‘I’m in limbo right now’: Laid off federal workers struggle to secure unemployment benefits
CNN
A month after losing her job at the Department of Veterans Affairs, Corinne Bazarnyj is still waiting to be approved for unemployment benefits.
A month after losing her job at the Department of Veterans Affairs, Corinne Bazarnyj is still waiting to be approved for unemployment benefits. The disabled veteran who started at the agency as a training specialist in November was caught up in the Trump administration’s mass culling of probationary workers, who typically have less than one or two years in their positions. Like many other probationary employees, Bazarnyj got a termination letter saying she’d been let go because of performance – even though she hadn’t been on the job long enough to have an evaluation – potentially making it harder for her to qualify for unemployment benefits. “I was terminated based on performance, that is not true. So, I honestly don’t know if I’m going to get unemployment or not,” said Bazarnyj, who recently bought a house in Frederick, Maryland, to be closer to her job. Maryland’s unemployment agency has started requesting documents about her employment, but her case remains in pending status, Bazarnyj said. Before she was laid off, she downloaded a key document, known as SF-50, that showed her wage and separation information. Securing unemployment benefits may try the patience of many former federal workers struggling to stabilize their lives after being unexpectedly tossed out of public service. The payments can be a lifeline for those who suddenly find themselves jobless. In addition to having to deal with performance being cited as the cause for their termination, some workers are still waiting for the employment documents they need from their agencies, which are in turmoil as the Trump administration seeks to rapidly downsize the federal workforce.
CNN’s 5 Things AM brings you the news you need to know every morning
The two men killed as they floated holding onto their capsized boat in a secondary strike against a suspected drug vessel in early September did not appear to have radio or other communications devices, the top military official overseeing the strike told lawmakers on Thursday, according to two sources with direct knowledge of his congressional briefings.
As Chad Curry busily ferries his teenage children through the streets of their Chicago neighborhood of West Ridge, he eyes passing vehicles with a skepticism he didn’t have just a few months ago.
Speaker Mike Johnson is a political survivor, weathering crisis after crisis since his unlikely ascent two years ago.
Chief Justice John Roberts and Justice Elena Kagan are well matched, rhetorically forceful opposites. And they have been clashing for more than a decade over an increasingly relevant question of presidential power: How easy should it be for the president to fire the heads of independent agencies?
The Army gynecologist described in a recent lawsuit as a “predator in uniform” is now being held in the Bell County Jail in Texas, “after apparently violating conditions of liberty imposed by his commander,” according to an Army spokesperson.
Brian Walshe on Thursday came face-to-face for the first time with the man who had been having an affair with his wife before her death, as he took the stand to testify in Walshe’s murder trial.
The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed Texas to use a congressional map that will boost President Donald Trump’s effort to keep Republicans in control of Congress, blocking a lower court decision that found the new boundaries were likely unconstitutional because they were drawn based on race.
The US military carried out a strike Thursday on a suspected drug boat in the Eastern Pacific, killing four people on board, according to a social media post from US Southern Command.
A grand jury voted against indicting New York Attorney General Letitia James after being asked to look at the mortgage fraud case against her a second time, according to multiple people familiar with the development Thursday.
National Guard troops deployed to Washington, DC, can remain there for now, after a federal appeals court on Thursday temporarily froze a judge’s ruling that would have soon required them to leave the city’s streets.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s bad week just got worse. That’s after the long-awaited release Thursday of an inspector general’s report on his sharing of highly sensitive military attack plans on the unclassified app Signal earlier this year.
President Donald Trump has hired a new architect for the White House ballroom amid disputes between the president and his architect originally contracted to complete the project, several sources have told CNN.