Latest news with #StephanieHolmes
E&E News
28-05-2025
- Business
- E&E News
BLM removes top career official
The top career official at the Bureau of Land Management was removed Tuesday from the Interior Department headquarters and placed on administrative leave, according to three people familiar with the situation granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Mike Nedd, the deputy director of administration and programs responsible for overseeing BLM's 9,000 employees and the bureau's day-to-day operations, declined to comment on his removal. BLM also declined to comment. The Washington Post and POLITICO also reported on Nedd's removal. Advertisement Nedd's placement on administrative leave comes days after POLITICO reported that the deputy director had instructed BLM staffers to ignore an internal memorandum placing a freeze on employee reassignments or changes to work locations as part of Interior's ongoing efforts to determine what positions and staff could be cut in layoffs. That internal memo was issued by Stephanie Holmes — Interior's acting chief human capital officer and a former member of the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency. An Interior spokesperson last week said Nedd had not told BLM employees to disregard Holmes' memo. Nedd was named to the top career position at the bureau in 2019, during the first Trump administration. Earlier this month, an administrative law judge also overturned Nedd's 2021 decision to remove Eric Kriley from his post as BLM's former top cop. Kriley had accused Nedd of trying to improperly exert influence over internal investigations. The decision by Administrative Judge Evan Roth with the Merit Systems Protection Board retroactively put Kirley back in his position as director of BLM's Office of Law Enforcement and Security. Roth's decision concluded that Kriley qualifies for federal whistleblower protections and that Nedd — a former Army special operations officer with nearly 40 years of federal service — gave conflicting statements about when he decided to remove Kriley from his post during a deposition and a later hearing before the judge. Reporter Robin Bravender contributed to this story. Scott Streater can be reached on Signal at s_streater.80.
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Interior Department job cuts spark conflict with DOGE appointee
DOGE-driven staff cuts inside the Interior Department have set off a turf battle over how to deploy personnel at the Bureau of Land Management — raising concerns the vacancies would undermine President Donald Trump's promise to boost domestic fossil fuel and minerals production. A memo issued this month by a DOGE appointee at Interior set off a tussle over how employees at BLM should fulfill the duties for the thousands of jobs that now sit empty, but which people inside the agency say are critical for its day-to-day operations. The May 2 memo, obtained by POLITICO, was signed by Stephanie Holmes, a former staffer for Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency who is now embedded as Interior's acting chief human capital officer. It ordered most staff to stop doing 'detail' work — temporarily filling in for vacant positions — and return to their official permanent positions by May 18. But BLM Deputy Director for Administration and Programs Michael Nedd, a 30-year veteran of the bureau, instructed career staff to ignore the Holmes memo, saying it would have resulted in fewer positions being filled, three people familiar with the situation told POLITICO. The bureau oversees the 245 million acres and the oil, gas, coal and minerals produced on that land, making it a critical player in fulfilling Trump's pledge of rapidly expanding the nation's fossil fuel and mineral production. BLM employees said Nedd's direction to staff marked a boiling over of career staff distress over the steep loss of bureau personnel after DOGE first attempted to fire agency employees, a move that courts ruled to be unlawful. Interior has since offered deferred buyouts and early retirements and is now planning a potentially massive reduction in force to be carried out in coming weeks. A bureau spokesperson declined to comment on how many people have left so far. Nedd told staff 'to ignore the email from HR' because 'the work is too important and these people in detail are doing the work of the Administration,' said one person familiar with Nedd's directive who was granted anonymity to discuss internal department affairs. A second person working at BLM confirmed Nedd's direction to staff, as did a person outside the agency who interacts with the bureau. Those people were also granted anonymity to protect working relationships. 'It's a battle of HR versus Mike Nedd,' one of the people inside the agency said. The administration is 'shooting themselves in the foot,' this person said of the Interior HR memo. 'We're running out of people.' Nedd did not respond to inquiries. A BLM spokesperson declined to comment. An Interior Department spokesperson said Nedd did not tell people to ignore the memo. Lawmakers of both parties have criticized Interior's overall staffing cuts, saying the steep headcount reductions were leaving critical positions unfilled. Maine Rep. Chellie Pingree, the top Democrat on the appropriations subcommittee for Interior's budget, said the department has lost more than 10 percent of its staff through buyouts and early retirements offered by the Trump administration. 