NEWS ROUNDUP
Everyday heroes, DACA deal or no deal, Supertool, Wayne’s Rhapsody
Friday, September 15, 2017
LOCAL
► From KXLY — Freeman High School janitor hailed as hero for stopping shooter — Ordinary people faced extraordinary circumstances in the Freeman High School shooting. That’s why the school’s janitor is being called a hero, thanks to his quick action to restrain the student gunman. Sam Strahan, the young man who died, is also being called a hero for attempting to stop the shooter.
► From OPEIU 8 — Photos from Solidarity Rally to support WPAS strikers — “One day stronger, one day longer! THANK YOU to all who came out for today’s rally – we are all lifted up by the tremendous showing of SOLIDARITY in action!”
► From Defense News — Boeing lands $600M contract to design new Air Force Ones — As a candidate, Donald Trump critiqued the cost of the program. While the Air Force has stated that it was able to get a good deal on the two Boeing 747-8s that will become the next Air Force Ones, it reiterated that cost-saving work will continue during the preliminary design phase.
DEFENDING THE DREAM
► In today’s NY Times — Trump’s support for law to protect ‘Dreamers’ lifts its chances — An unexpected meeting of the minds between President Trump and Democratic leaders on Thursday made real a possible deal in Congress to pair enhanced border security with legislation to protect young, undocumented immigrants brought to the country as children.
► In today’s Columbian — Herrera Beutler encouraged by Trump, Dem talks — “People of all political stripes agree that our immigration system is broken, and both parties should be involved in fixing the problems it’s created,” said her spokeswoman. “By all reports, a final deal has yet to be struck and presented to Congress, but nothing being discussed includes a path to citizenship for DACA participants.”
THAT WASHINGTON
ALSO at The Stand — WSLC, AFL-CIO both support single-payer ‘Medicare for All’ (Aug. 1, 2017)
► From Roll Call — Reichert says he would have arrested Trump — Retiring Republican Rep. Dave Reichert said if President Donald Trump had made his 2005 comments about grabbing women in Washington when he was a cop, he would have arrested him.
► From AFL-CIO Now — OSHA’s claims about hiding information on worker deaths fall flat — Since January, government agencies under the Trump administration have taken steps to hide information from the public — information that was previously posted and information that the public has a right to know. But a recent move is especially personal. Two weeks ago, OSHA, the agency responsible for enforcing workplace safety and health, removed the names of fallen workers from its home page and has stopped posting information about their deaths on its data page.
► In today’s NY Times — The minuscule importance of manufacturing in far-right politics — New Gallup survey data shows that American adults who approve of the way Trump is handling the presidency are actually less worried than other Americans about how trade competition will affect their job. Just 6 percent of employed adults who approve of Trump say they are worried about their job going overseas, compared with 11 percent who disapprove.
► From AP — Industry panel recommends rollback of aviation safety rules — An influential industry committee recommended Thursday that the Federal Aviation Administration eliminate or scale back dozens of safety rules, including one on airline pilot qualifications.
NATIONAL
► From Bloomberg — Union power is putting pressure on Silicon Valley’s tech giants — Organized labor doesn’t rack up a lot of wins these days, and Silicon Valley isn’t most people’s idea of a union hotbed. Nonetheless, in the past three years unions have organized 5,000 people who work on Valley campuses. Among others, they’ve unionized shuttle drivers at Apple, Tesla, Twitter, LinkedIn, EBay, Salesforce.com, Yahoo!, Cisco, and Facebook; security guards at Adobe, IBM, Cisco, and Facebook; and cafeteria workers at Cisco, Intel, and, earlier this summer, Facebook.
EDITOR’S NOTE — If you don’t have a union, join together with your co-workers and negotiate a fair return for your work! Find out how.
► In the USA Today — Two Harley-Davidson unions pull out of joint-decisionmaking pact — Two labor unions that represent most of the production employees at Harley-Davidson say they’ve terminated an agreement with the company aimed at fostering collaboration and joint decisions on a wide range of issues.
► From The Onion — Cash-strapped school district furloughs hundreds of nonessential children — “Until the district’s fiscal health has improved, we have no choice but to put 800 of our least necessary children on an involuntary leave of absence,” said Erie superintendent Jay D. Badams. He said he was cautiously optimistic that a furloughed 6-year-old would likely be able to continue first grade by the time he or she turned 10.
T.G.I.F.
► The Entire Staff of The Stand tuned out the drama about the development and casting of the long-awaited Queen biopic more than a year ago after Sasha Baron Cohen withdrew from the project. But then last week, we were drawn back in by pictures of Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury in “Bohemian Rhapsody.” And then this week, it was reported that Mike Myers is in talks to join the project!
Look. We know. In the Trump era, there are countless more important things that should be consuming our mental energy. We get it. But then we re-watched this classic scene and were reminded about the joy of a little escapism. Nothing really matters. Anyone can see.
The Stand posts links to Washington state and national news of interest every weekday morning by 10 a.m.