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Scrambling to replace their health insurance and to find new work, some laid-off federal workers are running into another unexpected unpleasantry: relatives cheering their firing. The countrys bitterly tribal politics are spilling into text chains, social media posts, and heated conversations as Americans absorb the reality of the government’s cost-cutting measures. Expecting sympathy, some axed workers are finding family and friends who instead are steadfast in their support of what they see as a bloated governments waste. Ive been treated as a public enemy by the government, and now its bleeding into my own family, says 24-year-old Luke Tobin, who was fired last month from his job as a technician with the U.S. Forest Service in Idahos Nez Perce National Forest. Tobins job loss sent him scurrying to fill prescriptions before he lost his health insurance and filling out dozens of applications to find whatever work he can, even if its at a fast-food restaurant. But some relatives reacting to his firing as what has to happen to make the government great again has been one of the worst parts of the entire ordeal. They cant separate their ideology and their politics from supporting their own family and their own loved ones, says Tobin. Kristin Jenn got a similar response from members of her family after she learned the National Park Service ranger job she was due to start had been put on hold by the billionaire Elon Musks Department of Government Efficiency hiring freeze. She thinks its likely the job will be eliminated altogether. As she has expressed her disappointment over potentially losing her dream job, some members of her mostly conservative family have unfriended her on social media. Others are giving her the silent treatment. Nearly all favor such cuts even if shes a victim of them. My life is disintegrating because I cant work in my chosen field, says Jenn, 47, from Austin, Texas. Lump on top of that no support from familyit hits you very hard. The strife has extended to Jenns mother, a former federal employee herself. When she has criticized the administrations actions, her mother simply says she supports the president. She has somehow been convinced that public servants are a parasite and unproductive even though she was a public servant, says Jenn. The federal job cuts are the work of DOGE, which has been tearing through agencies looking for suspected waste. No official tally of firings has been released, but the list stretches into the thousands and to nearly every part of the country. More layoffs are expected as DOGE continues its work. Eric Anderson, 48, of Chicago, was still absorbing the shock of being fired from his National Park Service job as a biological science technician when he came across his aunts social media post celebrating the DOGE cuts. The gist, Anderson said, was, Man, it sure is great seeing all this waste being knocked off. He grows angry thinking about it. Do you think Im a waste? he says, his voice rising as he recalls the post. There are a lot of people out there that are hurting right now that are not a waste. Erica Stubbs, who was working as a forestry technician with the U.S. Forest Service in Boulder, Colorado, is avoiding social media after seeing hate for federal workers. Though most people in her life have been supportive since she was fired, some have made passing comments about the necessity of eliminating jobs like hers. What they tell me is its just cutting out the waste, the excess spendingthat your jobs not that important, says 27-year-old Stubbs. Im not saying its the most important job in the world but its my job. Its important to me. Social media is teeming with posts reveling the layoffs and urging DOGE: Fire more! In a fiercely divided country, many saw the cutbacks through their own political lens. One mans devastation, it turns out, can be another mans delight. Riley Rackliffe, who was working as an aquatic ecologist at Lake Mead National Recreation Area in Nevada, was buoyed that his firing led so many friends and relatives to reach out, offering to pass his resume along, call their congressman or even help with his mortgage. Mixed with that, though, has been the vitriol. When his firing made the local news, a Facebook posting of the story led to a storm of comments deriding him and championing the layoffs. One person called Riley, who is 36 and holds a PhD, a glorified pool boy whose job nearly anyone could do. Even some of Rackliffes friends paired their expressions of consolation for Rackliffe with support for cutting jobs they contended were unnecessary government bloat. Hey, Im sorry you lost your job but I think we really need to cut out some of this waste in the government, Rackliffe said one friend texted him, saying he supported DOGEs aims. He basically said, Weve got to do this. Weve got to rip off the Band-Aid. What stings most, Rackliffe says, is the contention that people like him were lazy and worthless, collecting big paychecks for meaningless work. Its really hurtful for the president to insinuate that you dont exist or that your job consisted of sitting at home doing nothing and cashing the paycheck, he says. Id like to see him sifting through spiny naiad in 120-degree weather looking for parasitic snails. Hes the one that goes golfing on the government dime. I dont even know how to golf. By Matt Sedensky, AP national writer
