President Joe Biden declared Thursday, January 9, 2025, a National Day of Mourning following the death of former President Jimmy Carter.
The White House along with all public buildings and grounds will be flying the flag at half-staff for 30 days from the former president’s death.
“I invite the people of the world who share our grief to join us in this solemn observance,” Biden said in a statement following Carter’s death.
He also called on the American people to gather on January 9 “in their respective places of worship” to pay homage to Carter.
Historically on previous national days of mourning, as with the deaths of Former Presidents Gerald Ford in 2006 and George H. W. Bush in 2018, federal offices and stock markets were closed in the U.S.
That will be the case for today as well. National days of mourning are different from federal holidays, which means less service locations such as banks are not required to close.
What is closed?
The United States Postal Service (USPS) will be closed today, this includes post offices and mail delivery.
The stock market, NASDAQ, will be closed today.
The New York Stock Exchange will be closed today.
The bond market will close by 1:00 p.m. CST.
The US Supreme Court building is closed.
All federal departments and agencies are closed today with the exception of employees that are vital for national defense and security.
What is open?
Dakota County Offices are open for normal business
City of Hastings Offices are open for normal business
Banks: Affinity Plus Credit Union, Merchants Bank, Vermillion State Bank, First National Bank, Premier Bank, MidCountry Bank, North America Banking Company are all confirmed to be open.
Wells Fargo is listed as open, but we were unable to confirm that via a phone call.
Retail stores are not expected to close due to the National Day of Observance.
UPS and the UPS Store are fully open accepting pickups and making deliveries.
FedEx was seen in Hastings making deliveries.
NOTE: The USA Today reported that UPS and FedEx may be closed today. If you are expecting to receive or deliver a package with the non-USPS carriers, use your tracking number to confirm the status of your shipment.
Call to confirm
If you are not sure about a specific location being open, you can call them to confirm, but it appears that Hastings businesses are operating normally.
