In October 2020, President Donald Trump unveiled a plan to grant himself the power to fire vast numbers of civil servants for any reason should they get in the way of his agenda. Five and a half years later, that plan has come to fruition, despite vast public opposition.
What's next: Starting March 9, an unspecified number of federal employees could lose their current job protections and be converted into at-will employees at Trump's discretion.
Why now: That's according to a final rule issued Friday by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the agency that handles many human resources functions for the federal government.
Read on... for what this means for federal workers.
In October 2020, President Donald Trump unveiled a plan to grant himself the power to fire vast numbers of civil servants for any reason should they get in the way of his agenda.
Five and a half years later, that plan has come to fruition, despite vast public opposition.
Starting March 9, an unspecified number of federal employees could lose their current job protections and be converted into at-will employees at Trump's discretion. That's according to a final rule issued Friday by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the agency that handles many human resources functions for the federal government.
Under current law, the civil service is meant to be apolitical, providing continuity for the government from one presidential administration to another. But over the past year, Trump has shown a willingness – and at times an eagerness – to fire those career federal employees whom he perceives as political opponents, such as rank-and-file Justice Department attorneys involved in Jan. 6 prosecutions.
The rule would make firing such staff much easier. Entitled "Improving Performance, Accountability and Responsiveness in the Civil Service," it allows for the president to move federal employees in "policy-influencing" roles into a new category of employees called Schedule Policy/Career. OPM previously estimated some 50,000 positions could be reclassified.
The rule explains that while federal agencies will review their workforces and ask OPM to recommend positions be moved, the president will make the final call on which positions are reclassified.
OPM received more than 40,000 comments during the public comment period – 94% of which opposed the rule. The administration chalked up a lot of the opposition to misunderstandings – of existing federal laws and of the intentions of the rule.
The Trump administration has argued that the change is a necessary step to make the bureaucracy more efficient and accountable, citing the widely-held sentiment that it's too hard for the government to fire poor performers as well as reports of federal employees "slow walking" or otherwise obstructing Trump's directives.
The president's critics say the rule further allows Trump – and any future president – to politicize the civil service, and they warn of consequences for the American people.
"Our government needs serious improvements to make it more effective and accountable, but one thing that doesn't need changing is the notion that it exists to serve the American people and not any individual president," said Max Stier, president of the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service in a statement. "This new designation can be used to remove expert career federal employees who place the law and service to the public ahead of blind loyalty and replace them with political supporters who will unquestioningly do the president's bidding."
Max Stier is the president of the nonpartisan Partnership for Public Service.
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Maansi Srivastava
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NPR
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Currently, around 4,000 political appointees within the federal government can be fired at will, a number Stier says is already far higher than in other democracies.
Unclear which positions or how many will be reclassified
It remains unclear which positions will be subject to reclassification. The rule applies to "policy-influencing positions," which, according to the 255-page document, would include supervisors of individuals in such positions.
In the rule, OPM insists that "the vast majority" of those appointed under Schedule Policy/Career will still be protected from prohibited personnel practices including retaliation against whistleblowing. However, they will no longer be able to file complaints with the Merit Systems Protection Board, the federal agency that hears employee challenges to such actions. The Office of Special Counsel, which investigates whistleblower complaints, no longer operates independently since Trump's firing last year of the Senate-confirmed leader of that agency.
While reclassified employees would theoretically retain the right to file discrimination complaints with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the rule notes that the president himself is not subject to federal employment anti-discrimination laws.
Legal challenges ahead
The rule, which was first announced last year, already faces multiple lawsuits, including one filed by Democracy Forward. The legal organization has filed numerous lawsuits seeking to block the Trump administration's overhaul of the federal government.
"This is a deliberate attempt to do through regulation what the law does not allow — strip public servants of their rights and make it easier to fire them for political reasons and harm the American people through doing so," said Skye Perryman, the group's president and CEO, in a statement. "We have successfully fought this kind of power grab before, and we will fight this again."
Copyright 2026 NPR
An athlete plays soccer at a public soccer field surrounded by warehouses and smog in Jurupa Valley.
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Elisa Ferrari
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CalMatters
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Topline:
California is updating CalEnviroScreen, the influential pollution tracker that helps determine which communities get environmental grants. Advocates say the state should improve the tool and use it more frequently to cut pollution.
