DAILY NEWS
Obstruction from hell, dairy safety, FAA pool chums…
Wednesday, February 24, 2016
SUPREME COURT
► From Murray.Senate.gov — Sen. Patty Murray: Senate Republicans should put Constitution & country above partisanship & obstruction — “I am hopeful Republicans step back from this dangerous and partisan path they are on—and work with us to consider and confirm a nominee in a reasonable timeframe,” Murray said in a Senate floor speech Tuesday. “Families across the country deserve to have a functioning Supreme Court—and a Congress that works well enough to allow that to happen.”
ALSO at The Stand — Tell Senate GOP: Do your job and fill the vacancy! — Sign the petition to tell Mitch McConnell and Senate Republican leadership to do their job and work to fill the Supreme Court vacancy without delay.
► From Medium — 24 times Mitch McConnell demanded the Senate vote on judicial nominees — In his 31 years as a senator, Mitch McConnell has argued that the Senate must fulfill its Constitutional duty and vote on a president’s judicial nominee at least 24 times.
► From Huffington Post — Poll signals trouble for GOP in blockading Supreme Court — Democrats predicted almost immediately that the GOP blockade of a new Supreme Court nominee would be a problem for swing state Republicans. A new poll shows they might be right, at least in Ohio, where former Gov. Ted Strickland (D) is the lead contender to challenge Sen. Rob. Portman (R).
INITIATIVE 1433
► From AFL-CIO Now — Vermont becomes the 5th state to require paid sick leave — Last week, the Vermont Legislature gave final approval to a bill that would guarantee working people paid sick days. Gov. Peter Shumlin (D) is expected to sign the legislation. With his signature, Vermont will become the fifth state in the country to require paid sick days. An estimated 60,000 workers who don’t currently have access to paid sick leave will now have it.
TAKE A STAND! — Click here to volunteer to collect signatures to put Initiative 1433 on the ballot. I-1433 would allow all workers in Washington state to earn paid sick and safe leave and raise the state minimum wage incrementally to $13.50. Learn more.
AGRICULTURE
► In today’s Yakima H-R — Growers adapting to rules on rest breaks for ag workers; nuances of pay subject of discussion — While budgeting for the upcoming season, Yakima Valley growers know they have to add a new cost to bring in the harvest: paying piece rate workers for their rest breaks.
LOCAL
► In today’s (Longview) Daily News — Port of Longview cuts off talks with oil refinery proponent — Port of Longview commissioners Tuesday morning cut off talks with the proponent of a $1.25 billion oil refinery and a propane terminal, in effect killing the project. The 3-0 vote followed a determination that Texas-based Waterside Energy failed to prove it had financial backing for the project, according to the port.
TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP
ELECTION 2016
► From AP — Trump clobbers Rubio and Cruz in Nevada, cementing his frontrunner status — Trump crushed the competition with 45.9 percent of the vote to Rubio’s 23.1 percent and Cruz’s 21.4 percent — even though he never bothered to build much of a Nevada campaign at all.
► From The Hill — Trump rides momentum into winner-take-all states — Trump’s challengers are holding out hope that they can overcome his early lead in the winner-take-all states that will begin casting ballots on March 15. But as the race stands today, Trump is the candidate with the best chance for a delegates windfall on that day.
► From Huffington Post — Trump says he’s chummy with unions. Then why’s he fighting one in Las Vegas? — “I have great relationships with unions,” Trump told Newsweek last year. A few hundred mostly immigrant hotel workers in Las Vegas might disagree.
► From AP — Sanders calls Senate obstruction a ‘racist effort to delegitimize’ Obama — “What you are seeing today in this Supreme Court situation is nothing more than the continuous and unprecedented obstructionism that President Obama has gone through” at the hands of Republicans, the Vermont senator said. “This is on top of the birther issue, which we heard from Donald Trump and others, a racist effort to try to delegitimize the president of the United States.”
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
ALSO at The Stand — Congress: Fix FAA funding, don’t privatize our airways
NATIONAL
► From AP — Appeals court upholds limit on sharing of tips among workers — Businesses cannot collect tips given to waiters, casino dealers or other service employees to share with support staff such as dishwashers even if the tipped employees are receiving minimum wage, a federal appeals court has ruled. The 2-1 decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a 2011 U.S. Labor Department rule.
► In today’s Seattle Times — Black workers see little recovery in most states (by Jon Talton) — While unemployment has come down dramatically since the Great Recession, rates continue to be high for African-Americans. The damage from the unemployment is long-standing and its causes are not entirely understood.
TODAY’S MUST-READ
The Stand posts links to Washington state and national news of interest every weekday morning by 10 a.m.