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White House begins laying off workers during shutdown

admin - Latest News - October 10, 2025
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White House begins laying off workers during shutdown



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Nov. 8, 2025, 6:00 AM ESTBy Evan BushNine seismic stations in Alaska are set to go dark this month, leaving tsunami forecasters without important data used to determine whether an earthquake will send a destructive wave barreling toward the West Coast. The stations relied on a federal grant that lapsed last year; this fall, the Trump administration declined to renew it. Data from the stations helps researchers determine the magnitude and shape of earthquakes along the Alaskan Subduction Zone, a fault that can produce some of the most powerful quakes in the world and put California, Oregon, Washington and Hawaii at risk. Losing the stations could lead Alaska’s coastal communities to receive delayed notice of an impending tsunami, according to Michael West, the director of the Alaska Earthquake Center. And communities farther away, like in Washington state, could get a less precise forecast.“In sheer statistics, the last domestic tsunami came from Alaska, and the next one likely will,” he said.It’s the latest blow to the U.S.’ tsunami warning system, which was already struggling with disinvestment and understaffing. Researchers said they are concerned that the network is beginning to crumble. “All the things in the tsunami warning system are going backwards,” West said. “There’s a compound problem.”The U.S. has two tsunami warning centers — one in Palmer, Alaska, and the other in Honolulu — that operate around-the-clock making predictions that help emergency managers determine whether coastal evacuations are necessary after an earthquake. The data from Alaska’s seismic stations has historically fed into the centers.Both centers are already short-staffed. Of the 20 full-time positions at the center in Alaska, only 11 are currently filled, according to Tom Fahy, the union legislative director for the National Weather Service Employees Organization. In Hawaii, four of the 16 roles are open. (Both locations are in the process of hiring scientists, Fahy said.)Additionally, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration has decreased funding for the National Tsunami Hazard Mitigation Program, which pays for the majority of states’ tsunami risk reduction work. The agency provided $4 million in 2025 — far less than the $6 million it has historically offered. “It’s on life support,” West said of the program. A tsunami evacuation route sign in Bolinas, Calif.Stephen Lam / San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images fileOn top of that, NOAA laid off the National Weather Service’s tsunami program manager, Corina Allen, as part of the Trump administration’s firing of probationary workers in February, according to Harold Tobin, the Washington state seismologist. Allen, who had recently started at the agency, declined to comment via a spokesperson for her new employer, the Washington State Department of Natural Resources. These recent cuts have played out amid the Trump administration’s broader efforts to slash federal spending on science and climate research, among other areas. NOAA fired hundreds of workers in February, curtailed weather balloon launches and halted research on the costs of climate and weather disasters, among other cuts. Most of the seismic stations being shut down in Alaska are in remote areas of the Aleutian Islands, West said. The chain extends west from the Alaskan Peninsula toward Russia, tracing an underwater subduction zone. KHNS, a public radio station in Alaska, first reported the news that the stations would be taken offline.A NOAA grant for about $300,000 each year had supported the stations. The Alaska Earthquake Center requested new grant funding through 2028, but it was denied, according to an email between West and NOAA staffers that was viewed by NBC News. Kim Doster, a NOAA spokeswoman, said the federal agency stopped providing the money in 2024 under the Biden administration. In the spring, the University of Alaska Fairbanks ponied up funds to keep the program going for another year, believing that the federal government would ultimately cover the cost, said Uma Bhatt, a University of Alaska Fairbanks professor and associate director of the research institute that administered the grant. But new funds never materialized.“The loss of these observations does not prevent the Tsunami Warning Center from being able to carry out its mission,” Doster said. “The AEC [Alaska Earthquake Center] is one of many partners supporting the National Weather Service’s tsunami operations, and NWS continues to use many mechanisms to ensure the collection of seismic data across the state of Alaska.”The White House did not respond to a request for comment. West said the Alaska Earthquake Center provides the majority of data used for tsunami warnings in the state. The grant that supported the nine seismic stations also funded a data feed with information from the center’s other sensors, according to West. The national tsunami warning centers will no longer have direct access to the feed. West said the stations on the Aleutian Islands cover a huge geographic range. “There’s nothing else around,” he said. “It’s not like there’s another instrument 20 miles down the road. There’s no road.” The plan is to abandon the stations later this month and leave their equipment in place, West added. Tobin, in Washington state, said he worries that the closures “could delay or degrade the quality of tsunami warnings.” “This is a region that’s sparsely monitored. We kind of need to have a stethoscope on this region,” he said, adding: “These programs are in the background until a big, terrible event happens.”The Alaska-Aleutian subduction zone is one of the most active faults in the world and has produced significant tsunamis in the past. In 1964, a tsunami produced by a magnitude-9.2 earthquake killed 124 people, including 13 in California and five