DAILY NEWS
Orders, Obama and lemmings at Boeing; bucks for Bangor, Rowe on trades…
BOEING
► At IAM 751’s blog — Boeing, Machinists move forward together in Renton — Boeing is “spending money on detailed floor plans and placing orders for new tooling and machines,” said Tom Wroblewski, the president of Machinists Union District Lodge 751. This shows that Boeing is moving forward with its commitment to build the latest version of the 737 in Puget Sound, he said, and “I don’t need to tell you how significant that will be in terms of Machinists Union jobs.”
► In today’s (Everett) Herald — Boeing locks in biggest order ever — The company says it has finalized an order from Indonesian carrier Lion Air for 230 planes — worth a combined $22.4 billion. Lion Air also has the rights to buy 150 more. The deal is the largest commercial airplane order ever for Boeing by both dollar value and number of airplanes. The order includes 201 of Boeing’s redesigned 737, which it calls the Max, and 29 extended range 737-900s.
► In today’s (Everett) Herald — Obama to talk jobs at Boeing — The president will fly into Paine Field on Friday and tour Boeing’s widebody jet factory in Everett. The White House said he will discuss the importance of American manufacturing and exports to the country’s economy. Sen. Patty Murray said the visit will be an opportunity for Obama to meet with the area’s highly skilled aerospace workers.
“We, lemming-like, over the last 15 years extended our supply chains a little too far globally in the name of low cost,” said Boeing CEO Jim McNerney. “We lost control in some cases over quality and service when we did that, we underestimated in some cases the value of our workers back here.”
SEATTLE PORT TRUCKERS
ALSO in The Stand — Hundreds rally to support Seattle port short-haul truckers
► In today’s Seattle Times — Stalemate as Port labor fight continues — In Olympia, the House passed HB 2395, which would grant short-haul truck drivers more of the rights of employees under state law. Currently, they are treated as independent contractors. Still, a meeting involving port officials last week produced no resolution.
STATE GOVERNMENT
► In today’s Seattle Times — Gregoire signs same-sex marriage into law — With Gov. Gregoire’s signature, Washington joins six other states and the District of Columbia in allowing same-sex couples to marry. Within hours of the bill signing, same-sex-marriage opponents filed Referendum 73 with the aim of repealing it. If they collect enough signatures by June 6, the law would be put on hold until the November elections.
► At TheOlympian.com — State tax receipts run $44 million above November forecast — Last week’s caseloads report brought more than $200 million in good news for state budget writers. Today’s monthly revenue collections report brought another $54 million not counted on before. Neither report fills the $1 billion to $1.5 billion shortfall lawmakers need to close, but passes for good news in a time of financial strain.
► In today’s (Everett) Herald — Corrections officers push lawmakers for better uniforms — Corrections officers across the state have taken their case for better threads to Olympia. They want the Legislature to sack their garment makers — the inmates the officers are charged with keeping in line.
► In today’s (Longview) Daily News — Senate approves Hatfield-sponsored pulp mill biomass bill— A bill that would classify decades-old incinerators and boilers at pulp mills as renewable energy cleared the state Senate on Saturday. It has the potential to save local pulp producers millions of dollars.
LOCAL
ALSO at The Stand — PLA for U.S. Navy’s Bangor project is a first
► In today’s Daily News — Longview council OKs contract for EBA union — The city’s largest employee union has negotiated a contract that includes pay raises in each of the next three years.
► In today’s (Everett) Herald — Snohomish County may open trash hauling to bidders — County leaders are gearing up to revisit a $20-million-per-year contract that sends garbage by rail to Eastern Washington and might soon open it up to competition.
► In today’s News Tribune — Santorum makes best of protests during Tacoma visit— Maybe it wasn’t the best site to host a rally for a Republican presidential candidate, right next to the Occupy Tacoma encampment. He tells protesters: “Instead of standing here unemployed yelling at somebody, to go out and get a job and work for a living.”
NATIONAL
► At AFL-CIO Now — UI deadline approaching, jobless tell lawmakers ‘walk a mile in my shoes’ — If Congress doesn’t act and renew unemployment insurance benefits for the nation’s jobless workers by Feb. 29, millions of workers like Kenny Wilkes will be left without a vital lifeline to keep their families head above water.
ALSO at The Stand — Unemployment benefits on the chopping block; call Congress now!
► In today’s LA Times — House Republican leaders agree to extend payroll tax cut — Surrendering to political reality, House Republican leaders did an about-face and said they were willing to extend a payroll tax cut for 160 million working Americans without insisting that it be paid for with spending cuts.
► In today’s NY Times — Critics question choice of labor monitor selected by Apple — The company’s announcement on Monday that an outside monitoring group, the Fair Labor Association, has begun inspecting its suppliers’ factories in China rekindled a debate over how effective the group has been in eliminating labor abuses.
► In today’s NY Times — Montana and the Supreme Court(editorial) — Justice Anthony Kennedy should deny a request to summarily overturn or to stay Montana’s anticorruption ruling that bans corporate donations to campaigns.
OBAMA’S BUDGET
► In today’s Tri-City Herald — Obama budget reduces money for vit plant — The Obama administration is requesting a largely flat budget of $2.2 billion for the Hanford nuclear reservation in fiscal 2013. However, money for the vitrification plant would be reduced from current spending, another signal that a deadline of starting up the plant by 2019 to treat radioactive waste for disposal may not be met.
► In today’s NY Times — A responsible budget (editorial) — If Congress were not dysfunctional — if it cared more about economic stabilization than scoring political points — it would sign on to a budget like this. As it is, the proposal will go nowhere, largely because of the Republican refusal to raise taxes on the wealthy and to spend money on vital programs. Senate Democrats, who don’t want to make hard political choices, also share the blame.
► In today’s NY Times — Money urged for colleges to perform job training — As part of his budget, President Obama on Monday proposed an $8 billion Community College to Career Fund, with the goal of training two million workers for well-paying jobs in high-demand industries.
TODAY’S MUST-SEE
► WATCH THIS! — Mike Rowe of “Dirty Jobs” testifies before U.S. Senate about skilled trades
TODAY’S MUST-READ
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.