Friday, September 14, 2012

SEATTLE ARENA DEAL

► In the Seattle Times — If we build Sodo arena, city must protect industrial land (by MLKCLC’s David Freiboth) — Reaffirming Seattle’s commitment to the 2008 industrial zoning protections will go a long way toward protecting vital maritime and aerospace jobs. Broadly speaking, the city must continue to find ways to increase housing and commercial densities where such activities belong — in neighborhoods and business districts. Properly balanced, Seattle and other industrial communities can have it all: a thriving tech sector, ports and, yes, professional sports facilities.

► In today’s Seattle Times — Arena deal OK’d by council panel; final vote expected Sept. 24 — A Seattle City Council committee Thursday approved a revised agreement to go forward with planning for a new $490 million basketball and hockey arena in Seattle’s Sodo neighborhood.

BOEING

► In today’s Seattle Times — Boeing offers different raises to engineers and techs — Boeing is offering different base-salary increases to the two groups in its white-collar union, SPEEA/IFPTE 2001. Ray Goforth, SPEEA’s executive director, said the offer provides the lowest salary increases in 20 years and “appears to be salted with obvious and no-so-obvious takeaways.” He said the union is still analyzing the proposal. “We’re trying to figure out what it all means.”

► In today’s (Everett) Herald — Raises would be lowest in 20 years, SPEEA says — SPEEA negotiators were to meet Friday to discuss the aerospace company’s offer. SPEEA’s contract expires Oct. 6.

STATE ELECTIONS

► In today’s News Tribune — I-1185 voters: Don’t also expect more state services (editorial) — Welcome to Washington, where a big schizoid chunk of the electorate seems to want a generous state government — without spending another nickel on it… Initiative 1185’s two-thirds majority requirement is inherently undemocratic. It effectively gives opponents of a tax proposal twice the voting power as its supporters. The citizens behind the opposition get twice the political power as those who favor the tax.

EDITOR’S NOTE (whispering) — Now, Seattle Times staff reporter Susan Kelleher will attempt a very difficult vault over the “firewall” between the Times news and editorial departments — doing a full rhetorical Yurchenko Twist of context and reasoning — to try to provide political cover for the conservative newspaper’s gubernatorial candidate of choice.

► In today’s Seattle Times — Two true McKenna ad claims add up to false ad claim — A new ad accusing Republican gubernatorial candidate of lobbying to raise his pay while also trying to block an increase in the minimum wage misses the mark. It’s true that McKenna did support a raise for himself in 2007 (and) it’s also true that McKenna’s legal opinion on the minimum wage… would have blocked the minimum wage increase. But because the ad makes it seem as though both were occurring simultaneously, we find the claim mostly false.

EDITOR’S NOTE — Umm… huh? Two truths make a falsehood? We don’t think she stuck the landing.

► At PubliCola — Koster out-Romney’s Romney — Even as Mitt Romney’s fellow Republicans were backing away from his incendiary, inaccurate comments about the deadly attack in Libya, Republican Congressional candidate John Koster was doubling down, issuing a statement that not only accused President Obama of “apologizing” for the First Amendment but failed to express any regret for the death of US ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens and three other diplomats who were killed in the attack.

STATE GOVERNMENT

► From AP — Gregoire pledges more firefighting resources — Gov. Chris Gregoire visited a firefighting camp Thursday and pledged more state resources to help battle several large wildfires burning across Eastern Washington.

► In today’s (Longview) Daily News — Liquor prices showing no signs of coming down— Local and statewide liquor prices remain nearly 20 percent higher three months after Washington’s privatization measure took effect, and no one seems to know when — or if — they’ll come down.

ALSO at The Stand — Liquor privatization’s false promises already exposed

LOCAL

► In today’s News Tribune — Save-A-Lot store on Hilltop to shut down Oct. 12 — SuperValu last week announced it was closing 60 underperforming stores nationwide in a bid to improve its financial results. Eight of the stores were in the Puget Sound area. Five were in the South Sound. The chain will also close Albertsons supermarkets in Lacey, Bonney Lake, Auburn, Kent, Marysville and Kirkland.

► In today’s Columbian — Battle Ground school district saves taxpayers $5 million — Battle Ground Public Schools took advantage of historically low interest rates Thursday and refinanced more than $43 million in construction bonds.

NATIONAL

► In The Hill — GOP, Dems trade blame on spending, then pass six-month resolution — House Republicans and Democrats spent an hour blaming each other for Congress’s failure to complete its work on 2013 spending bills this year, then held their noses and passed a giant, six-month continuing resolution that will keep the government running until late March.

► From Reuters — No deal in Chicago as teacher strike drags on — Students marked a week off classes on Friday as hopes of an imminent end to a teachers’ strike proved optimistic and tedious negotiations over education reforms sought by Mayor Rahm Emanuel dragged on.

► In today’s Washington Post — Why Rahm Emanuel, NY Times are wrong about teacher evaluations (by Valerie Strauss) — The Times can say that using standardized test scores to evaluate teachers is a sensible policy and Obama can say it and Education Secretary Arne Duncan can say it and Emanuel can say it and so can Bill Gates (who has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to develop it) and governors and mayor from both parties, and heck, anybody can go ahead and shout it out as loud as they can. It doesn’t make it true. Can all these very smart people be wrong? Yes, according to many experts on assessment who have done extensive research on the subject.

► In today’s Olympian — Romney’s health plan can’t work (editorial) — Insurance companies are not going to voluntarily give insurance to people with pre-existing conditions, because it is a losing proposition. Nor will they provide insurance for family members “up to whatever age they might like,” as a favor to Mitt Romney. Without a mandate, young and healthy people — known as free-riders — won’t buy insurance until they need it, skewing the system, and draining the profits of insurance companies. It just won’t happen.

T.G.I.F.

► Today, to keep our egos in check after our ILCA honors, the entire staff of The Stand presents Jean Knight performing “Mr. Big Stuff” on Soul Train. This one is from the early don’t-look-at-the-camera-or-the-performer era of this classic show. Enjoy the dancing, and have a great weekend — brought to you by the Labor Movement.

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