DAILY NEWS
Subsidizing factories, rightsizing Benton, fixing TPP…
Thursday, May 12, 2016
AEROSPACE
► In today’s Seattle Times — Boeing execs see rosy times ahead despite challenges — Boeing’s top leadership Wednesday waved aside analysts’ concerns — about the 787’s ultimate profitability, delays with the Air Force tanker and the growing challenge of Airbus in the single-aisle market — and touted a future of increased jet deliveries and higher profits.
ALSO at The Stand — Jim McNerney’s legacy at Boeing: $29 billion in 787 bills (by David Groves)
► In the Wall St. Journal — Boeing’s buyback spending makes analysts jittery — Boeing, the world’s biggest plane maker by deliveries, has spent $19 billion buying back its own stock over the past three years, a spending spree that worries analysts who think the airplane-building cycle may be near its peak. The plane maker has been directing almost all of its free cash back to shareholders, boosting buybacks and dividends with the proceeds from record deliveries of its passenger jets.
ALSO at The Stand — As Boeing cuts jobs here, we’re paying to boost its stock price (by John Burbank)
STATE GOVERNMENT
► In today’s News Tribune — Lawmakers award themselves passing grade for school-funding work this year — State lawmakers filled out their own report card Wednesday to deliver to the state Supreme Court — and, not surprisingly, they gave themselves a passing grade this year for their work to improve Washington’s public school system. Now, they wait to find out whether the high court will agree with their self-assessment.
► In today’s News Tribune — Mind your own business, Auditor Troy Kelley tells Gov. Jay Inslee after firings — State Auditor Troy Kelley made it clear Wednesday he won’t answer to Gov. Jay Inslee when it comes to how to run his office.
► In today’s Columbian — The backstory on Benton (by Lou Brancaccio) — In the end, it wasn’t his unexplainable hiring, his lack of expertise, or even his abrasive and unbecoming behavior. No, county Environmental Services Director Don Benton lost his $154,000-a-year job Wednesday because of something he often champions as a conservative Republican: Reducing the size of government. Oh, the delicious irony.
► In today’s Yakima H-R — Final bill for ACLU case to cost Yakima $3 million — The final invoices are in, the ACLU has been awarded costs and fees, and Yakima is out $3 million as the book closes on its long-running voting rights battle in federal court.
LOCAL
► In today’s Bellingham Herald — Whole Foods opens in Bellingham to crowd of shoppers, protest — Around 40 protesters arrived with signs, music and a megaphone to object to the selling of Driscoll’s berries at the store. Driscoll’s buys some of its berries from Sakuma Brothers Farm of Skagit County, where farm workers are protesting work conditions while also attempting to get a union contract with the farm.
► From KPLU — Alaska Air stymies would-be protesters with online-only shareholders meeting — For the past few years, labor activists have staged protests at Alaska Air Group’s annual shareholders meeting, but this year, the company will conduct the meeting online instead of in person.
► From Slog — Seattle University anti-racist coalition occupies Dean’s office, demands her resignation — Joining a wave of campus activism around the Seattle region against alleged racism, a group of students at Seattle University have begun an occupation of their college’s front office, complete with pizza, pillows, and Beyonce’s Lemonade album playing over speakers. They say they won’t leave until Jodi Kelly, the dean of the humanities-focused Matteo Ricci college, resigns.
► In the NW Labor Press — Portland State University graduate assistants file for union recognition — On May 5, the recently-formed Graduate Employees Union (GEU-AFT/AAUP) turned in authorization cards signed by a majority of the school’s 793 graduate student teaching, research, and administrative assistants to the Oregon Employment Relations Board.
TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP
► From The Hill — Wall Street groups threaten to sit out TPP push — Banks, insurance companies and other financial companies oppose a provision in the 12-nation TPP that would give foreign governments the ability to require that U.S. businesses maintain data servers within their borders, fearing it could create high costs and security risks. The financial groups have been working for months with the Obama administration to fix the issue.
If Wall Street has the power to send the White House back to the negotiating table, why don’t the people?
ALSO at The Stand — Let’s reject this TPP, go back to the table, and get it right (by Jeff Johnson)
CAMPAIGN 2016
► In today’s (Everett) Herald — Third party run for governor would force school funding debate — If Randy Dorn runs, he’s likely to siphon more votes away from Republical Bill Bryant than from Gov. Jay Inslee, according to a recent Elway Poll. But his entry could also provide Bryant a benefit by forcing the campaign conversation to something other than his views on Trump.
► In today’s Washington Post — Trump’s candidacy sparking ‘a surge’ in citizenship, voter applications — Donald Trump’s presidential campaign is spurring a record number of citizenship applications and increases in voter registration among Latinos upset by the candidate’s rhetoric and fearful of his plans to crack down on immigration.
► In today’s NY Times — Trump meets Ryan, with a chasm between them — Donald Trump’s meetings with Speaker Paul Ryan and other Republican leaders wary of supporting him represent a critical test for his candidacy.
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
► From The Guardian — Public to get online access to U.S. workplaces’ injury and illness records — Workers and the public will for the first time be able to go online to see details of employee injuries and illnesses – for instance, the number of broken ribs or amputations – at tens of thousands of American workplaces, under a new Labor Department rule announced on Thursday.
► In today’s NY Times — Congress to America: Drop dead (by Nicolas Kristof) — Republicans played politics two years ago with the Ebola epidemic, and now they’re stalling on the president’s funding request to fight Zika.
NATIONAL
► In today’s NY Times — Joe’s Crab Shack tried to get rid of tips. It didn’t last long. — In one closely watched case, Joe’s Crab Shack has decided to revert to accepting tips at most of its trial locations, six months after announcing that it would become the nation’s first major restaurant chain to test a no-tipping policy at 18 locations… Company research had found that 60 percent of the restaurants’ customers disliked the change in tipping. They wanted to inspire good service with their tips and they didn’t trust management to pass on the money to its employees.
TODAY’S MUST-READ
The Stand posts links to Washington state and national news of interest every weekday morning by 10 a.m.