Egg prices could jump another 41% this year, USDA says, as Trump’s bird flu plan unveiled

• February 26, 2025

By JOSH FUNK and JOSH BOAK

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Agriculture Department predicts the current record prices for eggs could soar more than 40% in 2025, as the Trump administration offered the first new details Wednesday about its plan to battle bird flu and ease the cost of eggs.

With an emphasis on tightening up biosecurity on farms, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the USDA will invest another $1 billion on top of the roughly $2 billion it has already spent battling bird flu since the outbreak began in 2022. Officials had hinted at the plan earlier this month.

It’s not clear how much more farmers can do to keep the virus out.

Egg and poultry farmers have already been working to protect their birds ever since the 2015 bird flu outbreak by taking measures like requiring workers to change clothes and shower before entering barns, using separate sets of tools and sanitizing any vehicles that enter farms. The challenge is that the virus is spread easily by wild birds as they migrate past farms.

And the main reason egg prices have soared to hit a record average of $4.95 per dozen this month is that more than 166 million birds have been slaughtered to limit the spread of the virus after cases are found — with most of those being egg-laying chickens. Last month was the worst yet for egg farmers with nearly 19 million egg-laying chickens slaughtered.

Egg prices will get much worse this year

The USDA now predicts that egg prices will increase at least 41% this year on top of the already record prices. Just last month, the increase was predicted to be 20%.

And the average prices conceal just how bad the situation is, with consumers paying more than a dollar an egg in some places. The situation is hurting consumers and has prompted restaurants like Denny’s and Waffle House to add surcharges on egg dishes.

The high egg prices, which have more than doubled since before the outbreak began, cost consumers at least $1.4 billion last year, according to an estimate done by agricultural economists at the University of Arkansas.

Egg prices also normally increase every spring heading into Easter when demand is high.

When will the Trump plan bring down prices?

Rollins acknowledged that it will take some time before consumers see an effect at the checkout counter. After all, it takes infected farms months to dispose of the carcasses, sanitize their farms and raise new birds. But she expressed optimism that this will help prices.

“It’s going to take a while to get through, I think in the next month or two, but hopefully by summer,” Rollins said.

Will DOGE layoffs affect the bird flu fight?

Rollins said she believes USDA will have the staff it needs to respond to bird flu even after all the cuts to the federal workforce at the direction of Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency.

“Will we have the resources needed to address the plan I just laid out? We are convinced that we will,” she said, “as we realign and and evaluate where USDA has been spending money, where our employees are spending their time.”

Where’s the money going?

The plan calls for $500 million investment to help farmers bolster biosecurity measures, $400 million in additional aid for farmers whose flocks have been impacted by avian flu, $100 million to research and potentially develop vaccines and therapeutics for U.S. chicken flocks and explore rolling back what the administration sees as restrictive animal welfare rules in some states.

It’s not clear what the additional aid would be for because USDA already pays farmers for any birds they must slaughter due to the virus, and roughly $1.2 billion has gone to those payments.

The administration is also in talks to import about 70 million to 100 million eggs from other countries in the coming months, Rollins said. But there were 7.57 billion table eggs produced last month, so those imports don’t appear likely to make a significant difference in the market.

Trump administration officials have suggested that vaccines might help reduce the number of birds that have to be slaughtered when there is an outbreak. However, no vaccines have been approved and the industry has said the current prototypes aren’t practical because they require individual shots to each bird. Plus, vaccinated birds could jeopardize exports.

The National Turkey Federation said the plan Rollins outlined should help stabilize the market, but the trade group encouraged the USDA to pay attention to all egg and poultry farmers — not just egg producers.

Funk reported from Omaha, Nebraska. Aamer Madhani contributed from Washington.

​ Orange County Register 

The Trump administration sets the stage for large-scale federal worker layoffs in a new memo

• February 26, 2025

By CHRIS MEGERIAN

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal agencies must develop plans to eliminate employee positions, according to a memo distributed by President Donald Trump ‘s administration that sets in motion what could become a sweeping realignment of American government.

The memo expands the Republican president’s effort to downsize the federal workforce, which he has described as bloated and impediment to his agenda. Thousands of probationary employees have already been fired, and now his administration is turning its attention to career officials with civil service protection.

Agencies are directed to submit by March 13 their plans for what is known as a reduction in force, which would not only lay off employees but eliminate the position altogether. The result could be extensive changes in how government functions.

