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Young volunteers who respond to natural disasters and help with community projects across the U.S. have been discharged as a result of the Trump administration ‘s campaign to shrink government workforce and services. AmeriCorpss 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. More than 2,000 people ages 18 to 26 serve for nearly a year, according to the programs website, and get assigned to projects with nonprofits and community organizations or the Federal Emergency Management Agency. It celebrated its 30th year last year. The volunteers are especially visible after natural disasters, including Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and Hurricane Helene last year. The organization said on social media last month that teams have served eight million service hours on nearly 3,400 disaster projects since 1999. Jordan Kinsler, 23, has worked with FEMA Corps for the past nine months, traveling from Minnesota communities impacted by floods to ones in North Carolina touched by Helene. He and his team were on their final project at FEMA headquarters in Washington when they got word Tuesday that they wouldn’t be able to finish. Kinsler, who is from Long Island, New York, said they packed that night and left Wednesday morning for their home base in Vicksburg, Mississippi. Kinsler said he’s proud of the work he’s done and had hoped to apply for a permanent position. To have this ripped right from us at the very end, it felt insulting,” he said. The AP sent an email Wednesday seeking comment from AmeriCorps. Funding for AmeriCorps and NCCC has long been included when there are talks in Congress of budget trims. The federal agencys budget showed NCCC funding amounted to nearly $38 million last fiscal year. The unsigned memo to members said NCCC’s ability to sustain program operations was impacted by new operational parameters laid out by the Trump administration’s priorities and President Donald Trump’s executive order creating the Department of Government Efficiency. Members, who receive a living allowance and have basic expenses covered, would be paid through the end of April, according to the memo. The program also provides 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. The memo stated that those who have completed 15% or more of their term would be eligible for a prorated amount, but those that have completed less would not be eligible. Theres always been bipartisan support of NCCCand bipartisan criticism, said Kate Raftery, who was NCCC director from 2011 to 2014. Raftery said the abrupt departure of these service teams would have lasting damage both on the NCCC members who were gaining education and launching careers as well as the organizations that depend on them and the neighborhoods where they served. It was a very unique mixture of incredible heartbreak and incredible rage, outrage, Raftery said of her reaction to the news. The two were battling themselves most of the day. Bud Maynard, mayor of Vinton, Iowa, which is home to a regional NCCC campus, said the program has been without a doubt, a blessing for Vinton and celebrated the opportunity to host hundreds of people over the years with an unmatched passion and selflessness to want to help others. “All of Vinton should never forget what a great program, filled with great people, this has been for not only Vinton but every community that benefited from their mission, Maynard said in a statement Wednesday. Hannah Fingerhut, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
A major Burger King franchisee with dozens of locations has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Consolidated Burger Holdings, based in Destin, Florida, filed the court documents this week in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Florida. The franchisee now operates 57 Burger King restaurants in Florida and Georgia, after it reportedly closed 18 locations before its Chapter 11 filing. “Over the past several years, and particularly as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Debtors business suffered significantly from loss of foot traffic, resulting in declining revenue without proportionate decreases in rental obligations, debt service, and other liabilities,” Consolidated Burger said in the filing. The documents also cited “significant hurdles resulting from industry headwinds,” resulting in financial turbulence for the franchisee. According to the documents, sales plummeted in the past two fiscal years. In 2023, the franchisee documented $76.6 million in sales and a net operating loss of $6.3 million. Last year, sales were down to $67 million with an amplified operating loss of $12.5 million. Consolidated Burger plans to continue operating during the bankruptcy proceedings and has been seeking a buyer. It listed assets at $78 million in the court documents.It’s unmistakably a tough time for restaurant franchisees, between rising food costs, as well as higher labor costs and slower foot trafficand that’s before restaurant owners begin to feel the impact of Trump’s tariffs. To get more customers in the door, fast food chains have been offering budget meal deals: Last year, Burger King launched a $5 meal deal promotion, similar to one McDonald’s was running.Still, on the whole, Burger King’s sales have been moving in the right direction. According to QSR, which monitors data on quick serve restaurants, the Burger King chain itself outperformed its peers in Q4 with a 1.5% increase in same-store sales compared to 1.2% increase among competitors.Last year, Burger King’s parent company, Restaurant Brands International (RBI), dumped more money into its ambitious restaurant remodeling plans for locations in the U.S. and Canada. RBI also bought Burger Kings largest U.S. franchisee, Carrols Restaurant Group, for $1 billion to expedite the process. RBI said it planned to spend about $2.2 billion on the remodels, and said that by 2028, 85% to 90% of its roughly 7,000 restaurants will be upgraded. At the time, Burger King U.S. President Tom Curtis told CNBC about the investment, saying, It was the first time in a long time that RBI had invested a significant amount of capital back into the business to coinvest with franchisees.” Curtis continued, I think the process was, Lets see how this works . . . and were seeing early results on remodels.
