Latest news with #federalagency
New York Times
23-05-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Fired Federal Worker Flirts on Finch
After losing my job at a federal agency in a recent wave of terminations, I went out for drinks with my friend Deb, who still had her job (at least for the time being) at a different agency. Exhausted, miserable and a half-glass of wine deep in the company of another federal worker, I indulged myself in a little public cry. Deb understood. 'Are you sleeping and eating?' she asked. 'Sort of,' I said, wiping away tears. 'But I'm definitely not drinking water.' (My friend Paige, knowing I had become an over-caffeinated, dehydrated, cover-letter-writing husk, had been sending me daily text reminders to 'Drink water!') 'You should get on Finch,' Deb said, pulling out her phone to show me. Finch is a so-called self-care app that claims you 'take care of your pet,' a virtual bird, 'by taking care of yourself.' Deb's bird on the app, Chickadee, wore purple aviator glasses and a chic chore coat and had a turtle 'micropet.' Chickadee got rainbow coins whenever Deb completed self-care goals such as 'get out of bed,' 'brush teeth' and 'drink water.' And Chickadee could send Chickadee's friends (i.e. Deb's friends' birds) virtual well-wishes. These included hugs (accompanied by a heart emoji), reminders to drink water (water glass emoji), gratitude (heart face) and more. At first, it didn't appeal. I've been in therapy and don't generally need to celebrate remembering to brush my teeth. But when Deb texted me her promo link, which included an adorable llama micropet named 'Oatmeal,' I couldn't help but click. After downloading it, I found myself in possession of a baby bird. I named her Buddy, and I started Finching. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump Effort to Shutter Education Agency Blocked by Judge
(Bloomberg) -- A US judge blocked President Donald Trump's efforts for now to shutter the Department of Education, including a plan to slash the workforce in half and remove thousands of employees. Can Frank Gehry's 'Grand LA' Make Downtown Feel Like a Neighborhood? NY Private School Pleads for Donors to Stay Open After Declaring Bankruptcy Chicago's O'Hare Airport Seeks Up to $4.3 Billion of Muni Debt NYC's War on Trash Gets a Glam Squad NJ Transit Makes Deal With Engineers, Ending Three-Day Strike US District Judge Myong Joun in Boston wrote in a Thursday ruling that the personnel cuts would 'likely cripple the department' and ordered the administration to reinstate employees to carry out duties required under US law, including managing federal student loans, aiding state education programs and enforcing compliance with civil rights laws. Joun found that Trump lacked power to effectively dissolve a federal agency created by Congress by getting rid of its employees, closing regional offices and moving programs to other federal agencies. Trump has faced a slew of challenges to similar efforts to dismantle entities created by Congress, including the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, US Agency for International Development and the US Institute of Peace. 'A department without enough employees to perform statutorily mandated functions is not a department at all,' Joun wrote. 'This court cannot be asked to cover its eyes while the department's employees are continuously fired and units are transferred out until the department becomes a shell of itself.' Hours later, the Trump administration asked the judge to put a hold on the injunction while the government appeals, saying it continued to believe the states would not prevail. The government alternatively asked the judge to grant a seven-day administrative stay by 10 a.m. Friday to halt the injunction while it seeks emergency relief from a federal appeals court. 'Once again, a far-left Judge has dramatically overstepped his authority, based on a complaint from biased plaintiffs, and issued an injunction against the obviously lawful efforts to make the Department of Education more efficient and functional for the American people,' Education Department spokesperson Madi Biedermann said in a statement. Joun's injunction blocks a 'reduction in force' announced in early March to cut more than half of the department's 4,000 employees, as well as a March 21 executive order from Trump directing US officials to 'take all necessary steps to facilitate the closure of the Department of Education' to the fullest extent allowed by law. The states and organizations that sued over the Education Department cuts 'paint a stark picture of the irreparable harm that will result from financial uncertainty and delay, impeded access to vital knowledge on which students and educators rely, and loss of essential services for America's most vulnerable student populations,' Joun wrote. 'The record abundantly reveals that defendants' true intention is to effectively dismantle the department without an authorizing statute.' The ruling covered two lawsuits, one brought primarily by states led by Democrats and the other filed by several Massachusetts public school systems and unions. 