NEWS ROUNDUP
‘Unity breaks,’ Nestora’s hunger strike, assuming you’re right…
Thursday, May 21, 2015
STATE GOVERNMENT
► From WFSE.org — May 20 Unity Breaks photo gallery
MORE coverage from the Bellingham Herald, KHQ, KOIN, KOMO, (Longview) Daily News, Olympian, Snohomish Times, and the (Vancouver) Columbian. Apparently, the Seattle Times didn’t deem this important enough to cover. But The Entire Staff of The Stand did. Here’s our photo of King County Executive Dow Constantine expressing his support of employees at the state Department of Labor and Industries office in downtown Seattle.
► In today’s Seattle Times — Inslee boosts state climate goal as cap-and-trade action stalls — Gov. Jay Inslee has struggled to win legislative approval for a plan to meet state goals for greenhouse-gas reduction. But that isn’t stopping him from signing on to an international pact with even steeper targets.
► In today’s (Everett) Herald — There’s no easy fix for funding state schools (by Jerry Cornfield) — Legislators are on track to provide the additional money required by McCleary. Now comes the hard part. They must unravel a half-century of legislative decisions on which the financing of public schools has built — illegally, it turns out.
► In today’s Spokesman-Review — Spokane teachers approve May 27 strike
EDITOR’S NOTE — Sen. Sheldon has sponsored a bill — and performed this week at its three-ring Senate hearing — that would dock the pay of teachers for missing one day to join the walkouts over class size and compensation.
FREE NESTORA
EDITOR’S NOTE — On Aug. 21, 2013, Renton resident Nestora Salgado, a naturalized U.S. citizen and leader of a legal indigenous community defense force in her hometown of Olinalá, Guerrero, was arrested. For 21 months, she has been imprisoned in Mexico on false charges. Also see:
Please donate as momentum builds to Free Nestora Salgado (Oct. 13, 2014)
After a year in prison, join the effort to Free Nestora Salgado (Aug. 19, 2014)
► From AdamSmith.house.gov — Rep. Smith, Sen. Murray urge immediate action on Nestora Salgado case — Upon hearing that Nestora Salgado was on a hunger strike, Congressman Adam Smith and Senator Patty Murray said:
We urge the United States government to take immediate action to secure Nestora’s release on humanitarian grounds. Nestora has been deprived from due process and justice by the Mexican government and we will continue to do all we can to ensure that she receives it.
Learn more at FreeNestora.org.
FAST TRACK
► From Ritchie for Congress — We can do better than the TPP (by Jason Ritchie) — Trade is essential in the global economy and accounts for more than 40% of Washington State’s economy. A good trade deal can grow our middle class and create living wage jobs. But we must demand transparency and accountability or we risk repeating the mistakes of the past.
EDITOR’S NOTE — Democrat Jason Ritchie is challenging Rep. Dave Reichert, who not only supports but is also actively advocating for Fast Track/TPP, for his 8th Congressional District seat in 2016.
► From Vox — How ‘secrecy’ is hurting Obama’s trade deal (by Ezra Klein) — Michael Wessel used his unusual status as a “cleared advisor” for the TPP to uncork a pretty brutal one-two punch on the administration: he said both that he’s read Obama’s trade deal and it’s terrible, and that some of the trade deal has been kept secret from him and perhaps that part is even more terrible… The impression of secrecy around the TPP has been a disaster for the administration.
► From Reuters — Sen. Menendez will fight to keep human trafficking rules in trade bill — Sen. Robert Menendez (D-NJ) said on Tuesday he will fight any attempt to delete a human trafficking amendment, dubbed a poison pill for a Pacific trade pact, from a key trade bill.
LOCAL
► In the PSBJ — Port contract approved by operators; union ratification is last step to end year-long dispute — The Pacific Maritime Association has approved a new five-year contract with the dockworkers union after more than a year of tense negotiation between the parties that resulted in widespread port slowdowns. The agreement still needs to be ratified by members of the ILWU. The union is expected to approve the deal in a membership vote by Friday.
► In today’s Oregonian — Whistleblower videos reveal helicopter spraying workers with weed killers — The photos and videos provide damning proof of what can happen deep in Oregon’s forests when no one is looking.
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
► From Politico — Senate may put brakes on House highway plan — House Republican leaders, eager to find new money to pay for decaying highways, are eyeing a massive tax reform-transportation package that taps $2 trillion in corporate profits parked offshore as a way to cover the costs. But the plan faces a major obstacle: Senate Republicans.
► From Yahoo News — What presidential candidates need to understand about income inequality (by Matt Bai) — To put Robert Shapiro’s new study in its plainest terms, the American Dream that’s at the center of our national identity is not, in fact, in danger of slipping away. For most Americans, it’s already long gone, like Oldsmobiles and New Coke… Shapiro’s study lays bare a stark and underlying truth. No candidate should expect to change the tenor of American politics if he or she doesn’t have a genuine plan to stem the decline of the American household.
NATIONAL
► In today’s NY Times — A $15 minimum wage bombshell in Los Angeles (editorial) — Low-wage workers who have been demonstrating for higher pay are leading politicians where they need to go, and the real leaders among those politicians are following the workers.
► From AFL-CIO Now — Raising wages champion Jim Kenney wins Philadelphia mayoral primary — Jim Kenney, a former union dishwasher and son of a firefighter, won the Democratic primary in Philadelphia after running a campaign as a strong raising wages champion.
► In today’s Seattle Times — Contract workers struggle as on-demand tech companies soar — As the valuations and profits of on-demand tech companies like Uber and TaskRabbit soar, few benefits are trickling down to their contract workers, creating a workforce that lacks the security of employee benefits and struggles with financial uncertainty.
► From Huffington Post — Why I stood up to Lear Corporation’s CEO (by Latisha Irby, a Lear production workers in Selma, Ala.) — Lear should be setting an example for the rest of the industry, but instead they are paying us barely enough to make ends meet. Lear can afford to treat their workers with respect. By choosing not to, Lear is forcing my family, and others like mine, to live from paycheck to paycheck.
► In The Onion — Pros and cons of raising the minimum wage — PRO: Bargain compared to cost of creating actual social safety net. CON: Workers will grow complacent and lazy if they can afford basic human needs.
TODAY’S MUST-READ
The Stand posts links to Washington state and national news of interest every weekday morning by 10 a.m.