Federal workers will get a new email demanding their accomplishments, with a key change

• February 28, 2025

By CHRIS MEGERIAN and ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal employees should expect another email on Saturday requiring them to explain their recent accomplishments, a renewed attempt by President Donald Trump and billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk to demand answers from the government workforce.

The plan was disclosed by a person with knowledge of the situation who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly.

The first email, which was distributed a week ago, asked employees “what did you do last week?” and prompted them to list five tasks that they completed. Musk, who empowered by Trump is aiming to downsize agencies and eliminate thousands of federal jobs, said anyone who didn’t respond would be fired. Many agencies, meanwhile, told their workforces not to respond or issued conflicting guidance.

The second email will be delivered in a different way, according to the person with knowledge of the situation, potentially making it easier to discipline employees for noncompliance.

Instead of being sent by the Office of Personnel Management, which functions as a human resources agency for the federal government but doesn’t have the power to hire or fire, the email will come from individual agencies that have direct oversight of career officials.

The plan was first reported by The Washington Post.

It’s unclear how national security agencies will handle the second email. After the first one, they directed employees not to write back because much of the agencies’ work is sensitive or classified. Less than half of federal workers responded, according to the White House.

The Office of Personnel Management ultimately told agency leaders shortly before the Monday deadline for responses that the request was optional, although it left the door open for similar demands going forward.

On Wednesday, at Trump’s first Cabinet meeting of his second term, Musk argued that his request was a “pulse check” to ensure that those working for the government have “a pulse and two neurons.”

Both Musk and Trump have claimed that some workers are either dead or fictional, and the president has publicly backed Musk’s approach.

Addressing people who didn’t respond to the first email, Trump said “they are on the bubble,” and he added that he wasn’t “thrilled” about them not responding.

“Now, maybe they don’t exist,” he said without providing evidence. “Maybe we’re paying people that don’t exist.”

In addition to recent firings of probationary employees, a memo distributed this week set the stage for large-scale layoffs and consolidation of programs.

Gomez Licon reported from Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

​ Orange County Register 

US consumers cut spending in January more drastically than at any point in the last four years

• February 28, 2025

By CHRISTOPHER RUGABER, Associated Press Economics Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. consumers cut back sharply on spending last month, the most since February 2021, even as inflation declined, though stiff tariffs threatened by the White House could disrupt that progress.

Americans cut their spending by 0.2% in January from the previous month, the Commerce Department said Friday, likely in part because of unseasonably cold weather. Yet the retreat may be hinting at more caution by consumers amid rising economic uncertainty.

Inflation declined to 2.5% in January compared with a year earlier, down from 2.6% in December, the government said. Excluding the volatile food and energy categories, core prices dropped to 2.6%, the lowest since June, from 2.9%.

One other bright spot in the report was that incomes jumped 0.9% in January from December, fueled in part by a large annual cost of living adjustment for Social Security beneficiaries.

Inflation spiked in 2022 to its highest level in four decades, propelling President Donald Trump to the White House and causing the Federal Reserve to rapidly raise interest rates to tame prices. It has since fallen from a peak of 7.2%.

Last month’s decline could reassure Fed officials that inflation is still slowly cooling. The Fed prefers Friday’s measure to the more widely-known consumer price index, which rose for the fourth straight month in January to 3%. Friday’s gauge calculates inflation slightly differently: For example, it puts less weight on the costs of housing and used cars.

Even so, the key question preoccupying many American consumers, investors, and business executives is whether Trump’s extensive tariff proposals will push prices higher in the coming months. Trump said Thursday he will double his recently-announced tariffs on Chinese imports to 20%, and will impose 25% import taxes on Canada and Mexico next Tuesday. The three countries are the United States’ top trading partners.

Trump is also calling for widespread layoffs of federal workers, which could cause hundreds of thousands of job losses and potentially lift the unemployment rate.

“Increased uncertainty surrounding trade, fiscal and regulatory policy is casting a shadow over the outlook,” said Lydia Boussour, a senior economist at accounting and consulting firm EY.

Americans also likely cut back on their spending after a healthy winter holiday season that saw a surge in credit card debt in December, economists noted.

