Monday, August 1, 2016

LOCAL

► In the P.S. Business Journal — Back on the job: Glassworkers end strike (subscription required) — The strike lasted around three weeks, and affected at least 90 percent of the construction projects in booming downtown Seattle.

PREVIOUSLY at The Stand — Glaziers’ strike slows construction in Seattle, Everett, elsewhere

► From Slog — After threats of unionization, REI workers win pay raises — After weeks of online organizing, talk of unionization, and a signal boost from Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant, Seattle REI workers got some good news last week: They’re getting a raise. Hourly workers at the Seattle-based outdoor store say they have trouble making ends meet as they work for the minimum wage but have unpredictable schedules. Some say they have become homeless while working at REI.

► From Slog — Uber reportedly hired an intelligence firm to investigate union politics in Seattle — When the Seattle City Council passed an unprecedented law allowing ride-share drivers in Seattle to unionize last year, everyone knew a lawsuit was coming. But it’s unlikely the politicians and labor leaders involved in the law expected this: an Uber-funded investigation of local union politics by a CIA-linked intelligence company.

► From KUOW — Uber drivers want rate hikes – but not all want a union — The Seattle City Council has voted to offer union representation to drivers for Uber and Lyft. On Wednesday, Aug. 3, they’ll hear from city officials on how that process is going. The ordinance affecting all for-hire drivers is scheduled to take effect in September.

► In the Seattle Times — Training, jobs open up as maritime sector’s workforce ages — Local training programs are channeling people previously unfamiliar with welding or maritime engineering into an industry that anchors many solid, middle-income jobs.

► In the Yakima H-R — No end in sight for 60,000-acre Yakima County fire; several others burn throughout Eastern Washington

EDITOR’S NOTE — To the dedicated fire fighters and other public employees tackling this emergency: thank you, and be safe.

STATE GOVERNMENT

► From WFSE — It’s not over in the fight to stop the Freedom Foundation from getting your private information — The fight to stop the Freedom Foundation from getting state employees’ date of birth and other private information is headed to the State Court of Appeals after a Thurston County Superior Court judge ruled Friday against a coalition of labor unions fighting to keep that information private.

STATE ELECTIONS

► In the Spokesman-Review — Washington voters have until Tuesday to fill out long, crowded ballot — The primary ballots sitting somewhere in most voters’ homes – and state elections officials say only about one in eight had been turned in as of Friday – have 17 choices for U.S. senator, 11 for governor, 11 for lieutenant governor and five for the U.S. representative in Eastern Washington’s 5th District.

ALSO at The Stand — VOTE IN THE PRIMARY! And support workers’ advocates for Congress, key statewide candidates, labor-endorsed Supreme Court justices.

► In today’s Seattle Times — Beware of misleading political ads (by Kate Riley) — Case in point: The Washington State Republican Party is running a video advertisement against Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee’s re-election that deliberately misrepresents a Seattle Times editorial board position. The ad suggested The Times accused the governor of criminal behavior. The editorial board did not. And we have asked the party to correct the ad. Party officials so far are doubling down.

► In today’s News Tribune — Primary election won’t matter in many races – but donors are still watching closely

PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION

► In today’s NY Times — Only 9% of America chose Trump and Clinton as the nominees (interactive graphic)

► In the Christian Science Monitor — Voter ID movement stumbles in courts, as judges ID racism — Three courts on Friday struck down parts of controversial voter ID requirements put in place by Republicans, with one of those courts citing “clear discriminatory intent” by lawmakers in North Carolina to shrink the franchise for politically powerful U.S. minorities.

► In the NY Times — Critics see efforts to purge minorities from the voter rolls in new election rules — Since the Supreme Court’s 5-to-4 ruling in the case [that weakened provisions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act], critics argue, the blatant efforts to keep minorities from voting have been supplanted by a blizzard of more subtle changes.

► From CNN — Moody’s: Clinton economy would create 10 million jobs — Moody’s Analytics estimates that if the Democratic presidential nominee’s proposals are enacted, the economy would create 10.4 million jobs during her presidency, or 3.2 million more than expected under current law. The pace of GDP growth would also accelerate to an annual average of 2.7%, from the current forecast of 2.3%. “The upshot of our analysis is that Secretary Clinton’s economic policies when taken together will result in a stronger U.S. economy under almost any scenario,” Moody’s writes in its report.

► From Vox — Donald Trump’s slander of Captain Humayun Khan’s family is horrifying, even for Trump (by Ezra Klein) — Trump listened to a speech by the bereaved father of a fallen Muslim soldier and used it to slander the fallen soldier’s family. That was his response. That is his character… This isn’t partisan. This isn’t left vs. right. Mitt Romney never would have said this. John McCain never would have said this. George W. Bush never would have said this. John Kerry never would have said this. This is what I mean when I write that the 2016 election isn’t simply Democrat vs. Republican, but normal vs. abnormal.

