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come to you. >> 808 two one 4000. deadline day. more than. a million. >> federal workers have until. >> midnight tonight to decide whether to take a so-called buyout offer and resign. here's the problem. if they don't take. >> it, they. >> could be fired. >> anyway, as. >> the trump administration looks to shrink. the federal government. plus, right now, israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu is. meeting with top republicans on the hill after. >> he backs. >> president trump's. proposal to, quote. >> take over gaza. >> we're following. >> the. >> very latest. >> and what. >> caused the. >> wildfires last month in southern california. one utility now says it may be to blame for at least one fire, and possibly more. >> we're following. >> these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to cnn news central right now.

>> federal workers. >> are bracing for what. >> could be a. >> life altering decision. they have. >> just hours. >> left, midnight tonight, to decide whether to accept the trump administration's offer to resign from their jobs while still getting paid, allegedly for several months. we're told. >> at least 50,000. >> people, about 2.5% of the federal workforce has accepted the so-called buyout, but that's far short of the white house's target, which is aiming for 5 to 10%. so this is ramping up pressure, threatening widespread layoffs soon after the deadline. it comes as this hour workers unions are in court in boston seeking to halt tonight's deadline and challenging whether this offer is. even legal. cnn's alayna treene is live for us at the white house. elena, what are you hearing from the white house? as this deadline looms? >> well, one thing to keep in mind here, boris, is just how quick this decision really was for some of the 2 million federal workers who were offered

this deferred resignation program, as the white house is calling it. now, remember, it was just last week that they said, look, you can take this offer, go. and voluntary paid leave through september 30th, but you have until february 6th at 11:59 p.m., aka tonight to decide. now, one thing, of course, that i've been picking up on in conversations with different federal workers is they are anxious that this is actually what they what the white house says it is that they will actually be able to receive full pay and benefits through the end of september. you mentioned the unions, the unions are actually urging some federal workers not to take this offer, arguing one, they're questioning the legality of it, but also questioning whether or not the money will actually be there to continue paying them, especially when you keep in mind that the federal government is not funded beyond the end of march. we know that the president is meeting with house republicans to discuss that budget today. now, i do want to get back to some of the numbers here. now i am talking to a trump administration official. they told me the most recent and up

to date number of federal workers who have accepted this is 50,000. now they want to reach at least 100,000 federal workers. with this deferred resignation program. we still have to wait and see what that number ends up being. as we get closer to midnight. now, the other key thing to keep in mind here is that despite this, despite the number of people who are opting to take this offer, their job is not guaranteed. i'm told that soon after this deadline, more widespread layoffs are imminent. this is going to come whether or not people have opted into this. i want to read for you what one trump administration official told me regarding all of this. they said, quote, the government is restructuring. and unfortunately, many employers will later realize they missed a valuable once in a lifetime opportunity. now, the white house and the office of personnel management, which was behind this email that they sent to all of these 2 million workers, they are calling this a generous offer, one that, again, they believe that they didn't need to offer to these different employees. but at the same time, it's also coming as a warning, saying even if you don't accept

this, that doesn't necessarily mean your job is not threatened. and also, just to get back to quickly that 2 million number of federal workers, that is the number of people who received this offer. there are still a number of people, particularly at some of the more national security heavy agencies that are not able to opt into this program. so some of those are deemed, you know, critical jobs for the government. they are not being offered this program, but otherwise, the entire federal workforce has been given this opportunity. >> boris alayna treene, thank you so much. >> for those details, brianna. >> and here with us now is randi irwin, the president of the national federation of federal employees, which represents more than 100,000 government employees across many different government agencies and departments. randi, thank you so much for being with us. and i do want to note, you've called this resignation deal, this buyout a scam. you've warned federal workers against taking it. tell us why. >> what this administration is describing. >> as. >> the deal they're offering is

not the. >> deal they're offering. when you read what the. contract says. they're making it sound like federal workers are going to be. >> put on administrative leave and. >> paid until the end of september. >> there's no guarantee of that. they're probably. going to have to. >> continue working. >> so it's. >> not that. >> we're opposed to it. all of the union attorneys have looked. >> at it. >> there's a consensus among them. and who are you going to believe. >> you can believe this administration that. >> it has. >> is dead set. >> against federal employees and has said they just want to get rid of them? or are you going to listen to people who represent them? >> so opm sent out a follow up memo tuesday. it says effectively, if the trump administration backtracks on the buyout deal, which is something that i've heard from federal workers, something that concerns them, quote, an employee would be entitled to request a rescission of his or her resignation. but there's a sample buyout agreement that states that only an agency head has the discretion to rescind the agreement. it's not subject to review in any form, and an employee quote forever waives