“The federal government is costly, inefficient, and deeply in debt,” said the memo from Russell Vought, director of the White House’s Office of Management and Budget, and Charles Ezell, acting director of the Office of Personnel Management, which functions as a human resources agency. “At the same time, it is not producing results for the American public.”

Trump foreshadowed this goal in an executive order that he signed with Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur who is advising Trump on overhauling the government.

The order said agency leaders “shall promptly undertake preparations to initiate large-scale reductions in force,” or RIF.

Some departments have already begin this process.

The General Services Administration, which handles federal real estate, told employees on Monday that a reduction in force was underway and they would “everything in our power to make your departure fair and dignified.”

The memo came as Trump prepared for the first Cabinet meeting of his second term. He planned to include Musk, who oversees the so-called Department of Government Efficiency, known as DOGE.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that “all of the Cabinet secretaries take the advice and direction of DOGE.”

“They’ll be providing updates on their efforts, and they’ll also be providing updates on what they’re doing at their agencies in terms of policies and implementing the promises that the president made on the campaign trail,” Leavitt said.

Musk has caused turmoil within the federal workforce, most recently by demanding that employees justify their jobs or risk getting fired. OPM later said that the edict was voluntary.

​ Orange County Register 

Pope Francis sits upright in an armchair as Argentines in Rome pray for his recovery

• February 26, 2025

By NICOLE WINFIELD, TRISHA THOMAS and SILVIA STELLACCI

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis was sitting upright and receiving therapy for double pneumonia Wednesday, the Vatican said, as Argentines, Romans and others kept up the steady stream of prayers for his recovery. Francis remained in critical condition but the Holy See machinery ground on, with the announcement of new bishops and a new church fundraising initiative.

The Vatican said that it hoped to have information later in the day about the results of a CT scan taken Tuesday evening to check on the status of the complex lung infection that has kept the 88-year-old pope hospitalized since Feb. 14. Francis has chronic lung disease and was admitted to Rome’s Gemelli hospital after a bout of bronchitis worsened.

The Vatican said the pope had a peaceful night and was up, sitting in his armchair on Wednesday receiving therapy. Doctors have said he isn’t out of danger, but hasn’t had any further respiratory crises since Saturday.

Francis has been working from his hospital room, and the daily grind of the Vatican bureaucracy has been continuing in his absence. On Wednesday the Vatican said Francis had appointed four new bishops and approved the creation of a new fundraising initiative to encourage donations to the Holy See, which has been enduring a financial crisis for years.

Francis likely approved the bishop appointments awhile back and the new norms for the fundraising entity were approved Feb. 11, before he was hospitalized. But the announcements made them official and suggested Francis was still very much in charge and governing.

Pilgrims descend on the hospital to be closer to Francis

If he were to look out the hospital window from the 10th floor, he might see that a steady stream of well-wishers are lighting candles and leaving him get-well cards at the statue of St. John Paul II near the Gemelli entrance. It has become something of a makeshift pilgrimage destination, especially for church groups in town for the Vatican’s Holy Year.

On Wednesday, Bishop Gerardo Villalonga from Menorca, Spain led a group of 50 pilgrims to the site, saying they wanted to be as close to him as possible.

“Because when a family has someone who is sick it is very important that they are surrounded, it is necessary that everyone is near to them, and all the people of God are close the pope,” he said.

Cardinal Re picked to lead prayer vigil on Wednesday

The dean of the College of Cardinals, meanwhile, was designated to lead the Vatican’s prayer vigil in St. Peter’s Square on Wednesday night, thrusting a key figure in a future possible conclave into the spotlight. Francis recently extended the term of Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, 91, keeping him in the important job rather than naming someone new.

As is now popularly known thanks to the Oscar-nominated film “Conclave,” the dean is a key point of reference for cardinals. He presides over a papal funeral and organizes the conclave to elect a new pope.

From 2000-2010, Re was prefect of the Vatican’s congregation for bishops, one of the most powerful and influential positions in the Holy See. Francis made him dean in 2020 and confirmed him in the job in January despite the expiration of his five-year term.

On Tuesday night, the faithful from Francis’ homeland gathered in the Argentine church of Rome for a special Mass presided over by Cardinal Baldassarre Reina, the pope’s vicar for Rome. Reina was also celebrating the lunchtime Mass on Wednesday at Gemelli to pray for Francis.

