The Brief

More than a week into the government shutdown, layoffs of federal workers have begun, following through on administration threats to slash the size of government during the shutdown.

In a court filing late Friday, lawyers for the government wrote that an estimated 4,200 employees across at least seven agencies began receiving reduction in force, or RIF, notices on Oct. 10.

The declaration, from Office of Management and Budget (OMB) senior advisor Stephen Billy, came in response to an order from the federal judge assigned to a lawsuit challenging the Trump administration's shutdown layoffs.

Word that layoffs were underway first came from OMB Director Russell Vought in a social media post on X that said, "The RIFs have begun."

While the administration initially offered few details on the scope of what it called "substantial" layoffs, some federal employees began sharing actual layoff notices on social media while federal employee unions said they'd been notified of pending cuts.

Asked by reporters Friday how many workers may lose their jobs, President Trump did not give an exact figure, but told reporters "it'll be a lot."

"We'll announce the numbers over the next couple of days, but it'll be a lot of people, all because of the Democrats," Trump said.

In his declaration, OMB senior advisor Billy stressed that while the information he was providing Friday was the most current, the situation "is fluid and rapidly evolving." The numbers are subject to change, he wrote, suggesting more RIFs could come in the future.

Here are the agencies affected by the RIFs, according to the declaration, with the estimated numbers of employees who will be affected:

Department of Health and Human Services: 1,100-1,200 employee

Earlier Friday, HHS spokesperson Andrew Nixon confirmed that RIF notices are being sent out to agency employees.

"HHS employees across multiple divisions are receiving reduction-in-force notices as a direct consequence of the Democrat-led government shutdown," said Nixon shortly after Vought's post. "All HHS employees receiving reduction-in-force notices were designated non-essential by their respective divisions."

Nixon blamed the Biden administration for creating a "bloated bureaucracy," although HHS has already cut more workers — 20,000 workers through an earlier RIF and through voluntary resignations and retirements — than were added during the Biden administration.

Department of Education: 466 employees

 A union representing Education Department employees said in a statement that "multiple union members" confirmed that at least two offices would be affected by RIFs: the Office of Communications and Outreach as well as the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education.

"This administration continues to use every opportunity to illegally dismantle the Department of Education (ED) against congressional intent," AFGE Local 252 president Rachel Gittleman said in a statement on Friday. "They are using the same playbook to cut staff without regard for the impacts to students and families in communities across the country."

Department of Housing and Urban Development: 442 employees 

Antonio Gaines, president of AFGE Council 222, representing employees of the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) across the country, confirmed to NPR that the union had received notice from HUD of its "intent to fire a number of employees."

"We are in the process of reviewing the notice, assessing the impact and magnitude of the agency's decision, while acquiring legal guidance from the National office," Gaines wrote.

A HUD spokesperson said the reduction in force was "to align our programs with the Administration's priorities and the appropriations available to the department."

Treasury Department: 1,446 employees

On Reddit, IRS employees posted screenshots of actual RIF notices they had received, informing them of their last day, Dec. 9.

"The Internal Revenue Service has determined it is necessary to abolish some positions in INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY to further workforce shaping efforts," read one such notice.

An employee with the Community Development Financial Institutions Fund shared a notice that the entire organization was set to be abolished.

Environmental Protection Agency: 20-30 employees

In court filings, the Trump administration said the EPA has not made a final decision on "whether or when to issue RIF notices."

But earlier Friday, AFGE Council 238 president Justin Chen said he'd learned that Environmental Protection Agency employees overseeing recycling and composting initiatives, plastics reduction and other programs, were among those targeted for layoffs.

"Weakening the EPA workforce is a direct threat to the health and safety of Americans," wrote Chen in a statement. "If Trump thinks he is only hurting federal workers with this decision, he is sorely mistaken."

An EPA spokesperson blamed Democrats and the government shutdown for the layoffs.

Other agencies

The other agencies mentioned in the declaration are the Commerce Department, with 315 employees affected; the Energy Department, with 187 employees affected; and the Department of Homeland Security, with 176 employees affected.

Here's what's ahead with mass layoffs at federal agencies : NPR

Federal law is specific about the process that RIFs must follow, including a minimum 60 days' notice of their end date, or 30 days if a waiver is granted by the Office of Personnel Management.