in Oregon, according to NOAA. Most of the California deaths were in Crescent City, where a 21-foot wave destroyed 29 city blocks, according to the city’s website.Tsunami experts said the stations in the Aleutian Islands are critical in quickly understanding nearby earthquakes. The closer a quake is to a sensor, the less uncertainty about a subsequent tsunami.NOAA’s tsunami warning centers aim to put out an initial forecast within five minutes, West said, which is critical for local communities. (A strong earthquake in the Aleutian Islands could send an initial wave into nearby Alaskan communities within minutes.) The only data available quickly enough to inform those initial forecasts comes from seismic signals (rather than tide gauges or pressure sensors attached to buoys).The warning centers then put out a more specific forecast of wave heights after about 40 minutes. Daniel Eungard, the tsunami program lead for the Washington Geological Survey, said that not having the Alaska sensors would create more uncertainty about the heights of waves expected, complicating decisions about whether to evacuate along the Washington coastline.“We try not to over-evacuate,” he said, adding that it costs time, money and trust if warnings prove unnecessary.How a massive quake off Russia sent tsunami waves across the Pacific02:55Over the last year, the national tsunami warning centers have had their hands full. A magnitude-7.0 earthquake near Cape Mendocino, California, triggered tsunami alerts along the state’s coast in December. In July, a magnitude-8.8 quake off Russia’s Kamchatka peninsula prompted a widespread alert along the U.S. West Coast. The peninsula is just west of the Aleutian Islands. NOAA helped build many of the seismic stations that have been part of the Alaska Earthquake Center’s network. But West said the agency has decreased its support over the past two decades; nine NOAA-built stations were decommissioned in 2013. “It’s now or never to decide whether or not NOAA is part of this,” he said. “What I really want to do is spark a discussion about tsunami efforts in the U.S. and have that not be triggered by the next devastating tsunami.”Evan BushEvan Bush is a science reporter for NBC News.
November 5, 2025
Nov. 5, 2025, 1:25 AM ESTBy Matt Dixon, Henry J. Gomez, Jonathan Allen and Garrett HaakeNo one thought Tuesday was going to be Donald Trump’s election night, but there were even fewer silver linings than many Republicans had hoped. Democrats attacked Trump’s agenda to help score victories in Virginia, where former Democratic Rep. Abigail Spanberger quickly defeated Republican Lt. Gov. Winsome Earle-Sears. They also prevailed in the attorney general’s race — where their candidate had been wrapped up in a texting controversy — and made double-digit gains in the state Legislature.Democrats won in New Jersey, where Democratic Rep. Mikie Sherrill beat Republican Jack Ciattarelli in a race for governor considered the best Tuesday night upset opportunity for the GOP. Democrats also won redistricting efforts in California and got their preferred candidate in the New York mayor’s race. Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani, a favorite of the left and boogeyman of the political right, beat Trump-endorsed former Democratic New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo.And Democrats also scored much needed victories in nearly every major state-level contest, a helpful night as they try to build on a data-based narrative that Trump and Republicans have tanked the nation’s economy and gone too far right ahead of the 2026 midterms.Off-year elections are often examined for clues about larger trends that will be at play in the midterms. And Tuesday was the beginning of the Republican Party’s future without Trump on the ballot, leaving Democrats riding high. “At long last, it’s a fantastic night to be a Democrat. The wins everywhere were big, deep, and meaningful,” said Matt Bennett, a co-founder of the center-left think tank Third Way.’Turn the volume up’: Mamdani challenges Trump during his victory speech01:15The counterpunch for Republicans is the fact that off-year elections, those held in odd years not during traditional general elections, get less attention and are often poor measures for the overall mood of the electorate. That’s amplified by the fact that Democrat’s biggest wins, the governor’s races in Virginia and New Jersey, were in states that generally lean Democratic and Trump lost.“Anyone who is telling you they know exactly what will happen based off tonight is lying,” veteran Republican strategist Matt Gorman said. But for both political parties, Tuesday night will remain a predictable Rorschach Test: You see what you want to see. Democrats can take away from the night results that they won. Their preferred candidates in significant races secured success. Republicans, meanwhile, can brush aside the elections as aberrations and point to the fact that even though they may have lost the short-term battle, they won the war. The win by Mamdani offers Republicans a messaging victory as they will now make Democratic candidates in key House and Senate seats nationally answer for his policy positions considered outside of the mainstream. “If I am a Republican in New York, I did not want him to win because he will be a horrific mayor,” said Jason Thielman, a Republican strategist and former executive director of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. “But if you’re like me and your job is to win races, it’s a no-lose scenario.”Republicans were quick to distance the president from the results. Indeed, there were indications that Trump was unhappy with the quality of some of the party’s candidates and did little to get heavily involved in the races, which were in blue-leaning states. “We did what we needed to do,” said a Trump adviser, who, like others, was granted anonymity to speak candidly. “We got in late, but understood the dynamics. It was a lose-lose for Republicans if he became a main driver of the election cycle.”Trump said part of the reasons Republicans lost was because he wasn’t on the ballot, and that there was a government shutdown — which, he seemed to indicate, is hurting his own party the most.