NEWS ROUNDUP
Scare tactics, call out Shea, not debatable, shutdown ahead…
Monday, September 26, 2016
STATE ELECTIONS
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.
“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
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
► 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
► 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
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.