Sweeping Layoffs! Conditions in America Have Only Just Begun to Change
Anger, chaos, and confusion take hold. The insight: The long-term impacts are likely to be significant and far-reaching. It all started for Corporate America long before Trump's Executive Order (EO).
Theo Edwards for YAME DigitalAnger, chaos, and confusion take hold. The insight:
The long-term impacts are likely to be significant and far-reaching.
For Corporate America, it all started long before Trump's Executive Order (EO).
Corporate America began laying off employees in large numbers in January 2024. Major companies across various sectors announced job cuts. Levi Strauss & Co. reduced its workforce by 10-15%. Discord also cut 15% of its staff, while Amazon's Audible division laid off 5% of its employees. Additionally, Unity implemented a substantial cut, laying off 25% of its workforce. On the other hand, BlackRock reduced 3% of its global workforce.
The trend continued throughout the year, with companies like IBM, Microsoft, Google, Meta, and Tesla announcing layoffs in subsequent months. By August 2024, 384 tech companies had laid off more than 124,000 (one hundred and twenty-four thousand) employees.
These layoffs were part of a broader trend that affected various industries, including tech, media, finance, manufacturing, and retail.
Then came Trump's executive order three weeks after his inauguration in January 2025, impacting all federal government agencies.
In the wake of Trump’s Executive Order that began on Thursday before Valentine's Day— workers across the country responded with anger and confusion Friday as they grappled with the Trump administration‘s aggressive effort to shrink the size of the federal workforce by ordering agencies to lay off probationary employees who have yet to qualify for civil service protections.
This initiative is being overseen by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), which Elon Musk leads.
As part of this effort, mass layoffs are taking place, primarily targeting probationary employees across various federal agencies—a major shift in federal employment practices, with the goals of reducing government spending and increasing operational efficiency.
POLITICO
Mass Layoffs, court challenges, and Buyouts: Making Sense of Trump’s Plans to shrink the federal workforce
The layoffs are part of an initiative move by Trump and a team led by Elon Musk to transform the federal government, which employs around 2.3 million individuals.
The administration earlier moved to cut funding for USAID and WHO and reduced funding for organizations that assist Americans in enrolling in Obamacare and for diversity initiatives at the Department of Education.
Officials at the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) have announced plans to reduce the agency's workforce by 50%, according to a HUD staff member with direct knowledge of the situation and a union leader who has communicated with other staff.
Kansas Farmers are now trying to save USAID
In a sign of the chaos surrounding the firings, federal workers are warning of a 'fascist danger' as they protest Elon Musk's DOGE.
The Insight: Check out the Live Layoffs on the Public Records notification website.
The WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) Act requires employers with 100 or more employees to provide at least 60 days of advance written notice before a plant closing or mass layoff that affects 50 or more employees. Keep in mind that not all layoffs or plant closures require WARN notices. The requirements for issuing WARN notices can vary by state.
Bookmark the website for future reference.
Change the 'State' and the 'Year' from the drop down to see if your company /job is at risk. Take note of the 'Notice Date.'
The impact of these cuts is already being felt across the nation. Communities that heavily rely on federal employment are experiencing economic shifts, which are affecting local businesses and housing markets.
The latest HUD housing report just dropped, and the numbers are alarming. More than 5.89 million renters are behind on rent, while 4.87 million homeowners are struggling with mortgage payments.
While much of the administration’s attention was focused on disrupting bureaucracy in Washington, the broad-based effort to slash the government workforce was impacting a far wider swath of workers.
Demonstrations against the mass firing are expected to ramp up with Congress on recess.
Theo Edwards for YAME Digital
USPS’ Long-awaited New Mail Truck Makes Its Debut to Rave Reviews From Carriers
“You can tell that (the designers) didn’t have an appearance in mind,” postal worker Avis Stonum said. The Postal Service’s new delivery vehicles aren’t going to win a beauty contest.
NEW YORK POST | Associated Press | September 12, 2024; at 1:44 AM“You can tell that (the designers) didn’t have an appearance in mind,” postal worker Avis Stonum said. The Postal Service’s new delivery vehicles aren’t going to win a beauty contest.
Associated Press | September 12, 2024 at 1:44 AM
The Postal Service’s new delivery vehicles aren’t going to win a beauty contest.
They’re tall and ungainly. The windshields are vast. Their hoods resemble a duck bill. Their bumpers are enormous.
“You can tell that (the designers) didn’t have appearance in mind,” postal worker Avis Stonum said.
The Postal Service’s new delivery vehicles aren’t going to win a beauty contest. AP
Odd appearance aside, the first handful of Next Generation Delivery Vehicles that rolled onto postal routes in August in Athens are getting rave reviews from letter carriers accustomed to cantankerous older vehicles that lack modern safety features and are prone to breaking down — and even catching fire.
Within a few years of the initial rollout, the fleet will have expanded to 60,000, most of them electric models, serving as the Postal Service’s primary delivery truck from Maine to Hawaii.