“‘TRUMP WASN’T ON THE BALLOT, AND SHUTDOWN, WERE THE TWO REASONS THAT REPUBLICANS LOST ELECTIONS TONIGHT,’ according to Pollsters,” he wrote.Some voters say Ciattarelli’s links to Trump worked against him in the race for governor02:01A plurality of voters in the races for governor in New Jersey and Virginia, and a majority of voters in the New York mayoral contest, said Trump was not a factor in their decision, according to the NBC News Exit Poll. But among those who said their choice was motivated by the president, more cast their vote to oppose Trump rather than did to support him.Most voters in those elections, as well as in California, also are dissatisfied with the way things are going in the country, and they continue to express concern about financial issues and the economy, according to the exit poll.In New Jersey, for example, Sherrill won 60% of voters who ranked the economy as one of the most important issues. And in Virginia, Spanberger won over voters who expressed concerns about their personal financial wellbeing — one of the most important issues in that race. “Hopefully some folks get the clue that we need to be talking about and doing something about the economy,” said one Republican strategist who has worked on presidential and congressional campaigns.“I’m hearing the president is getting it, the outstanding question is if his team does,” this person added. “I just know he’s asking a lot of questions, the right ones, as to why more wasn’t done and why adjustments haven’t been made.”Democrats quickly heralded the results as a harbinger for the 2026 midterms.“My fellow Virginians, tonight we sent a message, a message to every corner of the commonwealth — a message to our neighbors and our fellow Americans across the country,” Spanberger said in her victory speech. “We sent a message to the whole world that in 2025, Virginia chose pragmatism over partisanship. We chose our commonwealth over chaos. You all chose leadership that will focus relentlessly on what matters most: lowering costs, keeping our communities safe and strengthening our economy for every Virginian.”Early in the night, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., called it a “rout for Democrats across the country” that foreshadows his party’s takeover next year.“What we said from the very beginning of this year is that we need to relentlessly focus on driving down the high cost of living and fixing the broken health care system that Donald Trump and Republicans are making worse by the day,” Jeffries said in an interview with NBC News. “As long as we stay on these kitchen table pocketbook issues — while, of course, addressing the extremism that Donald Trump and Republicans continue to unleash on the American people — what we’re seeing tonight, is going to be replicated a year from now when Democrats take back control of the House of Representatives,” Jeffries added.NBC News’ Steve Kornacki breaks down Virginia election results01:36Rep. Brendan Boyle, D-Pa., told NBC News that any Republican in a district Trump won by single digits is “highly vulnerable.”“After tonight’s results any House Republican in even a somewhat competitive district should be petrified of next year’s congressional elections,” Boyle said.Others, however, were more cautious about reading into the broader implications for off-year elections.Michael Ceraso, a Democratic strategist, said the results are a small sample size and that the party shouldn’t get too comfortable.“There is no clear ideological path for this party and this is a huge challenge for us,” Ceraso said. “These elections tonight are more about who we are than about President Trump. And, Trump is like a bad relationship. When it’s all you know, you stick with it. I don’t trust voters want to break up with him yet. I trust they want to complain about him. But they may still believe he’ll come through for them.”Trump kept himself mostly scarce during campaigns. He endorsed Ciattarelli in New Jersey, but not Earle-Sears in Virginia. During a Monday night tele-rally for Virginia candidates, he never mentioned Earle-Sears. Those among Trump’s inner circle expressed no regrets Tuesday about his arm’s length — or further — approach. “The demographics on New Jersey are what they are,” said a top outside Trump adviser, who noted that the president’s political machine spent more than $1 million on Ciattarelli’s behalf. Democrats, this person added, “have a larger pool of voters to draw from.”Another person familiar with the White House’s strategy said Trump “endorsed to give [Ciattarelli] a shot, because he got close last time,” but acknowledged that Trump “did not go all-in.”“Don’t try to fix what you can’t,” this person added. “Play for the team but be realistic and ruthless when it comes to resource deployment. Just like the [2024 presidential] campaign.” As for Earle-Sears, the outside ally was more blunt, saying she was a “horrible candidate.” Trump had spent months warning about Mamdani, but he endorsed Cuomo’s independent bid only on the eve of Election Day, arguing that a vote for Republican Curtis Sliwa was a “vote for Mamdani.” A person close to the White House described Trump’s last-minute nod toward Cuomo as more of a Hail Mary pass in a game already lost.“That race was gone three weeks ago,” this person said. “He knew it.”A former Trump campaign official offered a silver lining — that Trump and the Republicans could now make Mamdani a millstone for Democrats in next year’s elections.“Too little, too late,” this person said of the Cuomo endorsement. “But I’d bet [Trump] wants his archrival lined up for the midterms.”Matt DixonMatt Dixon is a senior national politics reporter for NBC News, based in Florida.Henry J. GomezHenry J. Gomez is a senior national political reporter for NBC NewsJonathan AllenJonathan Allen is a senior national politics reporter for NBC News. Garrett HaakeGarrett Haake is NBC News’ senior White House correspondent.Yamiche Alcindor, Stephanie Perry and Natasha Korecki contributed.
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