Wednesday, February 22, 2017

TOWN HALLS

► In today’s Wenatchee World — Overflow crowd turns out for town hall without Reichert — A standing room only crowd of more than 350 people crowded into Cashmere’s Riverside Center Monday night for a town hall meeting that Congressman Dave Reichert declined to attend. Most of the meeting focused on the impact of the proposed repeal of the Affordable Care Act. A number of citizens and health care providers talked about the importance of universal health care

► In today’s Columbian — Rally at Herrera Beutler’s Vancouver office draws crowd — On a rainy Tuesday afternoon, well over a hundred people gathered outside of U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler’s Vancouver office. Several people carried a cardboard sign picturing the congresswoman sporting a “Where’s Waldo?” striped shirt and hat with the words, “Where’s Jaime?” Locally, the pressure on Herrera Beutler to host more town hall-style meetings has increased in the past couple of weeks. Herrera Beutler doesn’t have any town halls scheduled during the congressional recess.

► In today’s (Longview) Daily News — Rally seeks more town halls with Herrera Beutler — Teresa Holloway-Nunn, 64, of Vancouver said for four years, she has tried to meet with Herrera Beutler and was flatly refused a meeting twice: “I’m very outraged that Jaime does not have the spine to meet her constituents.”

► From The Stranger — Jayapal sets date for town hall — Like Jayapal, other Democratic representatives have already announced plans for constituent town hall meetings during the recess.

ALSO at The Stand — Stand up, be heard at actions this week

TODAY, Feb. 22 in YAKIMA — Rally outside Rep. Dan Newhouse’s office in Yakima to urge him to protect all Washingtonians from the administration’s attack on immigrant families and health care. It begins at 11 a.m. at 402 E. Yakima Ave.

THURSDAY, Feb. 23 in ISSAQUAH — Rally outside Rep. Dave Reichert’s office to urge him to protect all Washingtonians from the administration’s attack on immigrant families and health care. It begins at 11 a.m. at 22605 SE 56th St. #130, Issaquah.

THURSDAY, Feb. 23 in SPOKANE — Rally outside Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers’ office to urge her to protect all Washingtonians from the administration’s attack on immigrant families and health care. It begins at 11 a.m. at 10 N. Post St., Suite 625, in Spokane.

► From Huffington Post — Testy town halls driving many GOP lawmakers to simply duck them

► From TPM — GOP senator delays speech at last minute as hundreds of protesters show up

► In today’s NY Times — At town halls, doses of fury and a bottle of Tums — Rep. Marsha Blackburn, an 8-term Republican, may have expected to draw a friendly crowd by scheduling a town hall-style meeting in a Tennessee community that had voted overwhelmingly for President Trump, but she instead faced a hurricane-strength blast of disapproval on Tuesday. At many moments, her replies elicited boos or shouts to “tell the truth.”

► From The Hill — Trump lashes out at ‘so-called angry crowds’ at GOP town halls — President Donald Trump on Tuesday evening portrayed the heated reception some Republican lawmakers are getting at their town halls as fiction, instead accusing liberal activists of ginning up negative headlines.

EDITOR’S NOTE — So says SCROTUS (So-Called Ruler Of The United States).

THIS WASHINGTON

► In today’s Spokesman-Review — Timing a key to avoid layoff notices for some school districts — Although Washington lawmakers are expected eventually to approve a budget that will spend billions more on education, some public school officials said they may have to write plans for the 2017-18 school year that cut spending and notify some teachers they could be laid off. The problem revolves around timing: Some school districts are already preparing their budgets for the coming year, but the Legislature may be months away from a deal on the court-ordered overhaul of the way the state raises money and pays for public education.

► In today’s Columbian — I-5 Bridge bill is downgraded — One Southwest Washington lawmaker called the current effort to revive talks of replacing the Interstate 5 Bridge over the Columbia River a “small step forward” toward easing the congestion between Portland and Vancouver.

BOEING

► From BillMoyers.com — Why Trumponomics fails (by Robert Reich) — When Donald Trump gave a speech last Friday at Boeing’s factory in North Charleston, S.C. — unveiling Boeing’s new 787 “Dreamliner” — he congratulated Boeing for building the plane “right here” in South Carolina. Trump seems utterly ignorant about global competition — and about what’s really holding back American workers. Start with Boeing’s Dreamliner itself. It’s not “made in the USA.” It’s assembled in the United States. But most of it parts come from overseas. Those foreign parts total almost a third of the cost of the entire plane… Trump’s “America First” economics is pure demagoguery. Xenophobic grandstanding doesn’t boost the competitiveness of American workers. Nor does it boost American-based companies. At most, it boosts Trump.