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E-Commerce
A consumer advocacy group filed a lawsuit this week to block insurers from charging California customers for $500 million in costs associated with the deadly Los Angeles fires. California’s insurance commission in February ordered insurers doing business in California to provide $1 billion to the FAIR Plan, the state’s insurer of last resort, to help it pay out claims related to the L.A. wildfires. The order allows insurers to recoup half the cost from its policyholders in the form of a onetime fee. The commissioner must approve the costs. The lawsuit, filed by Consumer Watchdog in Los Angeles, alleges Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara overstepped his authority and violated state laws for allowing for such cost shifting without going through the proper process. Such regulations have never been authorized in California and should have been vetted and approved by the Legislature or other oversight agencies before enforcement, Consumer Watchdog argued. The suit is asking the court to block Lara from approving the requests. There were at least three pending applications to implement a surcharge as of Tuesday, according to Consumer Watchdog. We look forward to defending the rights and pocketbooks of Californians and stopping this socialization of FAIR Plan losses at the publics expense, while the FAIR Plans profits will wholly remain with the insurance companies, Consumer Watchdog staff attorney Ryan Mellino said in a statement. The Department of Insurance said the lawsuit could make California’s insurance crisis worse. This hurts homeowners, small business and nonprofits who need access to insurance options, while doing nothing to address the insurance crisis, Gabriel Sanchez, a department spokesperson, said in a statement. “It also serves to undermine our efforts to restore competition to all areas of our state, so people can get off the FAIR Plan and back to the regular market. The FAIR Plan is the state’s last resort option for people who cant get private insurance because their properties are deemed too risky to insure. The plan, with high premiums and basic coverage, is designed as a temporary option until homeowners can find permanent coverage, but more Californians are relying on it than ever. There were more than 555,000 home policies on the FAIR Plan as of March, more than double the number in 2020. The plan estimated a loss of roughly $4 billion from the Eaton and Palisades Fires, which sparked January 7, destroyed nearly 17,000 structures and killed at least 30 people. The plan had already paid out more than $914 million as of February. The lawsuit will not affect the FAIR Plan’s ability to pay out claims, Consumer Watchdog said. The American Property Casualty Insurance Association, the largest national trade association representing home, auto and business insurers called the lawsuit a reckless and self-serving stunt. Insurers have paid ten of billions in claims and contributed more than $500 million to sustain the FAIR Plan after the L.A. fires, the group said. Blocking recovery of the additional costs insurers have paid to prop up the Fair Plan would jeopardize the last-resort coverage option for homeownersand push our fragile insurance market closer to total collapse,” Denni Ritter, the group’s representative, said in a statement. It is critical that the costs be spread equitably across a broader pool of insured customers to help restore Californias insurance market and protect access to coverage for all consumers. The regulation to allow insurers to shift some of the costs used to sustain the FAIR Plan is among the strategies unveiled by Lara last year. California is undergoing a yearlong effort to stabilize its insurance market after several major insurance companies either paused or restricted new business in the state in 2023, which pushed hundreds of thousands of homeowners onto the FAIR Plan. Wildfires are becoming more common and destructive in California due to climate change, and insurers say thats making it difficult to truly price the risk on properties. Of the top 20 most destructive wildfires in state history, 15 have occurred since 2015, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The state now gives insurers more latitude to raise premiums in exchange for issuing more policies in high-risk areas. That includes regulations allowing insurers to consider climate change when setting their prices and allowing them pass on the costs of reinsurance to California consumers. Trân Nguyn Associated Press
Category:
E-Commerce
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