and will not pursue through any judiciary, administrative or other process, or any other action related to the offer or other process. any action related to the offer. has opm made clear the apparent contradiction of that language and its memo? >> no. >> it. >> has. >> not made it clear. and you. >> know, they can try to backtrack and try to give. >> some assurances, but nothing. >> is going to change the fact that this., this whole. everything that. >> they're doing here. >> with this. resignations has. >> not been authorized by congress. and and it is just very clearly a bad deal for federal employees. >> what do you make of the fact that a lot of people are taking it? a lot of people are not. we need. >> to be. >> very clear, but some people are taking this agreement. 50,000, according to the trump administration. they're saying that's up from 40,000 last night. there's still a deadline of tonight. what does that mean to you? >> well, i'm disappointed that any percentage is taking it. so

what are they up to? 2.5% of the federal workforce. >> you know, they really. >> need to think it is very clear from this that they don't care about the services, the critical services that federal workers offer and deliver for federal employees. we were just talking about wildland firefighters. what if. half of those wildland firefighters that battled that blaze out in california that we represent? what if. they had walked off the job or not? taken an early resignation? they're gone. we don't have the people to put out those fires that that fire would have been made considerably worse. those are the stakes. if we don't have the workforce to deliver these services for the people. >> when you look, especially on social media, at the caricatures of federal employees, i a lot of people don't associate, say, some of those wildland firefighters with federal employees. they're surprised to learn what some of them do, and they're portrayed as kind of lazy freeloaders off the government. what do you make of that caricature? where that comes from, the work that may

have not been done to defeat that? >> yeah. look, it's done on purpose. it's done for not good reasons, but but federal workers provide people. i'll tell you what they are. okay. uh, only 13% are here in washington. 87% are spread throughout the country doing critical services, keeping our military ready, caring for our veterans, guaranteeing our homeland security, clean air, clean water, safe borders, all of those things. and they do it at great efficiency to the american people, the people who are giving a wrongful impression that they're bureaucrats in washington are lazy. they don't know what they're talking about, they're ill informed, or they're lying to people on purpose. >> who do you think i mean? which agencies do you think are going to be hurt the most by an exodus of federal employees? >> well, you're going to see the most dod because of the size of it. it's about one third of the federal government, 700,000 people. number two is department of veterans affairs. because of these initiatives by this administration, veterans are it

is just sad and criminal. what's going to happen to veterans in this country if this doge wanted to cut 75% of the federal workforce, if we lost 75% of the va workforce, we would no longer make good on the on the agreement that we make to care for people in our military when they get out. and, you know, it's just it's just really a sad situation. >> randy, we are still very much in the middle of this. we appreciate you coming in to speak with us. >> thank you so much for having me. >> thank you boris. >> so a court hearing is set for this. >> hour on that. deferred resignation offer. >> and that's not the only legal clash over this so-called trump buyout. lawyers for the administration are defending elon musk's influence over the department that sent this offer, with the subject line a fork in the road, and the case revolves around the use of a new email address used to send that message. meantime, there's all kinds of other legal fights. there are legal challenges being brought against the trump team, the latest one happening in federal court in seattle, this one involving president trump's executive order seeking to end

birthright citizenship. on top of that, earlier, a federal judge held a hearing on whether democratic led states can continue to receive congressionally appropriated funding from the federal government. that one is a huge deal. and then there's this other lawsuit brought forth by fbi agents during a hearing today. they asked the court to block the administration from collecting and then publicly releasing the names of agents who worked on investigations related to president trump and january 6th. there's a lot to get through here. fortunately, we have elliott williams, a cnn legal analyst, also a former federal prosecutor, to walk us through the details. so, elliott, first on musk and the office of personnel management. right now, there's a judge in massachusetts who is hearing arguments from federal unions who want to freeze tonight's deadline, essentially to defer resignation. they argue that trump doesn't have the authority to implement the plan. so who has the best case, right. >> you know, these workers do. >> have. >> a decent case for us. >> and here's the thing. >> there's a few. >> different arguments they have

