Friday, August 26, 2016

LOCAL

► In today’s Columbian — Evergreen schools expected to file injunction to prevent strike — Contract negotiations between Evergreen Public Schools and its teachers union intensified Thursday with the district mobilizing to file a request for a court injunction to prevent teachers from striking. Attorney Tracy Miller with Seattle law firm Karr Tuttle Campbell will file the injunction Friday, according to a school district spokeswoman.

► In the Skagit Valley Herald — Skagit Regional Health workers approve new contract — Members of a union representing nearly 1,000 Skagit Regional Health workers voted Wednesday in favor of a new three-year contract that union officials say will help retain staff. The union members voted 93 percent in favor of the new contract. Skagit Regional Health and UFCW Local 21 had been in contract talks since prior to its contract expiring March 31.

ELECTION 2016

► In today’s Seattle Times — Trump to visit state Tuesday, but no details on where fundraiser, rally will be held — Sen. Don Benton (R-Vancouver) said. “I will say these events will be very close to King County. In fact, they may even be in King County.”

► In today’s NY Times — The dumbed-down democracy (by the always excellent Timothy Egan) — Donald Trump, who says he doesn’t read much at all, is both a product of the epidemic of ignorance and a main producer of it. He can litter the campaign trail with hundreds of easily debunked falsehoods because conservative media has spent more than two decades tearing down the idea of objective fact… But what you don’t know really can hurt you. Last year was the hottest on record. And the July just passed was earth’s warmest month in the modern era. Still, Gallup found that 45 percent of Republicans don’t believe the temperature. We’re not talking about doubt over whether the latest spike was human-caused — they don’t accept the numbers, from all those lying meteorologists.

► From NBC News — Study finds no evidence of widespread voter fraud — Donald Trump has repeatedly alluded to fraud as a reason to introduce controversial voter ID laws, but a News21 analysis and recent court rulings show little evidence that such fraud is widespread. A study of 2,068 alleged election-fraud cases in 50 states between 2000 and 2012 found the level of fraud was infinitesimal compared with the 146 million voters registered over the 12-year period. The analysis found only 10 cases of voter impersonation, the only kind of fraud that could be prevented by voter ID at the polls.

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

► In the Orlando Sentinel — Put American workers — not corporate profits — first (by Sen. Sherrod Brown) — There’s no question TPP is a bad deal. It gives too much power to multinational corporations and the global 1percent. It doesn’t contain strong safeguards against currency manipulation, which has already cost our country as many as 5 million jobs. It includes countries like Vietnam and Mexico, where workers don’t have true collective-bargaining rights and where labor laws are routinely violated. And if past trade deals are any guide, we should be skeptical that what labor protections TPP does contain will even be enforced at all.

► From The Hill — State officials under pressure to OK ObamaCare premium hikes — State insurance officials say they are feeling pressure to approve large ObamaCare premium increases to prevent more insurers losing money from dropping out of the market altogether.

NATIONAL

► In today’s NY Times — How cuts to public universities have driven students out of state — Declines in state support for public universities have helped reshape the geography of public college admissions, leading many students to attend universities far from home, where they pay higher, out-of-state tuition. An analysis of migration patterns among college freshmen shows the states students leave each year and where they go.

► In today’s NY Times — Painted as EpiPen villain, Mylan’s CEO says she’s no such thing — Mylan CEO Heather Bresch is at the center of the latest public outrage over high drug prices, excoriated for overseeing a fourfold price increase on EpiPen while taking a huge pay raise. She is unapologetic that Mylan’s actions were driven by profit. “I am running a business. I am a for-profit business. I am not hiding from that.”

EDITOR’S NOTE — And there’s the rub: profit-based decisions determining who gets access to drugs and medical treatment — who lives and dies.

T.G.I.F.

► Happy birthday to Bob Cowsill of The Cowsills, the 1960’s family band that was the inspiration for the Partridge Family. The band had a big hit in 1969 with this version of the title song from the musical Hair. The Entire Staff of The Stand had a 45 of this song as a child, and we hadn’t heard it in decades until this morning. Freaky. Enjoy!

P.S. TESOTS will be on vacation until Thursday, Sept. 1, at which time we will return with more news you can use.

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