NEWS ROUNDUP

May Day, capital budget redux, Tagg you’re Mitt…

MAY DAY

► From AP — World’s workers express anger, gloom on May Day — Taking the baton from Asia, where unions demanded wage increases as they transformed the day from one celebrating workers rights to one of international protest, workers turned out in droves in Greece, France and Spain – the latest focus of a debt nightmare that has already forced three eurozone countries to seek financial bailouts. In the United States, demonstrations, strikes and acts of civil disobedience were planned, including what could be the country’s most high-profile Occupy rallies since the anti-Wall Street encampments came down in the fall.

EDITOR’S NOTE — Meanwhile, today’s rally/march in Seattle inspires the Times not only to express gloom about the disruption of traffic, but to warn of possible “mayhem.” For details on today’s May Day activities in Yakima, Seattle and Olympia (where the mayhem will include a Maypole and puppets!), visit The Stand’s Calendar.

► In today’s Yakima H-R — Yakima May Day marchers to target Secure Communities — Following the theme of “Liberty for All,” the annual May Day march for immigrant and labor rights will hit the streets of downtown Yakima today beginning at Miller Park.

BOEING

► In today’s Seattle Times — Senator looks into Boeing’s use of visas for Russian engineers — U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley sent a letter Monday to the departments of State and Homeland Security, raising questions about Boeing’s use of B-1 visas to bring Russian contract engineers into the country.

► In the Wall St. Journal — Air Lease nears deal to buy Boeing 737 Max jets — Air Lease Corp. is near a deal to buy 60 of the 737 Max jetliners, sources say. The contract would mark a substantial boost for the aircraft, orders for which lag behind those for the rival Airbus A320neo.

► From AP — China Eastern Airlines buying 20 777s

► In today’s (Everett) Herald — Leasing firm orders eight 787-9 jets

LOCAL

► In today’s News Tribune — Health care union plans to picket today — The union representing more than 700 health care workers at three local hospitals will be holding an informational picket line Tuesday. Beginning at 3 p.m., workers represented by SEIU Healthcare 1199NW will picket at St. Clare Hospital in Lakewood, St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma and Good Samaritan Hospital in Puyallup.

ALSO at The Stand — Healthcare workers to picket for healthcare — And don’t forget the Community Rally tonight at 6 p.m. to support these workers.

► At SeattlePI.com — ‘Silent raid’ costs Duvall farm — Immigration officials found that three-fifths of HerbCo’s employees couldn’t show they had permission to work in the United States. Within days they were fired. Then two dozen were hired back. For that, the Duvall company is expected to be fined $1 million.

► In today’s Seattle Times — Timber still cuts big footprint in state economy (by Jon Talton) — Long before “Bill Luck” (Boeing and Gates), the Seattle and the Northwest economies were heavily dependent on timber and wood products. A new survey based on 2010 data from the Washington State Department of Natural Resources shows the sector still has some heft.

STATE GOVERNMENT

► In today’s News Tribune — Capital budget plan will create jobs, address state’s budget problems (By Sens. Derek Kilmer and Linda Evans Parlette) — Last week the governor signed a state capital budget that has been described as a jobs package, one that will put 18,000 folks to work. It is also important to note that the bipartisan group of legislators that crafted this capital budget focused on two important goals: state investments that drive long-term economic development, and a strategy to address our state’s debt.

ELECTION

► In today’s NY Times — Ties to Romney ’08 helped fuel private equity firm — Neither Mitt Romney’s eldest son, Tagg, nor his top campaign fundraiser had experience in private equity. But what they did have was the Romney name and a Rolodex of deep-pocketed potential investors who had backed Romney’s 2008 presidential run — more than enough to start them down that familiar path from politics to profit.

► From ABC News — Obama courts union workers — President Obama rallied union workers Monday, admitting in a campaign-style speech that he hasn’t always been a “perfect president” but saying he has always kept his promise to work on their behalf. In fiery remarks to the AFL-CIO’s Building and Construction Trades Department the president said he has been pushing for new infrastructure projects but that Republicans in Congress keep rejecting them.

NATIONAL

► At AFL-CIO Now — 1,800 University of Oregon professors win union voice — More than 1,800 University of Oregon (UO) faculty members now have a voice at work after they chose to join United Academics, an affiliate of AFT Oregon and the American Association of University Professors. The Oregon Employment Relations Board Friday certified the professors’ choice after the university dropped its objections.

► At TPM — How ‘Obamacare” is saving seniors billions on meds — In the first two years after “Obamacare” was signed, Medicare reforms in the law saved seniors a total of $3.4 billion in prescription drug costs by bridging a coverage gap, according to official figures. Over 220,000 beneficiaries have saved an average of $837 in the first three months of 2012, the Medicare agency said Monday.

► In The Hill — Senators urge no more postal closings — With the moratorium on closing facilities set to lapse in two weeks, the four original sponsors of Senate postal legislation are urging the Postal Service to extend the moratorium until Congress finishes its work on the issue.

► In The Hill — House Republicans: No offsets for extending Bush-era tax cuts — House Republicans say they have no plans to pay for the extension of the Bush-era tax rates, a move that could erase the deficit reduction they have achieved since winning their majority in the chamber in 2010. The income and investment tax cuts enacted in 2001 and 2003 are set to expire at the end of the year and are at the center of a thicket of fiscal decisions that Congress must make in the next several months.

► In today’s Washington Post — The GOP witch hunt for the zombie voter (Eugene Robinson column) — Republicans are waging the most concerted campaign to prevent or discourage citizens from exercising their legitimate voting rights since the Jim Crow days of poll taxes and literacy tests.

TODAY’S MUST-READ

► In Rolling Stone — Straight talk on Social Security (by Jared Bernstein) — Here’s what Social Security is NOT:

(1) going broke; (2) a Ponzi scheme; (3) expected to stop paying out benefits in your lifetime; and (4) bankrupting our nation or future generations.

Here’s what Social Security IS:

(1) a critical source of income support for millions of retirees; (2) an elegant and binding intergenerational contract between yesterday’s and today’s workforces; (3) a progressive social insurance program that efficiently provides a reliable, affordable, guaranteed pension to those past their working years; and (4) a national treasure to be fiscally strengthened and carefully preserved for both today’s elderly and for future generations.

Some of these facts may surprise you, but I can and will easily defend each one.

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.