On a monthly basis, prices rose 0.3% in January from the previous month, matching December’s 0.3% increase. Core prices rose 0.3%, up from 0.2% in December. If sustained, January’s increases would keep inflation running above the Fed’s target. The Fed pays more attention to core prices because they provide a better read of future inflation.

A big concern right now is whether tariffs will push up inflation, or slow the economy, or — in a particularly toxic combination — both.

A report from the Federal Reserve’s Boston branch this month concluded that 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico, along with Trump’s initial 10% import taxes on China, could lift core inflation by as much as 0.8 percentage points.

The last time Trump imposed tariffs in 2018-19, inflation was largely unaffected — but those tariffs were on a much narrower range of goods. And the economy still slowed, prompting the Fed to cut interest rates.

Worries about tariffs pushing prices higher have sent consumer confidence plunging, unwinding the modest gains that had occurred after the election. Americans are also expecting inflation to move higher in the coming months. That’s a risky trend because if consumers and businesses expect higher prices, they may act in ways to lift inflation, such as accelerating their purchases and boosting demand.

​ Orange County Register 

Russia offers to restore direct air links with the US, during Istanbul talks

• February 28, 2025

By VLADIMIR ISACHENKOV, Associated Press

MOSCOW (AP) — Russia has offered the United States to restore direct air links between the two countries during the latest round of consultations with Washington, the Russian Foreign Ministry said Friday.

Russian and U.S. diplomats met in Istanbul on Thursday to discuss normalizing the operation of their respective embassies that has been crippled by multiple round of diplomats’ expulsions during previous years.

The Russian Foreign Ministry hailed the talks as “substantive and businesslike” and noted in a statement that “joint steps were agreed upon to ensure unimpeded financing of the activities of diplomatic missions of Russia and the United States on a reciprocal basis and to create appropriate conditions for diplomats to perform their official duties.”

The ministry said that it also offered the U.S. “to consider the possibility of restoring direct air traffic.” It didn’t add any details or possible time frame, and there was no immediate comment from Washington on the issue.

U.S. and other Western nations cut air links with Russia as part of a slew of sanctions imposed on Moscow after it sent troops into Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.

The U.S.-Russia talks in Istanbul followed an understanding reached during U.S. President Donald Trump’s call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and negotiations between senior Russian and U.S. diplomats and other officials in Saudi Arabia earlier this month.

In Riyadh, Moscow and Washington agreed to start working toward ending the fighting in Ukraine and improving their diplomatic and economic ties. That includes restoring staffing at embassies, which in recent years were hit hard by mutual expulsions of large numbers of diplomats, closures of offices and other restrictions.

The U.S. State Department said that during Thursday’s talks in Istanbul, the U.S. delegation “raised concerns regarding access to banking and contracted services as well as the need to ensure stable and sustainable staffing levels at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow.”

“Through constructive discussions, both sides identified concrete initial steps to stabilize bilateral mission operations in these areas,” it said in a statement.

Sonata Coulter, U.S. deputy assistant secretary of state for Russia and Central Europe who led the U.S. delegation, and Alexander Darchiyev, the head of the North America department of the Russian Foreign Ministry who headed Moscow’s team of negotiators, “agreed to hold a follow-up meeting on these issues in the near term,” the U.S. State Department said.

Putin on Thursday hailed the Trump administration’s “pragmatism and realistic view” compared with what he described as the “stereotypes and messianic ideological cliches” of its predecessors.

“The first contacts with the new U.S. administration encourage certain hopes,” Putin said. “There is a mutual readiness to work to restore relations and gradually solve a colossal amount of systemic strategic problems in the global architecture.”

​ Orange County Register 

Social Security Administration could cut up to 50% of its workforce

• February 28, 2025

By FATIMA HUSSEIN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Social Security Administration is preparing to lay off at least 7,000 people from its workforce of 60,000, according to a person familiar with the agency’s plans who is not authorized to speak publicly. The workforce reduction, according to a second person who also spoke on the condition of anonymity, could be as high as 50%.

It’s unclear how the layoffs will directly impact the benefits of the 72.5 million Social Security beneficiaries, which include retirees and children who receive retirement and disability benefits. However, advocates and Democratic lawmakers warn that layoffs will reduce the agency’s ability to serve recipients in a timely manner.

