Tuesday, August 28, 2012

TAX THE RICH!

► At Huffington Post — Americans say rich are greedy, dishonest, don’t pay enough in taxes, Pew reports — As the income gap between rich and poor widens, a majority of Americans say the growing divide is bad for the country and believe that wealthy people are paying too little in taxes, according to a new poll released Monday by the Pew Research Center. The poll found that many Americans believe rich people to be intelligent and hardworking but also greedy and less honest than the average American. Nearly six in 10, or 58%, say the rich don’t pay enough in taxes, while 26% believe the rich pay their fair share and 8% say they pay too much.

BOEING

► In today’s (Everett) Herald — Surge is on for Boeing’s 787 in Everett — Boeing looks to boost 787 production with help from a temporary surge line that’s recently up and running in Everett. The surge line has been planned since 2009 when Boeing announced it would put a second 787 assembly line in North Charleston, S.C. Company executives said that Boeing would need a temporary surge line in Everett while the second line in South Carolina gets up to speed.

► In yesterday’s Seattle Times — U.S. Airbus plant a boon for state’s aerospace suppliers (by Nancy McLernon) — Now that Airbus is opening a U.S. plant, Washington’s economy will benefit from an uptick in demand for all the parts and equipment needed to build next-generation aircraft.

STATE ELECTION

► From AP — Campaign donations can end up buying booze and iPads, fixing cars — With their excess campaign cash, politicians in Washington state often return money to donors, forward it to their political party, or donate it to charity. Some, however, decide to use the funds for other things: alcohol, iPads or auto repairs.

NATIONAL

► In today’s Washington Post — Republicans steal Medicare from Democrats (by Eugene Robinson) — This is a parallel universe. We’re supposed to forget that Obamacare preserves Medicare as a guarantee — a promise that all Americans will have health care in their golden years — while the Romney-Ryan plan would subject seniors to the vagaries of the private insurance market and potentially cost them an extra $6,400 a year.

ALSO at The Stand — Get the facts in debate about Medicare

► In the LA Times — Charter school group’s chief blamed for cheating scandal — The Crescendo school’s environment was so poisoned by demands to excel on state proficiency tests that many submitted to a plan to boost the scores of schools that were already doing well. Ultimately, all of Crescendo’s schools in South Los Angeles, Gardena and Hawthorne were shut down, its teachers let go and 1,400 students forced to find new schools.

► In the LA Times — Charter schools’ cheating scandal teaches a disheartening lesson (by Sandy Banks) — Decisions surrounding L.A. Unified’s now closed Crescendo charter school chain indicate the adults were thinking more about themselves than about the students.

RNC

► At Huffington Post — Romney blasted at RNC by workers facing layoff under Bain — Workers for Sensata Technologies, a manufacturer of sensors for cars that’s owned by Bain Capital, recently learned that their plant in Freeport, Ill., will be closed within months. The jobs of its 170 workers will go to China. And that’s how Joanne Penniston, 34 — who described herself as being apolitical until now — found herself on the outskirts of the Republican National Convention, with three other Sensata employees from back home holding signs like “Mitt/Bain Is Shipping My Job To China.”

► At Politico — Unpopular House GOP to lie low in Tampa— It’s no big secret here: House Republicans aren’t exactly the belle of this ball. Despite reviving the party in 2010 with gigantic gains in the lower chamber, just five House GOP lawmakers will address the pared back convention — a reminder just how unpopular the House Republican majority is in this country.

► In The Onion — Things that shouldn’t be said in modern society to be said at least 1,400 times at RNC Convention — “It’s almost as if these people are unaware that the Enlightenment, the scientific revolution, various civil rights movements, and the entirety of social progress over the previous several centuries even occurred,” said Erik Olin Wright, president of the American Sociological Association. In stark contrast, scholars noted, several hundred things that desperately needed to be said in modern society would be uttered throughout next week’s Democratic National Convention by gutless speakers who would not possess anything remotely close to the strength or resolve needed to act on them.

TODAY’S MUST-READ

► At In These Times — At 35,000-member rally, AFL-CIO attempts the Herculean — Earlier this month, when thousands of union members gathered in Philadelphia for the AFL-CIO’s “Workers Stand for America” rally, labor leaders tried to pull off a difficult balancing act: firing up a weary, embattled labor movement while presenting an endorsement of Barack Obama as the lesser of two evils. Out of fear of the Republicans’ all-out war on unions, labor leaders found themselves in the awkward position of having to champion the reelection of Obama, whose actions toward organized labor have ranged from indifferent to hostile. Touting Obama at the August 11 rally posed additional difficulties because the event had been initially seen as a sort of “shadow convention” in protest of the Democratic National Convention being held in heavily anti-union North Carolina. At moments, the rally felt like a church revival, with people singing labor’s praises; at others, the sense of siege was oppressive.

The Stand posts links to Washington state and national news of interest every weekday morning by 9 a.m.