Australian tropical rainforest trees switch in world first from carbon sink to emissions sourceGuardian
Save Our Signs’ Preservation Project Launches Archive of 10,000 National Park Signs
404 Media: “On Monday, a publicly-sourced archive of more than 10,000 national park signs and monument placards went public as part of a massive volunteer project to save historical and educational placards from around the country that risk removal by the Trump administration.
Federal firings could skyrocket in shutdown
- The White House threatened to fire thousands more federal employees yesterday, and rolled out new hiring standards for those who’ll replace them — then a judge issued an order complicating the whole process.
- Why it matters: President Trump is using the government shutdown to further his push to completely upend the federal workforce.
- State of play: OMB director Russell Vought said yesterday that more than 10,000 federal workers could end up getting fired during the shutdown. That’s more than twice as many terminations as the White House said it was conducting just last week in court filings.
- Yes, but: Yesterday afternoon, federal judge Susan Illston in San Francisco temporarily blocked those layoffs. “It’s very much ready, fire, aim on most of these programs, and it has a human cost,” she said at the hearing, according to the AP’s report. “It’s a human cost that cannot be tolerated.”
- Zoom out: At almost the same time, Trump issued an Executive Order laying out new hiring policies. The order directs agencies to create staffing plans that align “with Administration priorities,” and notes that 300,000 federal employees have left the workforce this year, more than double the historic average — and a result of programs meant to encourage them to leave.
- Catch up quick: In court filings last week, the White House said it planned to lay off at least 4,100 federal workers. Some of the firing notices that went out on Friday have already been rescinded at the Department of Health and Human Services.””
See also The New York Times Gift Article]: How Much Smaller Is the Federal Work Force? Shutdown Plans Offer a Clue. “Before the government shutdown began Oct. 1, many agencies published contingency plans — routine frameworks that are typically updated before a shutdown. These documents included details about which programs will be suspended and how many employees will be furloughed until the shutdown is over.They reveal, to some extent, how much President Trump has slashed the federal work force through firings, layoffs and incentivized resignation programs, because they also include a recent report of how many employees work at each agency…”