NEWS ROUNDUP
Hanford missteps | An ambitious agenda | That’s the look
Friday, March 9, 2018
LOCAL
YESTERDAY at The Stand — WSLC’s Johnson hails new law protecting Hanford workers
► In today’s Seattle Times — ‘Normalization of deviance’: What went wrong at Hanford, where radioactive contamination spread — A new report looks at missteps at a Hanford demolition project where radioactive contamination spread 10 miles from the work site. The troubled project has been a setback that has shaken employee and public confidence in Hanford’s cleanup, where plutonium was produced for Cold War weapons.
► From Crosscut — These firefighters face a different kind of battle: Immigration — All they want to do is to keep fighting fires on millions of acres of private, state and tribal-owned forestlands as part of the state’s largest on-call fire department. But the firefighting fates of Noe Vazquez and Christian Garcia Herrera, who have each fought more than 20 fires, are in limbo until the federal government reaches a deal on DACA.
► In the Skagit Valley Herald — Sakuma Bros. works to get hearing on fines — The U.S. Department of Labor issued a news release Feb. 27 indicating it had filed suit against Sakuma Bros. Farms for committing violations on a foreign worker visa program. But a spokesman for Sakuma Bros. said what the department classified as a lawsuit is actually a response to Sakuma Bros.’ 11-month-old request for a hearing on fines levied against it.
ALSO at The Stand — Familias Unidas berry pickers ratify historic Sakuma contract (June 16, 2017)
► From Reuters — Boeing has ‘cash horsepower’ for targeted acquisitions — Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg said on Thursday the planemaker can absorb transactions on the scale of a proposed tie-up with Brazil’s Embraer without putting at risk internal investments in its business or returning cash to shareholders.
THIS WASHINGTON
► In today’s Olympian — Lawmakers pass budget deal that speeds up teacher salary fix, cuts property taxes — State lawmakers on Thursday approved a 2018 supplemental budget that will boost state spending on public school reforms to meet a court order and give taxpayers a one-time property tax cut. The budget plan speeds up the state’s plan to take on the full cost of paying K-12 teachers and staff.
► In today’s Seattle Times — Legislature reaches finish line with some victories and some maneuvering — The votes in the state Legislature capped a frenetic 60 days that many lauded for the accomplishments — and others questioned because of the rushed, secretive or creative maneuvers state lawmakers employed.
► From AP — Legislature narrowly OKs change to police deadly force law — State lawmakers have voted to make it easier to prosecute police who commit bad shootings, updating a law that made it uniquely difficult to hold officers criminally liable. Gov. Jay Inslee signed the measure, ending years of wrestling over the existing law, which forces prosecutors to prove the officers acted with malice — a hurdle no other state has.
► In today’s M.I. Reporters — Rep. Judy Clibborn to retire from Legislature
► In today’s (Everett) Herald — Democrat Ruth Kagi won’t seek re-election to House
TRADE
► In today’s Wenatchee World — Alcoa restart? Tariffs give hope, but it’s too early to tell — It’s too early to know if tariffs imposed on aluminum imports announced Thursday by President Trump could stir interest in restarting Alcoa Wenatchee Works, mothballed since January 2016. “But there’s hope this could start the conversation,” said Kelley Woodard, president of the Wenatchee Aluminum Trades Council, an umbrella group representing 350 workers in five unions. “We’ve got our fingers crossed.”
► In today’s NY Times — Trump’s latest tariff strategy: Less trade war, and more let’s make a deal — When President Trump signed proclamations to place tariffs on imported steel and aluminum on Thursday, he portrayed it as an effort to throw around America’s economic weight in hope of reaching better deals from major international partners.
TODAY at The Stand — Enforcing trade rules is not a ‘trade war’ (by Stan Sorscher)
► In today’s NY Times — The case for Trump’s tariffs and ‘America First’ economics (by Daniel McCarthy) — From the time of the Constitution’s drafting, American statesmen have seen the need to preserve a middle layer in the nation’s economic order. As far back as Aristotle, a secure middle class has been thought essential to the well-being of a constitutional republic. Such a middle class is hard to imagine in a postindustrial nation consisting of a tiny capital-controlling elite and a vast population of Amazon warehouse workers… Trump’s steel and aluminum tariffs may not work. But they are a first attempt at finding an alternative to a free-trade system that has built up the People’s Republic of China while hollowing out the factory towns that once made America great.
THE WAR ON UNIONS
ALSO at The Stand:
Janus (Part 1): The fix is in at the Supreme Court
Janus (Part 2): Get ready to defend your freedom
THAT WASHINGTON
► In today’s Washington Post — ‘It’s killing the agency’: Ugly power struggle paralyzes Trump’s plan to fix veterans’ care — Veterans Affairs Secretary David Shulkin is managing the government’s second-largest bureaucracy from a fortified bunker atop the agency’s Washington headquarters… In a sign of how deeply the secretary’s trust in his senior staff has eroded, an armed guard now stands outside his office.
► From The Hill — GOP senator: Justice Kennedy is going to retire this summer — Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) said in a speech last week he believes Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy will retire this summer. While Kennedy’s among the court’s conservative justices, he has sided with his liberal colleagues at times.
NATIONAL
► From Reuters — U.S. economy adds 313,000 jobs in February; wage growth slows — U.S. job growth surged in February, recording its biggest increase in more than 1-1/2 years, but a slowdown in wage gains pointed to only a gradual increase in inflation this year.
T.G.I.F.
► If you remember the forgettable 2007 film Music and Lyrics starring Hugh Grant and Drew Barrymore, you’ll recall that it’s about a washed-up ’80s British pop music idol trying to compose a hit for a teen sensation. What you probably don’t know is that the guy who worked on the movie’s soundtrack — and served as a “vocal coach” for Grant — was himself a washed-up ’80s British pop music idol. His name is Martin Fry, the lead singer of ABC, a band inexplicably beloved by the Entire Staff of The Stand. And today is Fry’s 60th birthday! Watch here as our new sexagenarian — dressed exactly as you’d expect him to be — sings a true 1980s classic. The cheese factor is high, but this performance is saved by Fry’s still-strong vocals and the song’s fantastic bass line, ably performed by Nick Beggs. Enjoy!
The Stand posts links to Washington state and national news of interest every weekday morning by 10 a.m.