LOCAL

► In today’s News Tribune — Pierce Transit employee killed by bus in Lakewood — An employee was pulling a bus out of a service bay at Pierce Transit headquarters and struck another employee at about 6:35 p.m., a Lakewood police spokesman said.

► In today’s Seattle Times — Swedish CEO resigns in wake of Seattle Times investigation — Swedish Health Services CEO Tony Armada has resigned from his position, hospital officials said Tuesday, less than two weeks after a Seattle Times investigation exposed the turmoil and troubles inside Swedish’s acclaimed neurosurgery institute.

► In today’s News Tribune — Tacoma Fire revises hiring policies after firefighter’s drug-related death — Tacoma Fire Department leaders have adopted new rules for job applicants that include deeper scrutiny of background check information and broader questions about past illegal drug use.

► In today’s Yakima H-R — Tempers flare at Yakima City Council meeting amid ‘welcoming city’ debate — In a combative and emotional Yakima City Council meeting, those for and against designating Yakima a “welcoming city” once again faced off Tuesday night. There were tears, slurs and shouting as about 100 residents attended the meeting to vocalize their opinions — an effort City Manager Cliff Moore attempted to curb by reading a prepared statement affirming the city does not ask residents about their immigration status.

IMMIGRATION

► In today’s NY Times — New Trump deportation rules allow far more expulsions — President Trump has directed his administration to enforce the nation’s immigration laws more aggressively, unleashing the full force of the federal government to find, arrest and deport those in the country illegally, regardless of whether they have committed serious crimes. Documents released Tuesday revealed the broad scope of the president’s ambitions: to publicize crimes by undocumented immigrants; strip such immigrants of privacy protections; enlist local police officers as enforcers; erect new detention facilities; discourage asylum seekers; and, ultimately, speed up deportations.

► In today’s NY Times — Trump’s ‘deportation force’ prepares an assault on American values (editorial) — The Homeland Security secretary, John Kelly, issued a remarkable pair of memos on Tuesday. They are the battle plan for the “deportation force” President Trump promised in the campaign. They are remarkable for how completely they turn sensible immigration policies upside down and backward. For how they seek to make the deportation machinery more extreme and frightening (and expensive), to the detriment of deeply held American values.

► In today’s Seattle Times — ‘Dreamers’ help make America great — don’t deport them (by Janet Murguía) — As if the economic losses to our country aren’t enough, deporting DACA recipients would shatter a solemn commitment made with our society. They graduated from school, stayed out of trouble, came forward to get right with the law, and paid a $465 fee, which covered every cent of the program’s expenses, meaning not a penny came from taxpayers. In return, our government agreed to provide protection from deportation and the right to work legally in the United States. Arresting, detaining, or — God forbid — deporting DACA recipients would break that commitment.

► From AP — ‘Refugees Welcome’ banner unfurled at Statue of Liberty

THAT WASHINGTON

► From The Hill — Trump’s federal hiring freeze forces two Army bases to close child-care programs — President Trump’s federal hiring freeze has forced two major Army bases to shutter some child-care programs.

ALSO at The Stand — Trump’s federal hiring freeze is killing jobs, hurting vets

► From Politico — Poll: Support for Obamacare is rising — The 2010 health care law is becoming more popular, even as it heads toward the chopping block — further complicating efforts by President Donald Trump and congressional Republicans to repeal and replace it.

► From KUOW — GOP seeks reduction in health law’s 10 essential benefits — Many suggest that shrinking the list of services that insurers are required to offer in individual and small group plans would reduce costs and increase flexibility. Maternity coverage is a popular target and one often mentioned by health law critics. But other items also might be watered down or eliminated in the GOP revision.

► From TPM — Poll: Majority of Americans are worried about war — Americans are worried that the United States will become engaged in a major war in the next four years, according to a poll released Wednesday.

► In today’s Washington Post — These are the American people Trump calls enemies of the American people (by Dana Milbank) — Thomas Gibbons-Neff, a fourth-generation military man, deployed twice to Afghanistan. The second time, as a 22-year-old Marine corporal in 2010, he led an eight-man infantry team into combat. Two of his men were wounded by enemy sniper fire, and one of his best buddies later died in combat. Now President Trump says Thomas is an enemy of the American people. Thomas, a Pentagon correspondent for The Post, was so labeled, along with everybody else in the media, by the commander in chief on Friday.

NATIONAL

► From The Hill — How Democrats can rebuild a winning, multiracial coalition (by Working America’s Matt Morrison) — With deep organizing that begins now — not a few months before the next election — we can counter the right-wing noise machine that was so crucial to Donald Trump’s success. Through our work over the last 14 years running a large-scale progressive field canvass, we have seen that when we talk face-to-face with working-class voters, we build a real base for progressive politics. And when Democrats connect with those voters, we can win.

► From The Hill — Rep. Keith Ellison holds edge in DNC race survey

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