for why the president might be out. >> of. >> order here. >> one is. >> just a basic hr. >> human resources question, which. >> is if you start. >> suspending people's employment. number one, what benefits do they have? when do they have to stop. can they seek other employment when they do? >> there's just. >> open questions there. >> and then. >> there's a much bigger constitutional question, which is, you know, when deferred resignation requires spending money, paying people in the future. that's money that congress. >> has appropriated yet. and so there's a. >> basic article, one of the constitution spending power question that is open here. and i think they may have a good argument. >> on it. let's dig deeper on musk, because doge is under scrutiny in court. we learned yesterday that a judge approved this deal that would allow some trump, some musk associates, these doge associates read only access to this treasury payment system. highly sensitive, it has a ton of private information. lawyers for the doj, though, say that they don't believe any private data has been breached. where do things go from here?

>> even if private data hasn't been breached, the. mere disclosure of it. is itself sensitive. boris, if you and i are friends or colleagues, i still don't have access to your social security number. even if i'm not going to do anything with it. i mean, i might, i might. >> might go buy a boat and give it to you. no, no. >> no. >> but but. >> even if i'm. >> trustworthy, the mere fact that i have it is itself a problem. so the mere fact that it's only two employees, that their access is limited and that privacy hasn't been breached still doesn't eliminate or obviate the basic legal question here. so just expect some back and forth and some more argument on that one. >> as well. i might let you see it if it is for a boat only on that condition. >> you. >> can come with me on it. >> we can go fishing. >> there we go. that's what i'm talking about. meantime, there is this challenge to the executive order to end birthright citizenship. a judge issued a preliminary injunction for those of us that don't have a legal degree. what does that mean? >> okay. >> so again, a lot of states are suing here over this question. you got a preliminary injunction. that just means the judge would pause it, pause the action until the whole thing can go to trial. why are you having

a preliminary injunction is when there is something that might happen. that's an emergency that can't be walked back. once you once you issue that order, people would be seen as what's called irreparably harmed. yeah. and then and the case would be moot. so what the judge does issue that preliminary injunction. what's wait till we get to a trial and pause it through the whole pendency of the proceedings, basically. >> onto yet another case. the funding freeze. right. this happened last week. omb rescinded its order to basically freeze all federal funding of important programs, which was money that was already allocated by congress. why are there hearings still being held on this case if omb rescinded that order? >> okay. and here's that million dollar word. it is. >> there we go. that's close enough. >> but rescinded. right. it's so okay. they've rescinded it. it's gone. it's not in place anymore. well, they said that the memorandum was rescinded. that's a very important word.

there, however, was the underlying action behind the memorandum rescinded. they are still reviewing the spending, just the order. so what does that mean in practice is so if you are a grantee around the country waiting on funding, waiting on a grant, does the fact that this memorandum is is no longer in order? are you good? are you going to get your money or not? and if you're relying on that money, it's some ambiguity. and so a lot of what's important in the law, boris, is just ensuring that people know what rights they have in the future, whether we like this funding or not. it's just good for litigants around the country to know. >> there's also a question about whether the executive branch can basically decide that what congress does, congress who holds the purse strings when it allocates money, is justified or not. so that's another can of worms, but we have another can of worms to get to cans of worms. this is the case brought by fbi agents, right? when the bureau handed over certain information regarding these 5000 plus agents that worked on trump cases or january 6th cases, there's an argument from some folks in this class action

lawsuit that their privacy was breached. talk to us about that. >> okay. the privacy breach. now, the information on them was anonymized. so what you just have are numbers and cases that they worked on and so on. but again, if there's anything that we take away from living in america in the last century, it's that privacy issues matter and people have a right to sue to protect their information. one number two, because these are fbi employees, there's a question that their employer is the government. right? and if the government is possibly punishing them based on what it believes, their political views to be, that's a first amendment question. that's a free speech question. so all of these things wrap into a very confusing set of legal issues. you have this privacy question is your data out? but also are you as an employee, being punished because of what the government thinks? you think all of that makes for a decent case here, that these employees have? >> these are like 4 or 5 huge cases that would be consuming our hours were they not all

happening at once. elliot williams, we appreciate the expertise in walking us through that. still plenty more news to come on cnn news central. the lives of u.s. aid workers upended as the administration works to dismantle the agency. and some are in dangerous hotspots around the world with no clear way to get home. plus, there are alerts that could be the difference between life and death. and now the national weather service's weather warnings could be on the line amid government cutbacks and setting the record straight. panama's president is batting down a state department claim about the nation's canal and how much the u.s. pays to actually use it. the details in just moments. >> all there is with anderson cooper. listen, wherever you get your podcasts. >> you'll love this. >> centrum silver is clinically proven to support memory in older adults, so you can keep saying. you mastered it. you fixed it, you nailed it. you did it. with centrum silver

