DAILY NEWS
Liberal Spokane, smokefree TPP, the man in the plastic bubble…
Wednesday, August 12, 2015
LOCAL
► In today’s Spokesman-Review — Envision Spokane: Mayor doesn’t have authority to block measure from reaching ballot — Envision Spokane is pushing back against Mayor David Condon, who last week sued to keep the group’s Worker Bill of Rights from appearing on the city’s general election ballot in November.
► In today’s Spokesman-Review — It seems likely Spokane City Council will keep its liberal majority (by Shawn Vestal)
► In today’s Tri-City Herald — Pasco School District, teachers union remain far apart in contract negotiations — The Pasco Association of Educators, which represents more than 1,050 teachers, could vote on Pasco’s first teacher strike since 1978 at Wednesday’s membership meeting. The union and school district remain far apart in negotiations after discussions with a state mediator last week.
TRADE
► From Politico — Will TPP go up in smoke over anti-tobacco proposal? — Big Tobacco is pushing back against a strict anti-smoking provision in the massive Trans-Pacific trade deal — and it has enlisted the support of the most powerful Republican in the Senate. The ire of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and other tobacco-state lawmakers throws a wrench into the delicate negotiations to close the agreement and secure congressional approval.
BLACK LIVES MATTER
ALSO at The Stand — 4,000-plus hear about the importance of Social Security, Medicare
► From Politico — Hillary Clinton meets with Black Lives Matter protesters — Hillary Clinton met with five Black Lives Matter activists behind closed doors following her campaign event here on Tuesday evening, after the group tried to disrupt the forum but arrived too late to get past security.
► From The Hill — Trump: Sanders ‘weak’ for letting Black Lives Matter shut down rally — “I would never give up my microphone, I thought that was disgusting,” Trump said.
CAMPAIGN 2016
► From The Hill — Poll: Sanders surges ahead of Clinton in NH — A stunning new poll has Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) beating presumptive Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire. Sanders has eclipsed Clinton by a 44 to 37 percent margin, according to a new Franklin Pierce University/Boston Herald poll.
ALSO at The Stand — WSLC supports I-735 to get big money out of politics
MILLIONS
► From The Hill — 16 million fewer uninsured since Affordable Care Act, study finds — The number of people without health insurance has declined by 15.8 million since the Affordable Care Act’s coverage expansion took effect, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
► From The Hill — CBO: Full sequester relief could add as many as 1.4 million jobs — Reversing sequestration spending caps could create as many as 1.4 million jobs over the next two years, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said Tuesday. At the request of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), the CBO analyzed the macroeconomic effects of completely eliminating the budget cuts, which are set to return in full force in October.
NATIONAL
► In today’s Washington Post — Republican plan to eliminate IRS union, as it elects new leadership, could threaten federal unions generally — Republicans have an unwelcome gift for the retiring president of the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU) and its newly elected officers. A proposal by Senate Finance Committee Republicans would prohibit unions at the Internal Revenue Service. That would cut the labor organization’s membership in half.
T.G.I.W.
► The Entire Staff of The Stand is taking the rest of the week off to join the hordes invading Walla Walla this weekend for the Gentlemen of the Road stopover. On the bill: Foo Fighters, Mumford & Sons, Jenny Lewis, and many other great bands and performers. But we are most excited to see this psychedelic rock band for the first time. Acclaimed for their elaborate live shows, the Flaming Lips typically employ costumes, puppets, balloons, giant hands, copious confetti, and frontman Wayne Coyne’s man-sized plastic bubble, in which he traverses the audience. So today we present what was the Official Rock Song of Oklahoma from 2009 to 2011. Read the sordid political history of that all-too-brief designation below. Enjoy! We’ll be back on Monday.
From Wikipedia:
In March 2009 “Do You Realize??” was announced as the official state rock song of Oklahoma, after winning an on-line vote among ten finalists as authorized by the Oklahoma state legislature: out of 21,000 votes cast, nearly 51% were for “Do You Realize??” The Oklahoma Senate approved this choice unanimously. However, on 23 April 2009, a vote in the Oklahoma House of Representatives fell three votes short of the 51 votes necessary to ratify the resolution: one Republican state legislator attacked the band for its use of offensive language, while another said he opposed the song because band member Michael Ivins had worn a red T-shirt with a yellow sickle and hammer during a previous appearance by the band. Democratic Governor Brad Henry subsequently announced that he would issue an executive order in lieu of the resolution rejected by the Oklahoma House… Republican Governor Mary Fallin removed the song’s designation as the Official Rock Song of Oklahoma by not renewing Brad Henry’s executive order upon taking office in 2011.
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