The rector of the Argentine church, the Rev. Fernando Laguna, said that he hoped the pope could feel the embrace of the community’s prayer.

“I can’t go to Gemelli, because for him to recover he must be isolated,” he said. “I know that I hug him and that he hugs me when I pray. And now I would like to embrace the pope.”

Sister Nilda Trejo, an Argentine nun, said that she knew Francis’ health has always been delicate, with problems breathing and speaking loudly, and that’s why she always prayed for him.

“We knew that he often found it difficult,” she said. “In fact, you see that at the beginning of Mass, the microphone always has to be turned up because he has a bit of trouble. But he always spoke to the people. To the heart of the people.”

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

​ Orange County Register 

The US Christian population has declined for years. A new survey shows that drop leveling off

• February 26, 2025

By TIFFANY STANLEY, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans who identify as Christian has declined steadily for years, but that drop shows signs of slowing, according to a new survey Wednesday from the Pew Research Center.

The Religious Landscape Study finds 62% of U.S. adults call themselves Christians. While a significant dip from 2007, when 78% of Americans identified as Christian, Pew found the Christian share of the population has remained relatively stable since 2019.

The rapid rise of the religiously unaffiliated — the so-called “ nones ” — has also reached at least a temporary plateau, according to Pew. Approximately 29% of U.S. adults identify as religiously unaffiliated, including those who are atheist (5%), agnostic (6%) or “nothing in particular” (19%).

“It’s striking to have observed this recent period of stability in American religion after that long period of decline,” said Pew’s Gregory Smith, one of the study’s co-authors. “One thing we can’t know for sure is whether these short-term signs of stabilization will prove to be a lasting change in the country’s religious trajectory.”

By some measures, the U.S. remains overwhelmingly spiritual. Many Americans have a supernatural outlook, with 83% believing in God or a universal spirit and 86% believing that people have a soul or spirit. About seven in 10 Americans believe in heaven, hell or both.

Young adults are less religious than their elders

Despite this widespread spirituality, there are harbingers of future religious decline. Most notably, Pew found a huge age gap, with 46% of the youngest American adults identifying as Christian, compared to 80% of the oldest adults. The youngest adults are also three times more likely than the oldest group to be religiously unaffiliated.

“These kinds of generational differences are a big part of what’s driven the long-term declines in American religion,” Smith said. “As older cohorts of highly religious, older people have passed away, they have been replaced by new cohorts of young adults who are less religious than their parents and grandparents.”

Michele Margolis, a University of Pennsylvania political scientist not affiliated with the Pew survey, has studied how religious involvement changes over a lifetime.

Young adults frequently move away from religion. “Then when you get married and have kids, this is a time where scholars have noted that religion is more likely to become important,” Margolis said.

Margolis said one question going forward is whether the youngest American adults firmly reject organized religion, or if some of them will return to the religious fold as they age.

Between 2007 and 2024, Pew religious landscape studies haven’t indicated that Americans are growing more religious as they get older.

Smith at Pew said “something would need to change” to stop the long-term decline of American religion, whether that’s adults becoming more religious with age or new generations becoming more religious than their parents.

How partisan politics intertwines with religious identity

The long-term decline of U.S. Christianity and rise of the “nones” has occurred across traditions, gender, race, ethnicity, education and region. But it is much more evident among political liberals, according to Pew. The survey shows 51% of liberals claim no religion, up 24 points from 2007. Only 37% of U.S. liberals identify as Christian, down from 62% in 2007.

Penny Edgell, a University of Minnesota sociologist and expert adviser for the Pew study, said this religious and political sorting aligns with whether people “support traditional, patriarchal gender and family arrangements.”

Edgell also notes that Black Americans defy the assumption that all Democrats are less religious than Republicans.

“More Black Americans percentagewise are Democrats, but their rates of religious involvement are still really high,” Edgell said. “That has something to do with the way that religious institutions and politics have been intertwined in historically unique ways for different groups.”

Roughly seven in 10 Black Protestants told Pew that religion is very important to them — about the same rate as evangelicals and members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But Black Protestants are likely to identify as Democrats (72%), whereas evangelicals and Latter-day Saints are likely to identify as Republican (70% and 73%, respectively).