► Today from TPM — Trump lashes out again as Khan family gives new interview

► In today’s NY Times —Donald Trump ducks tax disclosure (editorial) — We can only imagine how livid the Trump tweets would be if Hillary Clinton were failing to meet this standard of campaign transparency. She has posted eight years of tax returns on her campaign website for all to see. Trump’s contention that there’s nothing to learn from his tax returns should be a red alert to voters. Four years ago, Mitt Romney resisted disclosure, and Trump was among those pressing him to release his returns. When Romney finally complied, voters were surprised to discover that his effective tax rate was 14 percent — well below the official 35 percent rate for those in his top bracket. When asked about his own tax rate, Trump snapped: “None of your business.”

ALSO at The Stand — Tax-free Trump says his taxes are ‘none of your business’ (by Leo W. Gerard)

► In the Seattle Times — Want Trump to win? Listen to Kshama Sawant (by Danny Westneat) — Seattle’s Kshama Sawant argues there’s no real difference between the two political parties — even after one of them put Donald Trump on the ballot… Ralph Nader’s conceit in 2000 was the same as Sawant’s now: that the movement they’re building is bigger than one puny presidential election. We all know how that turned out in 2000.

TRANS-PACIFIC PARTNERSHIP

► In the NY Times — Both parties used to back free trade. Now they bash it. — Democrats and Republicans agreed on almost nothing at their conventions this month, except this: free trade, just a decade ago the bedrock of the economic agendas of both parties, is now a political pariah… Opponents of multilateral trade agreements, convinced that they have unduly harmed American workers, have enjoyed a stunning success that may signal a long-term political and policy realignment in both parties.

► From Politico — Trade deal’s supporters counterattack — Despite the boisterous politics and candidates’ dead-on-arrival declarations, business groups have launched a well-funded, national effort to lobby their way to TPP approval. Leading supporters of TPP remain steadfastly optimistic it will be approved during the post-election lame-duck session of Congress.

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

► From Yahoo News — Joe Biden makes the case for Republicans to consider Merrick Garland — Vice President Joe Biden urged the Republican-controlled Senate to finally grant Supreme Court nominee Merrick Garland a confirmation hearing. Retired federal Judge Timothy Lewis joined Biden in the White House’s Weekly Address on Saturday to illustrate his argument that the Senate should put aside partisan politics to give Garland consideration. After all, Biden noted, Lewis was nominated to the bench by Republican President George H.W. Bush and confirmed by a Democratic Senate a month before the 1992 presidential election.

► From The Hill — Frustration mounts over ObamaCare co-op failures — A new wave of failures is disrupting coverage for thousands and raising new questions.

NATIONAL

► In the NY Times — A power broker who wants labor at the table, not on the menu — At a time when AFSCME and other public sector unions have come under relentless pressure from conservative activists and politicians — “probably the most perilous moment the public sector labor movement has faced since its emergence in the ’60s and ’70s,” said labor historian Joseph A. McCartin– AFSCME President Lee Saunders is emerging as an increasingly important Washington power broker. His union’s support for Hillary Clinton during the Democratic primaries, especially in Iowa, proved crucial to helping her win the nomination… Notwithstanding Saunders’s opposition to the president’s trade agenda, top Obama administration officials regularly solicit his input on economic policy.

► From AP — Groups affiliated with Black Lives Matter release agenda — Ahead of the second anniversary of the fatal police shooting of an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri, that touched off a wave of protests nationwide, a coalition of more than 60 organizations affiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement has issued a list of demands calling for policing and criminal justice reforms.

TODAY’S MUST-READ

► In today’s NY Times — How the ‘stupid party’ created Donald Trump (by Max Boot) — During the Reagan years, the GOP briefly became known as the “party of ideas,” because it harvested so effectively the intellectual labor of conservative think tanks. In recent years, however, the Republicans’ relationship to the realm of ideas has become more and more attenuated as talk-radio hosts and television personalities have taken over the role of defining the conservative movement… The Republican Party’s trend toward anti-intellectualism has now culminated in the nomination of Donald J. Trump, a presidential candidate who truly is the know-nothing his Republican predecessors only pretended to be… In a way, the joke’s on the Republican Party: After decades of masquerading as the “stupid party,” that’s what it has become. But if an unapologetic ignoramus wins the presidency, the consequences will be no laughing matter.

The Stand posts links to Washington state and national news of interest every weekday morning by 10 a.m.