'I am very worried about the state of Interior,' Pingree told Interior Secretary Doug Burgum during the subcommittee's hearing Tuesday on the department's proposed budget. 'There's been a stunning decline in its ability to do its mission.' Nevada Republican Rep. Mark Amodei also said he was concerned that an exodus of staff from Interior would hurt efficiency. 'I don't know how you can sit there and hold people's feet to the fire when you've got so many empty desks,' Amodei said during the hearing. Burgum defended the department's overall efforts to cut its staff at the hearing, saying the goal was to peel away layers of bureaucracy and move more staff to the local level. If BLM were run like a private company 'you wouldn't have five layers between headquarters and the front lines' Burgum told the committee. 'We're trying to streamline, to get more people out there to get it done.' The BLM's roughly 10,000 employees manage vast swaths of land in Western states such as Utah, New Mexico and Alaska. Bureau staff are in charge of processing applications to drill for oil and natural gas, mine for coal and uranium, develop wells for geothermal energy and carry out other energy-related projects on federal land. But BLM still doesn't have a director after Trump's first nominee, Kathleen Sgamma, withdrew her nomination last month following the surfacing of an essay she wrote years ago criticizing the Jan. 6, 2021, attack by a throng of the president's supporters on the U.S. Capitol. Interior's human relations staff told employees at the end of April to upload their résumés in preparations for job cuts that could see hundreds or thousands pushed out. The reductions are coming even as Burgum has pledged to slash the time the department takes to process permits — reducing it from years to in some cases less than a month. The DOGE-led staff reductions have led to a growing number of vacant positions that more employees have to fill in to perform basic jobs, according to three bureau employees granted anonymity to discuss internal bureau affairs. So far, they said, Burgum has been content to let Holmes and Tyler Hassen, a former oilfield services executive and former DOGE staffer who is now Interior's acting policy chief, run the department's staffing policy. BLM leadership has been forced to assign temporary roles to staff, as shown by another email bureau leadership sent to employees in early May and obtained by POLITICO. Among the changes in duties added to several people's existing roles laid out in that email, BLM's main chief of staff, Jill Moran, was named as the temporary chief of staff for the assistant secretary of land and minerals. Mitchell Leverette, the bureau's director for its Eastern States office, was named to also serve as assistant director for energy, minerals and realty management, a position that became vacant after the previous person took a buyout. Karen Kelleher, who had served as another deputy director of state operations after working as Idaho state director, was named as temporarily working as acting Alaska state director after that position became vacant. The temporary work isn't just for high-level staff, employees said. With more senior staff being given temporary assignments, mid- and lower-level staff have had to take on more work to backfill leadership responsibilities, employees told POLITICO. 'Most of the folks I work with are juggling at least two offices at the moment without any extra incentive,' said an employee at one of the bureau's state offices who was granted anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
Scoop
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scoop
New Zealand's Favourite Beauty Awards Make Their Return
Press Release – NZME. Across two weeks in April, beauty industry professionals were invited to submit their nominations for the best products and brands across various categories. Voting is now open and people have until 28 May to pick their favourites across multiple beauty Viva has partnered with Glow Lab for a second consecutive year to present The Viva Beauty Awards 2025, celebrating excellence in skincare, haircare, and cosmetics across New Zealand's beauty industry. Across two weeks in April, beauty industry professionals were invited to submit their nominations for the best products and brands across various categories. After receiving hundreds of nominations across 30 categories, Viva Beauty Editor Ashleigh Cometti and an esteemed panel of judges decided on the finalists. Voting is now open and people have until 28 May to pick their favourites across multiple beauty categories via the Viva website. Winners will be announced on 11 June on and in Viva magazine in the NZ Herald. Stephanie Holmes, NZME's Editor – Lifestyle Brands, says: 'Viva's beauty content is market-leading, showcasing the best brands, products and the people behind them, empowering our readers to feel confident in their purchase decisions. The Viva Beauty Awards are an extension of our regular beauty content, giving industry experts the chance to celebrate and acknowledge their peers, and our readers the chance to have their say on the best of the best. It's fantastic to be able to bring the awards back for a second year, with the support of Glow Lab to help bring it all to life.' Ashleigh Cometti, Viva Beauty Editor, says last year's Viva Beauty Awards were a huge success and she couldn't be happier to be leading the charge again for a second year. 'This year's awards have levelled up – with five new categories that help broaden our approach to celebrating the many facets of beauty. It's an honour to be able to recognise the people, brands and products that have not only revolutionised our beauty routines but continue to impact the wider beauty industry as a whole. 'I'd also like to thank our awesome panel of judges for giving up their time to review hundreds of nominations and decide on the finalists – this was no easy task given the quality entries we received across all categories,' she says. The judging panel included:
Scoop
15-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scoop
New Zealand's Favourite Beauty Awards Make Their Return
Viva has partnered with Glow Lab for a second consecutive year to present The Viva Beauty Awards 2025, celebrating excellence in skincare, haircare, and cosmetics across New Zealand's beauty industry. Across two weeks in April, beauty industry professionals were invited to submit their nominations for the best products and brands across various categories. After receiving hundreds of nominations across 30 categories, Viva Beauty Editor Ashleigh Cometti and an esteemed panel of judges decided on the finalists. Voting is now open and people have until 28 May to pick their favourites across multiple beauty categories via the Viva website. Winners will be announced on 11 June on and in Viva magazine in the NZ Herald. Stephanie Holmes, NZME's Editor – Lifestyle Brands, says: "Viva's beauty content is market-leading, showcasing the best brands, products and the people behind them, empowering our readers to feel confident in their purchase decisions. The Viva Beauty Awards are an extension of our regular beauty content, giving industry experts the chance to celebrate and acknowledge their peers, and our readers the chance to have their say on the best of the best. It's fantastic to be able to bring the awards back for a second year, with the support of Glow Lab to help bring it all to life.' Ashleigh Cometti, Viva Beauty Editor, says last year's Viva Beauty Awards were a huge success and she couldn't be happier to be leading the charge again for a second year. 'This year's awards have levelled up - with five new categories that help broaden our approach to celebrating the many facets of beauty. It's an honour to be able to recognise the people, brands and products that have not only revolutionised our beauty routines but continue to impact the wider beauty industry as a whole. 'I'd also like to thank our awesome panel of judges for giving up their time to review hundreds of nominations and decide on the finalists – this was no easy task given the quality entries we received across all categories,' she says. The judging panel included:
WIRED
31-03-2025
- Business
- WIRED
Top Officials Placed on Leave After Denying DOGE Access to Federal Payroll Systems
Top career officials at the Department of the Interior (DOI) were placed on administrative leave late last week after declining to immediately give affiliates of the so-called Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) levels of access to a payroll system that would in theory allow them to, among other things, stop individual Supreme Court justices' paychecks. The New York Times has reported that these officials include DOI's chief information and information security officers; sources tell WIRED they also include a top lawyer. For several weeks, say sources with direct knowledge of the situation, DOGE operatives have been seeking what they termed 'full' or 'system' access to DOI's payroll, human resources, and credentialing systems. Among the systems to which it demanded full access is the Federal Personnel and Payroll System (FPPS), which is housed in DOI's Interior Business Center and used by dozens of federal agencies ranging from the Department of Justice to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to handle payroll and records associated with more than 275,000 federal workers, including at agencies outside the executive branch. The DOGE associates in question are Tyler Hassen, an energy executive and acting assistant secretary of policy, management, and budget at DOI; Stephanie Holmes, who runs HR for DOGE and is the acting chief human capital officer at DOI; and Katrine Trampe, an adviser to Doug Burgum, the secretary of the Interior. According to sources with direct knowledge, when asked why they sought full access to these systems, the DOGE operatives said they specifically sought levels of permissions that would give them the ability to create, pause, and delete email accounts. This functionality doesn't, strictly speaking, exist for any one user within the systems they were seeking to access because such actions are, as a security measure, designed to be initiated by one person and approved by another. Granting their request would thus require them each to be given an essentially God-mode level of access to the entire system architecture. According to sources and a risk assessment memorandum reviewed by WIRED and first reported on by the Times, top career officials saw several issues with granting these unprecedented levels of access.
