<story><title>Down hundreds of staff, Weather Service ‘teetering on the brink of failure’</title><url>https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2017/10/26/down-hundreds-of-staff-weather-service-teetering-on-the-brink-of-failure-labor-union-says/?utm_term=.28628bdad950</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>iamthirsty</author><text>&amp;gt; The National Weather Service Employees Organization, its labor union, said the lack of staff is taking a toll on forecasting operations and that the agency is “for the first time in its history teetering on the brink of failure.” Managers are being forced to scale back certain operations, and staff are stressed and overworked.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; “It’s gotten so bad that we’re not going to be able to provide service that two years ago we were able to provide to public, emergency managers and media,” said Dan Sobien, the president of the union. “We’ve never been in that position before.”&lt;p&gt;It makes me deeply discouraged that something so vital to life in general is almost impossible to keep staffed (mostly because of a lack of funds), yet the military&amp;#x27;s budget increased by $54 Billion this year — to a total of $639 Billion for FY2018.&lt;p&gt;[1]: &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Military_budget_of_the_United_States#Budget_request_for_FY2018&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Military_budget_of_the_United_...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Down hundreds of staff, Weather Service ‘teetering on the brink of failure’</title><url>https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/capital-weather-gang/wp/2017/10/26/down-hundreds-of-staff-weather-service-teetering-on-the-brink-of-failure-labor-union-says/?utm_term=.28628bdad950</url></story><parent_chain></parent_chain><comment><author>timmaah</author><text>Why is the headline here missing &amp;quot;labor union says&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;The actual Weather Service seems to think they are doing just fine.&lt;p&gt;“Let me state emphatically that we would never take an action that would jeopardize the services we provide to emergency managers and the public,” she said. “NWS is taking definitive steps to ensure the health and well-being of our employees through guidance to local managers on scheduling and flexibility.”</text></comment>