Latest news with #Trump-issued
Time of India
04-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Donald Trump Frees Chrisleys; Savannah Now Dares Him To Golf
Savannah Chrisley just challenged Donald Trump to a round of golf, but the timing couldn't be more controversial. The reality star is under fire after her parents, Todd and Julie Chrisley, were freed from prison through a Trump-issued pardon. Critics online claim Savannah either 'paid' or 'slept' her way to get the pardon. On her podcast Unlocked, Savannah hit back, calling the accusations 'laughable' and 'disrespectful,' firmly denying any shady dealings. She insisted her parents' release came from relentless advocacy, not desperation. Todd and Julie were convicted in 2022 for defrauding banks of over $30 million and served two years before Trump's intervention. Savannah's bold defense and her unexpected Trump golf invite have taken the internet by storm.
Boston Globe
10-03-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Another potential casualty of Trump's federal job cuts: New England fishermen in limbo
Sarah Cierpich spent 19 years working with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, though had been a contract worker until last September. That switch made her a probationary employee and thus subject to the sweeping layoffs that have hit federal agencies. Advertisement She was at home sick when her boss called. 'I hate to tell you this, but can you check your email?' she recalls being told. And there it was: an impersonal email telling her that 'The Agency finds that you are not fit for continued employment because your ability, knowledge and/or skills do not fit the Agency's current needs.' Another probationary NOAA employee, Anjali Bhardwaj, spent the last year managing the groundfish fishery, speaking daily with the industry, spending weeks at sea collecting data, and participating in joint management efforts between the US and Canada. She was let go, too, according to a And they may not be the last. The New York Times reported that NOAA may soon lose Fishermen and organizations they work with say that between the layoffs and a Trump-issued executive order to limit new regulations, it's unclear when — or if — the fishery will be able to open. A fishing boat headed out of Gloucester Harbor in 2014. John Tlumacki 'There is an inherent uncertainty in fishing as it is,' said Vincent Balzano, a third-generation fisherman out of Portland, Maine. 'This has just put it on steroids ... nobody knows what to do.' Advertisement The uncertainty facing the region's In the case of the New England fishery, there are key regulations that are revised each year, including a new one specifically for cod, that must be finalized in order to open the fishing season. Groundfish are subject to extra regulations because of historic overfishing that nearly decimated populations. Most fish populations have bounced back, thanks to tightened management, but the cod fishery is still a shadow of what it once was. The new cod regulation adds new science to the way the fishery is handled. But until that regulation is finalized, no groundfish of any variety can be caught because, unlike, say, lobster fishing, when you fish for groundfish, you catch several species of fish at once. But two Trump orders — one that requires a it much harder to finalize regulations. This is a ratcheting up of an order from the last Trump administration when two regulations had to be cut for every new one. Back then, NOAA employees were canceling 'things that nobody had ever heard of that may have dated back to the 1860s or something,' said fisherman and independent research biologist David Goethel. 'But I think they pretty much exhausted the pool of useless regulations.' This time, he said, 'they're going to have to cut some real fat here.' Advertisement Many fishermen have a complex relationship with regulations. They don't want to be overregulated, but also don't want the fisheries from which they make their living to collapse. Without an emergency order, which would allow the fishery to open prior to regulations being finalized, the season may not start on time. But with key positions at NOAA now empty, it's not clear who would issue that. If the groundfish season doesn't start on May 1 as planned, it's not just the fishermen and consumers who will suffer. 'It's the dealers, the bait shops, the ice houses, and gear manufacturers,' said Dan Salerno, who manages groundfish sectors on behalf of fishermen in New Hampshire and Rhode Island. 'It's up and down the coast, any industry that's related directly to commercial fishing.' Workers at Atlantic Coast Seafood unloaded and sorted a haul at the Boston Fish Pier in 2020. Blake Nissen/The Boston Globe At the Boston Fish Pier, Tory Bramante, owner of Atlantic Coast Seafood, handles 20 million pounds of local groundfish a year. If the season is delayed, he said, 'you'd be putting thousands and thousands of people out of work,' and 'the local availability of groundfish won't be there.' He also noted that in 30 years of doing this work, there have been worries of delayed seasons in the past, but none have materialized. There's no clear tally of which positions at NOAA have been eliminated, according to those who work directly with the agency — only a trail of unanswered emails, word-of-mouth messages, and the occasional social media post. But what is clear: several positions critical to the fishery are now empty. Job cuts reportedly include scientists working on a model of ocean bottom temperatures to help learn more about fish habits; a key liaison with fishery managers in the region; and the person responsible for running a legally-mandated program to ensure every commercial groundfish boat has an observer on board documenting catch limits. Advertisement That information — including notes on the size, age, and location of the catch — helps inform the agency's understanding of fish stocks compared to previous years. Cierpich spent years overseeing parts of this complex puzzle. But on the day she was fired, she had a little over an hour before her email was shut down. Other laid-off NOAA employees said the same thing: they had little time to wrap up work and ensure colleagues had sufficient information to continue. 'I wasn't able to go in and transfer all my work to my colleagues, to put in a vacation responder on my email, to make sure that other people had the admin privileges that I had in the systems to do the things that need to be done,' Cierpich said. Without Cierpich and others in critical positions, fishermen in the region said they're not sure who will help solve problems as they arise, and given the heavily regulated nature of the industry, they most certainly will. On Tuesday, a draft of the new cod regulation was published in the Federal Register, but there's a lengthy process before it can be approved. A public comment period is open until May 5, and after that, federal employees will have to respond before publishing the final rule. Normally, that would likely take a few weeks, Salerno said. But without key federal positions filled, it's less clear. Other annual regulations that dictate the size of the catch for other groundfish species are needed, too, and those have not yet been published. Advertisement A NOAA spokesperson declined to respond to the concerns raised by fishermen. For now, fishermen say they are trying to get information where they can, but are running into dead ends. 'Everybody's going silent,' said Goethel, the biologist and commercial fisherman in Newburyport. 'It's like we're all down in the foxhole making sure we don't stick our head up for some somebody to shoot at us.' Sabrina Shankman can be reached at
