DAILY NEWS
Oregon leads, pre-empting hypocrisy, Trump will make Boeing great again…
Friday, February 19, 2016
STATE GOVERNMENT
EDITOR’S NOTE — Initiative 1433 would raise Washington’s statewide minimum wage incrementally to $13.50 by 2020 and then resume annual inflationary increases. Cities would be free to pass higher minimum wages, if they so choose. I-1433 would also allow all workers to earn up to seven days of paid sick and safe leave per year. Learn more.
► In the P.S. Business Journal — Legislators try again to put conditions on aerospace tax credits after latest Boeing job cuts — Reacting to Boeing’s plans to cut employment in Washington state, some House Democrats are planning to introduce a new bill to connect employment to tax credits for the aerospace company.
ALSO TODAY at The Stand — House Dems unveil corporate tax accountability plan
► In today’s (Everett) Herald — New bill targets Boeing bank account rather than tax breaks — Rep. June Robinson (D-Everett) wants to make Boeing pay $2,500 per year for each job lost in Washington since the company secured an extension of tax incentives from the state in 2013.
MORE coverage in today’s Spokesman-Review.
► In today’s News Tribune — Don’t let schools go over levy cliff (editorial) — If that doesn’t happen this session, local school superintendents say they would have to start planning early next year for cuts in the 2017-18 school year – including figuring out which teachers to lay off. Pink slips would have to go out by mid-May 2017, creating turmoil and anxiety.
► In today’s Seattle Times — Inslee wants new agency with focus on children, families
► In today’s Seattle Times — Hidden corporate donors poured $11M into fight to stop GMO labels in Wash.
TODAY’S MUST-READ
TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP
► From AFL-CIO Now — More than 100 state, local governments considering anti-TPP resolutions — More than 100 state and local governments have introduced or passed resolutions opposing the Trans-Pacific Partnership. In addition, more than 100 resolutions opposing the TPP were passed at recent precinct caucuses in Iowa.
ALSO TODAY at The Stand — Seattle City Council urges rejection of TPP
► In today’s News tribune — A Star Wars’ themed TPP protest in Olympia (video)
SUPREME COURT
► In today’s Olympian — An Obama nominee deserves Senate vote (editorial) — The Republican Party’s intransigence in Congress is legendary. But the new refusal to consider any appointment of a new justice to the U.S. Supreme Court by President Obama is an outright abuse of power.
► From the AFL-CIO — Trumka to Senate GOP: ‘Do your job,’ consider court nominee
► In today’s NY Times — Scalia’s death offers best chance in a generation to reshape Supreme Court — There is a reason Republican senators are so adamant in their refusal to let President Obama appoint a successor to Justice Antonin Scalia. An Obama appointment would be the most consequential ideological shift on the court since 1991, creating a liberal majority that would almost certainly reshape American law and American life.
BOEING
► In the P.S. Business Journal — Airlines might not be buying Boeing 747s, but metal band Iron Maiden just did
CAMPAIGN 2016
► In today’s News Tribune — Washington GOP to caucus Saturday, but it won’t count for presidential race — Meetings will focus on electing delegates to county conventions.
► From The Hill — Trump on brink of key win — Victory for Donald Trump in the GOP primary in South Carolina on Saturday would copper-fasten his status as the dominant front-runner, catapult him into a significant delegate lead and make it tougher for his critics within the party to argue they have a plausible path to stopping him.
► From Think Progress — Posters seen at multiple SC polling places give misleading information about Voter ID laws — Voters in South Carolina who do not have photo identification can still vote in the upcoming presidential primary. But elections officials and state lawmakers do not want them to know that.
► From TPM — Sanders takes lead over Clinton for first time in major national poll — Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) has overtaken former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton as frontrunner in the national Democratic primary, according to a Fox News poll released Thursday.
► In today’s NY Times — Culinary Workers Union won’t take sides in Nevada Democratic caucuses — The decision by the labor powerhouse has set off a free-for-all for support from its members and added to an unsettled political climate in the state.
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
► From Time — Salary transparency will help women (by Lynn Rhinehart) — What do actress Jennifer Lawrence and a tire-plant worker named Lilly Ledbetter have in common? They both worked in industries where pay discrepancies were kept under wraps. This culture of silence ensured that both women continued to make less than their male counterparts for the same work… Federal and state policy reforms to strengthen the right of employees to talk to co-workers about pay are needed.
► In today’s NY Times — A little reality on immigration (by David Brooks) — The Republican push for tight borders is a change for conservatives and contrary to what the facts say are good for the country.
► From Gawker — A national infrastructure program is a smart idea; we won’t do it because we are dysfunctional — America’s roads and bridges are in horrible shape. We could fix them up and provide lots of jobs in the process. But we won’t!
T.G.I.F.
► Happy birthday to Dave Wakeling, lead singer of The English Beat. The Entire Staff of The Stand has twice seen the revival of this ’80s British ska band at Seattle’s Showbox and we’d highly recommend it, if they come back. From start to finish, everybody dances to the Beat’s best-known songs — and those of Wakeling’s other band, General Public, which included former members of Dexys Midnight Runners, The Specials and The Clash. This was The English Beat’s first single, and although it was released in the ’80s, it’s not about what you probably think it’s about. It’s about narcissism. Enjoy!
The Stand posts links to Washington state and national news of interest every weekday morning by 10 a.m.