The Pew survey tracks many religious traditions

It’s been nearly 10 years since the last Religious Landscape Study, which tracks religious data that the U.S. census does not.

The new survey found that a majority of immigrants to the U.S. are Christian (58%), but they also follow the upward trend of the religiously unaffiliated, with a quarter of foreign-born U.S. adults claiming no religion.

The number of Americans who belong to religions besides Christianity has been increasing, though it’s still a small portion of the population (7%). That includes the 2% who are Jewish, and the 1% each who are Muslim, Buddhist or Hindu.

Of U.S. Christian adults, 40% are Protestant and 19% are Catholic. The remaining 3% in Pew’s survey include Latter-day Saints, Orthodox Christians, Jehovah’s Witnesses and smaller Christian groups.

The two largest Protestant denominations in the Pew survey remain the Southern Baptist Convention and the United Methodist Church – though both have lost many members since the first Religious Landscape Study in 2007.

The Pew Religious Landscape Study was conducted in English and Spanish between July 2023 and March 2024, among a nationally representative sample of 36,908 respondents in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The survey’s margin of error for results based on the full sample is plus or minus 0.8 percentage points.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

​ Orange County Register 

Alexander: Luka Doncic, Lakers survive emotional game against Mavericks

• February 26, 2025

LOS ANGELES — The chant started late in the first half on Tuesday night, in the 200 level of the arena. By game’s end, as the Lakers were finally putting away the Dallas Mavericks, it had spread throughout the building.

“Thank you, Nico … thank you, Nico … thank you, Nico …”

It was directed at Dallas Mavericks general manager Nico Harrison, who will be known forevermore in north Texas as The Guy Who Traded Away Luka Doncic. Tuesday night, Doncic and the Lakers faced the Mavericks in downtown L.A., and Harrison – who is hardly the most popular man in Dallas these days – faced the music, making this trip with the team and sitting a few rows behind the visitors’ bench.

Let’s just say the first direct returns on this deal favored the Lakers.

Yes, it was emotional, and that might have had an effect. Doncic had a ragged shooting night, making 6 of 17 field goal attempts and 1 for 7 from 3-point range. He wasn’t the only one struggling, on a night when the Lakers shot 11 for 40 (27.5%) from behind the arc and 28 for 47 (59.5%) inside it.

But this was an example of Doncic the complete player. Even with his shot less than trustworthy, he finished with a triple-double – 19 points, 15 rebounds and 12  assists – plus three steals and two blocked shots, in his new team’s 107-99 victory over his old one.

Thank you, indeed. And considering this was a national TV game, those chants represented some first-class trolling, given how raw the emotions have been in Dallas.

The game itself might have been an illustration of how these new look Lakers might handle things going forward. The Lakers had a 16-point lead in the first half – about the time those chants began, actually – but found themselves tied 91-91 midway through the fourth quarter before putting on a finishing kick, mainly supplied by LeBron James’ 16-point quarter, to pull away at the end.

“He’s doing that at 40 years old, which is insane,” said Doncic, who turns 26 on Friday.

Starting center Jaxson Hayes played just 16:51. When he went to the bench, the Lakers went small, using 6-foot-7 Dorian Finney-Smith and 6-9 Jarred Vanderbilt alongside 6-8 Rui Hachimura.

What they’ve been doing has been working. Tuesday night’s victory was their 15th in 19 games dating to mid-January. The Lakers have won three in a row and nine of their last 11, all of those without Anthony Davis, who was hurt right before that stretch in a loss in Philadelphia, missed the victories in Washington and New York on that trip and was traded the night of the Lakers’ victory in Madison Square Garden.

The Lakers did honor Davis with a tribute video during the first timeout on Tuesday, a nice touch and one absolutely deserved considering the role Davis played in helping to hang championship banner No. 17 in 2020.

And now for the irony. Doncic was supposedly out of shape and a defensive liability, if you believed the spin Harrison provided in the immediate aftermath of the trade when he publicly denigrated his former player, as did Mavericks governor Patrick Dumont.

But in the six games since Doncic started suiting up for the Lakers (he sat out one of those in Portland last week), their defensive rating (points allowed per 100 possessions) is 105.6. Their rating over the last 15 games (107.3) ties them with Boston and Cleveland at the top of the league in that category.

In the final five minutes of Tuesday’s game, Dallas scored eight points. The Lakers scored 15.

Then again, LeBron might have something to do with that defensive efficiency.