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a simulcast event sunday at two eastern. >> as of tomorrow, midnight, all usaid direct hire personnel will be placed on administrative leave globally. that is a quote. that's the lead line on the agency's website right now. if you go to it as president trump and his billionaire ally elon musk move quickly to dismantle the u.s. agency that delivers humanitarian aid overseas, the shutdown has left thousands of workers scrambling to figure out what comes next, and many who are posted in dangerous hotspots around the world are actually afraid for their safety. cnn's alex marquardt is here with us now. and, alex, you've spoken with many usaid employees. what are they saying? >> they're in a tailspin, brianna. >> they don't know what. >> to. >> think or do. >> they have been shut out of the systems they. >> used to communicate. >> to keep. >> themselves safe. >> they have been. >> shut out of jobs they. >> love that they. >> feel are. >> really only helping people. >> and they really don't know what's going to. >> come next.

>> so my. >> colleagues and. >> i. >> have been speaking. >> to a. >> lot of usaid officials. not just here. >> in washington. >> and all around the world. >> and the reaction. >> is is. >> extremely dramatic. >> it's a lot of sadness. it's a lot of anger. >> i want. >> to read to our. >> viewers some of what they've told us. >> one usaid. >> diplomat said. >> we feel like psychological warfare is being waged against us. >> another diplomat said it's beyond surreal. >> it feels. like a cruel. >> joke that they've been. >> kicked out of. >> embassy systems that are designed. >> to. >> keep diplomats. >> and their families safe. >> and then there was a third usaid. >> official who. >> simply said, it's. >> a shameful. >> vile. >> unprecedented way to treat. public servants. now. >> we spoke to. >> all of these people. >> on. >> condition of anonymity. >> because they're afraid. >> andthey. >> don't want to be targeted. >> and several. people i spoke with said that th >> what elon. >>about. >> usaid. >> criminal organization. >in more danger in.

>> countraround. >> the world. >> i spok >> with a usaid. so many of the usaid. >> staff, thousands of them are contractors who. >> are. >> >> furloughed. >> he's in a dangerous place. and he said he doesn't know how he's going to get home. he security or evacuating him. he has to stay in a hotel. he said he doesn't know whether the whether his hotel bill is going to get paid. he's thinking about checking out and going to stay on a colleague's couch. there is so much confusion. these direct hires are around the world. they have families there. they have kids in school. they're being told to get home within 30 days. the contractors, again, all being furloughed or laid off, losing their jobs. so it's a really uncertain and scary time. there is that deadline tomorrow night at midnight, when all of the direct hires are going to be put on leave. with some exceptions. we'll find out today at 3 p.m. eastern time. so in about an hour and a half from now, who is considered essential and who will be kept on? but brianna, you can imagine that with this dismantling of usaid, it's not going to be many people. >> no, it is not. alex marquardt, great reporting. thank you so much for sharing it with us. boris. >> meantime, panama is denying

claims made by the state department that u.s. government ships can go through the panama canal for free. the agency there said that sets the tolls and fees, says it has made no adjustments. this comes just days after president trump again claimed the u.s. would take back the canal. cnn's patrick oppmann joins us now live with more. patrick, what is panama's president saying about this latest claim? >> you know, it seemed after president trump had. >> threatened to take. >> the. >> panamanian panama canal back by force, that the relations between panama and the u.s. were. getting back on firmer. ground after secretary of state marco rubio was in panama over the weekend, and he saw panama announce that they've effectively closed the darien gap., limiting. >> by over. >> 90% the amount of migrants coming from south america through panama to the united states in many cases. and as well announcing that they will no longer take part in the china's belt and road initiative. so a major win for the u.s. there. >> and then.

