NEWS ROUNDUP
Paid Sick Days bill, bear market for workers, McGuest workers…
Thursday, March 7, 2013
STATE GOVERNMENT
► In today’s Olympian — Senate OKs grades for schools, teacher rejection by principals — The plans, backed by the Senate’s Republican-led majority coalition, faced strong opposition from minority Democrats, who said they failed to address the pressing issue of how to improve funding for public schools.
► In today’s (Everett) Herald — Yes on Washington Voting Rights Act (editorial) — HB 1413, sponsored by Rep. Luis Moscoso (D- Mountlake Terrace) will allow classes of voters to challenge at-large voting if, combined with a pattern of racial polarization, there is evidence that minority populations are elbowed out. If the evidence is compelling, then a more-representative district-based system is established. It’s bracingly fair. And democratic.
► From AP — Washington bill would require justices to draw straws for job — A Republican Senate bill seeks to cut the state Supreme Court by four justices, requiring the current nine justices to draw straws to see who keeps their job. Sen. Michael Baumgartner (R-Spokane) insists it’s a serious bill.
LOCAL
► In today’s Seattle Times — State unemployment rate holds steady as job growth surprises — Preliminary figures show that Washington gained an unexpectedly strong 24,100 payroll jobs in January, but state economists are skeptical job growth was really that strong. The state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate for January held steady at 7.5%.
► In today’s Tri-City Herald — Governor, DOE want to send some Hanford tank waste to NM — A proposal to send some of Hanford’s tank waste to the nation’s repository for transuranic waste is a first step to address aging, underground tanks that are leaking radioactive waste into the ground, Gov. Jay Inslee said Wednesday.
► In today’s Seattle Times — T-Mobile cutting jobs at Bellevue HQ before merger — Layoffs could top 100 in marketing and other groups, insiders say, as the wireless company prepares to unite with Dallas-based MetroPCS.
► In today’s Seattle Times — Gay-rights movement’s new focus: immigration — While gay-rights organizations in the past have been involved in the long-debated effort to fix the nation’s immigration laws, the intensity of their engagement on all levels this year is unprecedented.
BOEING
► In today’s NY Times — Boeing plan to test 787 fixes nears approval — The FAA is close to approving tests of Boeing’s approach to fixing the batteries on its 787 jets, and the tests could begin next week, federal and industry officials say.
► In today’s Seattle Times — NTSB report on 787 coming today — The federal agency will issue an interim report Thursday on the lithium ion battery fire in January aboard a parked 787 at Logan Airport in Boston.
ECONOMIC INSECURITY
► In the Seattle Times — The Dow and our Great Divergence (by Jon Talton) — The Dow hit a new record on Tuesday. Meanwhile, unemployment remains stubbornly high, middle-class wealth is devastated from the housing crash and years of stagnant wages, while economic mobility is largely stuck. Political paralysis makes it impossible to engage in the stimulus, especially infrastructure spending, that would help. Instead, we’re doing austerity, which has failed across Europe.
ALSO at The Stand — Austerity cuts aren’t working, except for America’s top 1% (by D. Nolan Groves)
CONGRESS
► At The Hill — House passes bill to avert government shutdown in March — The House on Wednesday approved legislation that would avert a government shutdown in a 267-151 vote, despite opposition from Democrats who complained that the measure locks in the $85 billion sequester.
► In today’s Washington Post — Congress won’t face pay cut in sequester — U.S. lawmakers won’t have their $174,000 salaries affected by across-the-board government spending cuts going into effect this month, but there’s little clarity about how the bank accounts of senators and representatives were spared in the so-called sequester.
► In today’s Washington Post — House funding bill would require Saturday delivery — A House bill approved Wednesday to fund the government through September would require the Postal Service to continue delivering mail on Saturdays for the remainder of the fiscal year.
► In today’s NY Times — House GOP plans a budget that retains tax increases, Medicare cuts — House Republicans will preserve Medicare cuts that their presidential nominee loudly denounced last year and accept tax increases they sternly opposed just months ago in a new tax-and-spending blueprint that would bring the federal budget into balance by 2023, senior Republicans say.
► In today’s Washington Post — Paul Ryan, Patty Murray hold keys to any budget deal — After two years of anxious, high-wire negotiations over the federal budget, an exhausted Washington is about to hand the mess back over to the experts: the chairmen of the House and Senate Budget committees.
NATIONAL
► At AFL-CIO Now — Why immigration is a top priority for U.S. labor — As recently as the mid-1990s, many unions took protectionist stances against allowing new immigrants to come to this country. Today, labor is one of the key forces pushing for comprehensive immigration reform in Washington, D.C. Maria Elena Durazo explains why.
► In today’s NY Times — A big new power (by Linda Greenhouse) — The Supreme Court appears ready to eviscerate the Voting Rights Act — and seriously harm itself in the process.
TODAY’S MUST-READ
The Stand posts links to Washington state and national news of interest every weekday morning by 10 a.m.