Some say cuts to the workforce are, in effect, a cut in benefits.

Later Friday, the agency sent out a news release outlining plans for “significant workforce reductions,” employee reassignments from “non-mission critical positions to mission critical direct service positions,” and an offer of voluntary separation agreements. The agency said in its letter to workers that reassignments “may be involuntary and may require retraining for new workloads.”

The layoffs are part of the Trump administration’s intensified efforts to shrink the size of the federal workforce through the Department of Government Efficiency, run by President Donald Trump’s advisor Elon Musk.

A representative from the Social Security Administration did not respond to an Associated Press request for comment.

The people familiar with the agency’s plans say that SSA’s new acting commissioner Leland Dudek held a meeting this week with management and told them they had to produce a plan that eliminated half of the workforce at SSA headquarters in Washington and at least half of the workers in regional offices.

In addition, the termination of office leases for Social Security sites across the country are detailed on the DOGE website, which maintains a “Wall of Receipts,” which is a self-described “transparent account of DOGE’s findings and actions.” The site states that leases for dozens of Social Security sites across Arkansas, Texas, Louisiana, Florida, Kentucky, North Carolina, and other states have been or will be ended.

“The Social Security Administration is already chronically understaffed. Now, the Trump Administration wants to demolish it,” said Nancy Altman, president of Social Security Works, an advocacy group for the popular public benefit program.

Altman said the reductions in force “will deny many Americans access to their hard-earned Social Security benefits. Field offices around the country will close. Wait times for the 1-800 number will soar.”

Social Security is one of the nation’s largest and most popular social programs. A January poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research found that two-thirds of U.S. adults think the country is spending too little on Social Security.

The program faces a looming bankruptcy date if it is not addressed by Congress. The May 2024 Social Security and Medicare trustees’ report states that Social Security’s trust funds — which cover old age and disability recipients — will be unable to pay full benefits beginning in 2035. Then, Social Security would only be able to pay 83% of benefits.

Like other agencies, DOGE has embedded into the Social Security Administration as part of Trump’s January executive order, which has drawn concerns from career officials.

This month, the Social Security Administration ’s former acting commissioner Michelle King stepped down from her role at the agency after DOGE requested access to Social Security recipient information, according to two people familiar with the official’s departure who were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said in a statement that “a plan like this will result in field office closures that will hit seniors in rural communities the hardest.”

Other news organizations, including The American Prospect and The Washington Post, have reported that half of the Social Security Administration’s workforce could be on the chopping block.

​ Orange County Register 

Hundreds of weather forecasters fired in latest wave of DOGE cuts

• February 28, 2025

By SETH BORENSTEIN, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Hundreds of weather forecasters and other federal National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration employees on probationary status were fired Thursday, lawmakers and weather experts said.

Federal workers who were not let go said the afternoon layoffs included meteorologists who do crucial local forecasts in National Weather Service offices across the country.

Cuts at NOAA appeared to be happening in two rounds, one of 500 and one of 800, said Craig McLean, a former NOAA chief scientist who said he got the information from someone with first-hand knowledge. That’s about 10% of NOAA’s workforce.

The first round of cuts were probationary employees, McLean said. There are about 375 probationary employees in the National Weather Service — where day-to-day forecasting and hazard warning is done.

The firings come amid efforts by billionaire Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency to shrink a federal workforce that President Donald Trump has called bloated and sloppy. Thousands of probationary employees across the government have already been fired.

Rep. Grace Meng, D-N.Y., released a statement saying: “Today, hundreds of employees at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), including weather forecasters at the National Weather Service (NWS), were given termination notices for no good reason. This is unconscionable.”

Meng added: “These are dedicated, hardworking Americans whose efforts help save lives and property from the devastating impacts of natural disasters across the country. This action will only endanger American lives going forward.”

Rep. Jared Huffman, a California Democrat who is the ranking minority member in the House Natural Resources Committee, also said “hundreds of scientists and experts at NOAA” were let go.

Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California, Los Angeles, said on social media that the job cuts “are spectacularly short-sighted, and ultimately will deal a major self-inflicted wound to the public safety of Americans and the resiliency of the American economy to weather and climate-related disasters.”

