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A fired national park ranger lost his dream job. He says the public is losing more

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A fired national park ranger lost his dream job. He says the public is losing more

Brian Gibbs, pictured with his son Oliver in front of the Effigy Mounds National Monument park sign, in July 2024.

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Brian Gibbs

Brian Gibbs lost his job as a national park ranger on Friday.

He was working as an environmental educator at the Effigy Mounds National Monument in northeast Iowa. It was his “dream job,” he wrote in a widely shared post on Facebook. The monument is the site of mounds made of earth, built by ancient Native Americans, that form shapes of animals.

The 41-year-old father learned of his termination on Valentine’s Day. “I am absolutely heartbroken and completely devastated,” he wrote.

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Gibbs is one of about 1,000 National Park Service employees who were fired this past week. Parks advocates say the layoffs could leave national parks understaffed going into a busy spring break.

The recent cuts to the federal workforce, which target probationary workers, are part of a plan by President Trump and his adviser Elon Musk to shrink federal spending.

In the federal government, a probationary worker is often a newly hired employee who is put on a “probationary” period — typically for one or two years — before they may be hired into full-time status. They are subject to higher scrutiny during that period. Probationary workers also include people who were recently moved or promoted into new positions.

Gibbs, who was eight months into a yearlong probationary period, said he was locked out of his work email before he could back up his government records, and before a formal termination letter hit his inbox.

Performance-wise, he said he’s only ever received high marks in supervisor evaluations of his work as a ranger at the Effigy Mounds.

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The National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), a nonpartisan advocacy group for the country’s national parks system, called the downsizing “reckless” and a decision that could have “serious public safety and health consequences” — for example, if the staff losses include wastewater treatment operators.

The NPS did not immediately respond to NPR’s questions about the decisions that went into the recent firings.

Effigy Mounds National Monument preserves remnants of ancient Native American culture

Little Bear Effigy Mound is pictured at the Effigy Mounds National Monument in 2004. The mound shows a four-legged animal and is outlined in small pebbles.

Little Bear Effigy Mound is pictured at the Effigy Mounds National Monument in 2004. The mound shows a four-legged animal and is outlined in small pebbles.

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The monument was designated in 1949 and protects and preserves over 200 sacred, prehistoric Native American ceremonial and burial mounds.

Human remains have been found in some mounds, while others “also functioned as territory markers and as multi-purpose ceremonial places,” according to the NPS. They were built somewhere between the years 650 and 1200. Mounds have been found most commonly in the shapes of “birds, bear, deer, bison, lynx, turtle, panther or water spirit,” the NPS says.

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Gibbs is grieving for the park — and what it and other parks may lose as a result of the staff cuts.

“You’re losing people that are keeping the bathrooms clean, the trails maintained. You’re losing people who are teaching youth the value of protecting and preserving these places for current and future generations,” Gibbs said. “I’m very scared that some of these smaller monuments may be forced to shut down their visitor centers or operate like there was a government shutdown, which would mean very, very few personnel.”

He worries about the potential for looting, destruction and littering.

As education technician with the park, Gibbs gave guided hikes, teaching visitors about climate change and how to interact with wildlife safely. He would also visit classrooms to teach students how to be good custodians of the parks. Because the park was already short-staffed before the recent cuts, he said, he wore many hats.

The park holds a lot of meaning for him in his personal life, as well.

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“This has always been home for me, ever since my dad took me on a road trip to come explore this area of Iowa,” he said. “It’s the first place I told my spouse that I loved her. It’s the first park that I took my son to.”

He’s fearful that, for the second time in less than five years, he may have to uproot his family. A previous job at the University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point was eliminated due to COVID-19 budget shortfalls and lack of program revenue. Both job losses have come while his wife was pregnant; this time it’s with their second child.

Gibbs said he’ll have to find another job to support his growing family, but jobs that involve teaching the public about the environment are limited. “I have a wide skill set but this is my passion,” he said.

But he said the public will ultimately be the ones who will lose the most from these layoffs — costing them “education and awareness and value of our public spaces that are so part of the democratic idea.”

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Trump fires last members of election commission, inciting fears of midterm ‘chaos’

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Trump fires last members of election commission, inciting fears of midterm ‘chaos’

Donald Trump has terminated the remaining members of the independent, federal commission that assists election administration officials nationwide just a few months before the midterm elections, multiple outlets reported Thursday.

The remaining three commissioners of the four-member bipartisan commission ⁠were forced out on Thursday in different ways. The one Republican appointee resigned and the other ⁠two, Democratic appointees were notified of their terminations via email from ​the White House presidential personnel office.

“On ‌behalf of President ‌Donald J Trump, I am writing to inform you that your position ‌as Commissioner of the Election Assistance Commission is terminated, effective immediately. Thank you for your service,” the email, seen by Reuters, said.