“If you watch our basketball team every night, and you’ve watched our team now for the last six weeks or so, LeBron’s playing at an All-NBA defense level,” Coach JJ Redick said. “He is.

“People may have perceptions of what he is as a defender. I watch it every night. He doesn’t get scored on in isolation if teams do try to target him. He blows plays up. He’s always in the right position, shifting, recovering. I think there was this perception of him at this age, like, conserving energy. No. There’s no conservation of energy on that end of the floor. He’s played elite defense now for a while.”

The crazy thing? Trading Davis to Dallas was supposed to poke another hole in the Lakers’ defensive efficiency. But they seem to have compensated with a more efficient, more aggressive team defensive effort. How far small-ball will take them going forward remains to be seen (worth noting that Dallas played without the 6-10 Davis, the 6-10 Daniel Gafford and 7-1 Dereck Lively II on Tuesday), but they’ve had some impressive efforts to this point.

Doncic, at least, won’t have to worry about old teammates or memories or any of that again until April 9, when the Lakers visit Dallas for their third-to-last regular-season game.

He saw old teammates, greeting Klay Thompson and Kyrie Irving – “my mano,” as he called him – just before tipoff as well as Max Christie, who went from L.A. to Dallas in the deal. He did not acknowledge Harrison, even during the pregame warmup period when the Dallas general manager was courtside.

“There were just a lot of emotions (Tuesday night), honestly,” Doncic said. “I can’t even explain. It was a different game. Like I said, sometimes I don’t know what I was doing. I’m just glad it’s over, honestly.”

Both Redick and James thought that Doncic actually handled the emotions of the evening well.

“I mean, obviously a lot of emotion goes in,” James said. “You give so much to a franchise and you sacrifice for a franchise. … He’s grown from being an 18-, 19-year-old kid to now a 25-year-old man, family and all that stuff.

“When you move on or they move on from you, it’s very emotional, obviously. It’s very taxing. You know, it’s a lot of probably a lot of things going on in his head that probably didn’t even involve the game itself. So, with that said, I thought he handled it terrific.”

Any closure, Doncic said, “is going to take a while, I think. I don’t know. It’s just – it’s not ideal. I’m glad this game is over. There was a lot of emotions. It will go little by little. Every day is better.”

Anyway, this is home now. And we have concrete proof that the fans are grateful.

jalexander@scng.com

​ Orange County Register 

American Airlines flight discontinues landing to avoid departing plane at Washington National

• February 26, 2025

ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) — An American Airlines plane arriving at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport discontinued its landing, performing a go-around at an air traffic controller’s instruction to avoid getting too close to another aircraft departing from the same runway, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

The maneuver involving American Flight 2246 from Boston occurred around 8:20 a.m. Tuesday, less than two hours before another plane attempting to land at Chicago’s Midway Airport was forced to climb back into the sky to avoid another aircraft crossing the runway. Southwest said Flight 2504 from Omaha, Nebraska, safely landed “after the crew performed a precautionary go-around to avoid a possible conflict with another aircraft that entered the runway,” an airline spokesperson said in an email. “The crew followed safety procedures and the flight landed without incident.”

The American flight “landed safely and normally” at National Airport after air traffic control instructed pilots to complete a go-around “to allow another aircraft more time for takeoff,” American Airlines said in a statement.

“American has a no-fault go-around policy as a go-around is not an abnormal flight maneuver and can occur nearly every day in the National Airspace System,” the airline said. “It’s a tool in both the pilot’s and air traffic controller’s toolbox to help maintain safe and efficient flight operations.”

The past few weeks have seen four major aviation disasters in North America. They include the Feb. 6 crash of a commuter plane in Alaska that killed all 10 people on board and the Jan. 26 midair collision between an Army helicopter and an American Airlines flight at National Airport that killed all 67 aboard the two aircraft.

A medical transport jet with a child patient, her mother and four others aboard crashed Jan. 31 into a Philadelphia neighborhood. That crash killed seven people, including all those aboard, and injured 19 others.

Twenty-one people were injured Feb. 17 when a Delta flight flipped and landed on its roof at Toronto’s Pearson Airport.

​ Orange County Register 

The National Archives is nonpartisan but has found itself targeted by Trump

• February 26, 2025

By ALI SWENSON and GARY FIELDS, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — As President Donald Trump moves to overhaul the federal government with astonishing speed, he has wreaked havoc on one agency long known for its nonpartisanship and revered for its mission: the National Archives and Records Administration.

