Free Republic

Donald Trump's purge of the federal bureaucracy escalated Wednesday with an executive order making it easier to fire 8,000 federal workers. The order reclassified the workers as at-will employees, meaning the government can now terminate them without offering a reason. A rule finalized by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) earlier this year established a new category of these workers, known as 'schedule policy/career.' Trump's order Wednesday put those 8,000 workers, generally senior policymakers, into the new category. 'It's been a long-standing problem that it's almost impossible to fire a federal employee, even in cases of serious misconduct,' said James...

Thank you very much. It’s an honor to be here, and I’d like to thank the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute for inviting me to join you. Of course, this year’s forum carries special significance as we celebrate 250 years of the American story. But milestones of this magnitude demand more than ceremony. They ask something of us. They invite us to reflect not just on the creation of our country, but on its condition. And as we focus today on America’s economic future, they compel us to confront—and correct—decisions that have diminished our sovereignty in recent decades. President...

Mary, a veteran Silicon Valley marketer who can’t find a job, considers herself a victim of an H-1B visa program run amok. Her story, a U.S. native replaced by a foreign-born employee who is willing to work at a significantly lower wage, has become commonplace, particularly in the tech industry. Adding insult to injury, she says, her CEO, who hails from India, told her to train the man he selected to replace her before laying her off.Despite stints at Google and Cisco and two years of job hunting, Mary can no longer compete in a job market saturated with foreign-born...

How Meta announced its latest round of 1000s of layoffs.

She was “praying to Poseidon” that she’d get laid off. But on Wednesday morning, as thousands of her Meta colleagues found out they’d lost their jobs, the app designer was disappointed to find she still had hers. She’s now one of just two survivors on her team, left behind to navigate Meta’s shift to AI. “Thinking about what the company will be like after the layoffs depresses me more than thinking about getting laid off,” she said, asking for anonymity. “Nobody wants to stick around for that.” Hundreds of Meta employees in the Bay Area woke up early Wednesday to...

NPR is restructuring its newsroom, including cutting some reporting and editing jobs, as it attempts to keep pace with changing audience habits while adjusting to an era without federal subsidies.

Iconic burger chain Carl’s Jr. is under increasing financial pressure from both California’s cost of doing business, $20 minimum wage rules and public safety issues that employees allege are spilling into the workplace. Carl’s Jr. has 588 stores in California as of 2025, but that number declined by 25 from 2023, when it had 613 stores in the state, according to internal franchise documents. Last month, a major franchisee filed for bankruptcy, affecting 11% of operations across the state. The doomed franchisee, Friendly Franchisees Corporation, last month explicitly blamed the state’s relatively new $20 minimum fast-food wage touted by the...

California Democratic gubernatorial front-runner Xavier Becerra went viral yesterday for saying to a local Los Angeles television (KTLA) reporter, after she asked a hard question, “By the way, this is a profile piece, this is not a gotcha piece, right?” Reporter Annie Rose Ramos responded, appropriately, “These questions are fair. It’s in order to learn about you as a candidate.” Progressives responded by criticizing Becerra’s messaging. A progressive Pod Save America co-host and former Obama spokesman, posted on X, “Politicians and candidates…let your staff have these whiny conversations! Or at least don’t do it on camera!” Former Obama strategist David...

FOR DECADES, THE FORMULA for career success was simple: go to school, get a job, climb the ladder. But the ladder is now collapsing before our eyes. And honestly, good riddance. The career ladder isn’t just an outdated metaphor — it actively blocks people from finding more fulfilling work. Think about it this way: In school, there are clear markers for success. The goal is to get good grades. This continues into entry-level roles, where workers strive for raises and promotions. Tracked careers like law and consulting are attractive, at least in part, because they offer legible paths for advancement....

FHA loans to non-permanent residents quickly grew to represent 6% of mortgage issuances. The percentage was undoubtedly higher in places like the DFW area, where H-1B visa holders are disproportionately concentrated. I don’t have anything against people in America on H-1B visas. I’ve said it before—and I’ll say it again—that I’ve found many of them to be great people on an individual level, and I wish them all nothing but the best. Individual immigrants—especially those here legally—are not at fault for flawed US immigration policy. But this might be the most radicalizing thing I’ve ever seen. Not only are American...

