slightly unusual to see four-legged surfers,

but that`s what this is all about at the Surf City Surf Dog event.

A chance for radical rovers to hang ten, or 20.

We`re not sure how an idea like this started, but it`s coming down the pipeline for a while now.

This is the fifth year of paw-ticipation from determined surf dogs.

Now, they`re all just riding a wave of excitement.

Dogs with experience staying overnight in temporary locations make the best wave riders, because after all, they`re used to boarding.

Kind of a long way to go for that, but it`s going to wipe out all the time we have.

For CNN STUDENT NEWS, I`m Carl Azuz.

END