NEWS ROUNDUP
Freeloading Boeing, fight for $15 wins, China’s dump…
Wednesday, May 4, 2016
STATE GOVERNMENT
ALSO TODAY at The Stand — As Boeing cuts jobs here, we’re paying to boost its stock price (by John Burbank)
► In today’s (Everett) Herald — Aerospace isn’t the only industry that benefits from state tax breaks — Individuals, business and other taxpayers are expected to avoid about $20 billion in taxes this year thanks to a long list of tax breaks. That is more than Washington actually expects to collect from taxes.
► In today’s Tri-City Herald — State AG considers legal options to protect Hanford workers — Washington state’s attorney general is exploring further legal options to keep Hanford workers safe from chemical vapors. The announcement came after a day when six more Hanford workers received medical evaluations for possible exposure to chemical vapors.
PUBLIC SERVICE RECOGNITION
► In today’s News Tribune — Puyallup school bus driver recounts rescuing kids from burning vehicle — Ron Kitts knows the kids on his Puyallup school bus well. “I see them every day, twice a day,” he said. And when their bus burst into flames on the way to school Monday, that relationship helped them work together to get to safety. “It was so scary,” he said. “And it happened fast.”
LOCAL
► In the Yakima H-R — Group marches 27 miles through Yakima Valley to continue Cesar Chavez’s work — Ricardo Garcia was there when Cesar Chavez led the long march from Granger to Yakima 30 years ago with hundreds of activists alongside him. On Sunday, the 77-year-old joined a new generation of Latino activists emulating the 1986 march to renew calls for immigration reform with a path to citizenship for the undocumented and better pay for laborers. “There has been good progress in pay and health care since then, but immigration reform is the biggest problem,” said Garcia. “We need protective legislation to bring about social change.”
► In the Seattle Times — Hundreds rally, march in Seattle for labor, immigration reforms — Hundreds of families, students and activists marched peacefully from the Central District to downtown Seattle on Sunday, calling for changes in the laws that make it difficult for immigrants to gain citizenship here.
► In the (Longview) Daily News — Weyerhaeuser to sell 7 pulp mills to International Paper — Weyerhaeuser announced it’s selling seven of its pulp mills to International Paper Co. for $2.2 billion as part of broader move to steer away from the pulp industry. The company’s Longview liquid packaging plant and NORPAC were not included in the transaction, but they’re still up for sale.
► In the Bellingham Herald — Ferndale Intalco’s smelter to stay open into 2018 — Alcoa and the BPA have finalized a power deal amendment to keep the Intalco aluminum smelter operating. The amendment lasts through Feb. 14, 2018, while the 10-year contract between Alcoa and BPA lasts until September 2022.
► From UFCW 21 — Skagit Regional Health members overwhelmingly vote NO — Skagit Regional Health members have overwhelmingly vote to reject management’s contract proposal, continuing to call for internal equity, fair pay for everyone, a progressive wage scale, education, safe staffing, and the ability to recruit and retain.
► In today’s NY Times — Lured by Seattle’s tech boom, but being left behind — As tens of thousands of newcomers and longtime residents are finding, the allure of the tech economy comes with big risks and dangers in the rapidly climbing housing and rent prices that have shocked them. The boom has brought with it a crisis of homelessness that the mayor has declared an emergency.
► In today’s Seattle Times — Seattle City Council kills sale of street for Sodo arena; Sonics fans despair — In a 5-4 decision, the Seattle City Council voted against giving up part of Occidental Avenue South to entrepreneur Chris Hansen for his arena.
CAMPAIGN 2016
► In today’s Spokesman-Review — Spokane Rep. Kevin Parker won’t seek re-election — Rep. Kevin Parker, a Spokane Republican who rose to his party’s No. 2 spot on the powerful Appropriations Committee, will not seek re-election this fall.
► In today’s Washington Post — Sanders upsets Clinton but does not alter course of Democratic race — Sen. Bernie Sanders scored a fresh rationale to remain in the race, despite Hillary Clinton’s wide delegate lead.
► In today’s NY Times — Clinton widens lead over Trump in poll — The CNN/ORC poll shows Hillary Clinton with 54 percent of respondents’ support, compared with 41 percent for Donald Trump. The poll suggested that her support is driven heavily by aversion to a Trump candidacy.
► In the Orlando Weekly — Equal pay for women is priority in 2016 election, AFL-CIO official says — The top issue for women in the workforce is still being paid less for doing the same work as men, despite being about half of the labor force, says AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer Liz Shuler.
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
EDITOR’S NOTE — Among the nine signatories to this letter: retiring Rep. Jim McDermott (D-7th).
► From The Hill — White House weighs overtime rule changes — Industry and nonprofit groups are pushing back against several aspects of the rule, including the proposed salary maximum for earning overtime pay, the annual adjustment rate for overtime wages and the deadline for businesses to comply.
NATIONAL
► From Huffington Post — Airline profits soar to jaw-dropping record in 2015 — The Department of Transportation reported Monday that 25 U.S. airline companies combined in 2015 for after-tax earnings of $25.6 billion — a more than threefold increase over the $7.5 billion in profits one year earlier. Last year’s profits were largely driven by a huge drop in the price of jet fuel without much change in what you pay for flying.
► In today’s Washington Post — Detroit schools back in session after promise teachers will be paid — Union leaders urged teachers to return to work after two days of sickouts that kept more than 46,000 students out of classes.
► From Bloomberg — Verizon, unions hold the line as strike continues — Although Verizon made a “last, best and final” contract offer April 28, the move isn’t likely to end the strike of approximately 39,000 workers any time soon, industry analysts say.
TODAY’S MUST-READ
The Stand posts links to Washington state and national news of interest every weekday morning by 10 a.m.