NEWS ROUNDUP
Dave’s departure, America’s burden, Burien’s nativists
Thursday, September 7, 2017
THIS WASHINGTON
► From the Stranger — Is Dino Rossi running for Reichert’s seat? — Today, someone registered rossiforcongress.com using an anonymizing website registration service.
ALSO see coverage in the NY Times, and the Washington Post.
EDITOR’S NOTE — And the hand-wringing politicization of this morning’s Amazon announcement will start in… 3, 2, 1… begin.
LOCAL
FROM OUR CALENDAR — Virginia Mason Memorial Hospital caregivers (SEIU 1199NW) and community supporters will picket to stand up for affordable care in Yakima on Thursday, Sept. 7. Picketing begins at 2 p.m. outside Virginia Mason Memorial Hospital, 2811 Tieton Dr., with a rally with community supporters at 4 p.m.
► In today’s Yakima H-R — Employers in Yakima County scrambling to find workers — Yakima County is seeing some of the lowest — if not the lowest — unemployment rates in recent history. While agriculture has contributed to the lion’s share of jobs, nonagricultural industries have seen robust job growth as well.
► In today’s Columbian — Washougal teachers vote down contract — Washougal teachers will return to their classrooms Thursday without a new contract, after a ratification vote on a new pact failed. To ratify the new labor contract, 60 percent of the nearly 200 members of the Washougal Association of Educators would have had to approve it. But the vote, taken Wednesday morning, fell short.
► In today’s Seattle Times — Labor groups unlikely to get OK to distribute ‘democracy vouchers’ in Seattle this fall — That was the upshot of a Seattle Ethics and Elections Committee meeting Wednesday. The chair had several questions about the plan but, also, not enough members attended the meeting for a vote.
DEFENDING THE DREAM
► In today’s News Tribune — State sues Trump over plan to end ‘Dreamer’ protections for young immigrants — State Attorney General Bob Ferguson and Gov. Jay Inslee announced Washington state was joining 14 other states and Washington, D.C. in a lawsuit challenging the federal government’s decision to end the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. Ferguson called the federal government’s decision to end the program “arbitrary and capricious,” adding:
“Put yourself in their shoes — you’re a Dreamer. Our country is going to deport you back to a country you might not even know? Can it be more cruel than that, honestly? As cruel as it is, it is importantly, however, also unlawful. And that’s what this lawsuit is all about.”
► In today’s News Tribune — What’s love got to do with Trump’s DACA repeal? Nothing at all — The Trump administration’s repeal of DACA is bad news for some 17,500 Dreamers around Washington. The good news is that what the president takes away, Congress can give back. Lawmakers must do so without delay.
HEALTH CARE
► From The Hill — Warren co-sponsoring Sanders’s ‘Medicare for All bill’ — Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) said Thursday she is co-sponsoring Sen. Bernie Sanders‘s (I-Vt.) “Medicare for All bill,” the latest Democrat to back a signature Sanders campaign issue.
TRADE
- Who gets the gains from trade?
- How can we manage globalization in a way that does as much for workers and the environment it does for global investors?
- How do we rebuild trust in the way we manage globalization?
► From AFL-CIO Now — NAFTA renegotiation isn’t going so well, and here’s why (by Celeste Drake) — Our number one recommendation was that negotiators should be more transparent, most importantly by making public the rules they’re proposing for the new NAFTA. So far, the U.S. negotiators are failing. There has been no improvement in making the process open to the general public. As working people know, if we are not at the table, we are on the menu.
► From Fox Business — White House steps back from ending Korea trade pact
THAT WASHINGTON
► In today’s Washington Post — Trump sides with Democrats on fiscal issues, throwing Republican plans into chaos — Trump confounded his party’s leaders when he cut a deal with Democratic congressional leaders on a short-term plan to fund the government and raise its borrowing limit this month. That effectively postpones until December a divisive fight over fiscal matters, including whether to fund construction of Trump’s long-promised wall at the U.S.-Mexico border.
► From The Hill — Trump’s surprise deal shakes up fall agenda — Lawmakers had expected to fight over fiscal issues right up until the end of September, but now the schedule for the month is surprisingly clear. Republicans on Wednesday touted the development as something that would allow them to tackle tax reform — one of Trump’s top legislative priorities — sooner rather than later.
► In the LA Times — Trump said he would turn the GOP into the party ‘of the American worker.’ How’s that going? — Trump has increased troop deployments to Afghanistan and threatened military action against North Korea and Venezuela. He has pressed, though unsuccessfully, for a repeal of the Affordable Care Act that would increase the number of uninsured by 32 million people and reduce Medicaid by hundreds of billions of dollars, contrary to his campaign vows. He proposed a budget that would slash government services including housing, transportation and education. Trump has written neither his promised tax-cutting plan nor his trillion-dollar, job-creating infrastructure initiative. For all his talk of tax cuts for the middle class, Trump’s tax pitch last week in Missouri could have been delivered by House Speaker Paul Ryan, George W. Bush, Mitt Romney or any number of traditional Republicans as he called for big breaks for corporations and investors that would be a boon for the nation’s top earners.
NATIONAL
► In today’s NY Times — An enormous, urgent task: Hauling away Harvey’s debris — After the storm, clearing all the mounds of rubbish is a top priority. Experts warn of the task’s complexity, and the need to meet environmental standards.
ALSO at The Stand — Don’t repeat mistakes of Katrina, Sandy (by Jeff Johnson)
TODAY’S MUST-READ
For decades before the city’s incorporation, Burien also drew immigrants from Cuautla, Mexico, who helped kick-start the entire region’s Mexican restaurant industry. The school district — 41 percent Latino — is one of the most diverse in the state. And for decades, the city has drawn immigrants from El Salvador, Guatemala, and elsewhere who have launched pupuserias and specialty bakeries. As the city reflects the nation’s shifting demographics, it has also become a tiny microcosm of national politics. Trump’s nativist politics have emboldened local city council candidates who scapegoat undocumented immigrants in an imagined crime wave. At the same time, and for the first time, Latino Burienites are beginning to demand better political representation and are running for office.
The Stand posts links to Washington state and national news of interest every weekday morning by 10 a.m.