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

The Election Assistance Commission serves as a “national clearinghouse of information on election ‌administration”, accredits testing laboratories and certifies voting systems, and maintains the national mail-voter registration form developed by the National ​Voter Registration Act of 1993, according to the commission’s website. The terminations follow Trump and top administration officials’ advocacy to change vote-by-mail requirements and investigations into the 2020 election outcome, which Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

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“It is ⁠irresponsible and dangerous that this Administration remains dead set on ​causing chaos for ​our election officials across this ​country,” Arizona secretary of state Adrian Fontes said in a ​Thursday statement. “This ‌move undermines the integrity ​of nonpartisan ​election administration.”

The 2002 law that established the commission, the Help America Vote Act, states the president can appoint replacements to the commission.

It is unclear how Trump will move ahead with the commission.

Reuters contributed reporting

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Former Olympian pleads not guilty in reflecting pool vandalism charges

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Former Olympian pleads not guilty in reflecting pool vandalism charges

Former U.S. Olympian David Hearn (left) walks with his attorney Norman Eisen to speak to reporters and protesters gathered after his arraignment at the Superior Court of the District of Columbia in Washington, D.C. on Thursday.

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Former U.S. Olympic canoeist David Hearn pleaded not guilty to damaging the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool in D.C. Superior Court Thursday morning.

Federal prosecutors charged Hearn with a single count of destruction of property causing more than $1,000 in damage to the pool.

Hearn has previously claimed, which his attorneys repeated during a short press conference outside the court, that he simply touched the water in the pool out of curiosity.

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The Trump administration had just completed a $14 million renovation of the pool.

But shortly after the work finished, peeling paint and algae gathered in the water. The remodel has been largely criticized as a massive failure and waste of taxpayer dollars.

Superior Court Judge Carmen McLean released Hearn on his own recognizance. His next hearing is scheduled for Aug. 5.

Norm Eisen, one of Hearn’s attorneys, spoke to reporters outside of court following the hearing. He said the administration is using Hearn as a “scapegoat … for their own failures.”

“It is not a crime to touch the reflecting pool, to touch water in the United States of America,” he said.

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Prosecutors say there is a host of evidence against Hearn.

This is a developing story.

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Three more people charged with damaging Reflecting Pool after Trump’s multimillion-dollar restoration | CNN Politics

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Three more people charged with damaging Reflecting Pool after Trump’s multimillion-dollar restoration | CNN Politics

Three more people have been criminally charged with destruction of property at the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool.

Officers say they detained Cameron Thiers, Sophie Dennison-Gibby and Justin Carreno one Saturday afternoon in June and described in court documents witnessing them peeling and removing pieces of blue paint from the Reflecting Pool.

One officer “witnessed Carreno reach down into the reflecting pool and pull up a piece of the blue paint,” according to the court documents.

The officer who detained Dennison-Gibby “found 1 additional piece of the reflecting pool liner” in her purse, the documents said.

All three incidents were recorded on the officers’ body worn cameras, they said in the court documents.

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Several “partnering law enforcement agencies assigned to the Reflecting Pool” working with US Park Police were involved in detaining the two men and one woman — including officers from Texas, Oklahoma, Montana and California.

One of the officers said in court documents that Thiers “admitted to removing a piece of blue sealant from the Reflecting Pool and still had it in his hand when I made contact with him.”

The three defendants were arraigned in court Wednesday and pleaded not guilty to the misdemeanor charges of destruction of property with a value less than $1,000. The judge ordered them to stay away from the Reflecting Pool.

Lawyers for Thiers and Dennison-Gibby declined to comment. CNN has reached out to Carreno’s attorney.

If found guilty of destruction of property, the defendants could be fined up to $1,000 and face a maximum of 180 days behind bars.

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The New York Times first reported that three additional people had been charged with damaging the Reflecting Pool.

President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that vandals caused major damage to the pool by gashing the lining after his administration spent more than $14 million on renovations, though he has not provided evidence to support that claim. The officers who charged Carreno, Thiers and Dennison-Gibby did not accuse them of gashing the lining.

Former Olympic canoeist David Hearn was indicted by a grand jury in Washington, DC, last week for allegedly damaging the Reflecting Pool. Hearn — unlike Carreno, Thiers and Dennison-Gibby – was charged with destruction of property with a value of more than $1,000 which carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, if convicted. He is set to be arraigned in court Thursday.

Crews began draining the Reflecting Pool over the weekend to make repairs, according to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, for the second time in three months.

The move comes after weeks of problems – algae blooms, green-hued water, a chipping bottom and the administration’s allegations of vandalism – that have plagued the iconic landmark, making its woes the subject of national interest.

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