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All’s quiet at EGT, Boeing cracks the whip, Santorum’s big night…


LOCAL

 

► In today’s (Longview) Daily News — No protest as grain ship docks at EGT terminal — Four ILWU workers were on the dock tying down the ship, while seven more were working inside the terminal. EGT is hiring from a pre-approved pool of workers dispatched from the ILWU hall, and the company expects to employ about 25 hourly ILWU employees at the terminal.

► In today’s Kitsap Sun — Shipyard accident victim was from Bremerton— William “Bull” Ben Shelby, a shipwright at Vigor Shipyards in Seattle, died in a fall Friday. “People are really affected by it,” said a Vigor spokesman. “He was a good guy. He was a friend. It looks like these are tough men and women who have a hard job in this industry, and they do, but they’re people, and when one of their coworkers suffers this fate, it hits everybody hard.”

► In today’s (Everett) Herald — Low demand, lack of timber blamed for closure of Arlington sawmill, loss of 40 jobs — Northwest Hardwoods is the second mill in the county in about a month to announce it is closing. The Seattle-Snohomish Mill in Snohomish is shutting down in March. That mill employed 50 people.

► In today’s Spokesman-Review — Spokane firefighters asked to bargain again — Spokane city officials and the firefighters union are expected to go back to the bargaining table after the City Council voted 4-3 to reject a new three-year labor contract on Monday.

► In today’s (Everett) Herald — Status quo is a loser for labor unions (Dick Davis column) — In the knowledge-based economy, the trade union model can seem as quaint as an old Philco radio. … In Olympia, union opposition to pension, compensation and education reforms frustrate fiscal progress and school improvements.

EDITOR’S NOTE — Don’t know Dick? He runs a right-wing think tank called the Washington Research Council. It is funded by Weyerhaeuser, Boeing, Safeco, PEMCO, Microsoft, et corporate al. His job is to spout the corporate line on cutting benefits for injured and laid-off workers, passing more special-interest tax breaks, and cutting teacher and state employee compensation. His observations and advice regarding unions are about as useful as asking Smithers what can be done to rein in Montgomery Burns.

 


BOEING

 

► In today’s Seattle Times —Local aerospace suppliers say they feel squeezed by Boeing — Analysts speaking at the Everett conference were unanimous that the biggest challenge for Boeing’s ramp-up plan is whether suppliers can keep pace. But some are voicing concern that Boeing is constantly pressuring them to lower prices even as they improve quality and increase production rates.

► In today’s (Everett) Herald — Boeing, Airbus make their case for their jetliners at conference — More than 300 people attending an aerospace conference in Everett heard the rationales behind long-term market forecasts by Boeing and Airbus as well as analysts’ commentary on the jetliner market.

► In today’s Seattle Times — Boeing’s outlook is robust but risky, analyst tells suppliers

► In today’s Seattle Times — Boeing: 787 delamination fix will take “days, not months”

 


STATE GOVERNMENT

 

► In today’s Olympian — SEIU’s battle over home care cuts is headed back to court— SEIU 775 filed its latest action last week, claiming the state illegally reduced home-care service hours available to clients with shared or live-in caregivers. DSHS denies it is cutting hours, saying it has “redistributed” them.

► At Publicola — Governor’s B&O tax proposal stumbles— There was no sign of mutual understanding at Tuesday’s Senate Ways and Means committee meeting, where big business and the governor’s office squared off against small businesses and cities for and against the proposal to consolidate B&O tax collections at the state level.

 


MARRIAGE EQUALITY

 

► In today’s Seattle Times — House Legislature poised to approve same-sex marriage — SB 6239 already passed the Senate last week on a 28-to-21 vote. Gov. Chris Gregoire requested the measure and is expected to sign it soon.

► ALSO at the Stand — WA State Labor Council endorses Marriage Equality Act

► In today’s LA Times — Divided court rejects California’s Prop. 8 — A federal appeals court has declared California’s 2008 voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional, concluding that the prohibition served no purpose other than to “lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians.”

► In today’s Seattle Times — California ruling may affect Washington— Marriage Equality opponents have vowed to mount a referendum campaign to put the measure before voters in November. But attorneys say the Prop. 8 ruling, if upheld, could have implications for any referendum in Washington, particularly because it’s within the 9th Circuit.

 


ELECTION

 

► At Huffington Post — A big night for Santorum— Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) sweeps Missouri, Minnesota and Colorado. He won Missouri and Minnesota by large margins, capturing 55% of the vote in Missouri to Romney’s 25%, and winning Minnesota — a state Romney won in the 2008 primary — with with 45% of the vote. Romney came in third there with only 17%.

► In today’s Washington Post — As Massachusetts governor, Romney had unremarkable record on jobs— Massachusetts was one of just four states that, by the time of the financial crisis, still had not recovered all the jobs they had lost during the 2001 recession. And, as Romney’s opponents have pointed out, the state ranked 47th in job creation during his term.

► At Politico — Poll: Republicans face enthusiasm gap— Democrats are currently more excited about voting this fall than Republicans are, a sign that doesn’t bode well for the GOP effort to reclaim the White House, according to a new poll.

 


REPUBLICAN WAR ON WORKERS

 

► In today’s Washington Post — House Republicans target federal workers — The federal workforce was targeted on two fronts Tuesday as House Republicans pushed to limit employees’ annuities and for greater privatization of airport security screening operations.

► At TPM — Kasich would lose Ohio do-over election by 20 — The drubbing Ohio Governor John Kasich (R) took over the repeal of SB 5, his signature legislative initiative that striped collective bargaining rights from public unions as a way to curtail state and local budgets, has effectively crushed his personal standing in the state.

 


NATIONAL

 

► In the Florida Independent — AFL-CIO urges Obama to postpone Columbia FTA after union-leader murders — The murder of  four Colombian union leaders in January prompted Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO, to urge President Obama to postpone indefinitely the implementation of the Colombia Free Trade Agreement, approved by the U.S Congress in October.

► In The Hill — Alliance of business, labor on infrastructure begins to fray — An alliance between business and labor on infrastructure spending is beginning to fray amid partisan fighting in Congress over what transportation legislation should include.

► In today’s NY Times — Romney’s returns revive scrutiny of offshore tax shelters — Mitt Romney’s tax returns have drawn political scrutiny on multiple fronts, like his relatively low tax rates and the money parked in a Swiss bank account. But on Capitol Hill, his returns have caught the eyes of members of both parties for what appears to be his use of a type of complex shelter that has been debated for years in battles over evasion and fairness in the tax code.

► In today’s NY Times — Talks stall on how to pay for extending payroll tax cut — Any hope for a fast and quiet resolution to the Congressional battle over a payroll tax cut seemed to dim Tuesday as members of a bipartisan negotiating committee clashed over how to pay for the extension.

 


The Stand posts links to Washington state and national news of interest every weekday morning by 9 a.m. These links are functional at the date of posting, but sometimes expire.

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