'Today's order means that the Trump administration's disastrous mass firings of career civil servants are blocked while this wildly disruptive and unlawful agency action is litigated,' Skye Perryman, president of Democracy Forward, which represents challengers in the school systems' case, said in a statement. Judges have grappled with how to determine when the administration's mass cuts to federal workers and funding unlawfully override Congress' authority. On Wednesday, a federal judge in Washington denied an injunction to parents who sued over layoffs and office closures within the Education Department's civil rights enforcement arm, finding there was evidence that officials were still investigating complaints, just 'at a much slower pace.' The cases are Somerville Public Schools v. Trump, 25-cv-10677, and State of New York v. McMahon, 25-cv-10601. US District Court, District of Massachusetts (Boston). --With assistance from Erik Larson. (Updated with Trump administration motion to pause ruling in fifth paragraph,) Why Apple Still Hasn't Cracked AI Inside the First Stargate AI Data Center How Coach Handbags Became a Gen Z Status Symbol Anthropic Is Trying to Win the AI Race Without Losing Its Soul Microsoft's CEO on How AI Will Remake Every Company, Including His ©2025 Bloomberg L.P.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Tiny Agency That Stood Up to DOGE Gets Its Building Back
A small federal agency forced out of its headquarters by the Trump administration has regained control of its building after a federal judge declared the DOGE takeover 'null and void.' U.S. Institute of Peace acting president George Moose reentered his Washington office on Wednesday for the first time since March, when he and many other agency leaders were booted out by DOGE staffers who declared them 'unnecessary.' 'We are now back in the building and we intend to resume our stewardship and custodianship,' Moose told reporters in an impromptu briefing outside the USIP building. 'It is not just the platform from which we've been doing our work—it is a symbol of the aspirations and the intent of the American people to be seen and to be peacemakers in the world.' Moose reportedly reentered USIP headquarters with private security and the agency's attorney. 'We just did a quick walk-through. Externally, visibly, things look to be in pretty good shape,' he said. 'I didn't see anything, any destruction, if you will, no damage that I can see that is visible.' USIP regained access to its building days after federal judge Beryl Howell ordered the reversal of DOGE's sweeping cuts. The saga started when Elon Musk's DOGE lackeys arrived unannounced at the USIP office in March, but were turned away by the institution's attorney who stood firm on its independence as a non-executive branch agency. After a days-long standoff, Capitol police kicked staff out. Soon after, USIP staff began receiving termination notices as DOGE took a chainsaw to the federal government in a bid to cut spending. Nate Cavanaugh, a 28-year-old DOGE staffer, was installed as the institution's new head. Agency leaders hit back by suing the Trump administration. Howell wrote in her ruling favoring USIP that the removal of the agency's leaders and their replacement by DOGE affiliates was 'effectuated by illegitimately-installed leaders who lacked legal authority to take these actions, which must therefore be declared null and void.' But the saga isn't over yet. The Trump administration appealed Howell's order on Wednesday, arguing that the USIP is part of the executive branch because it is 'tasked with executive powers' and 'perform[s] executive functions.' Congress established USIP as a nonpartisan, independent agency in 1984 to protect 'U.S. interests by helping to prevent violent conflicts and broker peace deals abroad,' according to its website. 'As such… the Institute's Board is removable at the President's will,' newly-named D.C. prosecutor Jeanine Pirro wrote in the administration's appeal. 'The Court's conclusion that the Institute, a creation of statute, is also not part of any branch of the federal government is an unprecedented holding and one that appears to contradict the analytical underpinnings of several binding and persuasive precedents.'
Washington Post
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Washington Post
'Don't get in my way,' the new acting head of federal disaster agency warns in call with staff
WASHINGTON — The new head of the federal agency tasked with responding to disasters across the country warned staff in a meeting Friday not to try to impede upcoming changes, saying that 'I will run right over you' while also suggesting policy changes that would push more responsibilities to the states.
The National
15-04-2025
- Business
- The National
Trump threatens Harvard after it defied government demands for overhaul
News US US government has frozen $2.2 billion in federal funding to the university after it rejected a series of White House orders