Some agencies may need to notify unions or Congress, and then draft official notices to send to affected employees. The notices are required to include information such as the reasons for the RIF and the effective date.

Unions seek legal recourse, again

The declaration came in a lawsuit filed by several unions over the threat of RIFs ahead of the shutdown, arguing "the Trump administration has made unlawful threats to dismantle essential federal services and functions provided by federal personnel, deviating from historic practice and violating applicable laws."

U.S. District Judge Susan Illston had ordered the Trump administration to detail the status of "any currently planned or in-progress RIF notices to be issued during/because of the government shutdown." Illston will hold a hearing in the case next Wednesday.

In a statement Friday, American Federation of Government Employees National president Everett Kelley slammed the RIFs announcement.

"It is disgraceful that the Trump administration has used the government shutdown as an excuse to illegally fire thousands of workers who provide critical services to communities across the country," he said.

Since the shutdown began, the Trump administration has made several threats to cut spending, fire workers and not pay some furloughed employees, arguing that the reductions are the fault of Democrats who won't drop their demands for extended health care subsidies in exchange for reopening the government.

The White House has also said its decision to freeze transportation funding in Chicago and New York and cancel billions of dollars in Biden-era energy project grants are a continuation of their push to shrink the size and scope of the federal bureaucracy.

Mass layoffs were a hallmark policy of the Department of Government Efficiency effort that began when Trump returned to office in January.

In February, a memo from the Office of Personnel Management and OMB asked federal agencies to prepare multi-phase plans to implement Trump's "workforce optimization initiative" that includes layoffs and what the workforce would look like when the new fiscal year started Oct. 1.

As NPR has previously reported, many agencies that implemented layoffs at the pressure and direction of DOGE have hired back workers in recent weeks, citing the inability to perform basic tasks and carry out Trump's policy priorities.

While the Trump administration has argued that cuts to the federal government need to happen because of the lapse in funding, some experts say a shutdown does not mean layoffs are necessary.

"There is no statute requiring them to lay off a substantial share of federal employees during a temporary government shutdown," Jessica Riedl with the center-right Manhattan Institute said. "That statute doesn't exist, and such practice has not occurred during previous shutdowns."

Layoffs dampen chance of funding compromise

Top Republicans on Capitol Hill are pinning blame for the mass layoffs on Democrats, who have refused to support a Republican-backed measure to reopen the government because it does not extend health insurance subsidies that are expiring later this year.

GOP leaders also hoped the threat of mass layoffs would compel Democrats to relent. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said the Trump administration was left with no choice.

"I think they held off as long as they could," Thune told reporters Friday.

But Democrats say Republicans are taking advantage of the shutdown to continue their ongoing effort to slash the footprint of the federal government.

"Let's be blunt: nobody's forcing Trump and Vought to do this," Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wrote in a statement Friday. "They don't have to do it; they want to. They're callously choosing to hurt people—the workers who protect our country, inspect our food, respond when disasters strike. This is deliberate chaos."

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine., told reporters on Thursday that a bipartisan group was making progress on a possible path to end the shutdown that would include a vote on health insurance subsidies after the government reopens.

But hope of a compromise may be fading again, as the layoffs inflame tensions in Congress even more.

Collins was among the few Republicans to criticize the layoffs on Friday.

"I strongly oppose OMB Director Russ Vought's attempt to permanently lay off federal workers who have been furloughed due to a completely unnecessary government shutdown caused by Senator Schumer," Collins wrote. "Regardless of whether federal employees have been working without pay or have been furloughed, their work is incredibly important to serving the public."

NPR's Cory Turner, Jennifer Ludden and Michael Copley contributed to this report.

Have information you want to share about agency reduction-in-force plans and other changes to the federal government? Reach out to this author through encrypted communications on Signal: Stephen Fowler is at stphnfwlr.25.

Reggae star Ziggy Marley has spent decades carrying one of music’s most celebrated legacies. But until now, he had never written a song directly about his father, Bob Marley.

That’s changed with “Many Mourn for Bob,” a track on Marley’s ninth solo album Brightside, his first release recorded in his new studio in North Hollywood.

