Judge in California blocks mass firing of probationary federal employees | The Excerpt
On Friday's episode of The Excerpt podcast: A federal judge in Northern California has blocked the Trump administration’s mass firing of probationary federal employees. Plus, Paste BN Democracy Reporter Erin Mansfield discusses how President Donald Trump tried to remove officials tasked with protecting federal workers' jobs. A search warrant reveals the deaths of actor Gene Hackman, his wife and dog in their New Mexico home are being considered “suspicious.” President Donald Trump met with U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer at the White House, where Britain's leader pushed for commitments on Ukraine. A new Pentagon policy will ban troops from serving in a gender identity other than the one assigned at birth. Paste BN Personal Finance Reporter Daniel de Visé explains why many Americans are tired of cost-cutting tips.
Hit play on the player below to hear the podcast and follow along with the transcript beneath it. This transcript was automatically generated, and then edited for clarity in its current form. There may be some differences between the audio and the text.
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Taylor Wilson:
Good morning. I'm Taylor Wilson. And today is Friday, February 28th, 2025. This is The Excerpt. Today, a judge has blocked the Trump administration from firing probationary employees. Plus we're learning more about the death of actor Gene Hackman. And what are some cost-cutting tips that consumers are tired of hearing?
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North Carolina federal judge has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from its mass firing of probationary federal employees, a group of workers that represent some of the newest hires. The US Office of Personnel Management under the Trump administration had recently issued a memo to the Department of Defense and other federal agencies to fire the new so-called probationary employees. The judge did not, however, order the rehiring of anyone who already had been terminated. Meanwhile, we're learning more about how President Donald Trump kneecapped key labor boards before firing federal employees. And those same boards are the ones they must turn to if they think their firing was illegal. To help make sense of things, I caught up with Paste BN Democracy Reporter, Erin Mansfield. Hello, Erin.
Erin Mansfield:
Hi. How are you?
Taylor Wilson:
Good. Thanks for hopping on today. So would you just start by telling us about these officials who the Trump administration fired earlier this month and what their jobs were?
Erin Mansfield:
What we're talking about are these three agencies that are meant to be completely independent from the president. They are nominated by the president, but they're confirmed to terms. They're not, under law, the same as anyone else in his cabinet. And what Donald Trump decided to do was almost treat them like they were in his cabinet and fire them. This happened over the course of about three days, earlier in February. What it's done is effectively really made it more difficult for people who are getting fired to have recourse. Not impossible, but it's really thrown a wrench in things.
Taylor Wilson:
So Erin, why can't federal workers just go straight to court? What are some of the complications here?
Erin Mansfield:
So Congress acted, in 1978, under Jimmy Carter, and they passed this sweeping civil service law, and they said, "We're creating these three different offices," and it's basically created this complex system of how workers will have their grievances heard. And because of that, a lot of people don't know this, but Congress can in fact make a law that says you can't just go right to court. And that's what's happening here. So unions are actually going around this system, and federal judges are saying, "Dude, you're in the wrong place. Go to the Merit Systems Protection Board, go to the Federal Labor Relations Authority. Someone can go through the Office of the Special Counsel." And because of that, while you might see some headlines that say, "Union X sued over issue Y," those cases aren't going anywhere, because they're not allowed to go to court.
Taylor Wilson:
All right. So you mentioned the Office of Special Counsel. Let's talk more about that. How would that in theory enter this conversation?
Erin Mansfield:
It's kind of like a prosecutor who hears complaints from aggrieved workers and then goes to this other board that's kind of like a group of judges, and says, "Hey. We got a problem here." And what happened earlier this week was that he said, "I have six employees ..." Because those are the ones whose lawyers went to the Office of Special Counsel. He said, "I have six employees and I want them reinstated." He said, "These were probationary employees. They're only allowed to be fired for performance issues." And in his opinion, the Trump administration didn't show performance issues. That's happening in real time. These people's jobs do hang in the balance. It's all in front of this bureaucratic system that a lot of us might not have known about.
Taylor Wilson:
Well, as part of this system, circling back to another term that I think folks might not have been familiar with, the Merit Systems Protection Board, can you just give us some details on that and just how that fits into this conversation?
