DAILY NEWS
Forecasting cuts, Gilead’s ‘real huge value,’ war on voting…
Wednesday, June 18, 2014
STATE GOVERNMENT
► From KPLU — Gov. Inslee directs state agencies to identify 15% cuts — Gov. Jay Inslee is directing Washington state agencies to identify 15 percent cuts in the next budget. The directive comes as the latest revenue forecast released Tuesday shows an ongoing sluggish recovery. State budget director David Schumacher says the budget-cutting exercise does not mean all agencies will be cut by 15 percent:
This is not a drill to impose across-the-board cuts; this is a drill to give the governor the options to figure out where the pain will be least.
► From AP — Search starts anew for a Washington State Ferries chief — State Transportation Secretary Lynn Peterson is clearing the decks and restarting the search for a new director of Washington State Ferries. She sent department employees an email Tuesday saying that interim director George Capacci withdrew from consideration over the weekend, and she decided not to hire the other candidate, former Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg.
► In today’s Olympian — Legislative Ethics Board weighs limit on free meals from lobbyists — After bandying around ideas Tuesday, the board’s citizen and legislator members agreed only that a cap should be between three and 52 meals a year.
ELECTION
► In today’s Seattle Times — Initiative to fight big money in politics likely to fall short — An initiative seeking to limit big money in national politics probably will not receive enough signatures to make the November ballot, backers say. Initiative 1329 would put Washington State on the record in favor of a constitutional amendment making it clear “corporations are not persons” and “money is not speech.” The measure is a response to the U.S. Supreme Court’s rulings in Citizens United and related cases.
LOCAL
► From KPLU — Rep. Smith pushes for release of Renton woman being held in Mexican prison — Rep. Adam Smith (D-Bellevue) says the United States should be doing more to free a Renton woman being held in a Mexican prison. Nestora Salgado was arrested last August in the state of Guerrero, Mexico after helping to organize a local militia of indigenous people — something allowed under Mexican law.
ALSO at The Stand — Rep. Adam Smith calls for justice for Nestora Salgado
► In today’s Columbian — Vancouver city manager gets 17 percent raise — Vancouver City Manager Eric Holmes received a 17 percent salary increase from $169,659 to $199,000 on Monday by unanimous vote of the city council.
HEALTH CARE
EDITOR’S NOTE — Forbes reports that Gilead CEO John C. Martin is one of the highest paid CEOs in the U.S., with one-year total compensation of $43.2 million. That sounds like “a real huge value,” too.
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
► In today’s NY Times — Social Security cuts services as demand grows, Senate report says — The SSA is closing field offices and reducing services to the public even as demand for those services surges with the aging of the baby boom generation, according to a bipartisan Senate committee report. The report says the agency has closed more than two dozen field offices in the last year, generally without considering the needs of communities and without consulting beneficiaries or field office managers.
ALSO TODAY at The Stand — Vision 2025: Access to Social Security at stake (by AFGE President J. David Cox)
► In today’s Tri-City Herald — Proposed Hanford 2015 budget partly restores cuts — A proposed U.S. House budget for Hanford next year slightly increases money above the Obama administration’s request, but would leave it significantly below current spending.
NATIONAL
► At TPM — Arizona candidate who changed his name to ‘Cesar Chavez’ thrown off ballot — The Arizona congressional candidate who changed his name to Cesar Chavez and switched to the Democratic party was thrown off the ballot by a judge on Tuesday. Chavez was removed from the ballot because 700 of his nomination petition signatures were invalid.
TODAY’S MUST-READ
The Stand posts links to Washington state and national news of interest every weekday morning by 10 a.m.