DAILY NEWS
Paid sick leave, taxing health care, The New Furor…
Wednesday, December 9, 2015
STATE GOVERNMENT
► In today’s Bellingham Herald — Bellingham tells state lawmakers to pass paid sick leave — City Council will ask the state Legislature to require paid sick and safe leave rather than look to pass a rule locally. By a 5-2 vote Monday night, Dec. 7, the council passed a resolution calling on state legislators to require employers to provide their workers paid sick and safe leave.
► In today’s Seattle Times — I-405 express tolls higher than expected, near $10 — Tolls approaching the $10 limit were forecast to be rare occasions for the new Interstate 405 Express Toll Lanes, but this week, they‘re the new normal.
► In today’s (Everett) Herald — Indicted Washington state auditor returns to work — Indicted state Auditor Troy Kelley returned to work, ending seven months of self-imposed exile. He hadn’t intended to come back until his legal fight was done but changed his mind when four state lawmakers said Monday they would try to impeach him for dereliction of duty.
EDITOR’S NOTE — That’ll teach ’em, Troy!
LOCAL
► In today’s Seattle Times — King County OKs paid parental leave for some employees — The county council approved a one-year pilot program giving paid parental leave to certain county employees with new children. Eligible employees will be offered up to 12 weeks off at their normal wage or salary.
BOEING
► In today’s Seattle Times — Boeing unveils the first 737 MAX — and its new production line — The first Boeing 737 MAX rolled off a spanking-new assembly line in Renton last week, and on Tuesday morning it emerged in a teal-colored livery from the paint hangar for a celebratory unveiling before up to 8,000 first-shift employees.
► In today’s Seattle Times — Ex-Im Bank back open, but Boeing, GE deals left out for now — Until all five board seats are filled, Ex-Im Bank can approve only small export deals, not the big orders for aircraft, satellites and major manufacturing equipment the bank is best known for.
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
► From The Hill — Hopes rise for major tax package — Negotiations ramped up Monday evening on a deal that could balloon to $800 billion. Both sides are expressing optimism, though buy-in from the White House is still needed… Republicans and Democrats are close to agreeing on delaying two major taxes, the “Cadillac tax” on high-benefit plans and the medical device tax. But those proposals have run into opposition from the White House.
► From The Hill — House seeks to break stalemate over long-term federal funding — Large parts of the federal government will shut down if Congress doesn’t act before Saturday, and the bipartisan talks over an omnibus spending bill appeared to break down this week over policy amendments, also known as riders.
► In today’s Washington Post — Who gets sent home if government shuts down
► In today’s — Business groups target financial adviser rule — As lawmakers work to craft an omnibus funding bill before a Dec. 11 deadline, the industry is pushing to include an amendment that could halt, or at least slow down, a reviled rule imposing a “fiduciary duty” on retirement investment advisers.
EDITOR’S NOTE — Wall Street is putting the squeeze on Democrats to support them on this, but at least three of Washington’s House Democrats are probably already on their side.
CAMPAIGN 2016
► In today’s Washington Post — Trump’s call to bar Muslims draws bipartisan anger — Republican and Democratic leaders leveled their most forceful criticism yet against Donald Trump on Tuesday, widely denouncing the GOP presidential front-runner’s call to bar Muslims from entering the United States and signaling that Trump’s anti-immigrant and anti-Islamic rhetoric has agitated both parties more than ever.
► From Huffington Post — Trump’s Islamophobia is bad, but his rivals aren’t much better
NATIONAL
► From Think Progress — How a $15 minimum wage took over the Democratic Party — The seeds were first sown by the Great Recession, when millions lost their jobs and many ended up in work paying closer to the minimum wage. But it was fast food workers who really put $15 on the map… Change started to happen on the city and state level. A majority of states have now raised their wages above the federal level. And in May of 2014, Seattle passed a $15 minimum wage, with other cities joining in later on.
► In today’s NY Times — If it owns a well or a mine, it’s probably in trouble — The pain among energy and mining producers worsened again on Tuesday, as one of the industry’s largest players cut its work force by nearly two-thirds and Chinese trade data amplified concerns about the country’s appetite for commodities.
EDITOR’S NOTE — Although this displacement is caused by a glut of commodities — as opposed to motivated by efforts to cut greenhouse gases — the effect is the same, widespread layoffs in the carbon energy sector. This is why we need Just Transition language in the Paris climate agreement.
The Stand posts links to Washington state and national news of interest every weekday morning by 10 a.m.