Hampton Dellinger, the head of the Office of Special Counsel, sued the Trump administration after he was fired in a one-sentence email this month. Dellinger said his termination was illegal because it violated a law that shields leaders of independent agencies from removal by the president, “except in cases of neglect of duty, malfeasance or inefficiency.”
California officials detail Trump funding freeze ‘chaos,’ warn another could cripple state
KEVIN RECTOR, LA Times: "Maricela Ramirez was at an education conference in Washington, D.C., at the end of January when she and other attendees heard the startling news: Federal funding for Head Start programs, which provide early-learning and nutritional support for low-income children nationwide, had been frozen.
Ramirez, chief education officer for the Los Angeles County Office of Education, quickly contacted colleagues and realized it was true. They had tried to make a routine withdrawal of millions of dollars in funding the day prior, but it hadn’t arrived overnight as expected."
‘Our parks are in danger’: Yosemite workers protest firings, hiring freeze
MOLLY BURKE, Chronicle: "Current and former national parks employees and their supporters protested in Yosemite Valley on Saturday over a federal hiring freeze and other policies of President Donald Trump’s administration.
The protest — which was scheduled to coincide with the natural “firefall” phenomenon at Horsetail Fall — came a day after the Trump administration fired 3,400 U.S. Forest Service workers."
Yosemite halts camping reservations, with no timetable for their return
MOLLY BURKE, Chronicle: "Yosemite National Park announced Friday that reservations for some of the park’s most popular campgrounds will be delayed.
The park will delay the sale of reservations between June 15 and July 14 for the Upper Pines, Lower Pines, North Pines, Wawona and Hodgdon Meadow campsites. The reasoning behind the delay is unclear. The announcement comes amid a staffing shortage during a federal hiring freeze and an indefinite delay on the park’s entrance reservation system."
Colleges, K-12 schools ordered by Trump administration to abolish DEI or face funding cuts
JAWEED KALEEM, LA Times: "The U.S. Department of Education has given colleges and schools with race-specific programs — including financial aid and racially themed dormitory floors and graduation ceremonies — until the end of the month to abolish them or risk losing federal funding as educators scrambled over the holiday weekend to interpret the sweeping scope of new guidelines.
The “dear colleague” letter from the department’s civil rights division and addressed to K-12-and-higher education leaders lays out a new federal anti-discrimination enforcement policy that extends beyond the use of race in admissions, a practice barred since 2023 by the U.S. Supreme Court."
San Francisco archbishop’s relationship advice to Elon Musk goes viral
NORA MISHANEC, Chronicle: "San Francisco Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone offered relationship advice to Elon Musk this month, and the exchange has gone viral.
The Catholic leader, a vocal opponent of same-sex marriage and abortion, responded to a video of Musk with one of his 13 children that was captioned with a quote from the Tesla CEO that read, “Of anything in my life, I would say kids by far make me the happiest.”
“This is lovely. But marry first and love your babies’ mom too,” Cordileone wrote on X."
‘Fight ignorance, not immigrants’: Hundreds march from San Mateo to S.F.
WARREN PEDERSON and EMILY STEINBERGER, Chronicle: "Hundreds of marchers took their message of immigration reform to city halls from San Mateo to San Francisco on Sunday, with several stops on the way.
The peaceful and passionate march was organized by Rights Over Borders, a Bay Area immigrant advocacy group formed by four young women in response to President Donald Trump’s pledge of mass deportations of undocumented immigrants.
The March Against Mass Deportations assembled around 6:30 a.m. Sunday outside San Mateo City Hall with about 75 protesters on hand, but soon swelled to around 200 en route to San Bruno City Hall. Marchers received support along the way from passing motorists honking their horns, but they also encountered a couple protesters."
California AG Rob Bonta sues to block Elon Musk’s takeover of the federal government
ANDREW SHEELER, SacBee: "Another day, another lawsuit from California Attorney General Rob Bonta against President Donald Trump’s administration.
But this time, it’s actually conservative billionaire Elon Musk’s turn in the legal limelight. Bonta and 13 other attorneys general last week filed a complaint in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, and they didn’t mince words."
He’s Spent Years Watching Silicon Valley Take Companies Apart. He Has a Warning for DC.
DEREK ROBERTSON, Politico: "Washington has been blown away by the speed with which Elon Musk and his team of engineers have swept across the executive branch — using the seemingly limited mandate of the new DOGE office to trigger mass layoffs, wipe out entire federal programs and strike fear into the employees of one of the world’s largest and most stable bureaucracies.
But what, really, does Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency want?
Labor strikes planned at all UC campuses and medical centers, union officials say
CATHERINE HO, Chronicle: "As many as tens of thousands of unionized University of California workers are poised to strike Feb. 26 to 28 across all 10 UC campuses and five medical centers over what the unions say are unfair labor practices.
Two unions, UPTE-CWA Local 9119 (University Professional and Technical Employees) and AFSCME Local 3299 (American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees) have authorized strikes for Feb. 26-28 and Feb. 26-27, respectively, according to union officials."