By REBECCA BOONE, Associated Press

A federal judge says he won’t dismiss a lawsuit from labor unions seeking to block Elon Musk’s team from accessing systems at the Labor Department.

The labor unions say that allowing Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency to access the systems violates the federal Privacy Act because they contain medical and financial records of millions of Americans. They also contend DOGE doesn’t have the legal authority to direct the actions of congressionally created agencies like the Department of Labor.

Related Articles

Trump says Federal Reserve Chair Powell’s ‘termination cannot come fast enough’

Tennessee’s GOP leads the fight to deny public education to children without documents

Stephen Mihm: The atomic bomb set the stage for the college funding fight

Thomas Friedman: Trapped in a woke right-wing ideology

What happens next after judge warns of possible contempt prosecution over deportation flights order

In a ruling Wednesday, U.S. District Judge John Bates said those claims could move forward in court. But some other, more specific arguments made by the unions — including that the U.S. Health and Human Services Department violated health care privacy laws by allowing DOGE access — were dismissed by the judge.

The federal Privacy Act generally prohibits an agency from disclosing records about a person to another agency, unless the person has first given written permission.

“This Court is the first to admit that seeing someone’s name and SSN in the 648th row of a spreadsheet is ‘different in kind’ from peeping into someone’s bedroom window,” Bates wrote. Still, he said, Congress enacted the Privacy Act to protect the privacy of people identified in federally maintained systems, so that individuals could trust their information would be accessed only by those employees with a valid need to see it.

“As a result, an intrusion upon that sphere — even if the sphere literally encompasses only one row of millions in a dataset — amounts to an injury similar to the intrusion upon other private spheres, such as one’s home,” Bates wrote.

Bates also said the case is likely to undergo a lot of “twists and turns” before it is resolved.

“This is a dynamic case undergirded by a set of facts evolving before the Court’s eyes,” he wrote.

DOGE has also accessed other government databases, including at the Education Department, Treasury, IRS and Social Security Administration, and multiple lawsuits have been filed in response.

By HANNAH FINGERHUT, Associated Press

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A 30-year-old community service program that sends young adults to work on projects across the U.S. was the latest target of the Trump administration ‘s campaign to slash government spending.

AmeriCorps’ National Civilian Community Corps informed volunteers Tuesday that they would exit the program early “due to programmatic circumstances beyond your control,” according to an email obtained by The Associated Press.

The unsigned memo to corps members said NCCC’s “ability to sustain program operations” was impacted by the Trump administration’s priorities and President Donald Trump’s executive order creating the Department of Government Efficiency. Members would be officially dismissed April 30.

AmeriCorps did not respond Wednesday to an AP email seeking comment.

What program was affected and why?

AmeriCorps NCCC, which completed its 30th year last year, employs more than 2,000 people ages 18 to 26 participating for a roughly 10-month service term, according to the program’s website. The teams of corps members are tasked with working on several projects related to education, housing, urban and rural development, land conservation, and disaster relief, driving from one assignment to another across the country.

Related Articles

Trump says Federal Reserve Chair Powell’s ‘termination cannot come fast enough’

Tennessee’s GOP leads the fight to deny public education to children without documents

Stephen Mihm: The atomic bomb set the stage for the college funding fight

Parmy Olson: Social media’s ‘big tobacco moment’ is coming

Thomas Friedman: Trapped in a woke right-wing ideology

The agency pays for volunteers’ basic expenses, including housing, meals and a “limited health benefit,” as well as a “modest” living allowance, according to the program. The program also provided members who complete their 1,700-hour service term with funding for future education expenses or to apply to certain student loans. That benefit was worth about $7,300 this service year.

Funding for AmeriCorps and NCCC has long been scrutinized when Congress talks of budget trims. The federal agency’s budget showed NCCC funding amounted to nearly $38 million last fiscal year.

A White House official said the Trump administration questioned using taxpayer money for the program. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly.

What work were they doing?

The traditional NCCC volunteers worked with sponsors including community and faith-based based organizations, nonprofits, schools, cities and tribes. Some of the recent service projects included working at a food bank in Washington state, building homes with Habitat for Humanity in North Carolina, and facilitating after school programs in Arizona.

