NEWS ROUNDUP
Weekday USPS, sub-minimum wages, GOP rebranding…
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
POSTAL SERVICE
ALSO TODAY at The Stand — NALC president: Plan to end Saturday mail ‘misguided, counterproductive’
► In today’s Washington Post — By one measure, we have best Postal Service in the world — Researchers sent letters to 10 fake addresses in 159 countries to test government efficiency by seeing how long it took to return the letters to the senders. Only 60% of the letters actually came back to the researchers. Among the countries that returned all 10 letters, the USPS was far and away the fastest to do so.
► In today’s Tri-City Herald — Postal Service seeks new home to close its Richland spot — The agency wants to relocate the post office to save money at a time when mail volume is falling nationwide, along with revenues.
STATE GOVERNMENT
► From AP — Family leave debate continues in Olympia — A day after a state Senate committee approved a measure to repeal an as-yet unfunded law giving parents five weeks of paid time off to be with a new child, a House committee on Tuesday heard arguments on why that same program should be expanded.
ALSO TODAY at The Stand — Bills would grant paid family leave, sick days
EDITOR’S NOTE — After all, that’s what this last election was all about, CUTTING the wages of people who earn the lowest pay allowed by law. That’s why voters put the Republican-Plus-Two Caucus in the majority!
► At TheNewsTribune.com — Health secretary Mary Selecky to retire — Mary Selecky, one of the longest-serving Cabinet officials who was first appointed by then-Gov. Gary Locke in 1998, has announced plans to retire once Gov. Jay Inslee appoints a new secretary.
WORKERS’ COMPENSATION
► At PubliCola — One question for L&I — Is the workers’ compensation fund — which pays for time lost due to injuries on the job, medical bills, and ongoing disability — solvent? The answer we got from L&I was that the fund was definitely in trouble during the Great Recession… However, as the economy rebounds, the fund doesn’t look so bad anymore. The contingency fund went up by $80 million this year and premiums stayed flat — no increases.
EDITOR’S NOTE — But what about when the money runs out and that “choice” forces an injured worker to rely on the social safety net to survive? Other states are adding new restrictions to discourage these settlements because these costs have simply shifted from businesses to taxpayers.
And of course, this is the conservative, anti-labor Times editorial board opining. They supported the workers’ compensation privatization initiative that was rejected by voters in every county in the state, and overwhelmingly rejected in the Times’ circulation area. But hey, the Times has been ideologically opposed to this safety net for injured workers for more than 100 years. Let’s go back in the Times’ Bombastic Way-Back machine…
► In the March 12, 1911, Seattle Daily Times — A legislative body that will go down in history as the most vicious in the annals of Washington (editorial) — “For absolute disregard of duty — of the best interests of the public — and for the creation of burdensome laws and the squandering of the public moneys — the Twelfth Legislature of Washington surpasses all the efforts made along these lines by the preceding eleven legislative bodies which have met since Washington became a state . . . (The new workers’ compensation law) places a burden upon the industries of this Commonwealth that will break many of them — entirely destroy the profits of others and will prevent new capital entering the state at all.”
BOEING
► From AP — NTSB ‘weeks away’ from finding cause of 787 woes — The nation’s top accident investigator says lithium ion batteries like the ones that caused a fire in one 787 and smoke in another aren’t necessarily unsafe for use in aviation, but safeguards are needed.
► In today’s Seattle Times — Boeing South Carolina gets extra bump in pay — Employees at Boeing’s new manufacturing complex in South Carolina, which is non-union, will get a higher annual incentive bonus this month than those in the Puget Sound region.
EDITOR’S NOTE — Curious, given that Puget Sound-area Boeing employees are the only ones that build profitable airplanes.
► At LeehamNews.com — 787 to cost Boeing $6 billion in cash, says UBS — “Even assuming a relatively quick solution to battery issue, we still see 787 as a worse cash drag in 2013,” writes UBS Securities.
► In today’s (Everett) Herald — Worksource aerospace career fair set for Feb. 20 — The event will be followed by a discussion by aerospace employers, who will give insight into what it takes to get hired in the industry.
IMMIGRATION
► From NPR — How the labor movement did a 180 on immigration — The AFL-CIO begins a big push this week to build momentum for comprehensive changes to the nation’s immigration laws. But it wasn’t long ago that organized labor viewed illegal workers in the U.S. as a threat — and fought against proposals that would lead to citizenship.
► In today’s Washington Post — Obama makes immigration comeback — Americans have given President Obama a major ratings boost on immigration as he and Congress debate the biggest immigration reforms in decades, according to a new poll. In addition, two key elements of current reform discussions receive even broader support than Obama: 83% support stricter border security, and 55% back a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants.
NATIONAL
► In today’s NY Times — Obama urges Congress to act to stave off cuts — President Obama on Tuesday called on Congress to quickly pass a new package of limited spending cuts and tax increases to head off substantial across-the-board reductions to domestic and military spending set to begin on March 1, but his appeal for more revenue was dismissed by Republicans.
► At AFL-CIO Now — Sen. Levin calls for end to corporate, hedge fund tax loopholes — The AFL-CIO is urging Congress to close loopholes for Wall Street and the richest 2% of Americans and to oppose benefit cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid instead of allowing the automatic cuts to take effect. Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) is set to offer a plan that would be an important part of that package and start Wall Street down the path of paying its fair share.
► In today’s NY Times — Health insurance companies get in shape for 2014 — Insurers will have to offer a policy to anyone who wants one, regardless of their health, and will not be allowed to charge more in premiums to people with expensive medical conditions. The plans the companies offer will be highly regulated through government-run exchanges that are still getting their final regulatory touches.
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► In The Hill — Unions push White House on stalled worker safety bill — Decades in the making, the proposal to set new limits on workers’ exposure to harmful silica has languished since February 2011 at the White House Office of Management and Budget, where officials say it is under review.
► From Reuters — Obama taps REI chief Sally Jewell for Interior secretary — Jewell is the first woman Obama has announced for his second-term Cabinet, which has been criticized as lacking diversity. She is a graduate of the University of Washington, where she now serves as a regent.
► From McClatchy — Gregoire a possibility for EPA — Seattle’s Bill Ruckelshaus, the first administrator to lead the agency, wants the job to go to Gregoire.
GOP REBRANDING
► At TPM — Main Street Partnership dropping ‘Republican’… not Republicans — The Republican Main Street Partnership, the group focused on supporting and electing moderate Republicans, is in the process of dropping the “Republican” from its name. But the group still says it won’t support Democrats.
EDITOR’S NOTE — “Let’s keep ‘Republican’ out of it. I know! Let’s call it the Majority Coalition Caucus!”
► Last night on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart:
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