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Judge says Education Dept. partisan out-of-office emails violated First Amendment

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Judge says Education Dept. partisan out-of-office emails violated First Amendment

The Washington headquarters of the Department of Education on March 12. A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration violated the First Amendment rights of Education Department employees when it replaced their personalized out-of-office notifications with partisan language.

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Win McNamee/Getty Images

A federal judge ruled that the Trump administration violated the First Amendment rights of Education Department employees when it replaced their personalized out-of-office e-mail notifications with partisan language blaming Democrats for the government shutdown.

“When government employees enter public service, they do not sign away their First Amendment rights,” U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper wrote in his decision on Friday, “and they certainly do not sign up to be a billboard for any given administration’s partisan views.”

The lawsuit was brought by the American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE).

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“This ridiculous ploy by the Trump administration was a clear violation of the First Amendment rights of the workers at the Education Department,” said Rachel Gittleman, the president of AFGE Local 252, which represents many Education Department workers, in a statement. She added it is “one of the many ways the Department’s leadership has threatened, harassed and demoralized these hardworking public servants in the last 10 months.”

Cooper ordered the department to restore union members’ personalized out-of-office email notices immediately. If that could not be done, he warned, then the department would be required to remove the partisan language from all employees’ accounts, union member or not.

According to court records, in the run-up to the government shutdown, Education Department employees were told to create an out-of-office message for their government email accounts to be used while workers were furloughed. The department even gave employees boilerplate language they could adapt that simply said:

“We are unable to respond to your request due to a lapse in appropriations for the Department of Education. We will respond to your request when appropriations are enacted. Thank you.”

But, on the shutdown’s first day, the department’s deputy chief of staff for operations overrode staffers’ personal messages and replaced them with this partisan autoreply:

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“Thank you for contacting me. On September 19, 2025, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 5371, a clean continuing resolution. Unfortunately, Democrat Senators are blocking passage of H.R. 5371 in the Senate which has led to a lapse in appropriations. Due to the lapse in appropriations I am currently in furlough status. I will respond to emails once government functions resume.”

While the message was written in the first person, multiple employees told NPR they did not write it and were not told it would replace the out-of-office messages they had written.

At the time, Madi Biedermann, deputy assistant secretary for communications, said in a statement to NPR: “The email reminds those who reach out to Department of Education employees that we cannot respond because Senate Democrats are refusing to vote for a clean CR and fund the government. Where’s the lie?”

In his decision, Cooper lambasted the department for “turning its own workforce into political spokespeople through their official email accounts. The Department may have added insult to injury, but it also overplayed its hand.”

The department did not respond to an NPR request to comment on the ruling.

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“Nonpartisanship is the foundation of the federal civil-service system,” Cooper wrote, a principle that Congress enshrined in the Hatch Act.

That law, passed in 1939, was intended to protect public employees from political pressure and, according to the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, “to ensure that federal programs are administered in a nonpartisan fashion.”

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Map: 7.0-Magnitude Earthquake Shakes Alaska

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Map: 7.0-Magnitude Earthquake Shakes Alaska

Note: Map shows the area with a shake intensity of 4 or greater, which U.S.G.S. defines as “light,” though the earthquake may be felt outside the areas shown.  All times on the map are Alaska time. The New York Times

A major, 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck near the Alaska-Canada border on Saturday, according to the United States Geological Survey.

The temblor happened at 11:41 a.m. Alaska time about 56 miles north of Yakutat, Alaska, data from the agency shows.

U.S.G.S. data earlier reported that the magnitude was 6.7.

As seismologists review available data, they may revise the earthquake’s reported magnitude. Additional information collected about the earthquake may also prompt U.S.G.S. scientists to update the shake-severity map.

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Aftershocks in the region

An aftershock is usually a smaller earthquake that follows a larger one in the same general area. Aftershocks are typically minor adjustments along the portion of a fault that slipped at the time of the initial earthquake.

Quakes and aftershocks within 100 miles

Aftershocks can occur days, weeks or even years after the first earthquake. These events can be of equal or larger magnitude to the initial earthquake, and they can continue to affect already damaged locations.

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When quakes and aftershocks occurred

Source: United States Geological Survey | Notes: Shaking categories are based on the Modified Mercalli Intensity scale. When aftershock data is available, the corresponding maps and charts include earthquakes within 100 miles and seven days of the initial quake. All times above are Alaska time. Shake data is as of Saturday, Dec. 6 at 3:57 p.m. Eastern. Aftershocks data is as of Saturday, Dec. 6 at 7:26 p.m. Eastern.