What's new: Officials at the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, the state agency managing the tool, said they worked with eight community organizations to design this fifth update. The update adds two indicators: diabetes prevalence, because people with diabetes are more vulnerable to air pollution; and small air toxic sites, to track additional risks from sources like urban oil wells and dry cleaners.
How the tool works and what it’s missing: Disadvantaged communities have received at least $5.8 billion in cap-and-invest funds since 2015. Environmental advocates said that although the tool is essential and provides important resources, it still leaves out important information. Some critics want to see additional indicators, such as tree canopy coverage and wildfire smoke data.
Read on... for more about the updates to the tracker.
California is again updating the system it uses to decide which polluted communities get cleanup funding. The tool, CalEnviroScreen, has already steered billions of dollars to the state’s most burdened neighborhoods, but critics say it still overlooks some of them.
The update is reigniting a long-smoldering debate: officials promise they're listening to communities more than ever, while advocates say the state's data gaps leave some areas invisible to the system designed to help them.
What’s new
Officials at the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, the state agency managing the tool, said they worked with eight community organizations to design this fifth update – including the Environmental Health Coalition, UNIDOS Network and Comite Civico del Valle. The update adds two indicators: diabetes prevalence, because people with diabetes are more vulnerable to air pollution; and small air toxic sites, to track additional risks from sources like urban oil wells and dry cleaners.
EnviroScreen also incorporates data improvements among some of the 21 other indicators it uses, such as adding children’s blood lead levels to a risk assessment for lead exposure from housing. The state will hold virtual and in-person public meetings this month to gather feedback; officials said they expect to publish a final version in the summer.
“We listen to stakeholders, community groups, academics, government agencies to understand any new layers that might be needed to better characterize both the pollution burden and the population vulnerability,” said Álvaro Alvarado, the environmental agency’s supervising toxicologist. “It's a constant work in progress.”
State law requires at least 25% of California's cap-and-invest funds — money raised through greenhouse gas auctions — go to the most disadvantaged communities. Since 2014, the state has used CalEnviroScreen to define them, including the top 25% of census tracts in that definition.
Laura August, the agency’s environmental program manager, said the update does not dramatically shift the census tracts identified as among the most polluted. She said the Bay Area and Central Valley decreased in the ranking slightly. About 80% of communities designated as disadvantaged remain unchanged in the new update, she said.
How the tool works and what it’s missing
Disadvantaged communities have received at least $5.8 billion in cap-and-invest funds since 2015.
Environmental advocates said that although the tool is essential and provides important resources, it still leaves out important information. Some critics want to see additional indicators, such as tree canopy coverage and wildfire smoke data.
“It would need to have the kind of ground-truthing work … which is to literally walk the neighborhood and count and calculate all the different polluting sources (and stressors) like heat islands and lack of tree cover and water stress,” said Rebecca Overmyer-Velazquez, a coordinator for the Clean Air Coalition of North Whittier and Avocado Heights.
State environmental officials said they plan to incorporate climate data and data about pollution magnets, like warehouses, in future versions of the tool.
Questions about the methodology
Beyond what data to include, researchers have also questioned whether the tool's design itself creates blind spots.
In 2024, researchers with Johns Hopkins University found the previous version of the tool, CalEnviroScreen 4.0, was subjective enough that certain communities could be losing out on billions of dollars.
“If you're the model developer, even if you don't feel that you have any personal biases or you're not thinking about it, all those choices that you make when you make the model, you are implicitly deciding who gets funding and who doesn't,” said Benjamin Huynh, an assistant professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
For example, the current version of CalEnviroScreen includes data about emergency room visits for asthma as an indicator of how sensitive to air pollution people in a particular area are. But some people, including immigrants, are less likely to visit an emergency room than others – or even visit doctors in the first place, to get diagnosed.
August said the agency took researchers’ criticism seriously. Late last year, she and other state scientists defended the tool in a published report, finding that the state’s methods "prioritize generalizability, dissemination, and utilization without sacrificing accuracy."
Advocates want real change
But even with improvements to the data, advocates said the bigger problem is how the tool gets used — or not used.
CalEnviroScreen was a product, in part, of advocacy from environmental justice leaders in the 1990s. But advocates said they aren’t sure whether the programs funded by the money are actually leading to pollution reduction, and agencies aren’t using the tool aggressively enough in their own policies.
Parents and children join the Lincoln Heights Community Coalition in a rally outside Hillside Elementary School, protesting the development of a warehouse across the street that activists say would harm the health of local residents, in Los Angeles on Nov. 26, 2024.
