Monday, November 23, 2015

 

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STATE GOVERNMENT

 

► In the (Everett) Herald — Workers say Boeing tax breaks should come with jobs — Machinists and aerospace engineers hiked the halls of Olympia on Friday, asking lawmakers to scale back a lucrative tax break for the Boeing Co. if it continues moving jobs to other states. They went office-to-office to let lawmakers know much has happened in the two years since the state extended a suite of incentives worth $8.7 billion in tax savings for Boeing, and not all of it good, in their opinion.

ALSO at The Stand — In Olympia, aerospace workers seek tax break accountability

► In the News Tribune — Western State Hospital says it’s on track to satisfy feds — Western State Hospital said federal regulators Friday tentatively accepted the hospital’s plan to address problems that threaten patient safety.

 

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LOCAL

 

► In the Seattle Times — Green River faculty votes ‘no confidence’ in college’s trustees — Green River College’s faculty have voted that they have no confidence in the Auburn community college’s board of trustees — the third time in three years that they have taken a no-confidence vote on the school’s leadership.

ALSO at The Stand:

Green River College staff steps up the pressure

Why we have no confidence in Green River College’s trustees (by Jaeney Hoene)

► In the Bellingham Herald — Global forces hurting chances for Intalco restart — This has a much different feel than the last major idling in 2001. At that time, the focus was the spike in energy prices, which was solved as Bonneville Power Administration and Alcoa hammered out a contract agreement. This upcoming idling is more about global market forces and Intalco’s ability to compete in a global market to determine if a restart is feasible.

ALSO at The Stand — Trade laws unenforced as Alcoa cuts and cuts (by Leo W. Gerard)

► In today’s Spokesman-Review — Panel cuts Spokane mayor’s pay — Following more than a year of controversy, debate and a ballot measure, Spokane Mayor David Condon is getting a pay cut.

 

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TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP

 

► In the Bellingham Herald — Trans-Pacific Partnership not fair trade that’s needed (by Dianne Foster) — Of the 29 chapters, only five deal with traditional trade issues, the remainder affect non-trade barriers, such as our right to food labeling, extended patents to drug companies that inhibit cheaper generic medications, and extended copyrights that could jeopardize internet access. It is not about trade, but about global government. The public needs to be aware that this is much more alarming than we even guessed from leaked chapters during the highly secretive negotiations. The text was written by 600 corporate-cleared advisors, coordinated by U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman, who was paid $4 million to take this job, by his former employer Citigroup.

 

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FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

 

► In today’s NY Times — Health reform lives! (by Paul Krugman) — The ACA’s first two years of full implementation went remarkably well. The number of uninsured Americans dropped sharply, roughly in line with projections, while costs came in well below expectations. Opponents of reform could have reconsidered their position — but that hardly ever happens in modern politics. Instead, they doubled down on their forecasts of doom, and hyped every hint of bad news.

► From The Hill — Syria refugee fight emerges as government shutdown threat — The fight over blocking refugees from Syria and Iraq has emerged as one of the biggest hurdles to Congress completing work on a year-long spending bill and preventing a government shutdown. Lawmakers will return from their Thanksgiving break with just two weeks to reach a deal before a Dec. 11 deadline.

► From Think Progress — The big logical error being made by those linking Syrian refugees to the Paris attack — All the perpetrators of the mass murder in Paris who have been identified are European nationals from France and Belgium.

► In the (Everett) Herald — Don’t let fear change values (editorial) — As the United States, France and other nations build a coalition to combat and eliminate ISIS, the United States has a duty to share in the humanitarian response to accept refugees from the region.

► In today’s NY Times — Giving billions to the rich (by Marc Short and Andy Koenig) — Congress is once again considering a package that will provide special, unneeded tax breaks for corporations.

 

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NATIONAL

 

► From AP — Swing state Colorado mulls universal health care proposal — A new plan for government-run health care that covers everyone is coming from a surprising corner: Colorado, a politically moderate swing state where Republicans and Democrats often share control of state government.

► In today’s Washington Post — Pfizer and Allergan to merge in $160 billion inversion — The deal, which joins the producers of Lipitor and Botox to create the world’s largest drugmaker, is likely to renew concerns over “inversions,” where U.S. companies are bought by or merge with foreign firms in order to reduce U.S. corporate tax burdens.

► In today’s NY Times — UAW vote at Ford, GM ends painful process for Big Three — After five months of bargaining and divisive ratification votes, the United Automobile Workers on Friday completed new labor contracts covering more than 140,000 workers at the three largest American automakers.

► In the Washington Post — Walmart employee fired for redeeming $5 in discarded bottles — Thomas Smith was fired for redeeming a total of $5 worth of cans and bottles, violating a store policy that he claims he was unaware of.

 

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TODAY’S MUST-READ

 

► In today’s NY Times — The politics of paid time off to have a baby (by Bryce Covert) — Paid leave went from a nonissue to a presidential debate staple within just decades. The shift is not because the economic viability of the policy has changed. It’s because the way the public views working mothers has been radically transformed. The economic realities of employment and parenthood are agonizing, many of the proposed solutions are tepid and the political reality for any of them is bleak. But it’s a milestone that they at least exist on both sides of the aisle.

 

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The Stand posts links to Washington state and national news of interest every weekday morning by 10 a.m.