The Latest: Federal workers face mass layoffs

Federal workers all over the country responded with anger and confusion Friday toward President Donald Trump and his 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.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he will only agree to meet in person with Russian leader Vladimir Putin after a common plan is negotiated with Trump. Vice President JD Vance will meet with Zelenskyy later on for talks about how to negotiate a settlement to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

Here’s the latest:

An advocacy group has filed a complaint with the Office of Special Counsel, the federal agency dedicated to protecting whistleblowers, asking for an investigation into whether the mass firings violated federal personnel practices.

Democracy Forward’s complaint also asked that the firings be halted while that inquiry is being conducted.

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Anger, chaos and confusion take hold as federal workers face mass layoffs

NEW YORK (AP) — 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.

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. As layoff notices were sent out agency by agency, federal employees from Michigan to Florida were left reeling from being told that their services were no longer needed.

In a sign of how chaotic the firings have been, some who received layoff notices had already accepted the administration’s deferred resignation offer, under which they were supposed to be paid until Sept. 30 if they agreed to quit, raising questions about whether others who signed the deal would nonetheless be fired. On Friday evening, the Office of Personnel Management, which serves as a human resources department for the federal government, acknowledged that some employees may have received termination notices in error and said the buyouts agreements would be honored.

“This has been slash and burn,” said Nicholas Detter, who had been working in Kansas as a natural resource specialist, helping farmers reduce soil and water erosion, until he was fired by email late Thursday night. He said there seemed to be little thought about how employees and the farmers and ranchers he helped would be impacted.

“None of this has been done thoughtfully or carefully,” he said.

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Treasury watchdog begins audit of Musk DOGE team’s access to the US government’s payment system

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Treasury Department’s Office of Inspector General on Friday said it was launching an audit of the security controls for the federal government’s payment system, as Democratic lawmakers raised red flags about the access provided to Trump aide Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency team.

The audit will also review the past two years of the system’s transactions as it relates to Musk’s assertion of “alleged fraudulent payments,” according to a letter from Loren J. Sciurba, Treasury’s deputy inspector general, that was obtained by The Associated Press.

The audit marks part of the broader effort led by Democratic lawmakers and federal employee unions to provide transparency and accountability about DOGE’s activities under President Donald Trump’s Republican administration. The Musk team has pushed for access to the government’s computer systems and sought to remove tens of thousands of federal workers.

“We expect to begin our fieldwork immediately,” Sciurba wrote. “Given the breadth of this effort, the audit will likely not be completed until August; however, we recognize the danger that improper access or inadequate controls can pose to the integrity of sensitive payment systems. As such, if critical issues come to light before that time, we will issue interim updates and reports.”

Treasury’s inspector general began the audit before Democratic lawmakers asked for it. A. J. Altemus, acting counsel to the inspector general, said “our work is independently initiated” and standards dictate that the audit “must be non-partisan and objective. These standards remain unchanged.”

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Trump’s reciprocal tariffs will overturn decades of trade policy

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is taking a blowtorch to the rules that have governed world trade for decades. The “reciprocal’’ tariffs that he announced Thursday are likely to create chaos for global businesses and conflict with America’s allies and adversaries alike.

Since the 1960s, tariffs — or import taxes — have emerged from negotiations between dozens of countries. Trump wants to seize the process.

“Obviously, it disrupts the way that things have been done for a very long time,’’ said Richard Mojica, a trade attorney at Miller & Chevalier. “Trump is throwing that out the window … Clearly this is ripping up trade. There are going to have to be adjustments all over the place.’’

Pointing to America’s massive and persistent trade deficits – not since 1975 has the U.S. sold the rest of the world more than it’s bought — Trump charges that the playing field is tilted against U.S. companies. A big reason for that, he and his advisers say, is because other countries usually tax American exports at a higher rate than America taxes theirs.

Trump has a fix: He’s raising U.S. tariffs to match what other countries charge.

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Zelenskyy to Vance: Ukraine wants ‘security guarantees’ as Trump seeks to end Ukraine-Russia war

MUNICH (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Friday that his country wants “security guarantees” before any talks with Russia, as the Trump administration presses both countries to find a quick endgame to the three-year war.

Shortly before sitting down with Vice President JD Vance for highly anticipated talks at the Munich Security Conference, Zelenskyy said he will only agree to meet in-person with Russian leader Vladimir Putin after a common plan is negotiated with U.S. President Donald Trump.

The roughly 40-minute meeting between Vance and Zelenskyy produced no major announcements detailing the way out of the deadliest war in Europe since World War II. Zelenskyy made a plaintive statement about the state of play.

“We want peace very much,” Zelenskyy said. “But we need real security guarantees.”

Vance, for his part, said the Trump administration is committed to finding a lasting peace between Ukraine and Russia.

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Helicopter crew in collision with plane may not have heard key instruction from tower, NTSB says

WASHINGTON (AP) — The crew of the Army helicopter that collided in midair with an American Airlines jet near Washington, D.C.’s Ronald Reagan National Airport may have had inaccurate altitude readings in the moments before the crash, and also may not have heard key instructions from air traffic controllers to move behind the plane, investigators said Friday.