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Zaydee Sanchez
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CalMatters
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Bradley Angel, director of the environmental group Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice, faulted the state for not using the tool to deny waste permits to polluters.
“It's great that CalEnviroScreen exists … but when communities and environmental justice groups were advocating for what became CalEnviroScreen, they weren't looking at dollar signs. They were looking to protect our health,” Angel said.
State agencies do use the tool in some policy decisions. The Air Resources Board used EnviroScreen to determine which communities would be a part of its Community Air Protection program, which aims to reduce air pollution.
Under a draft regulation, officials with the Department of Toxic Substances Control said it will use CalEnviroScreen as a proxy for cumulative impacts in permitting decisions. But environmental advocates have called the regulation flawed because those impacts cannot prevent the department from issuing a hazardous waste permit.
“Unfortunately, but not surprisingly, (the department) pays lip service to CalEnviroScreen’s own information,” Angel said.
Looking to other states
At least one other state proves that more aggressive responses to environmental justice indicators are possible, advocates said.
New Jersey has developed a data tool, influenced by CalEnviroScreen. Two years ago, New Jersey started requiring polluting facilities to use its tool to analyze cumulative impacts of different pollution sources in a community. State regulators must deny permits to facilities that can’t avoid harm to overburdened communities.
“The tool is just a tool,” said Caroline Farrell, director of the Environmental Law and Justice Clinic at Golden Gate University. “You've got to be able to figure out how you want to utilize it in a way that actually changes things on the ground for communities.”
As Tax Day approaches, organizations across the Eastside are helping residents file their taxes for free.
More details: Many of the available resources are provided through the IRS’ Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program, which offers free tax help to people who need assistance preparing their own returns, including people with disabilities, limited English speakers and individuals who generally earn $69,000 or less, according to the program’s website. Before your visit, check the list of what to bring to your appointment.
Tax filing deadline: In California, the deadline to file state and federal income tax returns is Wednesday, April 15.
Read on... for a list of places to get free tax preparation on the Eastside.
This story was originally published by Boyle Heights Beat on Feb. 5, 2026.
As Tax Day approaches, organizations across the Eastside are helping residents file their taxes for free.
Many of the available resources are provided through the IRS’ Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program, which offers free tax help to people who need assistance preparing their own returns, including people with disabilities, limited English speakers and individuals who generally earn $69,000 or less, according to the program’s website. Before your visit, check the list of what to bring to your appointment.
Other services are available with income requirements.
In California, the deadline to file state and federal income tax returns is Wednesday, April 15.
Here’s a list of places offering assistance:
Inclusive Action for the City
Trained volunteers from the CSUN VITA Clinic are available weekly through April 15.
When: In-person support is available Mondays from 3 to 6 p.m. and Saturdays from noon to 3 p.m.
The Weingart East LA YMCA is offering free tax assistance every Friday and Saturday until March 28. Unlike the services offered by VITA, the household income requirement is $67,000 or less.
When: In-person support is available Fridays from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturdays from 8 a.m. to noon
Where: The Weingart East LA YMCA is located at 2900 Whittier Blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90023.
How to book: Appointments can be scheduled by calling (323) 260-7005.
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Gillian Morán Pérez
is an associate producer at LAist and, after reporting this story, has newfound respect for amphibians.
Published February 6, 2026 5:00 AM
The vertical-slit pupils are one distinguishing feature of the Western spadefoot. Others are spade on its back feet and its distinctive peanut-buttery smell.
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Chris Brown
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U.S. Geological Survey
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Topline:
California’s Fish and Game Commission will soon consider designating the Western spadefoot as endangered. State endangered species protection could give the tiny but mighty amphibians a break from the urban sprawl that threatens their habitats.
Why might it need protection? Its habitat — streams and rain-fed pools near grasslands — is shrinking in California. “There’s estimates in Southern California that 90 to 95% of those pool habitats that once existed don’t exist anymore,” one scientist said.
What’s next: The California Fish and Game Commission will meet April 16 to discuss whether the Western spadefoot is a candidate for protection.
Read on ... to learn why these frogs emit an ooze that smells like peanut butter.
California’s Fish and Game Commission will soon consider designating the Western spadefoot as endangered.
The tiny amphibian is found in the grasslands of Southern California and the Central Valley. It has endured several challenges in recent decades, including habitat loss and prolonged drought.
But state endangered species protection could give the little frogs a break from the urban sprawl that threatens their habitats.
What’s a Western spadefoot?