Once fully deployed, they’ll represent one of the most visible signs of the agency’s 10-year, $40 billion transformation led by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, who’s also renovating aging facilities, overhauling the processing and transportation network, and instituting other changes.
The current postal vehicles — the Grumman Long Life Vehicle, dating to 1987 — have made good on their name, outlasting their projected 25-year lifespan. But they’re well overdue for replacement.
Noisy and fuel-inefficient (9 mpg), the Grummans are costly to maintain.
They’re scalding hot in the summer, with only an old-school electric fan to circulate air.
The current postal vehicles — the Grumman Long Life Vehicle, dating to 1987 — have made good on their name, outlasting their projected 25-year lifespan. But they’re well overdue for replacement. AP
They’re have mirrors mounted on them that when perfectly aligned allow the driver to see around the vehicle, but the mirrors constantly get knocked out of alignment. Alarmingly, nearly 100 of the vehicles caught fire last year, imperiling carriers and mail alike.
The new trucks are being built with comfort, safety and utility in mind, by Oshkosh Defense in South Carolina.
Even tall postal carriers can stand up without bonking their heads and walk from front to back to retrieve packages.
For safety, they have airbags, 360-degree cameras, blind-spot monitoring, collision sensors and anti-lock brakes — all of which are missing on the Grummans.
The new trucks are being built with comfort, safety and utility in mind, by Oshkosh Defense in South Carolina. AP
The new trucks also have a feature that became common in most cars more than six decades ago — air conditioning.
And that’s key for drivers in the Deep South, the desert Southwest, and other areas with scorching summers.
“I promise you, it felt like heaven blowing in my face,” Stonum said of her first experience working in an air-conditioned truck.
Richard Burton, another driver, said he appreciates the larger payload area, which can accommodate bigger packages and the fact that he can stand up and doesn’t have to crouch, helping him avoid back pain. The old trucks also had a habit of breaking down in traffic, he added.
Brian Renfroe, president of the National Letter Carriers Association, said union members are enthusiastic about the new vehicles, just as they were when the Grummans marked a leap forward from the previous vehicles, old-school Jeeps.
He credited DeJoy with bringing a sense of urgency to get them into production.
“We’re excited now to be at the point where they’re starting to hit the streets,” Renfroe said.
The process got off to a rocky start.
Environmentalists were outraged when DeJoy announced that 90% of the next-gen vehicles in the first order would be gas-powered.
Lawsuits were filed demanding that the Postal Service further electrify its fleet of more than 200,000 vehicles to reduce tailpipe emissions.
The new trucks also have a feature that became common in most cars more than six decades ago — air conditioning. AP
“Everybody went nuts,” DeJoy said.
The problem, Dejoy said, wasn’t that he didn’t want electric vehicles. Rather, the expense of the vehicles, compounded by the costs of installing thousands of charging stations and upgrading electrical service, made them unaffordable at a time when the agency was reporting big operating deficits every quarter.
He found a way to further boost the number of electric vehicles when he met with President Joe Biden’s top environmental adviser, John Podesta.
That led to a deal in which the government provided $3 billion to the Postal Service, with part of it earmarked for electric charging stations.
In December 2022, DeJoy announced that the Postal Service was buying 106,000 vehicles through 2028. That included 60,000 next-gen vehicles, 45,000 of them electric models, along with 21,000 other electric vehicles. He pledged to go all-electric for new purchases starting in 2026.
“With the climate crisis at our doorsteps, electrifying the US government’s largest fleet will deliver the progress we’ve been waiting for,” said Katherine García of the Sierra Club, which sued the Postal Service before its decision to boost the volume of electric vehicle purchases.
Between the electric vehicles, reduced tailpipe emissions from optimized mail routes, and other changes, the agency anticipates cutting carbon emissions by 40% by 2030, DeJoy said. The route revisions will also save money.
This summer the Postal Service’s environmental battles came full circle as the White House honored it with a Presidential Federal Sustainability Award, marking the end of “an interesting journey,” DeJoy said.
USPS delivery driver Richard Burton stands in front of the postal service’s brand new mail truck in Athens, Ga. on Sept. 5, 2024. AP
The honor is a signal of the agency’s ability to work through complex problems, be they operational, financial, technical, political or of a public policy nature, he said.
“It comes from forging forward,” he said. “Keep moving.”
Justice Department Indictment of Donald Trump
The indictment against Donald J. Trump and his personal valet, Walt Nauta, unsealed this afternoon, lays out the federal case against the former president in vivid, shocking detail.
No other president has ever faced federal charges, let alone the prospect of a lengthy prison sentence if convicted.
Friday, June 9, 2023, at 5:02 PM EDT - yahoo /news
Key takeaways
Friday, June 9, 2023, at 5:02 PM EDT - yahoo /news
Alexander Nazaryan _Senior White House correspondent for Yahoo News based in Washington, D.C.