Marley was just 12 when his father died of cancer in 1981. Now 57, Marley says the song instinctually emerged after years of life experience and producing the biopic One Love, which revisited his father’s struggles like an assassination attempt amid political violence in Jamaica.

“He went through some things that was really tough on a human being – and just understanding him in that light is to have a little bit more emotional, deeper connection to his experience,” Marley said in an interview at his studio.

Searching for the bright side

The deeply personal track is part of a splashy return for Marley, who's touring behind Brightside and will perform at the Hollywood Bowl on June 21.

The new album blends political themes, optimism and musical experimentation.

Its lead single, “Racism Is a Killa,” featuring Big Boi, pairs the heavy topic with an upbeat groove that he hopes will make the song more accessible to young people.

“We just wanna come out straightforward, like I never want to come out tiptoeing,” Marley said. “I want to say something that can catch your ears or catch your thoughts.”

That tension between darkness and hope runs throughout Brightside. Marley described the album as a reflection on enduring difficult periods – from the pandemic to the Los Angeles wildfires – without losing sight of optimism.

“Sometimes we get lost in that so much that we don't realize that there is always a bright side,” Marley said.

The 432 Hz experiment

The album also experiments sonically: Marley recorded Brightside using 432 hertz tuning instead of the standard 440 hertz in most mainstream music. Advocates of 432 hertz believe it produces a warmer, more meditative sound better synced to the natural world. (You can hear the difference for yourself here.)

“It's a lower musical frequency, but it's a higher frequency in a next sense of your spirituality and emotion,” he said. “So even though the numbers go down, the frequency actually go up.”

Marley sees the move as part of a larger search for new creative approaches.

“I'm very open-minded and always trying to evolve and just experiment with life and music,” Marley said.

The Grammy winner, who joins James Blake and Ed O’Brien of Radiohead as the most high-profile artists to record at the lower frequency, floated the idea of a larger movement among artists.

“Let's just have a revolution in the music industry,” he said. “Let's change the frequency.”

Building a dream

Marley works out of his Rebel Lion Studio in North Hollywood, its name a nod to his 2018 album Rebellion Rises while also a play on the word “rebellion.”

He described the studio as an extension of the independent spirit his father built with Tuff Gong Studio in Jamaica.

Musicians set up for rehearsal ahead of the next leg of Ziggy Marley's tour.

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“My father had a dream, and I had a dream too,” Marley said.

Like with Tuff Gong, Marley also plans to expand the studio operation to include vinyl pressing as records continue their resurgence in the streaming era.

“There’s always gonna be a vinyl present going on,” Marley said. “A thousand years from now, people that we're still gonna need vinyl records to listen to music.”

Ziggy Marley in the hallway of his new studio in North Hollywood.

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For years, Marley said, he worked out of smaller home setups and rented facilities before deciding to build a larger permanent space in L.A.

Marley said the city has become central to his own creative evolution over the last two decades of living and working here.

Drawn initially by music, friends and the city's small but tight-knit Jamaican community, he says being surrounded by creatives from different backgrounds helped push his artistry in new directions.

“I left my safety and my community, my tribe, and come out by myself to L.A.,” he said. “But it's a great experience. It really helped my growth as a human being being here.”

What’s next

Fresh off the release of Brightside, Marley says he’s already working on another album – a notably quicker turnaround since his last album, the family-music release More Family Time in 2020,

“We're doing back to back,” he said.

Ziggy Marley will be performing at the Hollywood Bowl on June 21 as part of a tour supporting his new album Brightside.

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He’s also busy writing a children’s book based on his feel-good hit anthem “True to Myself” and eyeing opportunities in front – or behind the camera – inspired by his time working on One Love and making the video for “Racism Is A Killa.”

“Same philosophy, same message, but within visuals, you know?” Marley said excitedly. “I want to create some stories and try out. I feel it coming. I can feel it.”

A new free record shop for survivors of last year’s Eaton and Palisades fires is celebrating with a grand opening party Saturday night.

After losing his home in the Eaton Fire, Brandon Jay founded Altadena Musicians to get instruments back into the hands of musicians who lost their gear in fires.

Now he’s doing that with vinyl records, too.