>> this social media posting last night from the state department saying that u.s. navy ships. u.s. military ships would no longer have to pay to go through the panama canal, >> and policy of the united states under the president of the united states face on a false hood that is intolerable. >> simply and plainly intolerable and today, panama expresses through you and to the world my absolute rejection of continuing to explore the path of managing the bilateral relationship on the basis of lies and falsehoods.

>> and the really remarkable thing about this board is that, according to the panama canal authority, which is an independent body, they set the the tolls, not not panama's government. the u.s. only pays, you know, sort of between 1 and $10 million any given year in the entire year to go through the panama canal for their ships to go through the panama canal. so we are not talking about a significant amount of money, certainly not enough when it comes to, you know, possibly blowing up an entire relationship, potentially, though, things could be mending. panama's president said today that he is scheduled to have a call with president trump tomorrow afternoon. a telephone call, perhaps they can work out some of these differences to be a fly on the wall, obviously, because as of right now, what the gains that were made just in the last few days have all been reversed. >> yeah, we look forward to the readouts of that call and potentially any discrepancies that there might be between the two versions of it. patrick oppmann, thank you so much. so we do expect to hear soon from israeli prime minister benjamin

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has effectively paused the trump administration's buyout offer, as well as that midnight deadline in which federal employees had to make a decision on whether they would resign. that was the offer that the trump administration had offered. again, this federal judge, pausing that completely. and now, in this hearing, the government will have to send out a mass email to federal employees to let them know that and let them know that that midnight deadline to make a decision on whether they will resign from their post is no longer in play, at least not for now. we know that another hearing will take place this upcoming monday at 2:00. the reason for this, this u.s. district judge george o'toole, he is a bill clinton appointee, said that he needed more information to determine whether this buyout offer that the trump administration is offering to federal employees should be blocked altogether. so while he

gets that additional information, he is putting a pause again on the program as well as that midnight deadline. and just to recap for viewers, the trump administration sent out this february 6th midnight deadline, telling federal workers that if they decided to resign, they would be paid through the end of september, and they would then be able to leave federal government and then also warn them if they decided not to take the buyout. they couldn't guarantee that they would be able to keep their jobs. back to you guys. >> and rene, some 10,000 federal workers overnight went ahead and accepted this alleged buyout offer, making the total something like 50,000. do we know what might happen to them, what their status would be given this pause that the judge put in? >> in full transparency? i would say right now, because this program is effectively paused

like nothing can happen at this point. um, again, as this judge weighs, you know, whether this program altogether just needs to be blocked. >> rene marsh, thank you so much. so we've been tracking a major development on capitol hill. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu is visiting lawmakers there, meeting with house and senate lawmakers in the wake of president trump's stunning proposal for the u.s. to take over the gaza strip. >> netanyahu has made clear he backs trump's proposal. he calls it remarkable. he says it would create a different future for everyone. his defense minister has already instructed the military to draft a plan that would allow a voluntary departure of residents of gaza. daniel shapiro was the american ambassador to israel under the obama administration. he was also deputy assistant defense secretary for the middle east under president biden. so ambassador israel is preparing for a voluntary departure. that

is what it's called here. a palestinians from gaza. trump says no american soldiers would be needed, no boots on the ground. what do you think of this? >> this is not a realistic proposal. >> the idea of the united states taking over gaza, those are the president's words. and building the middle east riviera is about as likely as mexico paying for the wall. and we know how that turned out. what i will give the president credit for two things. he may have created a path for prime minister netanyahu and his right wing coalition partners to go to phase two of the hostage agreement and get more hostages released. they were resisting that. and so there's a possibility that this gives them a pathway to do that. it's also possible there's a risk hamas will now pull out of the hostage deal because of not wanting to seem to endorse the trump plan. the other thing he's right about, of course, is that hamas should not be permitted to continue to rule gaza after the terrible attacks they conducted on october 7th, and the and the destruction that brought on their own people. hamas should be removed from power. but the right way to do that is to get buy in from arab states, from partners who will invest in reconstruction and security, and

from moderate and more reasonable palestinian leadership. this is not the way to achieve those goals. >> doesn't this kind of rhetoric, though, embolden people who support hamas and maybe add to its ranks? i mean, this is the kind of message that is like a boost to these jihadi groups, isn't it? >> indeed, i think there's a risk of targets being put on the backs of u.s. personnel. there are some private security contractors from the united states in gaza right now, but elsewhere in the region, i think there's a risk that we'd lose the momentum that we seem to be gaining toward a saudi normalization with israel. that's a major strategic opportunity for the united states to broaden that coalition of countries, of u.s. partners who are friends and and have normalized relations. but the saudi statements have made very clear they don't want to be associated with this removal of palestinians. if there is such a thing as a, as a, as a voluntary evacuation, everybody seems to acknowledge that trying to do it forcibly violates international law.

