Friday, October 7, 2016

STATE ELECTIONS

► From KOMO News — KOMO poll: Murray has double-digit lead in Senate Race, initiatives have strong support — In this poll of 500 likely voters interviewed statewide, 57% said they would vote for Patty Murray for U.S. Senate, as opposed to 36% for Chris Vance… Initiative 1433, which calls for raising the minimum wage statewide to $13.50 by 2020, has 62% support… The poll finds Initiative 732, which would establish a carbon emission tax, ahead 42% to 37%.

ALSO at The Stand — NO on I-732: It’s a giant misstep on climate (by Jeff Johnson)

► From Think Progress — Opposition to Washington’s historic carbon tax initiative is coming from the unlikeliest of sources — Despite the relatively subdued opposition from Republican lawmakers and fossil fuel interests, CarbonWA and its supporters face much louder — and, perhaps, more damaging — criticism from within the environmental movement.

STATE GOVERNMENT

► In today’s News Tribune — State worker contracts moving forward, but $500 million cost could be a challenge — Deals reached this month between Gov. Jay Inslee’s budget office and 38 employee unions would give pay raises to thousands of state workers. But at a time when Washington lawmakers are struggling to come up with billions to solve school-funding problems, the contracts’ $500 million price tag could be a tough sell in the Legislature.

► In today’s Olympian — High court orders $100,000-per-day fine to continue in McCleary school-funding case — No hammer will come down this year as a result of the Legislature’s failure to come up with plan to fully fund public schools, the state Supreme Court said Thursday. Instead, the high court said it will continue fining Washington state $100,000 per day, but it will wait to see what progress lawmakers make in the 2017 legislative session before imposing additional sanctions.

► In today’s Spokesman-Review — State road workers compete in ROADeo, where success is measured by inches — Road crew workers from across Washington state competed Wednesday in three challenges behind the controls of the dump truck snowplow, a loader and a backhoe.

AEROSPACE

► In today’s (Everett) Herald — Study: Washington’s aerospace employment is holding steady — A state-commissioned study finds that the number of people working directly in aerospace has held relatively stable in recent years. In 2015, the industry employed 93,800, an increase of 400 over the prior year, but less than the 2012 and 2013. However, the number of aerospace-related jobs has risen from 38,300 in 2012 to 42,300 last year.

► In today’s (Everett) Herald — Inslee: State must fight for booming aerospace industry — The governor says his administration is focused on workforce education, expanding and maintaining roads and other infrastructure, reinvigorating the U.S. Export-Import Bank, fostering aerospace innovation, and strengthening the industry supply chain.

► In Seattle Weekly — Some Sea-Tac employers still not paying minimum wage — Two more law firms filed five new lawsuits last Friday against employers for failing to pay their workers a $15 minimum wage, among other benefits. These suits, filed on behalf of hourly workers against the food chains Wendy’s, McDonald’s, Qdoba, Pallino, and Filo Foods, are the latest in a flood of class action lawsuits brought by some half a dozen firms representing several thousand workers — all demanding that employers retroactively comply with the city of SeaTac’s minimum wage law, passed in late 2013.

► From AP — Weyerhaeuser sells paper mill in Longview — Weyerhaeuser has sold its printing paper business, including its paper mill in southwest Washington. The Federal Way-based company says it will pay down debt with most of the proceeds from the sale of North Pacific Paper Company, or NORPAC, to One Rock Capital Partners.

► From KNKX — Shell calls off oil train plans for Puget Sound refinery in Anacortes — The company says global economic conditions no longer support the cost for the new equipment to unload and process Bakken crude from the Midwest.

NATIONAL ELECTIONS

► In today’s Washington Post — 6 million citizens, including 1 in 13 African Americans, are blocked from voting because of felonies — Most of the disenfranchised, about 4.7 million, are not incarcerated, including more than 1 million African Americans. Fourteen states restore voting rights when prisoners are released. Maine and Vermont are the only two that allow incarcerated citizens to cast ballots.

► From The Hill — Trump: Government bringing in illegal immigrants to vote — “They are letting people pour into this country so they can go and vote,” Trump said this morning.

► In today’s Washington Post — How much damage could a President Trump do? We can only begin to imagine. (editorial) — The scope of the damage a President Trump could do cannot be fully predicted or imagined. His candidacy forces us to confront the extent to which democracy depends on leaders adhering to a set of norms and traditions — civic virtues, to be old-fashioned about it. Mr. Trump has made clear his contempt for those virtues, norms and traditions: He despises the press, threatens his enemies, bullies the judiciary, disparages entire religions and nations, makes no distinction between his personal interest and the public good, hides information that should be revealed and routinely trades in falsehoods. Handed the immense powers of the presidency, what could such a man do? The honest answer: No one can be sure.

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

► In today’s NY Times — Obama administration is quietly delaying thousands of deportation cases — The Obama administration is delaying deportation proceedings for recent immigrants in cities across the United States, allowing more than 56,000 of those who fled Central America since 2014 to remain in the country legally for several more years.

NATIONAL

► From The Hill — States confront exploding pension costs — State budget officials already worried about tight financial times face a new pressure in rapidly rising pension liabilities, according to a new report from Moody’s Investors Service to be released Friday… “The fundamental problem is actually people coming to terms with the challenges and sitting down and being able to negotiate across the aisle. There’s some very, very strong institutional barriers to that,” said (outgoing) Washington State Treasurer Jim McIntire (D), whose office oversees more than $5 billion in state investments.

► From KUOW — Countries around the world beat the U.S. on paid parental leave — Out of 193 countries in the United Nations, only a small handful do not have a national paid parental leave law: New Guinea, Suriname, a few South Pacific island nations and the United States.

T.G.I.F.

► Today, founding Farm Aid-er and underappreciated roots rocker John Mellencamp turns 65. Like Bruce Springsteen, Mellencamp’s songs focus on working-class Americans’ lives, loves and struggles. Here the Indiana-born singer — who describes himself as “about as left-wing as you can get” — ponders “Future generations / Ridin’ on the highways that we built / I hope they have a better understanding.” Happy birthday, Mr. Mellencamp!

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