Free Republic

Ambulance response times during life-threatening emergencies jumped in the last year, according to revealed data — as the FDNY blames ongoing staffing and recruiting troubles. Average ambulance response time to life-threatening emergencies jumped more than 34 seconds from eight minutes and 14-seconds in the 2024 fiscal year to eight minutes and 48 seconds for the first quarter of the 2025 fiscal year running from July 1 through November, according to the mayor’s management report. The FDNY goal is to bring ambulance response times to such calls to under seven minutes, the report said. The response times have creeped up in...

The city Buildings Department has eliminated a quarter of its budgeted workforce since 2022 — and many of the jobs were held by inspectors who are supposed to identify issues with structures before a potential collapse. The troubling revelation surfaced Tuesday during a meeting of the City Council’s Committee on Housing and Buildings — and panel Chairwoman Pierina Ana Sanchez said data shows that the DOB is falling behind in identifying problematic buildings as the number of inspectors falls. “We see the impact,’’ she said. In the first four months of this year, the DOB issued 2,225 stop-work orders —...

The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said on Wednesday it will relocate control of the Newark, New Jersey, airspace area to Philadelphia to address staffing issues ... The FAA, which has struggled with air traffic staffing issues, said it and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association (NATCA) signed a memorandum to relocate control of Newark at New York Terminal Radar Approach Control (TRACON) (N90) to Philadelphia Tower/TRACON by the end of June. The FAA said the change will help "meet continued traffic demand in the busy Northeast Corridor." Several controllers are expected to voluntarily transfer to Philadelphia. New York TRACON is...

The New York City Police Department continues to see a massive wave of retirements and departures, shrinking the force to its smallest in decades, according to the New York Post. There have already been 2,516 departures from the NYPD this year and recruitment is so slow, and New York City Mayor Eric Adams' budget cuts are so deep, the next five police academy classes have been canceled, according to the report. The 2023 exodus is the fourth highest total thus far in the past decade and represents a 43% increase over the 2018 total, which is before massive crime influx...

The Minneapolis Police Department is suffering from historically low staffing shortages as they deal with the lowest level of uniformed personnel in four decades, according to the Star Tribune. The city’s department has just 585 sworn officers and out of 22 cities, it has the lowest ratio of officers to population, the Tribune reported. The Minneapolis police department has also leaned on other law enforcement partners as well as civilian analysts to help out with some of their work. Over the past few years, Minneapolis has experienced the worst of the police staffing shortages in the US. “This is absolutely...

John O. Brennan, the former CIA director whose security clearance was revoked by President Donald Trump, has joined the WestExec Advisors, a “secretive consulting firm” whose alumni hold posts throughout President Joe Biden’s administration. The firm, described as “Biden’s Cabinet in waiting” by Politico after the 2020 presidential election, employed Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, White House press secretary Jen Psaki, and many others. Politico noted: “WestExec is loaded with other former top Democratic national security and foreign policy officials who raised money for the Biden campaign, have joined his transition team, or...

In response to a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit by Insider, the General Services Administration has identified three more former White House aides who earned taxpayer-funded paychecks while working for former President Donald Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence in the months after they left office. The agency identified the post-White House transition-team staff members as the Trump aides Margo Martin and Madison Porter and the Pence aide Hannah MacInnis. Porter served as the communications director for former first lady Melania Trump, according to the agency's records, and Martin worked as a press assistant. MacInnis served as Pence's digital...

American Airlines has continued its streak cancellation over the course of Halloween weekend as a quarter of its scheduled flights - 634 of them - were cancelled on Sunday. The airline has blamed weather control issues, such as strong winds from Dallas, and ongoing staff shortages due to lay-offs made when travel cratered at the start of the COVID outbreak. In total, more than 1,500 flights have been axed by the airline since Friday with 738 delays and 342 cancellations, according to FlightAware. On Saturday, 543 flights were cancelled with more than 400 also delayed. 'With additional weather throughout the...

The Dallas-based airline blamed the disruptions on air traffic control issues in Florida and bad weather but other airlines in the region reported far fewer cancellations. Southwest did not immediately comment on whether staffing shortfalls contributed to the cancellations this weekend.

We're starting to get nurses applying because of these hospitals mandating the vaccine," one employer who does not require the vaccine told Alpha News. While many health care facilities are firing their unvaccinated employees amid a nationwide staffing shortage, some Minnesota companies are taking the opposite approach. President Joe Biden announced earlier this month that all employers with over 100 employees will be required to institute a company-wide vaccine mandate or face massive recurring fines. Meanwhile, hospitals around the nation are facing nursing shortages that frontline workers say will only be made worse by the Biden mandate as unvaccinated nurses...

