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Civil Rights for Civil Servants
Hear Shaun Southworth and Lydia Taylor explain federal employee rights, public service, workplace systems, and the people navigating them.
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FOIA Records: DOGE Affiliate Said the White House Sent a List of NSF Grants to Cut
Newly released records show a DOGE affiliate at the National Science Foundation writing that the White House had sent him a list of NSF grants to terminate, months before a top Whi...
IRS Warns Against "Mediocrity" While Capping Top Ratings: What Stack Ranking Research Says
The IRS is warning employees against "deliberately choosing mediocrity" at the same time a new OPM rating cap means many of them will receive middle-of-the-road performance ratings...
Judge Rejects DOJ's Article II Firing Theory in Maurene Comey Case: What It Means for Federal Employees
A federal judge has ruled that the Justice Department unlawfully fired former federal prosecutor Maurene Comey, and in doing so rejected the government's argument that Article II o...
Two Marines Sue the Pentagon Over the DMDC Data Breach: How Privacy Act Damages Work
Two Marines have filed a Privacy Act lawsuit against the Pentagon over the Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC) data breach, which exposed the personal information of more than thre...
OPM Broke the Privacy Act With DOGE Access. Will Federal Employees Get Paid?
A federal judge has ruled that OPM violated the Privacy Act when it gave DOGE agents access to the personnel records of millions of current, former, and prospective federal employe...
FEHB 2027 Premiums Rise 10.9%: Four Open Season Moves for Federal Employees
FEHB 2027 premiums are going up, and for most federal employees the paycheck is not. According to OPM's 2027 rates, the average enrollee's share of the premium will rise 10.9 perce...
Who Is DOJ Hiring to Enforce Civil Rights? What a New York Times Investigation Found
The Justice Department's Civil Rights Division has lost more than 300 career employees since early 2025 and hired about 130 new lawyers, and a New York Times investigation into rou...
GAO Report: NNSA Workforce Cuts Reduced Oversight of Nuclear Material Security
The National Nuclear Security Administration lost more than 230 federal employees in five quarters, and one of its security offices lost about 40 percent of the staff who oversee n...
HHS Telework Brief Cited a Case That Doesn't Exist, FLRA Says
When HHS appealed an arbitrator's order to restore telework for its union employees, the agency's brief to the Federal Labor Relations Authority leaned on citations that, according...
Report: State Department Asked Foreign Service Officers Up for Promotion Who They Voted For
A Foreign Service promotion is supposed to turn on your record, not your ballot. According to a report published October 22, 2026 by The Washington Sun, citing six current and form...
OPM Writes the "Fork in the Road" Paid-Leave Deal Into Federal Regulation: What Federal Employees Should Know
OPM has written the "Fork in the Road" paid-leave deal into federal regulation. The final rule, published at 91 Fed. Reg. 65924 on October 19, 2026, takes effect November 18. If yo...
HHS Loses Telework Appeal: FLRA Says a Return-to-Office Memo Can't Override Your Union Contract
The Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA) has denied every exception HHS raised to an arbitration award that ordered the agency to rescind its return-to-office directive and rei...
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