Erin Mansfield:
So that's the board that the Office of the Special Counsel went to and asked for employees to be reinstated. It's also a board that employees can go straight to if they're permanent employees. And they're designed to protect the merit system, essentially make sure you're fired because you did a bad job as opposed to fired because you disagreed with the president because you blew the whistle on some kind of corruption, waste or abuse. And that's the board that actually can make the decision and say that you were wronged. Now the interesting thing about this is with probationary employees, they can't go straight there. Pretty much their best avenue in order to get really timely reinstatement was to go through the Office of the Special Counsel.
Taylor Wilson:
All right. Erin Mansfield covers democracy for Paste BN. I know there's a ton to keep track of here. Erin, you did a great job by breaking it all down. Thanks so much.
Erin Mansfield:
Thank you.
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Taylor Wilson:
Actor Gene Hackman was found dead alongside his wife pianist, Betsy Arakawa, and their dog at their New Mexico home on Wednesday. And according to a search warrant released yesterday, their deaths are being described as suspicious. Authorities found the 95-year-old actor in a mudroom near his cane, appearing to have fallen. While 64-year-old Arakawa was found in an open bathroom near a space heater, according to the warrant. It also reads that an open prescription bottle and pills were scattered on a nearby countertop. According to investigators, the scene was suspicious enough in nature to require a thorough search and investigation, after several things were found at the scene, including the front door open and unlocked. An intense character actor who won two Oscars in a more than 60 year career, Hackman was known for his role in the films, The French Connection, The Conversation, Hoosiers, and many more. Later in life, Hackman retreated from Hollywood with Arakawa by his side to Santa Fe, New Mexico. You can stay up with all the latest on usatoday.com.
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British Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, visited the White House yesterday, the second European leader after French President, Emmanuel Macron, to visit President Trump this week in the hopes of securing US security guarantees to stop future aggression from Russia. Britain's Prime Minister announced Sunday that he was willing to send peacekeeping troops to Ukraine when the Russia-Ukraine war ends. But instead of committing to any specific form of American support, Trump chose to focus on a deal to gain US access to Ukrainian minerals, that can be used in magnets, batteries, and aircraft, saying that would indirectly keep the area safe. Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who will be at the White House today, is expected to sign that deal during the visit. Trump's administration has been negotiating with Russian President, Vladimir Putin's, administration to end their invasion and occupation of Ukraine, without participation from Ukraine or its European allies in the talks.
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Advocates for transgender service members say, "A new Pentagon policy will ban troops from serving in a gender identity other than their sex assigned at birth." Shannon Minter, one of the lawyers who sued the Pentagon to block a ban on transgender service members, said in a statement, "The administration was betraying people who faithfully followed the rules and put their lives on the line to serve the country." The Defense Department issued the policy late Wednesday, directing service branches to identify service members who have a current diagnosis, or history of, or exhibit symptoms consistent with gender dysphoria by March 26th, and separate or remove those who don't obtain waivers by June 25th.
The Trump administration policy says there are only two sexes, which the judge in a lawsuit aiming to block the policy said, "Scientists have widely contradicted." The military also refused to pay for sex reassignment surgery, which was previously covered with a physician's recommendation. A waiver to remain in the military is possible, but only for a service member, who according to Trump administration policy, quote, "Has never attempted to transition to any sex other than their sex," unquote, and who adheres to, quote, "Standards associated with the service member's sex," unquote. You can read more with a link in today's show notes.
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American consumers are tired of hearing cost-cutting tips. I spoke with Paste BN Personal Finance Reporter, Daniel de Visé, to talk through some of the findings from a Wells Fargo customer survey and why folks are feeling advice fatigue. Thanks as always for popping on, Daniel.
Daniel de Visé:
Oh, my pleasure.
Taylor Wilson:
So Daniel, let's get into some of the tips the survey found that consumers really appear to be fed up with, starting with getting a side hustle. We live now in the era of [inaudible 00:08:46] economies, right, Daniel, and things like Uber that people use to supplement their income. I'm curious why then does this tip seem to ruffle some feathers?