The independent agency and its trove of historic records have been the subject of Hollywood films and the foundation of research and policy. It also holds responsibilities in processes that are crucial for democracy, from amending the Constitution to electing a president. As the nation’s recordkeeper, the Archives tells the story of America — its founding, breakdowns, mistakes and triumphs.

Former employees of the agency now worry it’s becoming politicized.

Earlier this month, the Republican president abruptly fired the head archivist. Since then, several senior staffers at the Archives have quit or retired. An unknown number of staffers at the agency also have accepted government-offered deferred resignations, often known as buyouts, or been fired because of their probationary status.

What does the National Archives do?

Everything that happens in the government, domestically and internationally, generates records. The National Archives is their final landing spot.

Among those are the nation’s precious founding documents, including the original Constitution and Declaration of Independence. The collection also includes military personnel files that allow veterans to get benefits, employment and tax records, maps, drawings, photographs, electronic records and more.

The archivist of the United States is the steward of those billions of records, which belong to the American people, said James Grossman, executive director of the American Historical Association.

Besides its museum in Washington, the agency manages field offices and presidential libraries around the country. It also authenticates and certifies new constitutional amendments and houses the Office of the Federal Register, which, among other things, verifies electoral certificates during presidential elections.

Why is Trump targeting the agency?

The president didn’t give a public reason for firing archivist Colleen Shogan, but he has long held a grudge against the agency for notifying the Justice Department of his alleged mishandling of classified documents after he left office following his first term.

That 2022 referral led to an FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, and a federal indictment against him. A federal judge dismissed the case last year.

Shogan wasn’t working for the agency at the time. Still, Trump fired her abruptly on Feb. 7 without giving her a reason, she said in a social media post.

The Society of American Archivists said its leadership was alarmed by the news and said the firing with no stated cause “does harm to our nation and its people.”

The president is allowed to dismiss the head of the agency, but none has done so quite as brazenly as Trump. The closest historical precedent was in 2004, when archivist John Carlin resigned and revealed in a letter to a U.S. senator that he had been asked to do so by President George W. Bush’s Republican White House.

The president is required by law to notify Congress of the reasons for the firing, but he isn’t bound to any timeline. House and Senate leaders didn’t respond to The Associated Press’ inquiries about whether Trump had shared that information. The Senate committee that has appropriations jurisdiction over the Archives was not told of Shogan’s firing beforehand, nor has it been told of any replacement, a congressional staff member said.

What’s happening inside the Archives now?

Trump announced that Secretary of State Marco Rubio is serving as the acting archivist, while former Nixon Foundation President Jim Byron, on leave from the foundation, is handling the agency’s day-to-day business as a senior adviser.

William “Jay” Bosanko, the deputy archivist who had been slated to take over Shogan’s duties until the Senate approved the president’s new pick, has retired, said Andrew Denham, Shogan’s former executive assistant. Denham left the agency last week through a government buyout. He said other senior staff also have left, including a former senior adviser to Shogan, the chief of staff and the agency’s inspector general.

Denham said he believes Bosanko and other senior staffers were pushed out. Bosanko had been part of the agency’s senior executive team during the FBI search of Mar-a-Lago.

“From my perspective, it was a witch hunt for anybody who was in a leadership position at the National Archives that their jobs were no longer safe,” Denham said. “He was no longer welcome.”

What’s next?

In an email last week to National Archives staff reviewed by the AP, Byron emphasized the importance of the agency’s work and specifically its transparency. He called attention to the Declaration of Independence’s upcoming 250th anniversary, as well as Trump’s executive order for the release of files related to three major political assassinations, which the agency will facilitate.

Byron’s email also said the National Archives is “strategically examining its operations agency-wide to ensure that it makes the best use of the funds it has been given by the American taxpayers and that all of its operations closely track with its mission and Congressional statutes.”

The agency did not respond to AP inquiries about how staffing cuts have affected its work or about what its internal review will entail.

Next, Trump is tasked with picking a new head of the Archives, whom the Senate will vote to confirm.

“I’m hoping that they get an archivist who is nonpartisan, who looks at the letter of the law when making the decisions that need to be made,” Denham said. “This is tough, because I think he’s putting people in positions who are going to do his will.”

