Wednesday, February 3, 2016

TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP

► From the Hill — TPP: A new low (by AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka) — As a dozen nations gather in New Zealand this week to officially sign the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), working families in the United States are sounding the alarm on a deal that would lower wages and ship even more jobs overseas. The final text of the agreement, released in November, is even worse than we imagined, with loopholes in labor enforcement and rewards for outsourcing. Like its predecessor agreements NAFTA and CAFTA, the TPP is a giveaway to big corporations, special interests and all those who want economic rules that benefit the wealthy few. It is no wonder the presidential front-runners from both political parties oppose it.

From The Calendar™ at The Stand — Fight the TPP today in Seattle — Join fair trade advocates at a “Roll Up Our Sleeves: Fight TPP” event at noon on Feb. 3 at Seattle City Hall Plaza, 600 4th Ave. Rally there then march to the Federal Building (5 blocks downhill) to deliver the message to Sens. Murray and Cantwell. Get details.

Fight the TPP tomorrow in Bellingham — Join fair trade activists as they rally against the TPP on Thursday, Feb. 4. Wave banners from 2 to 4 p.m. at the end of Lincoln Street (Sunnyland Pedestrian Overpass), gather at Holly and RR street at 2:30 p.m. for more banner waving and leafleting. From 4:30 to 6 p.m. come to West Chestnut Street near the old granary to shine the light on the granary for all to see and leaflet. Email Dianne Foster for more info.

► From The Hill — Warren: Congress should reject Obama trade deal — Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) is pushing her Senate colleagues to reject the TPP, considered a key pillar of President Obama’s second term. “I hope Congress will use its constitutional authority to stop this deal before it makes things even worse and even more dangerous for America’s hardest-working families,” she said.

► From The Hill — GOP in no hurry to move on trade deal — House and Senate Republicans are calling on the Obama administration to do more to address outstanding concerns about the TPP that they argue have undermined support for the agreement on Capitol Hill. Rep. Dave Reichert (R-Wash.) said there is plenty of work ahead and he doesn’t expect Congress to consider a final deal until the end of the year.

AEROSPACE

► In the P.S. Business Journal — AIM Aerospace acquired for $220M — A London-based private equity firm has acquired Renton-based AIM Aerospace, one of the region’s largest aerospace companies, for $220 million. AIM Aerospace has more than 1,000 employees at facilities located in Renton, Auburn and Sumner.

► In the P.S. Business Journal — Experts: Boeing could deliver 737 Max six months early — Several experts are predicting the company will deliver the first of its new 737 Max aircraft, to Southwest Airlines, up to six months early. An early delivery would be a significant accomplishment for Boeing, and for its workers, signalling that the 737’s storied dependability is continuing with the new, re-engined model.

EDITOR’S NOTE — If it happens, it will be another “insourcing” success story for Washington’s engineers and machinists at Boeing, and a far cry from what happened when the company outsourced 787 development: years in delays and billions of dollars in added costs.

STATE GOVERNMENT

► In today’s (Everett) Herald — Lawmakers seek solutions to public records request abuses — Tales of abuse of Washington’s public records law are piling up in cities, counties, schools and other local government around the state. So, too, is the tab for taxpayers, compelling civic leaders to once again press lawmakers for help.

EDITOR’S NOTE — Case in point…

► From NW Accountability Project — Freedom Foundation demanding $58,800 from Thurston Co. taxpayers — Freedom Foundation lawyers are at it again, this time demanding $58,800 in taxpayer dollars from Thurston County in exchange for dropping a public records lawsuit. The letter threatens litigation unless Thurston County takes “the opportunity to do the right thing” and hands over the money. It’s a successful fundraising strategy for the anti-tax group: the Freedom Foundation took $15,000 in taxpayer funds from Island County and $15,091 from Kitsap County services last fall using the same tactics and boilerplate legal language.  The incident led the Whidbey News-Times to call it a “set up” by the Freedom Foundation and to call the group “vindictive.”

ALSO at The Stand — “Freedom” Foundation: Driven by greed, powered by lies

► From Front and Centered — WSLC President Jeff Johnson on I-732 carbon tax — “It is not a revenue neutral initiative. The State Department of Revenue has forecast an additional $914 million over the next four years added to our state’s structural budget deficit if I-732 passes; There is no “Just Transition” for fossil fuel workers or their communities in I-732; There is little equity in I-732 for communities of color and fence-line communities…”

► In today’s Columbian — Leavitt blasts Rep. Pike over river crossing — Vancouver Mayor Tim Leavitt criticized efforts in Olympia to renew discussions about a crossing over the Columbia River and asked key lawmakers to kill the proposed legislation.

► In today’s News Tribune — Embattled state Rep. Graham Hunt resigns over questions of military service — State Rep. Graham Hunt (R-Orting) resigned his position in the state Legislature on Tuesday following accusations he lied about his military service, including about being wounded in combat.

► In today’s Seattle Times — You can still hit health-insurance deadline, if site outage affected your enrollment — People who couldn’t sign up for health insurance on the state exchange during a website outage on Saturday can apply for extensions on a case-by-case basis, state officials said.

