Connect with us

NEWS ROUNDUP

Pickets shut EGT, federal furloughs, ‘job creators’…


LOCAL

 

Daily News photo - click to enlarge► In Saturday’s (Longview) Daily News — Picket line forces shutdown at EGT port terminal — EGT Development indefinitely shut down its $200 million grain terminal at the Port of Longview Friday morning after union dock workers set up a picket line and blocked employees and contractors from entering the site. The company also indefintely has suspended grain shipments to the export facility, and EGT and the dockworker’s union appear headed for a long stalemate.

► In today’s (Everett) Herald — Analysts will bear down on Boeing execs when results announced Wednesday — While first delivery of the 787 is on everyone’s mind, aerospace analysts are more interested in the number of 787s the company will deliver by the end of 2012.

► In Sunday’s Columbian — Clark County’s middle class feeling squeezed — Since Vancouver resident Tricia Brandemihl was laid off two years ago from her job as an escrow officer, she and her family have had to cut back on everything from entertainment to health insurance. Since her unemployment benefits expired, the family of four lives off of her husband’s job as a vehicle service adviser. Brandemihl sees her family as the quintessential image of the American middle class. Her family’s story of increasing financial struggle is one repeated across the county.

 


POLITICS & MONEY

 

► Today from AP — Law may provide Inslee $1 million boost — The PDC has informally approved letting Inslee ask supporters to roll their past donations forward to his current campaign — without any limits. Inslee could then ask those donors for additional money that would be subject to the campaign finance limits for the 2012 election cycle. Republican candidate Rob McKenna’s campaign characterized the money as simply “illegal.”

► In today’s Olympian — State election races cash in — Republican candidate Rob Mc­Kenna had raised $667,920 as of Friday, compared with $513,033 for Democratic candidate Jay Inslee. In the race for Attorney General, Republican Reagan Dunn raised $151,077 and Democratic King County Council member Bob Ferguson raised $204,528.

► In today’s Olympian — $1 million each for 3 initiatives comes from few sources — Bellevue developer Kemper Freeman has given $1.09 million of the $1.27 million for Tim Eyman’s I-1125. SEIU Healthcare 775 NW donated all of the $1.38 million for I-1163. Costco is the deep pockets behind this latest liquor-privatization plan, I-1183, which has collected $1.87 million and spent most of it.

► At SeattlePI.com — Paralyzing Washington: The Eyman jihad (Joel Connelly column) — I-1125 screws up needed transportation projects from the Inland Empire to the Columbia River to the crossings of Lake Washington.  It will affect not only Puget Sound commuters but cross-state commerce.

 


CAREENING TOWARD THE CLIFF

 

► In today’s Washington Post — Furloughs: Federal workers often first to feel crisis effects — The Federal Aviation Administration’s action Saturday to furlough without pay some 4,000 employees, around 1,000 in the Washington area, may be only the first of a series of furlough dominoes to fall.

► In today’s NY Times — Rival debt plans being assembled by party leaders — The House speaker, John A. Boehner, and the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid, were preparing separate backup plans to raise the nation’s debt ceiling on Sunday after they and the White House were unable to form a bipartisan plan that would end an increasingly grim standoff over the federal budget.

► At TPM — GOP stumbles over Dems’ surprise debt limit offer — Republicans have been tight-lipped so far about Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s surprise offer of $2.7 trillion in spending cuts — and no tax revenue — to raise the debt limit through 2012.

► In today’s NY Times — Messing with Medicare (Paul Krugman column) — The “Grand Bargain” is apparently dead, and I say good riddance. According to many reports, the president offered both means-testing of Medicare benefits and a rise in the age of Medicare eligibility. The first would be bad policy; the second would be terrible policy. And it would almost surely be terrible politics, too.

► In today’s Washington Post — Obama and the other deficit (E.J. Dionne column) — By letting the congressional Republicans set his agenda, he’s gotten away from the one issue most likely to determine his fate in 2012. He should remember that the day after this debt crisis is settled, the Republicans’ question will be: Where are the jobs?

► At SeattlePI.com — “Job creators…” — That seems to be the only two-word description authorized when Republicans make reference to the one percent of Americans who have benefited most from big tax cuts, who have not suffered much from the Great Recession and who control most of the nation’s wealth.

 


NATIONAL

 

► At Huffington Post — Free trade deals: Lobbying fever foreshadows winners, losers — The three major free trade agreements Congress will soon consider are being promoted as a big win for American workers. But take a good look at who’s lobbying for them most enthusiastically, and it becomes evident that the biggest winners will be giant multinational corporations — and the countries on the other end of the deals.

► Today from AP — NFL, players set on terms of deal — NFL owners and players agreed early Monday to the terms of a deal to end the lockout, and players were expected to begin their voting process later in the day, say two people familiar with the negotiations.

► From AP — UAW wants bigger cut of Detroit’s newfound profits — To help American carmakers stay in business, autoworkers grudgingly gave up pay raises and some benefits four years ago. Now that GM, Ford and Chrysler are making money again, workers want compensation for their sacrifice.

► In the Philadelphia Inquirer — Workers find new way to organize — In some ways, it is an old idea: Workers in the same field, whether they be doctors in the American Medical Association or Windows on the World dishwashers joining something called the Restaurant Opportunities Center, banding together to improve their working conditions. In other ways, it is a new twist on worker advocacy, related to the mission of labor unions, but in an age of declining union membership.

► At Daily Kos Labor — Why Daily Kos Labor? — We’re focusing on the ongoing class war from above and its many effects, from stagnating wages to high unemployment to state budgets balanced on the backs of working people to every well-publicized implication (or outright declaration) that the problem here is that regular people, working people and those out of work are just lazy or looking for a handout and that strengthening the social safety net rewards that laziness.

 


The Stand posts links to Washington state and national news of interest every weekday morning by 9 a.m. Make this electronic “clip service” your first stop each morning! These links are functional on the date of posting, but sometimes expire.


 

CHECK OUT THE UNION DIFFERENCE in Washington: higher wages, affordable health and dental care, job and retirement security.

FIND OUT HOW TO JOIN TOGETHER with your co-workers to negotiate for better wages, benefits, and a voice at work. Or go ahead and contact a union organizer today!