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E-Commerce
Looking forward to more evening sunlight thanks to daylight saving time this weekend? Many in the golf industry like the time change, too, and they are pushing to make that annual switch permanent. The move is intended to encourage more evening golf and to stave off efforts to establish permanent standard time, which would leave less time for an evening on the links. And it is those late afternoon players who tend to buy food and drinks in the clubhouse. We would lose 100 tee times a day if daylight saving time goes away, said Connor Farrell, general manager of Stone Creek Golf Course in Omaha, Nebraska. Switching to permanent standard time would cost us $500,000 a year.” Golf played a big role in daylight savings time Golf has deep roots in the history of daylight saving time, which begins for most states at 2 a.m. Sunday when clocks spring forward by one hour. Some credit goes to William Willett, a British builder and avid golfer who in 1905 published a pamphlet advocating for moving clocks ahead in April and returning them back to their regular settings in September. The U.S. adopted a version of that during World War I and again in World War II. Congress passed the Uniform Time Act in 1966 that set up the biannual time change, and lobbying efforts by the golf industry are largely credited for Congress expanding daylight saving time by a month in the mid-1980s. Lawmakers try to make standard time permanent But for as long as it has been around, the constant clock adjusting has drawn the ire of Americans weary of losing an hour of sleep in the spring only to be faced with the early onset of darkness in the fall. That exhaustion has led to hundreds of bills introduced in nearly every state over the years to halt the practice. The National Conference of State Legislatures reports that in the last six years, 20 states have passed measures calling for a switch to year-round daylight saving time, many at the cajoling of golf industry lobbyists. But while states could switch to permanent standard timeas Arizona and Hawaii have doneCongress would need to change the law to allow permanent daylight saving time. That hindrancealong with arguments that permanent standard time would improve sleep quality and foster safer morning commuteshas seen more states consider opting out of daylight saving time. Lawmakers in more than a dozen states have introduced bills this year to make standard time permanent. Nebraska is among several states considering competing bills to make either standard time or daylight saving time permanent. That drew Joe Kohout, a lobbyist for the Nebraska Golf Alliance, to testify in favor of year-round daylight saving time. Late afternoon golf leagues account for up to 40% of the annual revenue of some Nebraska courses, Kohout said, while a majority of golf instructors reported that nearly 50% of their lessons are taught after 4 p.m. Under permanent standard time, Nebraskas golf courses will lose revenue, be forced to raise prices, and in some cases could be driven out of business, he said. The Utah Golf Association is also fighting a bill to make standard time permanent. The argument that changing clocks twice a year is an inconvenience does not outweigh the year-round benefits of having more usable daylight hours in the evenings, it posted on social media. In Indiana, golf course owner Linda Rogers succeeded in lobbying the Legislature to institute daylight saving time in 2006. Now a state senator, Rogers is fighting an effort to return to permanent standard time. Daylight savings time allows someone that, you know, worked until 5 oclock to come out and still play at least nine holes, she said. And its not just golf. There are so many outdoor activities that people want to be outside for and enjoy later in the summertime. Golf course owners like the status quo The National Golf Course Owners Association, which has about 4,000 members, recently polled stakeholders on the matter. The vast majority favored either permanent daylight saving time or the status quo of changing the clocks, said CEO Jay Karen. Only about 6% backed a change to permanent standard time. If standard time was to be made permanent, thousands of courses would be harmed by that, Karen said. Even so, Karen’s group is not advocating for a change to permanent daylight saving because it could hurt hundreds of courses that cater to early morning golfers, he said. Those include courses in retirement communities, vacation resorts where late tee times interfere with dinner plans and Sun Belt courses where extreme late-day heat sees golfers favoring early tee times. We feel like status quo is no harm, no foul, Karen said. Republican Iowa state Representative John Wills introduced a bill this year to make the change to permanent daylight savings. But he has been under pressure to amend the bill to permanent standard time. Wills was considering it until he heard arguments on how that change could affect golf. I think I might push back in the future and say, you know, the golf industry needs this, he said. By Margery A. Beck, Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
