The big-screen television on the first floor of the Hatfield U.S. Courthouse in downtown Portland is dark.

For months the TV was locked on one station, Fox News Channel. After a series of events and curious decisions, the set fell silent.

The story begins just outside the Cafe Today. There you’ll find a small dining area which includes a couple tables, some chairs and a Mitsubishi flat screen television. Julie Wallner, the owner of Cafe Today, which is inside the court house but privately owned.  She says for the one year she’s run the business, the TV has always been glued to the Fox News Channel.

But that changed a couple months ago during the heat of the mid-term election. Some federal workers complained that FNC leaned too far right. But Wallner had nothing to do with the satellite feed or what channel appeared on the big-screen. That decision is left up to the U.S. General Services Administration which is in charge of all federal courthouses.

The GSA at the Hatfield U.S. Courthouse heard complaints from people who don’t even work in the building. The League of Women Voters of Portland actually took the matter up at a board meeting. Betsy Pratt, the league’s president, said “more neutral media sources” were available. The League is officially a non-partisan group which participates in naturalization ceremonies inside the courthouse.  When asked by Fox if she thought it was dangerous for newly sworn-in citizens to watch Fox News, Pratt deflected the question saying she didn’t think they even watched TV in the courthouse.

So, just before the November election, GSA officials pulled the plug on Fox and switched the feed over to CNN.

Ah, but that seemingly simple act of remote control chicanery was met with cries of foul from nearly all of the cafe’s most frequent customers, the courtroom security personnel. This large group, which is made up of mostly retired police officers, doesn’t much care for CNN calling it too liberal and too boring.

Nonetheless, CNN stayed until last month when all of a sudden the screen went to black.  According to the GSA the satellite box mysteriously died one day. End of story, right? Not so much.

The GSA has decided to replace the satellite box with an antenna. The TV will run again some day, but only with local channels. The GSA says it will save money. Cable news viewers are apparently not pleased.

According to Wallner, the U.S. Marshals, who run security at the front of the courthouse, rely on the 24/7 national news to keep up with current events and potential security threats.  ”They want to know if there’s been an attack or shooting at another courthouse,” Wallner tells Fox News, “it helps them do their job.”

For now those coffee breaks are a little less entertaining and a lot less informative. If and when the screen lights back up, it’ll be with a heavy dose of local news with perhaps some Judge Judy and soap operas mixed in.