>> but this idea, too, that, you know, you would just let people voluntarily go and then you would clear everything out, seems to ignore the reality that hamas is still there and is still a threat. and what do you make about that? as we look towards a phase where gaza does need to rebuild in some way. >> hamas is still there and is still a threat. israel will almost certainly have to continue to conduct counterterrorism operations against them. they're going to need the help and support of arab partners to provide security and to prevent hamas from escaping in a way that they can then attack from the outside. but so this needs to be done in a coordinated and cooperative, cooperative way with regional partners. what i think we can all say is that this was really not a well planned or or researched or consulted about proposal. this is something the president thought of. there's good reporting on this in the new york times and elsewhere, thought of literally in the meeting with prime minister netanyahu hadn't kind of surprised his own staff and advisers with it. it's not the product of any sort of staff work or research, so everybody's trying to put their

own spin on it. and but all our analysis is sort of speculative and worth the paper it's printed on, because the president just put this out there. that's that creates a lot of chaos in the system. maybe he's trying to be disruptive and get others to put forward their own ideas. fair enough. but we do have to judge the words of the president of united states on their own merits. and what he has put forward is a completely unrealistic proposal that puts u.s. dollars and troops at risk at high levels. that probably alienates our partners, and that is not likely to be supported by palestinians, except to the point that it may provide more fuel to hamas to to put themselves forward as the resisters against this. >> it's also a rejection of the two state solution. and i wonder what you make of his claim that for decades now, u.s. policy toward resolving this conflict in the middle east has been ineffective and hasn't really led anywhere. is that the case? >> he's right that, of course, those efforts have all been unsuccessful and they've been made much harder by these terrible terrorist attacks of october 7th. and most israelis

are not prepared at this point to have that conversation. and you need to see different palestinian leadership, more responsible palestinian leadership. one of the things that was really lacking, though, throughout the first 15 months, was a strategy to help empower that better alternative palestinian leadership and bring them in and let them be the vanguard that pushes hamas out. if this is an internal palestinian struggle where more reasonable palestinians who want to live in peace with israel can defeat those who are responsible for these terrorist attacks, that is the way to get arab buy in. that is the way to get international support. that's the way to build a future that both israelis and palestinians can live with. >> it is hard to do that when gaza is under attack, though, right? >> it's hard to do that while the war goes on. so the first step is to continue this hostage deal, get as many hostages out as possible, then move to a phase where you can do some kind of reconstruction, but also continue to conduct the counterterrorism operations necessary to make sure hamas does not rebound and resurge. >> ambassador daniel shapiro, very much appreciate you sharing your perspective. thanks for

joining us. my pleasure. still ahead, new details about what may have sparked one of the fires that tore through the l.a. area last month. what a utility company is now saying about its potential responsibility. >> it's the news. >> welcome back. >> but it's also kind of not the news. >> we don't fact check here. we don't care, man wants all the information on this show. so terrible. >> have i got news for you returns february 15th on cnn. >> many remedies you take for chest congestion only mask the symptoms. >> hey, how you doing? >> this mucus won't move out. >> you're gonna love this property. the guys. congestion remedy. harmless. >> try this. mucinex 12 hour treats. the mucus that causes chest congestion for all day relief. >> don't leave. fine. i was worried about this side of town. >> mucinex in mucus. out. don't match the symptoms. treat the cause.