​ Orange County Register 

At meeting with Trump, Zelenskyy will seek security assurances against future Russian aggression

• February 28, 2025

By JUSTIN SPIKE and AAMER MADHANI, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — Ukraine’s leader will meet with President Donald Trump in Washington on Friday at a pivotal moment for his country, one that hinges on whether he can persuade Trump to provide some form of U.S. backing for Ukraine’s security against any future Russian aggression.

During his trip to Washington, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s delegation is expected to sign a landmark economic agreement with the U.S. aimed at financing the reconstruction of war-damaged Ukraine, a deal that would closely tie the two countries together for years to come.

Though the deal, which is seen as a step toward ending the three-year war, references the importance of Ukraine’s security, it leaves that to a separate agreement to be discussed between the two leaders — talks that are likely to commence Friday.

As Ukrainian forces hold out against slow but steady advances by Russia’s larger and better-equipped army, leaders in Kyiv have pushed to ensure a potential U.S.-brokered peace plan would include guarantees for the country’s future security.

Many Ukrainians fear that a hastily negotiated peace — especially one that makes too many concessions to Russian demands — would allow Moscow to rearm and consolidate its forces for a future invasion after current hostilities cease.

According to the preliminary economic agreement, seen by The Associated Press, the U.S. and Ukraine will establish a co-owned, jointly managed investment fund to which Ukraine will contribute 50% of future revenues from natural resources, including minerals, hydrocarbons and other extractable materials.

A more detailed agreement on establishing the fund will be drawn up once the preliminary one is signed.

Trump, a Republican, has framed the emerging deal as a chance for Kyiv to compensate the U.S. for wartime aid sent under his predecessor, President Joe Biden, a Democrat.

But Zelenskyy has remained firm that specific assurances for Ukraine’s security must accompany any agreement giving U.S. access to Ukraine’s resources. On Wednesday, he said the agreement “may be part of future security guarantees, but I want to understand the broader vision. What awaits Ukraine?”

Trump remains noncommittal about any American security guarantees.

“I’m not going to make security guarantees … very much,” Trump told reporters this week. “We’re going to have Europe do that.”

If a truce can be reached, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron have agreed to send troops for a potential peacekeeping mission to Ukraine to ensure that fighting between Ukraine and Russia doesn’t flare up again. Both leaders traveled to Washington this week before the Zelenskyy visit to discuss with Trump the potential peacekeeping mission and other concerns about the war.

White House officials are skeptical that Britain and France can assemble enough troops from across Europe, at least at this moment, to deploy a credible peacekeeping mission to Kyiv.

It will likely take a “consensual peace settlement” between Russia and Ukraine before many nations would be willing to provide such forces, according to a senior Trump administration official who briefed reporters on the condition of anonymity under ground rules set by the White House.

Zelenskyy and European officials have no illusions about U.S. troops taking part in such a mission. But Starmer and others are trying to make the case that the plan can only work with a U.S. backstop for European forces on the ground — through U.S. aerial intelligence, surveillance and support, as well as rapid-response cover in case the truce is breached.

“You’ve created a moment of tremendous opportunity to reach a historic peace deal — a deal that I think would be celebrated in Ukraine and around the world,” Starmer told Trump. “That is the prize. But we have to get it right.”

Zelenskyy has been vague on exactly what kinds of security guarantees would be suitable for his country, and while he continues to advocate for Ukraine’s eventual membership in NATO, he has also suggested a similar security arrangement would suffice.

But Trump on Wednesday said Ukraine “could forget about” joining the Western military alliance.

Still, Zelenskyy’s meeting with Trump, their first since the U.S. leader’s inauguration in January, is seen in Kyiv as a diplomatic win for Ukraine. On Wednesday, Zelenskyy said being able to meet personally with Trump before Russian President Vladimir Putin does “is a good signal.”

Zelenskyy said he hopes to discuss whether the U.S. plans to halt its military aid to Ukraine and, if so, whether Kyiv would be able to purchase weapons directly from the U.S.

He also wants to know whether Ukraine can use frozen Russian assets for the purchase of weapons and whether Washington plans to lift sanctions on Moscow.