“We want to be here to help replace those items and support music in people’s lives that can’t necessarily afford it right now because they’re saving all their pennies just to live and also just to rebuild their homes,” Jay told LAist.

Jay says they’ve seen roughly 3,000 records donated so far. Now they have a dedicated space on Lincoln Avenue where fire survivors can sign up for time slots and shop for up to 10 records a month.

“It’s a really lovely distraction but it kind of keeps me going as well just to know that we’re trying to build something great for the community and keep us all moving forward,” Jay said.

The store will carry copies of the benefit album, Gimme Shelter: Songs for LA Fire Relief. The compilation features cover art by Shepard Fairey and L.A. specific tracks from artists like Elliott Smith ("Angeles" of course), Norah Jones, The Flaming Lips, as well as a cover of "Burning Down the House" by Talking Heads performed by Jay and about 50 other fire-impacted musicians.

A City Council committee voted Friday to shelve a proposed ballot measure aimed at cutting L.A.'s “mansion tax” nearly in half.

The ad hoc committee on Measure ULA voted 2-1 to set aside a proposal by Councilmembers John Lee and Marqueece Harris-Dawson that would have asked voters in November to reduce the ULA transfer tax rate for multifamily and mixed-use properties to somewhere between 2% and 3.5%, down from the current rate of up to 5.5%.

However, the ballot measure proposal was also referred to the City Council’s rules, elections, and intergovernmental relations committee, which could still choose to move it forward.

Instead, the ad hoc committee advanced a narrower pilot program that would reduce the property transfer tax only for newly built affordable housing projects.

The pilot program won't need voter approval in the form of a ballot measure. Committee Chair Ysabel Jurado, who introduced the substitute language, said she believes the city should avoid a ULA ballot measure because it’s still too early to evaluate the measure’s long-term effects.

“ I'm against going to the ballot, but I'm for making fixes that make this better,” Jurado said.

Voters will see a separate proposal on their ballots by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association to effectively repeal Measure ULA.

If the L.A. City Council does not approve reforming the measure, the only decision on the ballot in November may be whether to keep the mansion tax in its current form or end it.

About the mansion tax

L.A. voters approved Measure ULA in 2022 to fund affordable housing and homelessness prevention. The measure taxes real estate sales over about $5 million. Since taking effect in April 2023, ULA has raised just over $1.1 billion from 1,633 real estate transactions, according to the city’s housing department.

The city projects it will generate about $500 million in the coming fiscal year — about half of what proponents initially promised. It has funded about 800 new affordable units and helped stabilize thousands of renters facing eviction, according to the housing department.

But critics say the tax has suppressed housing development. Several studies link the tax to a slowdown in apartment construction in Los Angeles, but ULA supporters say high interest rates and broader economic conditions are to blame.

The City Council's ad hoc committee on Measure ULA was formed earlier this year to study how the measure is working and develop potential reforms. That work took on more urgency inside L.A. city hall after the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association qualified a statewide ballot measure for November that would effectively repeal Measure ULA entirely.

Joe Donlin, director of the United to House LA coalition, which campaigned for the original measure, said the City Council committee made the right call by rejecting broader exemptions.

“By not taking up the extreme calls for broad, 15-year waivers that could cost the program about a third of its revenue, the committee acknowledged that ULA is working,” Donlin said in a statement.

A separate group of housing developers, union workers and advocacy groups calling itself the “Mend It, Don’t End It” coalition has been urging city hall to make changes to ULA. On Friday, the group said it supports the measure, but believes targeted reforms are still needed.

“Independent research shows that Measure ULA has slowed housing production in Los Angeles at a time when we need more housing, not less,” said Melanie Mendoza, a coalition spokesperson.

What the data show

The debate over ULA's impact played out in the committee room Friday morning. The city's chief legislative analyst reviewed seven independent studies on ULA’s impact. Three of those studies concluded ULA had suppressed housing production and reduced property tax revenues, while four found no meaningful negative impact.

Before ULA took effect, Los Angeles collected about $22 million a month in transfer tax. After that, it dropped to about $13 million. But city legislative analyst Henry Flatt told the committee a similar decline happened in cities without the tax, including Glendale, Long Beach, Pasadena and Santa Clarita.