This week, Apple updated half of its iPad lineup. After updating the iPad Pro and iPad mini in 2024, the company has just unveiled a third-generation iPad Air and an eleventh-generation iPad. Many fans of Apples tablets have been eagerly awaiting these updates, especially since before this week, the companys entry-level iPad had not had a refresh since October of 2022. But if you’ve been waiting until this weeks reveals, hoping for a clear picture of Apple’s iPad offerings in order to select the one best for your needs, well, Ive got bad news: the iPad lineup remains as confusing as ever. Heres why. Not all models support Apple Intelligence Apple makes four different types of iPads: the iPad Pro, the iPad Air, the iPad, and the iPad mini. Yet despite each model getting an update within the last yearone of them still lacks the hardware to run Apple’s much-hyped Apple Intelligence AI platform, which debuted in October 2024. That would be the new iPadyes, the eleventh-generation tablet that Apple announced just this week. In 2025. In a baffling move, Apple decided to equip the new iPad with just 6GB of memory and the A16 chipthe CPU Apple first introduced all the way back in 2022 in the iPhone 14 Pro series and later included in the iPhone 15 series. None of these devices can run Apple Intelligence because the AI platform requires at least 8GB of memory. It’s shocking that Apple decided to limit its new 2025 iPad to just 6GB of memory and the A16 instead of giving it the more advanced A17 Pro chip and 8GB of memory that can run Apple Intelligence and that the smaller iPad mini, introduced in 2024, has packed inside. Why would Apple do this? Ive reached out to the company for comment and have yet to hear back, but the most likely reason is that Apple wants to push customers into its higher-priced iPad models, like the iPad mini ($499) and iPad Air ($549), instead of having them buy the entry-level iPad ($349). Consumers are starting to go crazy for AI, and, in my opinion, Apple knows that by excluding Apple Intelligence from the entry-level iPad, many of them will instead opt to shell out another $150 to $200 more on an iPad that supports it. You cant fault a company for wanting to make more money. But the lack of Apple Intelligence support on the new iPad is going to confuse a lot of people. Some may buy it thinking it comes with Apple Intelligence since, you know, every other iPad does. This device is kind of already obsoleteat least if you ever want to use Apple Intelligence. The thinnest and lightest model..is not the one you would think The lack of Apple Intelligence on Apples newest iPad isnt the only thing likely to confuse consumers. Many people are drawn to tablets because they are thin and light and thus easier to lug around than a laptop. Historically, Apples thinnest and lightest devices have all fallen under a unique moniker: Air. Theres the MacBook Airthe thinnest laptop Apple sells. Theres the (very likely) upcoming iPhone Air, which will be the thinnest iPhone ever, and of course, there is the iPad Air, which is the thinnestwait, no. You would think the iPad Air would be the thinnest iPad Apple makes, but thats not true. If you want the thinnest iPad, you actually need to buy the iPad Pro (which is 5.1 mm or 5.3 mm thin, depending on screen size) and not the iPad Air (which is 6.1 mm thin). But what if you want the lightest iPad? Surely, thats the iPad Air, right? No. Thats the 11-inch iPad Pro, which weighs in at 0.98 pounds. The 11-inch iPad Air is 1.01 pounds (and if you think it’s fair to compare apples to oranges, the iPad mini with its 8.3-inch screen comes in at just 0.65 pounds, beating the iPad Air by a long shot). Do you see how confusing this could be to the average consumer? And dont even get me started on Apple Pencil compatibility (the Apple Pencil Pro works with the smaller iPad mini from 2024, but not the larger, newer iPad Apple introduced this week). Which iPad should you get? Ive long hoped that Apple would fix its confusing iPad lineup. They didnt do it last year, or the year before, and with the new iPads this week, it looks like they arent going to do it in 2025 either. So, if you are in the market for a new iPad, maybe this little cheat sheet will help you out: If you want the thinnest iPad, get an iPad Pro (not the iPad Air). If you want the lightest iPad, get the iPad mini. If you want to be able to use the Apple Pencil Pro, get the iPad Pro, iPad Air, or iPad mini. If you want Apple Intelligence, get the iPad Pro, iPad Air, or iPad miniand avoid the new iPad. And if you want a lack of confusionI guess maybe wait to see if the 2026 iPad family finally brings much-needed simplicity to Apples tablet lineup? The new 2025 iPad and iPad Air are now available to pre-order and will be released on March 12.
Category:
E-Commerce
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