DAILY NEWS
More Boeing layoffs, nurse stress, debt schmet, voter purge…
Wednesday, January 11, 2017
AEROSPACE
► In today’s Seattle Times — Boeing plans buyouts, layoffs for engineers in first of three cuts for 2017 — Boeing unveiled Tuesday a new round of buyouts for engineers companywide, and warned that layoff notices will follow later for engineers in Washington state. Two more rounds are likely later this year. A similar buyout offer is expected Wednesday for some production workers.
MORE coverage in the (Everett) Herald.
THIS WASHINGTON
► In today’s Olympian — Colleges like SPSCC need help from lawmakers (editorial) — Further steps are needed to help lift the educational level of adult Washingtonians in a way that fits the evolving economy. South Puget Sound Community College President Tim Stokes and State Board for Community and Technical Colleges Executive Director Marty Brown say colleges need funds to increase faculty pay. They also need more funded slots in the State Need Grant program.
LOCAL
► In today’s Kitsap Sun — Trade group denies link to anti-school bond flier in SK — The president of the Bremerton Metal Trades Council said his group is not responsible for an anti-school bond flier circulating in South Kitsap. “I am very upset, and so is our membership,” said BMTC President Bruce Baillie. “They misrepresented themselves as being us.”
INTERNATIONAL TRADE
► From AP — Mexico says it will negotiate with Trump over NAFTA — Mexico’s new foreign relations secretary said Tuesday his country isn’t just willing to negotiate changes to the NAFTA, it wants to start talks as soon as possible.
THAT WASHINGTON
► From Think Progress — Two-thirds of women who work for Andy Puzder’s companies say they’ve been sexually harassed — On Tuesday, restaurant employee advocacy group ROC United released a report alleging worker mistreatment. The organization gathered 564 responses to a survey that paint a picture of widespread sexual harassment, discrimination, wage theft, and unsafe conditions at CKE establishments.
► In today’s NY Times — Trump briefed on claim that Russia had secrets on him — The uncorroborated summary accompanying an intelligence report says that Russia had salacious information about President-elect Donald J. Trump.
► In today’s NY Times — Some Republicans try to head off a health care calamity (editorial) — Trump and other Republican leaders may be determined to repeal the ACA immediately, but a few more sensible members of the party are now trying to slow down this runaway train. They recognize the danger in destroying a program that directly benefits 22 million Americans — and indirectly millions more by controlling costs — without a plan to replace it.
► In today’s (Longview) Daily News — Herrera-Beutler: Reform health care while repealing Obamacare — “Any action to repeal on the U.S. House floor should be accompanied by a simultaneous and immediate strategy for replacing it,” Herrera-Beutler wrote.
► From The Onion — GOP promises Americans will be able to keep current medical conditions if Obamacare repealed — House Speaker Paul Ryan: “Let’s say you have lymphoma. Under our plan, you can still have lymphoma. You could even expand on that into other forms of cancer.”
NATIONAL
Dem interests unions — In Kentucky, Gov. Matt Bevin (R) signed Republican-backed legislation over the weekend that made the Commonwealth the 27th right-to-work state. The race to become the 28th right-to-work state is a fierce competition between New Hampshire and Missouri, where legislators are fast-tracking proposals. Republicans in Kentucky have also targeted prevailing wage laws, which require firms that win government contracts to pay employees higher hourly rates. In Iowa, Gov. Terry Branstad (R) has made a priority of taking on collective bargaining rules.
► From NY Magazine — Kentucky anti-union drive a national harbinger — What has happened is that the old anti-union animus of conservatives has completely taken over the GOP, with no sense of restraint. There is no pretense of objectivity here; Republicans are abandoning indirect attacks on unions and going for the kill.
► From Time — These are the most dangerous jobs in America — Increased life expectancy and financial strains are expanding the older workforce as more Americans need to make ends meet in their later years. Older workers are more vulnerable to and take longer to recover from injuries, which makes transportation accidents and falls — the most common causes of death on the job for those over the age of 55 — more perilous.
► In the NY Times — Prisons run by CEOs? Privatization under Trump could carry a heavy price (by Eduardo Porter) — On Nov. 9, the day after Trump was elected president, the stocks of correctional conglomerates were among the best performing on the stock exchange. The reason? Privatization is back at the top of the government’s agenda. While this is being applauded in executive suites across corporate America, the cost for the rest of society is likely to be high.
TODAY’S MUST-READ
EDITOR’S NOTE — According to Palast’s Rolling Stone report, Washington is among the states that used the flawed Interstate system. It does not say what our Secretary of State did with the program’s list of people supposedly registered in more than one state.
The Stand posts links to Washington state and national news of interest every weekday morning by 10 a.m.