Furloughs | featured news

President Barack Obama has signed into law a bill to end furloughs of air traffic controllers. The furloughs stemmed from the automatic, across-the-board spending cuts that started taking effect in March. Millions of air travelers were affected recently by delayed flights across the country because of the furloughs.

The White House now says it's willing to consider legislation that would give the administration the budget-cutting flexibility to avoid furloughs of air traffic controllers.

With many air traffic controllers on unpaid leave, lawmakers criticized the agency for how it was handling the automatic budget cuts required by sequestration.

It was a tough start to the week for many air travelers as federal budget cuts led to cascading delays along the East Coast Monday morning. Some flights out of New York and Washington were delayed by more than two hours as the Federal Aviation Administration kept planes on the ground. The federal agency has said furloughs of air traffic controllers could lead to delays if there weren't enough people to monitor busy air corridors.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta is telling Congress that if automatic budget cuts kick in on March 1 he may be compelled to furlough the "vast majority" of the Defense Department's 800,000 civilian workers....

The Seattle Public Library, a beloved civic trophy in a book-loving city, whose directors are plucked away for plum jobs by presidents and philanthropists and whose buildings are often beacons of design, is closed all week — yet again. The furlough, intended to save about $650,000 from the system’s $50 million budget, has become something of a late-summer tradition in recent years, hardly as welcome as the weather.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is bringing back furloughs for thousands of state workers until California passes a budget.

Gov. David A. Paterson will ask the State Legislature to let him begin furloughing as many as 100,000 state workers one day a week until the stalled 2010 state budget is in place.

Federal judge's decision might force Pr. George's to repay millions in wages to 5,900 workers.

At a time of day when he'd ordinarily be rushing off to an afternoon meeting, or checking his e-mail for the 15th time, Perry Drake stood in jeans and a T-shirt in his backyard garden, deciding what to plant next in the spring sunshine.