AmeriCorps NCCC also has a partnership with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and, more recently, the U.S. Forest Service. Those volunteers over the last year responded to tornadoes and flooding in Iowa, hurricane damage in North Carolina and wildfires in California, among other natural disasters, when volunteers are especially visible.

What happens next for corps members?

Young corps members were told Tuesday night to pack up. Many started long road trips from their latest assignment to campuses in Vicksburg, Mississippi; Vinton, Iowa; Sacramento, California; and Aurora, Colorado. Members would receive their allowance and health coverage through the end of April, according to the memo.

Members were told in the memo that those who have completed 15% or more of their term would be eligible for a prorated amount of their education award.

But Kate Raftery, who was NCCC director from 2011 to 2014, said she’s worried about the corps members, many of whom were the “unusual suspects” who “saw this as a really impactful education or career launching pad.”

“They were not young people who had been striving to be service members somewhere,” Raftery said. “They were looking for an opportunity to improve their life. They were looking for an opportunity to build some skills, and to be part of a community.”

By AAMER MADHANI and JOSH BOAK, Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump slammed Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Thursday, reiterating his frustration that the Fed has not aggressively cut interest rates and saying that the central bank leader’s “termination cannot come fast enough.”

Related Articles

Tennessee’s GOP leads the fight to deny public education to children without documents

Stephen Mihm: The atomic bomb set the stage for the college funding fight

Thomas Friedman: Trapped in a woke right-wing ideology

What happens next after judge warns of possible contempt prosecution over deportation flights order

DOGE wanted to assign staff to the nonprofit Vera Institute of Justice because it got federal funds

Trump hinted at moving to fire Powell, whose term does not expire until next year. The Republican president’s broadside comes a day after Powell said in a speech that Trump’s broad-based tariffs have left the Federal Reserve seeking “greater clarity” on the impact of policy changes in areas such as immigration, taxation, regulation and tariffs before making the move on interest rates.

“Oil prices are down, groceries (even eggs!) are down, and the USA is getting RICH ON TARIFFS,” Trump said in a social media post.

Referring to the European Central Bank, he added that Powell “should have lowered Interest Rates, like the ECB, long ago, but he should certainly lower them now. Powell’s termination cannot come fast enough!”

The European Central Bank on Thursday lowered its key interest rate from 2.5% to 2.25%.

Powell was initially nominated by Trump in 2017, and he was appointed to another four-year term by President Joe Biden in 2022. At a November news conference, Powell indicated he would not step down if Trump asked him to resign.

He has also said that the removal or demotion of top Fed officials was “not permitted under the law.”

Powell started Trump’s second term in a relatively secure spot with a low unemployment rate and inflation progressing closer to the Fed’s 2% target, conditions that could have spared the U.S. central banker from the president’s vitriol.

But Trump’s aggressive and haphazard tariffs have increased the threat of a recession with both higher inflationary pressures and slower growth, a tough spot for Powell, whose mandate is to stabilize prices and maximize employment. With the economy weakening because of Trump’s choices, the president appears to be looking to pin the blame on Powell.

Powell, in his remarks at the Economic Club of Chicago on Wednesday, said the Fed will base its decisions solely on what is best for all Americans.

“That’s the only thing we’re ever going to do,” Powell said. “We’re never going to be influenced by any political pressure. People can say whatever they want. That’s fine, that’s not a problem. But we will do what we do strictly without consideration of political or any other extraneous factors.”

“Our independence is a matter of law,” Powell continued. “We’re not removable except for cause. We serve very long terms, seemingly endless terms. So we’re protected into law. Congress could change that law, but I don’t think there’s any danger of that. Fed independence has pretty broad support across both political parties and in both sides of the Hill.”

AP journalist Sagar Meghani contributed reporting.

By MATT OTT, Associated Press Business Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. applications for jobless benefits fell again last week as the labor market continues to hold up despite fears of a tariff-induced recession.

Jobless claim applications fell by 9,000 to 215,000 for the week ending April 12, the Labor Department said Thursday. That’s well below the 225,000 new applications analysts forecast.

Weekly applications for jobless benefits are considered a proxy for layoffs, and have mostly stayed between 200,000 and 250,000 for the past few years.

The four-week average of applications, which can soften some of the week-to-week swings, fell by 2,500 to 220,750.

The total number of Americans receiving unemployment benefits for the week of April 5 jumped by 41,000 to 1.89 million.