National Transportation Safety Board Chairwoman Jennifer Homendy told reporters that the recording from the Black Hawk helicopter cockpit suggested an incomplete radio transmission may have left the crew without understanding how it should shift position just before the Jan. 29 crash, in which all 67 aboard the two aircraft were killed,

“That transmission was interrupted -– it was stepped on,” she said, leaving them unable to hear the words “pass behind the” because the helicopter’s microphone key was pressed at the same moment.

The helicopter pilots may have also missed part of another communication, when the tower said the jet was turning toward a different runway, she said.

Homendy said the helicopter was on a “check” flight that night where the pilot was undergoing an annual test and a test on using night vision goggles. Investigators believe the crew was wearing night vision goggles throughout the flight.

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Second federal judge pauses Trump’s order against gender-affirming care for youth

SEATTLE (AP) — A second federal judge on Friday paused President Donald Trump’s executive order halting federal support for gender-affirming care for transgender youth under 19.

U.S. District Court Judge Lauren King granted a temporary restraining order after the Democratic attorneys general of Washington state, Oregon and Minnesota sued the Trump administration last week. Three doctors joined as plaintiffs in the suit, which was filed in the Western District of Washington.

The decision came one day after a federal judge in Baltimore temporarily blocked the executive order in response to a separate lawsuit filed on behalf of families with transgender or nonbinary children. Judge Brendan Hurson’s temporary restraining order will last 14 days but could be extended, and essentially puts Trump’s directive on hold while the case proceeds. Hurston and King were both appointed by former President Joe Biden.

Trump signed an executive order last month halting federal funding for institutions that provide the care and directing federally run insurance programs, including Medicaid and TRICARE for military families, to exclude coverage for it. The order also calls on the Department of Justice to pursue litigation and legislation to oppose it.

Medicaid programs in some states cover gender-affirming care. Trump’s order suggests that the practice could end, and targets hospitals and universities that receive federal money and provide the care.

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Justice Department asks court to dismiss corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams

NEW YORK (AP) — The Justice Department asked a court Friday to dismiss corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, with a top official from Washington intervening after federal prosecutors in Manhattan rebuffed his demands to drop the case and some quit in protest.

Acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove, the department’s second-in-command, and lawyers from the public integrity section and criminal division filed paperwork asking to end the case. They contend it was marred by appearances of impropriety and that letting it continue would interfere with the mayor’s reelection bid. A judge must still approve the request.

The filing came hours after Bove convened a call with the prosecutors in the Justice Department’s public integrity section — which handles corruption cases — and gave them an hour to pick two people to sign onto the motion to dismiss, saying those who did so could be promoted, according to a person familiar with the matter.

After prosecutors got off the call with Bove, the consensus among the group was that they would all resign. But a veteran prosecutor stepped up out of concern for the jobs of the younger people in the unit, said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss details of the private meeting.

The three-page dismissal motion bore Bove’s signature and the names of Edward Sullivan, the public integrity section’s senior litigation counsel, and Antoinette Bacon, a supervisory official in the department’s criminal division. No one from the federal prosecutor’s office in Manhattan, which brought the Adams case, signed the document.

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Where US adults think the government is spending too much, according to AP-NORC polling

WASHINGTON (AP) — Many U.S. adults believe the federal government is overspending — but polling also shows that many Americans, including Republicans, think the country is spending too little on major government programs such as Social Security.

The polls from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research suggest that as President Donald Trump and adviser Elon Musk push for extensive cuts throughout the federal government, slashing funding for humanitarian aid and turning their attention to the Department of Education and the military, Americans may not agree with where Trump and Musk’s cuts should ultimately fall.

About two-thirds of Americans say the U.S. government is spending “too little” on Social Security and education, according to a January AP-NORC poll. Another 6 in 10, roughly, say too little money is going to assistance to the poor. A similar share say spending is too low for Medicare, the national health care insurance program for seniors, and most also say Medicaid is under-funded by the federal government. About half say border security is not receiving enough funding.

The perpetual challenge for lawmakers is that although U.S. adults mostly think the government isn’t spending enough on key issues and programs, they are broadly in favor of cuts to the federal budget. AP-NORC polling from March 2023 found that 6 in 10 U.S. adults said the U.S. government was spending “too much” overall.

Foreign aid is one area where there is broad consensus that the U.S. is overspending. The 2023 AP-NORC polling suggests that Americans tend to believe too much money is going to other countries.

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Philadelphia turns green on Valentine’s Day to celebrate Super Bowl champions

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Philadelphia was awash in green on Valentine’s Day to celebrate its Super Bowl champions.

Swooning fans screamed and cheered Friday as MVP quarterback Jalen Hurts and Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie took turns hoisting the Vince Lombardi Trophy at the start of the team’s victory parade through the City of Brotherly Love.

Many fans camped out along the parade route overnight, huddling under blankets and in tents to secure prime spots near the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where the Eagles took the stage on the “ Rocky ” steps.

“You know I told myself that when I got drafted, that I wouldn’t come to the ‘Rocky’ steps until I won a championship,” Hurts said. “And now we’re here.”

A few rowdy fans lobbed beer cans to players riding on the open-air buses, and a wayward throw smacked Eagles general manager Howie Roseman in the forehead.