A federal judge in California ruled late Thursday President Trump and Elon Musk’s mass firings of probationary government employees were illegal, siding with a coalition of labor unions and nonprofit groups.
Hundreds of weather forecasters and other federal National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration employees on probationary status were fired Thursday, lawmakers and weather experts said, as billionaire Elon Musk aims to shrink a federal workforce that President Donald Trump has called bloated and sloppy.
The story below, published on February 21 before the announcement, explains how the Trump administration has been preparing to cut staffing at NOAA and what that means for weather forecasting and climate research.
Efforts to narrow the federal workforce by Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency is now hitting the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.Hu
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Elon Musk threatened to fire even more federal workers if they did not respond to his email demanding a list of five tasks completed.
The NOAA and weather service are the latest government agencies hit with mass layoffs. Jim Cantore, Al Rocker decry loss and talk about the impact it will have