Fears that Trump could broker a peace deal with Russia that is unfavorable to Ukraine have been amplified by recent precedent-busting actions by his administration. Trump held a lengthy phone call with Putin, and U.S. officials met with their Russian counterparts in Saudi Arabia without inviting European or Ukrainian leaders — both dramatic breaks with previous U.S. policy to isolate Putin over his invasion.

Trump later seemed to falsely blame Ukraine for starting the war, and called Zelenskyy a “dictator” for not holding elections after the end of his regular term last year, though Ukrainian law prohibits elections while martial law is in place.

As Zelenskyy seeks to lower the temperature with the U.S. while in Washington, American officials are saying the economic deal, if implemented, would itself provide a measure of security to Ukraine through the presence of U.S. investments on its territory.

On Wednesday, Trump said the U.S. working on mineral extraction in Ukraine would amount to “automatic security because nobody’s going to be messing around with our people when we’re there.”

“It’s a great deal for Ukraine too, because they get us over there and we’re going to be working over there,” Trump said. “We will be on the land.”

That perspective is echoed by the text of the economic agreement, which says the U.S. “supports Ukraine’s efforts to obtain security guarantees needed to establish lasting peace.”

Washington, it continues, has “a long-term financial commitment to the development of a stable and economically prosperous Ukraine.”

Spike reported from Kyiv, Ukraine.

​ Orange County Register 

Update: Wind advisory for 5 Freeway corridor near Santa Clarita until Friday morning

• February 28, 2025

The National Weather Service issued an updated wind advisory at 2:42 a.m. on Friday in effect until 10 a.m. for 5 Freeway corridor near Santa Clarita.

The NWS Los Angeles/Oxnard CA says to prepare for, “East winds 20 to 30 mph with gusts up to 40 mph.”

“Gusty winds will blow around unsecured objects. Tree limbs could be blown down and a few power outages may result,” according to the NWS. “Winds this strong can make driving difficult, especially for high profile vehicles. Use extra caution.”

​ Orange County Register 

Design of California’s standard license plate will stay the same

• February 28, 2025

Q: It was interesting to read your column about the change in sequence for California’s license-plate numbers once 9ZZZ999 is reached. Will the state consider improving the look of the plates when the new series starts? For example, why use space on the plate for the DMV web address, which serves no purpose that I can think of? Why not use “Golden State” instead? And what about using gold as the background color? Does the state have any plans to improve the appearance of our license plates?

– Irv Jones, Brea

A: Sorry, Irv.

“There currently are no plans to release a new design for California’s standard automobile license plates,” Geovana Herrera, a Department of Motor Vehicles spokesperson, told Honk in an email.

That standard design, with “California” in red script above the license-plate number in blue, block letters and numbers, and “dmv.ca.gov” in red block letters at the bottom — all with a white background — has been around since 2011. Curiously, unlike other California plate styles, this one doesn’t have a name.

The website is on the license plate to trumpet the agency’s push to get more and more motorists to do their DMV chores online.

The series configuration you mentioned, Irv, began in 1980. It is still expected to run out later this year, Herrera said. At that point, a DMV official told Honk in the past, the sequence will be flipped to three numbers, three letters and a number.

Q: I recently bought a Tesla and purchased my car insurance through that company. It’s been a month and I have received no paperwork, but it is stated in the app that I have insurance through Tesla. Will the police accept the app as evidence of having insurance?

– Kurt Hubler, Huntington Beach

A: Yes.

It is clearly written in the California Vehicle Code that you can show proof via “a mobile electronic device.” That would include on a cellphone and on an iPad, said Duane Graham, an officer and spokesman for the California Highway Patrol out of the Westminster station.

“It could be in the app as well — you just have to present something to us,” he said. “I would just look at what is on the screen.”

In fact, the law protects drivers — officers are not allowed to look at other stuff on the phone without permission.

Officer Graham says it is about 50-50 on what he sees these days for proof of insurance, hard copies versus apps.

HONKIN’ FACTS: In California, there are 27 commercial airports, 170 hospital heliports and 189 other heliports for fire and police agencies, commuters and private use, according to a 2024 Caltrans report.

To ask Honk questions, reach him at [email protected]. He only answers those that are published. To see Honk online: ocregister.com/tag/honk. To see him on the social media platform X: @OCRegisterHonk

​ Orange County Register