Daniel de Visé:
I think that financial advice generally is starting to ruffle people's feathers. We've had inflation, we've had high interest rates, we've had endless articles, and I've written some of them, telling people, "Here's how to cut costs or balance your budget," and people are getting tired of it. And nothing more so than the side hustle. Think about it, if you're suggesting somebody get a side hustle, you're suggesting that they take a second job, and that doesn't sound so great. So in this Wells Fargo survey, 44% of people who took the survey said they are sick of being told to get a side hustle.
Taylor Wilson:
All right. This next one, advice about cooking at home. And Daniel, as part of this, I know you split these up in the piece, but consumers also seem to get really, really irritated with being told to stop buying fancy coffee drinks. I think this latter one has almost become like a trope or a meme in recent years. What are the annoyances here on both of these points?
Daniel de Visé:
Eating out, it's true that it costs a lot. A Forbes analysis found that eating out costs almost five times. We know this, right. It's way more expensive to eat out. But it's a convenience around metro Washington, where I live, people don't necessarily have time to cook their own meals, much though they might want to. And also, think about it, in a lot of families, there's one person who ends up doing all the cooking, so there can be some ill will around the idea of you should cook at home every day. So again, 44% of the survey takers in this Wells Fargo survey said, "I'm tired of hearing that I should stop eating out." The coffee drinks thing, $5, $6 for a Frappuccino. People love their coffee, it's an indulgence. One of my consumer experts said, "No one wants to be shamed for their one little habit that makes them feel a little bit happier."
Taylor Wilson:
And what about sticking to a budget?
Daniel de Visé:
Well, sticking to a budget is a fine idea and a fair number of people in this survey said it is good advice, 27%, but way more people, 42% said they are sick of being told to stick to a budget. It sounds preachy, it sounds judgmental, it sounds like it's your parents telling you, "You should live on a budget." So yeah, people are tired of hearing it.
Taylor Wilson:
Well, and as you write in this piece, Daniel, American consumers face historic levels of debt, but there are some mixed feelings when it comes to advice about paying that debt down. How so?
Daniel de Visé:
Paying down your debt is harder to do than to say, it's easier said than done. In this survey, roughly equal shares of people said they're tired of hearing this advice, but about the same share said it is, in fact, good advice. We are facing historic levels of debt. And in my article you can find some tips on how to start paying down your debt. I'm a big believer, for example, in getting that 0% APR credit card, that can be a godsend for paying down debt.
Taylor Wilson:
Daniel, do we notice that a lot of the advice that does seem to, I guess, frustrate consumers, does this advice have anything in common, some of the points that we just talked about?
Daniel de Visé:
The things in common would be that a lot of this stuff just sounds kind of naggy. It sounds kind of preachy. It sounds kind of judgmental. People don't like being told that they're not very good financial citizens and need to do a better job. People, again, are just tiring of being told that, "Hey. There's nothing we [inaudible 00:12:08] about inflation and interest rates, so you just need to buckle up and do better."
Taylor Wilson:
Well, as you write in this piece, there is some advice, at least based off this survey, that consumers seem warmer to hearing, including the pay-yourself-first strategy. Just remind us what this is, Daniel, and how are folks more open to it?
Daniel de Visé:
Pay yourself first, doesn't that sound affirming?
Taylor Wilson:
Yeah.
Daniel de Visé:
It says you should save some money off the top before you start to spend. In other words, when you get your paycheck, save some money first, pay yourself first. It sounds like a really good idea. It's a feel-good thing. It sounds like self-care. So a lot of consumers said that's actually advice they like to hear. The other piece of advice that people on the balance said they appreciate is retirement contributions, maximizing them. Not that you have to, but you should aim, as a goal, to maximize your contributions to a 401(k) or an IRA. It's not that everybody needs to do this, but that can be your ultimate lifelong goal. Many people in this survey said they understand that that is valuable advice and it's good for you.
Taylor Wilson:
Daniel de Visé covers personal finance for Paste BN. Always a pleasure, Daniel.
Daniel de Visé:
Likewise. Have a wonderful rest of this foreshortened month.
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Taylor Wilson:
Thanks for listening to The Excerpt. We're produced by Shannon Rae Green and Kaely Monahan, and our executive producer is Laura Beatty. You can get the podcast wherever you get your audio. And if you're on a smart speaker, just ask for The Excerpt. I'm Taylor Wilson, and I'll be back tomorrow with more of The Excerpt from Paste BN.