“We are not currently convinced that Measure ULA has had an extremely negative impact on general fund revenues,” Flatt told the committee.

The county assessor's office read the same period differently. Scott Thornberry, an assistant assessor with L.A. County, told the committee that commercial and industrial property sales are falling in the city but not elsewhere in the county.

“We are seeing, we believe, a trend line of impact to property tax revenue growth in the city of L.A. specifically," Thornberry said.

What the committee did

Instead of the ballot measure, the committee voted to develop a five-year pilot program cutting the ULA tax to 1.5% for newly constructed affordable housing projects that meet specific requirements.

Lee, whose ballot measure was replaced with language advancing the pilot program, said he hadn't seen the substitute prior to Friday’s meeting and voted against it.

“This was just placed in front of me,” he said. Lee objected to a provision in the substitute recommendations calling for $30 million in new spending on homelessness support.

“Without knowing where this money's coming from, I'm going to have to vote no,” he said.

Lee told LAist he supports stronger oversight and technical improvements to Measure ULA, but believes a ballot measure is the right approach.

“Voters deserve the opportunity to consider targeted changes that would preserve the intent of the measure while addressing its unintended impacts on housing production and real estate activity in Los Angeles,” the councilmember said, in a statement.

Friday's meeting was the committee's final scheduled hearing. The committee, which is set to dissolve June 1, also voted to advance a narrower nonprofit tax refund limited to organizations that can prove all sale proceeds went directly to affordable housing.

The committee continued a separate motion on fire exemptions for Palisades fire victims, which will be heard by another council committee. A motion to loosen eligibility rules for the ULA Citizens Oversight Committee was noted and filed.

Councilmember Imelda Padilla, who introduced several of the committee's motions, said the process had been guided by a commitment to protect the measure.

"My goal has always been to listen carefully, bring people into the conversation, and protect ULA while honoring the voters' intent," she said at Friday’s meeting.

In her closing remarks, Jurado reflected on the three-member committee’s past work.

“We released $14 million in rental assistance to the most vulnerable Angelenos and $300 million for affordable housing,” she said. “We did in six or seven meetings what others couldn't do in five years.”

The ad hoc committee's recommendations now move to the full City Council.

Harris-Dawson and Lee’s ballot measure motion will be considered by the City Council’s rules committee at a later date, officials said.

Monsterpalooza, the annual movie-monster bash for horror fans, returns to the Pasadena Convention Center this weekend, starting Friday night (May 29) and lasting through Sunday.

What to expect

Now in its 18th year, devotees can rub elbows with legendary beastie creators, browse hundreds of vendors who traffic in the weird and unsettling, and marvel at practical effects that’ll make your flesh creep.

Dozens of panels and presentations are scheduled, including a deep-dive into the 95th anniversary of the Dracula and Frankenstein movies by writer Julian David Stone.

Writer Julian David Stone gives a presentation at a past Monsterpalooza event.

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Stone said that the two classic movies have left a lasting impact.

“Dracula is a movie about supernatural horror..... and Frankenstein is about technological or man-made horror," he said. "You can just trace those two themes all the way forward to this past year with Sinners and Megan 2.0."

Richard Redlefsen's Armageddon Rat at the PPI Booth at a past Monsterpalooza.

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Stone first attended the convention in 2008, returning over the years as a fan, spectator and presenter.

“It’s just a terrific convention that celebrates all things horror,” Stone said. “There’s a lot of celebrities you can meet who were in these horror films and you can get pictures with them." He added that he’ll never forget when he met Carla Laemmle in 2010 — the last living cast member of the original 1931 Dracula.

Mike Mekash and Chris Nelson re-created Twisty the Clown on Dan Gilbert at the PPI Booth at a past Monsterpalooza.

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Who's attending

If you’re jonesing to be photographed with high-profile entertainers (expect a fee for many), this year's event has a line-up that includes musician Alice Cooper, actress Lin Shaye from the Insidious movie franchise and David Howard Thornton, who plays Art the Clown in the popular Terrifier movie series.

Cosplay and crazy costumes are encouraged, although a T-shirt celebrating a classic horror movie will also do. Just come ready to adore all things that gnaw and gash.