The White House did not respond to a request for comment.

What influence could a new archivist have?

The person leading the National Archives has discretion over which records to preserve and how. The risk is that an archivist whose primary loyalty is to Trump could be biased in those decisions, leaving behind a skewed picture of history for future generations, according to several past employees of the Archives who talked to the AP.

That could affect what’s preserved from Trump supporters’ Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, for example, or the current overhaul of federal agencies, said Thomas Brown, whose work at the agency before he retired included some of its early efforts to identify and preserve electronic records.

“It pains me to think that I spent 30 years trying to build something and enhance the reputation of the National Archives to see it pulled down by political ideology,” he said.

The Archives’ duties related to constitutional amendments and Electoral College votes are generally ministerial. But that wouldn’t necessarily stop Trump from pressuring a new archivist to serve his interests rather than the law, said Anthony Clark, who oversaw the National Archives as a senior staffer on the House Oversight Committee and authored a book on presidential libraries.

The Office of the Federal Register reviews the electoral certificates sent in from the states. The archivist wouldn’t have the authority to force the office to reject a slate of electors but could disrupt the process, said Daniel Weiner, director of the Brennan Center’s elections and government program.

“And anything that shows disruption and uncertainty in the process is not helpful for our democracy and is dangerous,” Weiner said.

A Trump-aligned archivist might also be less inclined to enforce the Presidential Records Act or ask questions if Trump leaves office with troves of classified documents, said Norm Eisen, executive chair of the State Democracy Defenders Fund.

Jim McSweeney, who worked for the Archives for about 40 years before retiring in 2022, said the agency’s role is to preserve all historically valuable records, “good, bad and ugly, warts and all.”

“They can’t be whitewashed. They happened,” he said. “And they need to be present for forever, so that historians and regular citizens can learn and study these events.”

Swenson reported from New York.

The Associated Press receives support from several private foundations to enhance its explanatory coverage of elections and democracy. See more about the AP’s democracy initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

​ Orange County Register 

To win a national PR competition, Chapman students are advocating for local libraries

• February 26, 2025

To win a public relations competition, several groups of Chapman University students are raising awareness of banned books and local library cuts.

In Orange, where the city recently slashed library branch hours, one group has organized a round of book-themed trivia on Thursday night at Provisions Deli & Bottle Shop.

Another team has “locked up” little free libraries in caution tape and chains to protest the library funding cuts.

“The protest stunt is a powerful demonstration showing how when library doors are closed, access to knowledge is restricted,” said senior Kestyn Hudson.

The teams of PR and advertising majors are gunning to win the Bateman Case Study Competition, a nationwide challenge issued to students by the Public Relations Student Society of America.

This year, teams around the country have been challenged to develop a campaign on behalf of EveryLibrary, the only national political action committee for libraries.

The organization’s mission is to support public libraries on Election Days, stabilize school library budgets, guard against book bans, and engage with state legislatures alongside partner organizations.

The Chapman teams have been tasked with localizing that campaign to community library issues, such as the funding cuts to Orange city libraries and a controversial book review board established in Huntington Beach. 

“We’re trying to create a smaller campaign that EveryLibrary can implement after the competition on a larger scale,” said senior Nadya Rued.

In the face of Trump administration pushback to government services tied to diversity efforts, Rued’s group also organized a panel of Chapman faculty to highlight the effects of censorship on diverse communities.

Panelists and professors Ian Barnard and Lynda Hall teach courses on queer theory and book banning, respectively, while Assitant Dean Essraa Nawar facilitates DEI initiatives at Chapman libraries.

Their panel discussion Wednesday, Feb. 26, is open to the public with registration available at powerinthepagesproject.com.

Rued said one book in particular that she often sees as a target for book banners had a profound impact on her when she read it.

“That would be ‘Whale Talk’ by Chris Crutcher,” she said.

Published in 2001, the novel follows a group of outcasts as they take on inequality and injustice in their high school.

For years, school libraries across the country have moved to ban it over its use of racial slurs and profanity.

“Through that book, I think I really learned a lot about different communities and different people and developed empathy and compassion for others,” Rued said.

Although she’s from Sonoma County, Rued said she’s glad to participate in this PR campaign centered around Orange County issues.

“I think it’s important for Chapman students,” she said, “to become involved in our local community and kind of know what’s going on.”

​ Orange County Register