Long Island Rail Road workers went on strike early Saturday after Metropolitan Transportation Authority leaders failed to reach a deal on wage hikes with five labor unions. More than 3,500 LIRR workers across five unions, including engineers, signalmen and trainman, walked off the job at 12:01 a.m. Saturday after a heated drawn-out battle over pay raises, with union leaders arguing higher wages are needed to keep up with inflation. “The LIRR owns this strike,” Teamsters general president Sean M. O’Brien said in a statement Saturday. **SNIP** The work stoppage is expected to strand nearly 300,000 commuters, with limited shuttle buses...

t's a rough time to be working at Facebook, Instagram, or one of Meta's many other properties. Mark Zuckerberg's social media giant will reportedly hand out roughly 8,000 pink slips on Wednesday, May 20, eliminating about 10% of its global workforce. Notably, though, these cuts will arrive on the heels of one of the most lucrative quarters in the company's history: $56.31 billion in revenue and $26.8 billion in net income (1) for the first three months of 2026, per Meta's Q1 earnings filing. For many Meta employees, that stark contrast is apparently driving morale into the dirt. According to...

Don’t cure cancer because it would devastate the cancer industry! Don’t improve healthcare access because you’ll hurt the funeral industry! That’s the kind of brain hurt logic NPR employed to decry President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration as a devastating blow to the U.S. economy. “The economic chilling effect of Trump's immigration crackdown,” read NPR reporter Greg Rosalsky’s incoherent May 12 headline. Rosalsky flailed over Trump’s ICE raids in Little Village, Chicago: “Many in the community seemed to be scared to go about business as usual. There seemed to be a clear ‘chilling effect’ on their economic activity —...

The road to working and studying in the United States may soon become much tougher for thousands of skilled professionals and international students. The Trump administration is preparing a fresh set of immigration restrictions that could affect almost every major pathway used by foreign talent, from H-1B work visas to student work permits and even employment-based green cards. While several of the proposed rules are still under review, immigration lawyers, universities, and companies say the impact is already being felt. Employers are becoming more cautious, students are growing anxious and legal experts say visa scrutiny has dramatically increased. For Indian...

The artificial-intelligence boom was just getting past its last bottleneck. Now, another one is popping up—electricians. A year ago, a shortage of natural gas turbines was the biggest limiting factor behind the AI boom, because data centers couldn’t build enough power plants to get electricity to those data centers. But turbine-makers have been ramping up production. Today, a shortage of contractors with electrical expertise is the most pressing problem. Rob Gaudette, CEO of power producer NRG, laments the shortage of “qualified construction crews. Because if you have a turbine and no humans, you just have a turbine.” GE Vernova, the...

The Agriculture Department is embarking on a multi-part plan to relocate employees across its component agencies outside of the Washington, D.C. area. USDA is moving many more jobs across the country than it did under the first Trump administration, but expects fewer employees will turn down relocation offers this time around. However, two unions representing impacted USDA employees say the relocations will cause more disruption than department leaders anticipate. For the second time in seven years, USDA is looking to move D.C.-based employees at the Economic Research Service (ERS) and National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) to Kansas City.

Jennifer Erie had planned to spend 20 years working in foreign public service. Instead, her 17-year career ended abruptly when the overseas public health office she led was dismantled. Seven months later, back home in Prince George’s County, she has submitted more than 250 job applications — and landed just two interviews. “It was such a shock to my system,” Erie told The Baltimore Sun in a phone interview. “I have so much trauma. …This came out of nowhere, and I was unprepared.” Her experience reflects a broader strain across Maryland, where a wave of federal layoffs, layered onto an...

Today, Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ) introduced the End H-1B Visa Abuse Act of 2026, which would pause the issuance of H-1B visas for three years and implement significant reforms when the program resumes. Reps. Brian Babin (R-TX), Brandon Gill (R-TX), Paul Gosar (R-AZ), Wesley Hunt (R-TX), Tom McClintock (R-CA), Keith Self (R-TX), and Andy Ogles (R-TN) have signed on as original cosponsors. Following growing concern about companies turning to foreign labor instead of American workers, Rep. Crane drafted legislation to reset and reform the H-1B system. In addition to the three-year pause, the bill includes reforms such as: Reducing the...

Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer resigned from her position on Monday amid a watchdog misconduct probe, making her the third cabinet official to depart the Trump administration this year, sources told The Post. Deputy Labor Secretary Keith Sonderling is expected to replace her as acting secretary of the Department of Labor, sources noted. Chavez-DeRemer, 58, will follow four other staffers out of department who were all investigated and resigned amid the Office of Inspector General’s sprawling investigation. NOTUS first reported on the secretary’s exit. White House spokesman Steven Cheung announced minutes after the report that Chavez-DeRemer “will be leaving the Administration...

Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta plans to lay off 10% of its workforce in a companywide bloodbath next month – with even more cuts to follow later in the year, according to a report Friday. The Instagram parent will ax nearly 8,000 employees in the initial round set for May 20, Reuters reported. More layoffs are expected in the second half of the year, but Meta executives have yet to decide how extensive they will be or exactly when they will occur. Meta’s plans could be adjusted based on the state of the company’s artificial intelligence capabilities, sources ominously told the outlet....