With President Biden's federal vaccine mandate set to take effect on Monday, health-care systems around the country are suspending elective in-patient surgeries and refusing to accept ICU patients from other hospitals as they brace for potentially hundreds of firings of nurses and other critical staffers, potentially even doctors. According to the NYT, the Erie County Medical Center in Buffalo is planning to do all that and more, as it says it may soon fire about 400 employees who have chosen not to get the single job required by the edict (which was pushed through despite being blocked by a federal...

U.S. employers hired more people in April than last year, according to the LinkedIn Workforce Report, a monthly analysis of employment trends. Hiring across the U.S. was 19.8 percent higher last month than a year earlier, the LinkedIn data showed. Compared with March, the seasonally adjusted hiring figure was 2.1 percent higher....

Money excerpts: "That said, the president hasn’t moved nearly fast enough in filling out the sub-cabinet government of officials who, because they are personally appointed by the president, are charged with making Trump policies a reality. Of the top 640 jobs that require Senate confirmation, the Partnership for Public Service has calculated that fewer than half — 275 — have been confirmed and are on the job. Another 144 people have been named or nominated but are awaiting confirmation. A total of 217 positions — a third of the total — have never had anyone named to fill them." And,...

The Trump administration plans to propose a one-forth to cut the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) budget, a plan that would end up laying off 20 percent of the agency’s staffers, according to reports. Trump officials will propose a $6.1 billion for the EPA next year, a $2 billion cut from current levels, according to reports in E&E News and Politico , citing sources. The agency’s staffing levels would fall to 12,000 workers, from 15,000 currently, according to the reports. An EPA spokesman did not immediately return a request for comment from The Hill. The proposed spending levels at the EPA...

WMBF in Myrtle Beach, SC, reported Wednesday on the growing trend of businesses hiring only part-time workers, due to an inability to afford Obamacare. This situation leaves workers without healthcare and without a full-time income or other benefits. Local staffing agencies say more small business are starting to hire more part time employees. Not because there is more full time work, but as WMBF reporter Mandy Noell found out, it's because they can't afford to have more full time employees. Obamacare places requirements for health care benefits that many small businesses just cannot afford to pay. As a result, they...

After years of cuts in state subsidies and growing resistance to rising tuition, U.S. colleges and universities are starting to unwind decades of administrative bloat and back-office waste that helped push up costs and tuition. The State University of New York system shaved $48 million in the past two years by cutting unused software licenses and consolidating senior administrators. The University of California, Berkeley, cut $70 million since 2011 by centralizing purchasing and laying off a layer of middle managers, among other things. And the University of Kansas revamped its back-office operations to save about $5 million in 2013. One...

Stricken nuclear plant faces staffing difficulties * * * The prolonged crisis at the quake-stricken nuclear power plant in Fukushima Prefecture is increasingly wearing down front-line workers, as the exhausting and dangerous work shows no signs of letting up. Companies supplying the workers say safety fears have grown, particularly since three workers were exposed to high levels of radiation last Thursday from leaked water at the No. 3 reactor of the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.

CINCINNATI (AP) -- Schools in Ohio and Kentucky fall short of national standards for nurse staffing levels, raising concerns should either state see a swine flu outbreak... ...Kathy Inderbitzin, an executive board member for the Ohio Association of School Nurses, says nurses can handle a mass immunization effort if it is mandated. But she says there's still a critical shortage and the association is worried about how the flu will affect children.

The Politico's Martin looks at large discrepancy between the number of staffers the leading Dems have in Iowa and New Hampshire versus the leading Republican candidates. In fact, Martin finds the second-tier Democratic candidates have more staffers on the ground in the early states than all of the LEADING GOP candidates. (By the way, considering how little of an organizational advantage Romney may actually have in the first two states, does that mean Thompson can get up to speed in Iowa faster than some believe?) --snip-- NBC/NJ's Memoli notes that Ann Romney seemed to take personally Thompson’s "actor" barb in...

Down To Business: Talent Shortage ? Employers Must Take Some Of The Rap Many tech pros are demoralized, thanks to knee-jerk offshore outsourcing and the post-bubble malaise. Employers must move beyond the "you should be happy you have a job" mentality. By Rob Preston InformationWeek March 3, 2007 12:00 AM (From the March 5, 2007 issue) Ask a dozen CIOs and tech vendor CEOs to identify their single most pressing challenge, and you'll likely get at least 10 different answers, right? Not exactly. In fact, they all come back to one overarching concern: finding, grooming, and retaining tomorrow's leaders. I...