DAILY NEWS
‘Freedom’ to lose coverage, House vs. Senate VRA, hate rising…
Tuesday, March 14, 2017
TRUMPCARE
ALSO TODAY at The Stand — Join Saturday vigils to reject GOP health plan — Vigils are planned this Saturday at 7 p.m. in Issaquah, Spokane, Vancouver, Wenatchee, and Yakima.
► From The Hill — GOP does damage control over healthcare score — Paul Ryan went on Fox News soon after the report was released and said he was “encouraged” by the findings. He pointed to items like the deficit reduction and decrease in premiums that the report found, while seeking to downplay the coverage losses.
► In today’s NY Times — Trading health care for the poor for tax cuts for the rich (editorial) — So much for President Trump’s pledge of “insurance for everybody.” According to the CBO the loss of health care coverage under the Republican plan stems largely from gutting Medicaid for low-income Americans, even though Trump has said he would not cut Medicaid. Meanwhile, the plan provides a $600 billion tax cut over 10 years for wealthy Americans. The picture is clear: Trumpcare would throw millions of Americans off their health coverage. And no amount of spin or scorn for the CBO can alter that reality.
LOCAL
► In today’s P.S. Business Journal — Uber enlists anti-union podcasts, texts and drivers for Seattle fight — Uber is pushing anti-union podcasts to Seattle drivers as the ride-hailing app fends off a bid from labor organizers. Text messages, phone surveys, meeting invites and unusually high pay rates are among the latest tactics by Uber to convince drivers to oppose unionization. One driver said Uber offered a $35 hourly rate (about double the usual pay) to keep him on the road at the time that a union organizing meeting was scheduled in the city.
► In today’s Seattle Times — Some Seattle Lyft, Uber drivers sue over city’s unionization law — About a dozen drivers have filed a lawsuit in federal court, seeking a temporary restraining order barring the city from enforcing the first-of-its-kind law allowing Lyft, Uber and taxi drivers to unionize. Plaintiffs in the lawsuit are being represented by attorneys from the National Right to Work Foundation and the Freedom Foundation.
THIS WASHINGTON
► From Reuters — Washington state looks to defeat Trump over travel ban a second time — Washington state on Monday moved to block President Donald Trump’s revised travel ban, filing a new complaint in federal court and asking a judge to stop the executive order from going into effect on Thursday.
► From KNKX — Carbon tax floated as possible replacement to Inslee’s ‘Clean Air Rule’ — Polluting industries in Washington state don’t like Gov. Jay Inslee’s cap on carbon emissions — and they don’t think it’s legal. But an AWB attorney testifying against the rule says, “A carbon tax is certainly one plausible alternative to what’s in the Clean Air Rule, it’s another swipe at the problem.”
ALSO at The Stand — Join WSLC at March 14 hearing for Clean Energy Transition Act
► In today’s (Everett) herald — Temporary levy solution creates new problems for schools — A much-celebrated bill preserving local taxing authority for school districts is expected to become law this week in spite of provisions that are unclear and may prove unworkable unless fixed.
► In today’s News Tribune — Chopp hit with campaign finance complaint in growing tug-of-war — The Attorney General’s Office says Speaker of the House Frank Chopp failed to report some donations and expenditures on time. The complaint is part of a campaign by a conservative activist who says he wants to reform the rules of campaign finance disclosure.
THAT WASHINGTON
► In today’s Seattle Times — Boeing, aerospace industry back Republican tax plan with stiff new charge on imports — A group representing the nation’s largest aerospace and defense companies, with Boeing CEO Muilenburg at its helm, threw its full weight behind the ‘border adjustment tax,’ a sweeping Republican plan to transform the U.S. tax system.
ALSO at The Stand — Gorsuch’s record on worker rights deeply troubling
► From The Hill — Work begins on $1T infrastructure plan — President Trump’s $1 trillion infrastructure package is slowly beginning to take shape. Trump has held several meetings on the topic, where he suggested a 90-day deadline for projects to get off the ground. States have submitted hundreds of transportation proposals for the administration to start vetting, and Congress held a hearing to explore potential funding options. Yet a timeline for considering the plan remains up in the air, and it is unclear how the infrastructure projects would be paid for.
► In today’s NY Times — Worker safety rules are among those under fire in Trump era — In a sharp break with the past, the department has stopped publicizing fines against companies. As of Monday, seven weeks after the inauguration of President Trump, the department had yet to post a single news release about an enforcement fine.
NATIONAL
► In today’s Washington Post — As NCAA money trickles down, even tennis coaches are outearning professors — In a phenomenon playing out across the country, salaries are soaring for coaches of lower-profile college sports largely subsidized by lucrative football and men’s basketball.
TRUMP’S AMERICA
► In today’s Seattle Times — Hate-crime suspicions cloud death of Muslim teen — Police believe the death of a Muslim teen found hanging from tree in Lake Stevens was a suicide. But growing speculation, fueled by social media amid a surge in reported hate crimes against Muslims, has many fearing Ben Keita may have been lynched.
► In today’s Olympian — West Olympia apartment residents awake to damaged vehicles, racial slurs and insults — Residents of a west Olympia apartment building awoke Sunday morning to eight vandalized vehicles and spray-painted insults, including a racial epithet directed at African Americans. Also spray painted on a vehicle was the word, “Trump,” and “Got youre (stuff).”
► From Reuters — Report: U.S. hate crimes up 205 in 2016 fueled by election campaign — Bias crimes appeared to increase in some cities following the Nov. 8 election of President Donald Trump, a trend that has extended into this year with a wave of bomb threats and desecrations at synagogues and Jewish cemeteries, a leading hate crimes researcher said on Monday.
The Stand posts links to Washington state and national news of interest every weekday morning by 10 a.m.