DAILY NEWS
Bernie wins big, how GOP lost its base, politics of trade…
Monday, March 28, 2016
DEMOCRATIC CAUCUS
MORE local coverage in the (Aberdeen) Daily World, (Ellensburg) Daily Record, (Everett) Herald, Kitsap Sun, The Olympian, (Spokane) Spokesman-Review, (Tacoma) News Tribune, Tri-City Herald, (Vancouver) Columbian, Wenatchee World, and the Yakima H-R.
► From TPM — Sanders on his wins in the West: ‘We have a path towards victory’ — Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) celebrated his victory in Saturday’s Democratic caucuses — as well as his landslide wins in Idaho and Utah this week — in a speech at a Madison, Wisconsin rally where he declared, “We have a path towards victory.”
► In today’s Seattle Times — Bernie Sanders backers demand Washington superdelegates feel the Bern — After a massive win Saturday, Sanders’ backers in Washington state are demanding superdelegates follow the vote of the people. Washington’s superdelegates include Gov. Jay Inslee, U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, and U.S. Reps. Jim McDermott, Suzan DelBene, Rick Larsen, Adam Smith, Denny Heck, and Derek Kilmer, who have all publicly backed Clinton.
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STATE GOVERNMENT
► From AP — Governor signs pay raises for Washington state troopers — Troopers with the Washington State Patrol are getting a raise. Gov. Jay Inslee on Friday signed a bill that increases salaries as a way to stop waves of troopers from taking higher paying jobs at local police departments.
► In the Peninsula Daily News — Peninsula legislators aiming for budget breakthrough this week — State Reps. Steve Tharinger and Kevin Van De Wege, both Sequim Democrats, say they are hopeful legislators will be able to reach an agreement this week and approve a supplemental budget.
► In today’s (Everett) Herald — Tax break for new construction meant to fuel growth of jobs — County leaders have decided to allow a 10-year tax break for companies that bring new jobs to manufacturing and industrial areas around Snohomish County. The state Legislature last year passed a bill allowing the business incentive to be tested.
LOCAL
► In the (Everett) Herald — Where we’ll get our workers (editorial) — Across the state 22 percent of the workforce is 55 or older and nearing retirement, compared to about 11 percent in 2000. And the problem is even greater among aerospace manufacturers in the state and in Snohomish County, with over 30 percent of the aerospace workforce that is 55 and older… A stronger connection from high school to community college to workplace is needed… The advantage of apprenticeships to aerospace and other manufacturers in the county is clear.
► In today’s Tri-City Herald — Latino Civic Alliance calls for Kennewick councilman to step down — The Latino Civic Alliance has called on Kennewick City Councilman Bob Parks to step down after he posted anti-Latino comments on Facebook.
► In the P.S. Business Journal — Renton aerospace training center stalls for lack of funding (subscription req’d)
► In today’s Seattle Times — Older workers left out of region’s hiring boom — Some older workers re-entering the labor market struggle because of outdated skills or a lack of technologically savvy — not to mention age bias. A local program can help smooth their return to the workforce.
SUPREME COURT
► In today’s NY Times — Senate meetings with Merrick Garland start with a trickle — Congress is in recess, but at least five senators are scheduled to return to Capitol Hill for private sessions with the nominee, Judge Merrick B. Garland. Those sessions will include a meeting with Senator Mark S. Kirk (R-Ill.), who will be the first Republican to sit down with Judge Garland.
EDITOR’S NOTE — Dear Republican leaders: You’ve been allowing the Tea Party fringe to guide unpopular GOP policy for several years now — austerity budgets, efforts to cut and privatize Social Security and Medicare, government shutdowns, and now, the SCOTUS blockade — and look what it’s gotten you. A party on the brink of imploding. Maybe it’s time to stop acquiescing to the threats of the Vocal Minority and get back to traditional conservative principles — and doing your jobs — in order to win back the trust and respect of your base. Just a thought. Here’s some more on that…
CAMPAIGN 2016
► From MSNBC — AFL-CIO’s Richard Trumka on Chris Matthews’ Hardball — Trumka: “(Trump) is particularly anti-union. He is 100% in favor of right to work. [He says] outsourcing is good. He believes our wages are too high. After 40 years of us having flat wages, he thinks they’re too high. His own employees, when they tried to organize, and they have organized, at a number of his plants, he fights us just like every other antiunion employer does.”
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
► From The Hill — Union ‘persuader’ rule to give rare look at DC lobbying — A new rule issued by the Obama administration is cracking open the door, ever so slightly, to greater disclosure of advocacy efforts in Washington. The Labor Department finalized the so-called union “persuader” rule on Wednesday, requiring third-party lawyers and outside consultants to disclose when they are paid to advise businesses on resisting union-organizing campaigns. The rule takes effect on July 1.
NATIONAL
► From Reuters — California lawmakers, unions reportedly reach $15 minimum wage deal — California lawmakers and union leaders have reached a tentative deal to raise the state’s minimum wage to $15 over six years that could avert a campaign to bring the issue to voters, two California newspapers reported on Sunday, citing unnamed sources.
► In today’s LA Times — News of a minimum wage hike deal in California is met with relief — and anxious arithmetic — Backers of the state deal say it would end the patchwork approach of cities that have already raised their minimum wages and prevent the chaotic economic competition between cities that some have feared.
TODAY’S MUST-READ
► In today’s NY Times — Trade, labor and politics (by Paul Krugman) — Serious economic analysis has never supported the Panglossian view of trade as win-win for everyone that is popular in elite circles: growing trade can indeed hurt many people, and for the past few decades globalization has probably been, on net, a depressing force for the majority of U.S. workers. But protectionism isn’t the only way to fight that downward pressure. In fact, many of the bad things we associate with globalization in America were political choices, not necessary consequences — and they didn’t happen in other advanced countries, even though those countries faced the same global forces we did.
EDITOR’S NOTE — The Entire Staff of The Stand agrees with Krugman’s analysis except that we disagree that opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership and other NAFTA-like free-trade deals equates to “protectionism.” Organized labor has always been — and continues to be — pro-trade. The livelihoods of thousands of families in the Pacific Northwest depend on it. The difference is that modern-era “free trade” deals have far less to do with trade, tariffs, and opening markets, and much more to do with establishing rights for international corporations that supersede democratically established governments and harm the interests of workers, consumers, and the environment. Krugman and others in the mainstream media need to get beyond this dismissive “protectionist” labeling and recognize that, as Jared Bernstein asserts, there is a new paradigm in play: pro-trade and pro-globalization, but anti-free trade.
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