Monday, September 26, 2016

STATE ELECTIONS

► In today’s News Tribune — Minimum wage initiative goes a buck fifty too far (editorial) — There’s no question the raise proposed in I-1433 would be meaningful purchasing power for a working single mother, but it could also be crippling for the business that employs her… Why do we have a minimum wage at all? Is it meant to be a living wage, a starting wage, a lowball incentive wage to move people away from crummy jobs?

EDITOR’S NOTE — Let us help you out. By law, the minimum wage exists to ensure “the maintenance of the minimum standard of living necessary for health, efficiency, and general well-being of workers.” Not businesses. Workers. The idea is that businesses shouldn’t be allowed to pay wages so low that a full-time worker can’t provide for basic necessities of life, or else the government (read: taxpayers) must then subsidize that business by providing services its workers need to survive.

So, feel free to argue from the lofty offices of The News Tribune editorial board that you believe full-time workers can pay for food, housing, health care and other basics on less than $20,000/year at today’s minimum wage, if you truly believe that. But spare us the repeatedly disproved myth that raising wages kills jobs. As Nick Hanauer writes, this is a threat, not a theory:

“Reporters and pundits reliably characterize the passage of every minimum wage ordinance and statute as a dangerous experiment that threatens to harm the very people it’s intended to help… The real threat to the opponents of the minimum wage is that it exposes trickle-down economics for what it truly is — an intimidation tactic, a con job, a scam — a rhetorical negotiating strategy that has been deftly used to pick the pockets of American workers for the past 40 years.”

P.S. Initiative 1433 also would allow all workers to earn paid sick leave. One million workers in Washington state are denied paid sick leave, which is not only immoral but also an ongoing threat to public health.

► From AP — Vance runs against hard right, Murray touts accomplishments — Sen. Patty Murray says she has yet to make up her mind (about the Trans-Pacific Partnership). “There are good things in this trade deal,” she said, adding enforcement of the labor and environmental provisions would be key.

► In today’s Spokesman-Review — Washington governor’s debate will follow Monday’s presidential debate — While most of the nation is gearing up for the first presidential debate, Washington voters will have a debate doubleheader on Monday night.

STATE GOVERNMENT

► MUST-READ in today’s Spokesman-Review — Speak out against Shea’s rebellion (editorial) — It wasn’t a gaffe when Rep. Shea implicated a deputy sheriff in a triple homicide. He is constantly at war with the sheriff and government in general. But how to explain local Republican leaders remaining mum as an elected official undermines law enforcement and the rule of law? Off the record, they’ll acknowledge the madness, but, hey, sometimes they need his vote… It’s a big deal when an elected leader slanders the sheriff and undermines authority. It’s a big deal when he supports zealots in Nevada and Oregon who point guns at law enforcement. This ideology is a cancer, and it’s eating away at the Republican Party – formerly the law-and-order party… Republicans who have refused to fight back, who have chosen to remain silent, have made it easy for them. Accommodation has become capitulation.

ALSO at The Stand — It’s up to Republicans to hold Rep. Matt Shea accountable (March 21, 2016) — A Republican legislator from Washington state was assisting rabid anti-government extremists actively engaged in criminal activity in Oregon. But don’t hold your breath awaiting any ethics investigation, discipline or accountability for this embarrassment of a legislator. That is, unless the Republican Party decides to stop turning a blind eye to the crazy, indefensible actions of its own.

► From AP — State Labor Council fined for campaign finance violations — The Washington State Labor Council will pay the state $16,622 over the organization’s failure to file lobbyist employer reports of in-kind and cash contributions properly and on time.

EDITOR’S NOTE — Friday’s statement by WSLC spokesperson David Groves:

“Although the PDC found most of the Freedom Foundation’s sweeping complaint against us to be without merit, the investigation found some instances where we made cash and in-kind contributions to our own PACs that were reported on one form as incoming, but not on another form as outgoing. As soon as this was brought to our attention, we filed revised reports and have taken steps to make sure it doesn’t happen again. This was an administrative oversight, not an attempt to withhold information because it was reported on one form but not the other.”

LOCAL

► In the News Tribune — Auburn Medical Center doctors working to unionize physicians — Washington State will have its first union for private physicians if doctors at MultiCare Auburn Medical Center vote this month to join the Union of American Physicians and Dentists.

► In today’s Spokesman-Review — Spokane police, firefighters helping kids with autism get comfortable around first responders — The program helps firefighters and police learn about children on the autism spectrum and help children develop positive relationships with first responders.

NATIONAL ELECTIONS

► MUST-READ in today’s NY Times — Why Donald Trump should not be president (editorial) — Donald Trump’s views are matters of dangerous impulse and cynical pandering rather than thoughtful politics. Yet he has attracted throngs of Americans who ascribe higher purpose to him than he has demonstrated in a freewheeling campaign marked by bursts of false and outrageous allegations, personal insults, xenophobic nationalism, unapologetic sexism and positions that shift according to his audience and his whims.

► In the Washington Post — It’s beyond debate that Donald Trump is unfit to be president (editorial) — Monday night’s clash, and two additional debates to follow, will add drama to the election, and a bit more data to the massive pile of it already available to voters. In a fundamental sense, however, there is nothing much at stake, or shouldn’t be, because there is not much more to learn: Mr. Trump has amply demonstrated his unworthiness to occupy the Oval Office. It’s beyond his capacity in the upcoming 90-minute question-and-answer sessions to reverse or even substantially modify that conclusion.

► From Politico — The 37 fatal gaffes that didn’t kill Donald Trump

► In today’s NY Times — Progressive family values (by Paul Kurgman) — So anyone who complains that there aren’t big new ideas in this campaign simply isn’t paying attention. One candidate, at least, has ideas that would make a big, positive difference to millions of American families.

► Last Week Tonight — John Oliver on the Campaign of Scandals “This campaign has been dominated by scandals, but it is dangerous to think there is an equal number on both sides. You can be irritated by some of Hillary’s. That is understandable. But you should then be f—ing outraged by Trump’s.”

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

► In today’s NY Times — Congress meets, with 5 days to avoid shutdown over funding — Many Senate Democrats — and some Republicans — have said they intend to oppose a short-term funding bill proposed by Senator Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican and majority leader, setting the stage for a legislative scramble to avoid a government shutdown. Among other things, Democrats are objecting that the legislation provides no money to deal with water contamination in Flint, Mich., located in a state with two Democratic senators, while it includes funds that could go for flood relief in Louisiana, which is represented by two Republicans. A test vote is set for Tuesday, and a rejection of the McConnell plan could make it difficult to find a new compromise in time to avert a shutdown.

NATIONAL

► In today’s NY Times — Millions in U.S. climb out of poverty, at long last — Some 3.5 million Americans who were able to raise their chins above the poverty line last year, according to census data released this month. More than seven years after the recession ended, employers are finally being compelled to reach deeper into the pools of untapped labor, creating more jobs, especially among retailers, restaurants and hotels, and paying higher wages to attract workers and meet new minimum wage requirements.

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