Statement of Special Counsel Jack Smith
The Department of Justice made history on Friday, unsealing a 37-count indictment against former President Donald Trump related to his handling of classified documents after leaving the White House.
No other president has ever faced federal charges, let alone the prospect of a lengthy prison sentence if convicted (an aide, Walt Nauta, was also charged with helping Trump conceal records).
Trump’s first court appearance in the case is scheduled for Tuesday in Miami; a trial could begin as he is in the midst of his third presidential run. Trump currently leads the Republican field by a wide margin.
The 49-page indictment was prepared by special counsel Jack Smith, who was appointed last year by Attorney General Merrick Garland.
Smith had made no public statements until a press conference Friday, at which he accused Trump of “felony violations of our national security laws, as well as participating in a conspiracy to obstruct justice."
Here’s what you need to know about his indictment.
National security risk
Former President Donald Trump announces he is running for president at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach, Fla., on Nov. 15, 2022. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik, File)
When he left the White House in 2021, Trump took boxes of sensitive documents with him to Mar-a-Lago, his South Florida golf resort and residence. Those documents should have been turned over to the National Archives.
Trump’s seeming inability or refusal to grasp the necessity of protecting classified information is at the heart of Smith’s case, as the indictment makes clear:
“The classified documents TRUMP stored in his boxes included information regarding defense and weapons capabilities of both the United States and foreign countries; United States nuclear programs; potential vulnerabilities of the United States and its allies to military attack; and plans for possible retaliation in response to a foreign attack.
“The unauthorized disclosure of these classified documents could put at risk the national security of the United States, foreign relations, the safety of the United States military, and human sources and the continued viability of sensitive intelligence collection methods,” it continued.
Careless storage and disclosure
This image, contained in the indictment against former President Donald Trump, shows boxes of records on Dec. 7, 2021, in a storage room at Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla. (Justice Department via AP)
Smith’s indictment is all the more damning because it includes photographs of the boxes in question stacked in a Mar-a-Lago bathroom, or on a ballroom stage.
In one photograph, documents are seen spilling out of a box that has fallen over. What appears to be a clothes rack and guitar case loom in the background.
Trump also discussed classified materials with visitors. Smith obtained a recording of Trump talking with a visitor to his Bedminster, N.J., golf club:
TRUMP showed and described a “plan of attack” that TRUMP said was prepared for him by the Department of Defense and a senior military official. TRUMP told the individuals that the plan was “highly confidential” and “secret.” TRUMP also said, “As president, I could have declassified it, and, “Now I can't, you know, but this is still a secret.”
That recording undercuts claims that Trump did not know the documents in his possession were secret. On the contrary, he seemed to revel in that very fact.
Effort to conceal
This image, contained in the indictment against Trump, shows boxes of records stored in the Lake Room at Mar-a-Lago. (Justice Department via AP)
According to the indictment, Trump tried to avoid having to turn over records even after the FBI issued a subpoena.
“Wouldn’t it be better,” he asked one of his attorneys in 2022, “if we just told them we don’t have anything here?”
Trump’s supporters have argued that his behavior was not materially different from that of other officials, including President Biden, who have been less than scrupulous in handling classified documents.
Smith, however, argued that a malicious intent was at work: “The purpose of the conspiracy was for TRUMP to keep classified documents he has taken with him from the White House and to hide and conceal them from a federal grand jury.”
Read more from our partners: How Trump’s Classified Documents Case Differs From Those Of Clinton, Biden, And Pence
What comes around...
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaks at an event in Barcelona on June 2. (Photo By David Zorrakino/Europa Press via Getty Images)
During his 2016 campaign, Trump assailed his Democratic opponent Hillary Clinton, who had sent some 33,000 emails from a private email server during her time as Secretary of State in the Obama administration.
The emails inspired elaborate conspiracy theories but also seemed at the time to legitimate long-standing concerns about Clinton’s trustworthiness.
Trump promised a more competent, professional regime. “In my administration, I'm going to enforce all laws concerning the protection of classified information,” he said at an August 2016 rally. “No one will be above the law.”
In the indictment, however, Trump praised the Clinton staff member he credited with deleting Clinton’s emails.
Read more from Yahoo News: Who is Jack Smith, the special counsel who secured an indictment against Trump?
A speedy trial?
Special counsel Jack Smith speaks to reporters Friday in Washington. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
“My office will seek a speedy trial in this matter, consistent with the public interest and the rights of the accused,” Smith said at Friday’s press conference.
For now, the case has been assigned to Florida district judge Aileen Cannon, whom Trump nominated to the federal bench in 2020. Some legal observers say she should recuse herself, but it is not clear that she has any intention of doing so.
That trial could begin as Trump tries to cement his position as the Republican nominee for president in next year’s election.
Read more from Yahoo News: Why critics are upset that Judge Aileen Cannon will preside over Trump's new criminal trial
Related Share - Where Trump allegedly kept classified doc