CAMPAIGN 2016

► In today’s News Tribune — Brewery owner from Bonney Lake seeks state House seat — Bonney Lake Republican Pablo Monroy announced Monday he would challenge Rep. Chris Hurst in a 2016 race that could help decide the balance of power in the House that Democrats control by a narrow 50-48 margin.

► In today’s Columbian — Rep. Wilson is running for Benton’s seat — State Rep. Lynda Wilson (R-Vancouver) announced Tuesday she will run to succeed longtime Republican state Sen. Don Benton.

► In today’s Seattle Times — State’s donors hot for Bernie Sanders (by Danny Westneat) — Bernie has amazingly gotten more donations from our state than all the other presidential campaigns combined.

LOCAL

► In today’s Bellingham Herald — Intalco workers will get income, training help if plant is idled — The U.S. Department of Labor approved a petition for Trade Adjustment Assistance, indicating that the workers have been harmed by foreign trade. The decision will allow workers to apply for long-term career training, assistance with health care premium costs and income support. The TAA also was approved for the Alcoa Wenatchee smelter, which was curtailed in December.

► In today’s Bellingham Herald — Auction of Haggen’s core stores moved to Feb. 11 — The auction of the Bellingham-based grocer’s 33 core stores has been rescheduled for 6 a.m. Pacific time Thursday, Feb. 11 and will be held in a law office in New York City.

► In the Seattle Times — Seattle hair salon terminates staff via weekend text message

EDITOR’S NOTE — UR fired. :(

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

► From Politico — Shuster’s FAA breakup bill readies for takeoff — The legislation, expected to be unveiled Wednesday, would shift the FAA’s thousands of air traffic controllers to a quasi-government corporation or nonprofit.

► From The Hill — Lobbying’s top 50: Boeing, Amazon on the rise — An elite group of 50 companies and trade associations spent a combined $714 million to lobby Washington D.C. in 2015, according to new data. Boeing surpassed Google and Comcast as the top corporate spender on lobbying as it fought to save the Export-Import Bank. The aerospace giant spent $21.9 million on lobbying last year, a 30 percent increase over the $16.8 million it spent in 2014.

► From The Hill — House fails to override ObamaCare veto — The House on Tuesday failed to override President Obama’s veto of legislation that would have repealed much of ObamaCare and defunded Planned Parenthood.

EDITOR’S NOTE — Washington Republican Reps. Jaime Herrera Beutler, Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Dan Newhouse, and Dave Reichert all voted “yes” in the failed effort.

► In today’s Tri-City Herald — Rep. Newhouse asks Obama for solid Hanford funding — A reduction in nationwide spending for Department of Energy environmental cleanup would be a problem for Hanford, the advocate for small government and reduced spending told the president.

► From The Hill — Democrat pushes for on-demand focus in labor survey — Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) is pushing the Department of Labor to update a worker survey so that it gathers information about on-demand economy companies like Uber and Lyft.

► In today’s NY Times — The conservative case for campaign-finance reform (by Richard Painter) — Big money encourages big government. So why aren’t the Republican candidates talking about it?

EDITOR’S NOTE — Isn’t the answer pretty obvious? As the recipients of most of that largess — by more than a 2-to-1 margin — Republican politicians put self-interest and their quest for power ahead of the professed conservative values.

NATIONAL

► From Think Progress — Study finds voter suppression by Republicans is even more effective than you think — The first study has been released showing that the proliferation of voter ID laws in recent years has indeed driven down minority voter turnout, and by a significant amount. Researchers found that in primary elections, “a strict ID law could be expected to depress Latino turnout by 9.3 points, Black turnout by 8.6 points, and Asian American turnout by 12.5 points.”

► From AFL-CIO Now — West Virginia, the latest battlefront in the conservative assault on working people — Propped up by out-of-state interests, extremists in West Virginia are pushing “right to work” legislation that benefits only a tiny percentage of West Virginians and outsiders and takes away rights from hardworking people trying to support their families.

► In today’s NY Times — GM posts record profit of $9.7 billion for 2015 — The nation’s largest automaker posted record profits primarily because of its strong performance in its core North American market. The company’s chief executive, Mary T. Barra, said the strong profit would help G.M. add new models and invest in electric vehicles and other new technology.

► In today’s Washington Post — The crazy thing Bill Gates used to do to monitor workplace productivity — In his early days at Microsoft, he would “prowl” the parking lot on weekends to document who had arrived at work. Not surprisingly, Gates’ monitoring wasn’t well-received.

► In today’s NY Times — After a massacre, San Bernadino Police stare down crippling cuts — The nation knows the San Bernardino Police Department for its heroism Dec. 2, when its officers led a perilous and widely praised search for a husband-and-wife terrorist team that had fatally shot 14 people and wounded 22 others at a holiday party. But the daily reality for San Bernardino’s finest is entirely different: a corps savaged by budget cuts, rattletrap equipment, crushing workloads and sunken morale.

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