DAILY NEWS
Boeing-IAM meet, GOP+2 turns 1, dwindling tools…
Wednesday, December 11, 2013
BOEING
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story implies that the rejection of Boeing’s contract extension offer was the work of two-thirds of IAM District 751 business reps, as opposed to the rank-and-file Machinists themselves. Seems like Boeing management’s pension-ending, take-it-or-leave-it, you-have-one-week proposal had something to do with it.
ALSO at The Stand — Build the 777X here: A win-win for Boeing, Washington state (by WSLC President Jeff Johnson)
► In today’s (Everett) Herald — Wash. congressional delegation to Boeing: We’re there for you — Washington’s congressional delegation sent the Boeing Co. a love letter Tuesday telling the company that they’ve worked hard to help the aerospace giant, will continue to do so and want the 777X built in this state.
► In the P.S. Business Journal — Could union use NLRB as lever to keep 777X in Washington? Experts differ
► In today’s NY Times — Boeing looks around, and a state worries — The next chapter of that old relationship (between Boeing and Washington state) has become a cliffhanger of politics, economics and perhaps, some suspect, brinkmanship and bluff.
STATE GOVERNMENT
► At PubliCola — Senate Democrats ridicule GOP ‘achievements’ — In response to the Senate majority caucus’s celebration, the Senate Democrats sent out an email listing several links to the coalition’s other “achievements” in the past year. It comically cited the coalition’s 21 percent approval rating, harassment complaints between its own members, preventing equal access to higher ed, reducing middle-class wages, among many other things.
► In today’s Columbian — Records for Benton’s hire prompt lawsuit — A Vancouver man is suing Clark County for allegedly stonewalling a public records request he says would shed light on why county commissioners hired Don Benton to head the Environmental Services Department.
LOCAL
► In today’s Seattle Times — Heavy-duty tools lined up to get Bertha back on track — Augers, tubes and a crane are standing by at the Highway 99 tunnel job site, to help workers drill 60 feet deep and remove the unidentified buried object that blocks boring machine Bertha. The job is likely to take several days.
NATIONAL
► In today’s NY Times — Study finds federal contracts given to flagrant violators of U.S. labor laws — A new congressional report criticizes the federal government for awarding tens of billions of dollars in contracts to companies even though they were found to have violated safety and wage laws and paid millions in penalties. The report urges the government to weigh a company’s safety and wage violations more closely as it awards contracts, which are about $500 billion a year to companies employing 26 million workers, representing 22 percent of the nation’s work force.
► At TPM — Oregon Obamacare enrollees may have to wait — The ongoing problems with Oregon’s state-based Obamacare website mean roughly 30,000 people who have applied for health coverage might not see it start on Jan. 1, 2014, as expected.
► In the P.S. Business Journal — Colin Powell calls for universal (single-payer) health care in U.S. — “We are a wealthy enough country with the capacity to make sure that every one of our fellow citizens has access to quality health care,” he said last week in Seattle. “(Let’s show) the rest of the world what our democratic system is all about and how we take care of all of our citizens.”
TODAY’S MUST-READ
The Stand posts links to Washington state and national news of interest every weekday morning by 10 a.m.