NEWS ROUNDUP
How low for TPP, Clinton wins, servants as a service…
Wednesday, June 8, 2016
TRADE
EDITOR’S NOTE — How low will Washington’s congressional delegation go? Adam Smith, Jim McDermott, Pramila Jayapal, Brady Walkinshaw and Joe McDermott have all answered the question, and they are looking for a better trade policy. How about Derek Kilmer, Denny Heck, Suzan DelBene, Rick Larsen and the Republicans? How low will they go? That’s one of the questions that will be asked at the Trade Justice Rally and Festival on June 25 in Tacoma.
ALSO at The Stand — Trade laws unenforced as Alcoa cuts and cuts (by USW President Leo W. Gerard, Nov. 17 2015)
► In today’s Yakima H-R — Mexico ends investigation of U.S. apple shippers — The Mexican government has ended an anti-dumping investigation of U.S. apple shippers, canceling provisional duties it had placed earlier this year on most U.S. shipping companies.
STATE GOVERNMENT
LOCAL
► In today’s Bellingham Herald — Cherry Point coal terminal hits another hurdle with lease denial — Gateway Pacific Terminal owners received more bad news Monday as another application was denied, this time by the Washington State Department of Natural Resources.
► In today’s (Longview) Daily News — Kelso Council rejects letter in support of Millennium — On a 5-1 vote, the Kelso City Council on Tuesday declined to send a letter of support for the proposed Millennium Bulk Terminals coal terminal in Longview.
ELECTION 2016
► In today’s NY Times — Clinton wins in California, bolstering claim to nomination — Hillary Clinton claimed the Democratic presidential nomination on Tuesday night after decisive victories in the California, New Jersey and New Mexico primaries, and she quickly appealed to supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont to unite with her against Donald Trump.
► From Politico — Clinton casts victory as ‘milestone’ for women — As she secured the Democratic nomination Tuesday night, Clinton chose to keep the focus on the women in her life — a striking contrast as she criticized the presumptive Republican nominee for “calling women pigs.”
► In today’s NY Times — Clinton made history, but Sanders stubbornly ignored it — Despite the insurmountable delegate math and the growing pleas that he end his quest for the White House, Sen. Bernie Sanders took to the stage in Santa Monica and basked, bragged and vowed to fight on. And he ignored the history-making achievement of his Democratic rival.
► From Huffington Post — His campaign in crisis, Donald Trump turns to the teleprompter — He sort of apologized for being racist, then went on Fox News and told his party to “get over it.”
► In today’s Seattle Times — Trump leads to a whole lot of shimmy-shaking in the GOP: ‘I will probably support the con man’ — I asked all the local Republicans running for governor or area congressional seats to weigh in on the Trump or Not Trump question. For those who didn’t answer, I had to rely on their most recent public statements. The shimmy-shaking in Republican World would dazzle a dance troupe.
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
► In today’s (Everett) Herald — Details needed from candidates on Social Security (editorial) — The presumptive presidential nominees for the Republican and Democratic parties haven’t been any more specific than Obama about how they would expand Social Security. They should be pressed for greater detail on what they would do to restore long-term solvency to Social Security, increase its benefits or both. And the same question should be asked of those running for Senate and the House of Representatives.
NATIONAL
► From Think Progress — The ‘Fight for 15’ movement clinches a victory in the nation’s capital — On Tuesday, the Washington, D.C. city council voted unanimously in favor of a bill that would raise the city’s minimum wage to $15 by 2020 — a bill that Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) says she’ll sign into law. That makes the nation’s capital the latest place to embrace the wage floor that has been championed by a growing movement of fast food and other low-wage workers.
► From the Int’l Business Times — 21st century tech revives aristocratic lifestyles with on-demand servant economy — There was a time that the landed gentry of this country had cohorts of lowly-paid people catering for their every whim. The wealthy never cooked a meal, cleaned a shirt or drove a car. How strange, then, that futuristic 21st century technology is propelling us backwards in time. The might of our technological endeavours appears to be little more than re-constructing Downton Abbey; servants as a service.
► From The Atlantic — The legacy of Helen Chavez — Helen Chavez, the widow of Cesar Chavez, and who picketed alongside her husband in the farm labor movement in the United States, got arrested in strikes, and raised the couple’s eight children, died Monday night. She was 88.
► From Reuters — Browning-Ferris fights U.S. ruling on ‘joint employment’ in court — A California waste management company at the center of a closely watched case told a U.S. appeals court on Tuesday that the new U.S. labor board standard for “joint employment” is too broad and vague.
► In today’s NY Times — Why French workers are so mad (by Sylvain Cypel) — The government says more “flexibility” will create jobs, but the people of France know better.
TODAY’S MUST-READ
The Stand posts links to Washington state and national news of interest every weekday morning by 10 a.m.