Maps: Daylight (urban areas); MapLibre (map rendering); Natural Earth (roads, labels, terrain); Protomaps (map tiles)

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National Park Service drops free admission on MLK Day, Juneteenth while adding Trump’s birthday

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National Park Service drops free admission on MLK Day, Juneteenth while adding Trump’s birthday

WASHINGTON (AP) — The National Park Service will offer free admission to U.S. residents on President Donald Trump’s birthday next year — which also happens to be Flag Day — but is eliminating the benefit for Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth.

The new list of free admission days for Americans is the latest example of the Trump administration downplaying America’s civil rights history while also promoting the president’s image, name and legacy.

Last year, the list of free days included Martin Luther King Jr Day and Juneteenth — which is June 19 — but not June 14, Trump’s birthday.

The new free-admission policy takes effect Jan. 1 and was one of several changes announced by the Park Service late last month, including higher admission fees for international visitors.

The other days of free park admission in 2026 are Presidents Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Constitution Day, Veterans Day, President Theodore Roosevelt’s birthday (Oct. 27) and the anniversary of the creation of the Park Service (Aug. 25).

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Eliminating Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Juneteenth, which commemorates the day in 1865 when the last enslaved Americans were emancipated, removes two of the nation’s most prominent civil rights holidays.

Some civil rights leaders voiced opposition to the change after news about it began spreading over the weekend.

“The raw & rank racism here stinks to high heaven,” Harvard Kennedy School professor Cornell William Brooks, a former president of the NAACP, wrote on social media about the new policy.

Kristen Brengel, a spokesperson for the National Parks Conservation Association, said that while presidential administrations have tweaked the free days in the past, the elimination of Martin Luther King Jr. Day is particularly concerning. For one, the day has become a popular day of service for community groups that use the free day to perform volunteer projects at parks.

That will now be much more expensive, said Brengel, whose organization is a nonprofit that advocates for the park system.

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“Not only does it recognize an American hero, it’s also a day when people go into parks to clean them up,” Brengel said. “Martin Luther King Jr. deserves a day of recognition … For some reason, Black history has repeatedly been targeted by this administration, and it shouldn’t be.”

Some Democratic lawmakers also weighed in to object to the new policy.

“The President didn’t just add his own birthday to the list, he removed both of these holidays that mark Black Americans’ struggle for civil rights and freedom,” said Democratic Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada. “Our country deserves better.”

A spokesperson for the National Park Service did not immediately respond to questions on Saturday seeking information about the reasons behind the changes.

Since taking office, Trump has sought to eliminate programs seen as promoting diversity across the federal government, actions that have erased or downplayed America’s history of racism as well as the civil rights victories of Black Americans.

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Self-promotion is an old habit of the president’s and one he has continued in his second term. He unsuccessfully put himself forward for the Nobel Peace Prize, renamed the U.S. Institute of Peace after himself, sought to put his name on the planned NFL stadium in the nation’s capital and had a new children’s savings program named after him.

Some Republican lawmakers have suggested putting his visage on Mount Rushmore and the $100 bill.

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A 3-D Look at Trump’s Proposed White House Ballroom

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A 3-D Look at Trump’s Proposed White House Ballroom

The ballroom design featured 50-foot ceilings, arched windows on three sides and skylights. It included elevated terraced walkways wrapping on two sides of the building, and a main visitors’ entrance on the east.

An enclosed passageway above the east colonnade connected the White House residence to the ballroom on the second floor.

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Though the design proposed by McCrery Architects would have dwarfed the rest of the White House complex, Mr. Trump wanted to go even bigger.

Mr. Trump’s vision is to build a ballroom more than twice as large as the one shown here in the proposal by McCrery Architects.

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Mr. Trump has said that the ballroom — which is expected to cost $300 million — would not be paid for by taxpayers. He said that he has already raised $350 million from donors, including from major tech and crypto companies.

Davis R. Ingle, a White House spokesman, said in a statement that Shalom Baranes Associates, which is based in Washington, D.C., would join “a team of experts to carry out President Trump’s vision on building what will be the greatest addition to the White House since the Oval Office.”

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A White House official said that McCrery Architects would continue to serve as a “valuable consultant” on the project.

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Demolition of the White House East Wing underway in October. Doug Mills/The New York Times

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