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granger. com or just stop by granger for the ones who get it done. >> i'm doctor sanjay gupta. >> in atlanta, and this is cnn. >> a major development concerning the california wildfires investigation. the main power company in the region says its equipment likely sparked a fire that ultimately triggered the hurst fire in los angeles. that fire in the san fernando valley did not result in structural damage or deaths. cnn's nick watt is in l.a. following this. nick, tell us what you're learning. >> yeah. >> so this is a pretty big

admission by the power company. this hurst fire, as you mentioned, only 799 acres did not destroy any structures, did not kill any people. but the power company says that after the fire department investigated and pointed the finger at the power company, they say absent additional evidence. sce that's southern california. edison believes its equipment may be associated with the ignition of the hurst fire. now, the eaton fire, that was one of those two huge conflagrations. the eaton fire destroyed 6000 homes and killed 17 people. and, of course, southern california edison is also under suspicion for starting that, largely due to some videos that were taken one from a gas station, others by local residents that appear to show sparks from power lines. now pedro pizarro, who is the ceo of the parent company, he had this to say about the eaton fire. take a listen. >> the cause of the fire remains

unknown. like you, we have seen information like videos shared by external parties of the fire's early stages. these are concerning and they may suggest a possible link to sce equipment. >> so possible link right now. they. the company went on to say that they have not identified typical or obvious evidence that would confirm the association. now, the palisades fire, which was the other huge fire out here that's also still under investigation. that could have been fireworks from a previous fire that was left smoldering. but of course, the power company always will be under suspicion. now, how does this play out? well, do you remember the 2017 thomas fire up near santa barbara? well, southern california edison didn't admit any wrongdoing, even though investigators say that they did start it. they had to pay out over $2 billion. and the state of california has just agreed that sce can actually pass 1.6

billion of that on to customers. so everybody will just pay a little surcharge. but listen, the investigations into all these fires are ongoing. they will take a few months. the eaton fire, they're talking about having to take down the transmission lines. there are already lawsuits, by the way, brianna keilar filed against southern california edison for starting that eaton fire, although that conclusion has not yet been reached by anybody. back to you. >> nick watt, thank you. and weather alerts. they save lives by keeping millions of americans aware of threats. but could those alerts be a casualty of the trump administration's push to transform the federal government? we'll have that next news night. >> with abby phillip tonight at 10:00 eastern on cnn thank you for rory. >> never thought she would live out her dream. then one day, she did. you were made to chase your passions. we were made to put

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your dvr now. >> closed captioning brought to you by book.com. >> if you or. >> a loved one have mesothelioma, we'll send you a free book to answer questions you may have. call now and we'll come to you. >> 808 two one 4000. >> elon musk and doge now have their sights set on one of america's most important agencies when it comes to saving lives here at home. we're talking about the national weather service, which helps predict and warn americans ahead of life threatening storms. employees at nws and noaa, which oversees that agency, were among thousands of federal employees who received buyout offers in return for their resignation this week. a source telling cnn that many people there are scared and fear that this move could literally put lives at risk. cnn meteorologist derek van dam joins us now with more on what that could mean. first, eric, explain how the national weather service works and why these moves are alarming. yeah.

boris. all right. so what. >> you're looking at right now are the current weather related alerts. over 30 different alerts currently in progress. these are issued by human meteorologists from localized weather. national weather service offices scattered across the country. this is keeping these meteorologists extremely busy, especially on a day like today. so if you start cutting staff members from an already strained workforce, they're talking about some of the worst numbers in terms of employment in decades. we have the potential here to start missing out on critical, time sensitive, life saving, property saving information that these meteorologists are directly responsible to communicate to you at home. so this is incredibly important. if we start shutting down these numbers, it will have ramifications. and that snowball effect down the line to you at home as well. now, not only do these meteorologists create and analyze the weather and the atmosphere, but they are also responsible for the hardware

behind it. the radars we look at for nowcasting operations. that's forecasting 15 minutes in the future where a tornado could go. for instance, who do you think is collaborating with your local school districts when they cancel school because of bad weather? it is. the local meteorologists at the national weather service offices that provide this time sensitive information, from storm surge to hurricanes to tornadoes. that can happen in a matter of minutes. so if we cut that down, we have some serious problems. remember the national weather service out of los angeles? some of the first individuals to warn the public that the santa ana winds will be strong and the fire threat would be high, well in advance of the los angeles fires a couple of weeks ago. so we've got this upcoming tornado season in the spring and the hurricane season in the summer and fall that we're concerned about this flash flood emergency prime example. this is from this morning and that was issued by a local human meteorologist, boris derek van dam. >> thanks so much for breaking that down for us. still ahead, another round of epa workers might soon be paid. might soon be on paid leave if the agency

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