The animal resembles a toad but technically isn’t. It can fit in the palm of your hand and has bumpy skin. Spadefoots are short and stout and have a hard black spur on their back feet that they use to dig — hence the name.
Sofia Prado-Irwin, staff scientist at the from the Center for Biological Diversity, describes the Western spadefoot as “adorable” and “resilient.”
”The most charming feature that they have is they have really big eyes that are sort of situated pretty high up on the head, so they almost look like googly eyes,” Prado-Irwin said.
They breed in streams and vernal pools, temporary wetlands that pop up after rains. Once they reach adulthood, Western spadefoots hop to grasslands, where they like to burrow.
And to protect themselves from predators, their skin oozes a slime that smells like peanut butter. That scent is meant to trigger watery, itchy eyes and to irritate the nose, almost like a sneeze, granting the frog a chance to leap out of danger.
Why they might need more than peanut butter ooze for protection
Prado-Irwin says many of those complex habitats with vernal pools and grasslands or shrublands are hard to find now in California.
“There’s estimates in Southern California that 90 to 95% of those pool habitats that once existed don’t exist anymore,” Prado-Irwin said.
That’s because those areas have been paved over to make way for urban development and agricultural use.
Development can isolate populations of Western spadefoots. Prado-Irwin said that when vernal pools aren’t connected to grasslands, it can lead the amphibians to inbreed and cause the species to further decline.
That’s what has happened to the Western spadefoot in Orange County, where two clusters of spadefoots that are genetically distinct are small and isolated.
The backstory
Prado-Irwin said this isn’t the first time the Western spadefoot has been considered for protection.
In 2012, the species was petitioned for listing under the federal Endangered Species Act. In 2023 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed to list the species as threatened but a decision wasn’t finalized.
The Center for Biological Diversity filed a petition in September 2025 asking for the state to list the Northern and Southern California populations of the species as threatened and endangered under state law.
That petition highlights development projects that could begin within the next few years that could affect the Western spadefoot’s habitat, including one in L.A. A proposed housing development called Northlake near Castaic Lake would pave over Grasshopper Creek. According to the Center for Biological Diversity, it would likely eliminate one of the last surviving populations of the Western spadefoot in the region.
Why it matters
Prado-Irwin said it’s important the state steps in to protect the species, as the Trump administration continues to weaken environmental protections, including the National Environmental Policy Act and the Clean Water Act.
And if there’s another reason to care about Western spadefoot, Prado-Irwin says, it’s because the amphibians are really good indicators of how the environment is doing:
“ When amphibian populations are doing well, that’s usually an indication that the environment is generally pretty healthy,” she said. “But once amphibians start declining, that's kind of a warning flag that we need to be looking at what's going on. Because usually that means there's bigger environmental problems.”
If the Western spadefoot eventually receives protection from the California Endangered Species Act, one upshot would be that development that could affect the species would require extensive reviews to mitigate harm to the amphibians.
Protection would also allow the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to start working to arrest the species’ decline and to help it recover.
What’s next
The California Fish and Game Commission will meet April 16 to discuss whether the Western spadefoot is a candidate for protection.
Jacob Margolis
covers science, with a focus on environmental stories and disasters.
Published February 6, 2026 5:00 AM
Lilac-crowned parrot in SoCal.
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Russell Campbell
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Moore Lab of Zoology at Occidental College
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Topline:
Every year, birders around the world join together for the Great Backyard Bird Count to contribute avian observations to science. This year it’s taking place from Feb. 13 to 16, and by participating you can help local researchers figure out things like whether certain species are invasive.
Power in numbers: ”You spend 15 minutes really trying to understand what's there, and you multiply that over millions of people, you've got a lot of very powerful data,” said John McCormack, director of the Moore Laboratory of Zoology at Occidental College. He and his colleagues have used the data, which gets uploaded to eBird, to understand whether different species of parrots are mating with each other and creating offspring.
Common birds matter: When you document often-seen species, scientists can use the information to better understand how birds are living across Southern California. For instance, the California quail has patchy distribution, and more data could elucidate the locations of different populations.
Look for the red-whiskered bulbul: The species was introduced to the Huntington Gardens in the late 1960s but has spread rapidly over the last couple of years, McCormack said. Additional data could help scientists understand the nuances of the bulbuls' growth and how it’s affecting other species.
How you can participate: Enter your bird count in the eBird app. If you don’t know a chicken from a chickadee, the Merlin app can help you identify birds by their calls.
