NEWS ROUNDUP
Shot across Boeing’s bow | KUOW cuts | Strike teachings | Slavery in Tacoma
Thursday, April 5, 2018
LOCAL
► From The Stranger — KUOW eliminates seven staff positions — KUOW eliminated seven employees’ positions Wednesday. The news prompted shock and tears in the newsroom, according to an employee. The change comes as station leadership restructures KUOW’s morning and afternoon “drive time” shows. It also comes less than two months after the KUOW newsroom elected to unionize, but before employees bargained a new contract agreement with management.
► From KUOW — Closing UW psychiatric unit would be ‘devastating,’ says nurse — UW Medicine is considering closing all or part of its psychiatric unit. Anita Stull, a nurse in the unit who is represented by the WSNA: “Although 10 beds seems like a very small amount, we always get calls for people who need beds. We fill beds from the entire state of Washington. I get calls from Bellingham to Olympia routinely.”
EDITOR’S NOTE — Sinclair is awaiting federal permission to buy out Tribune Media, which would add more than 40 TV stations to its stable, including KCPQ (Q-13) in the Seattle market in which they already own KOMO.
PREVIOUSLY at The Stand — Did Sinclair buy KOMO to shut it down?
► In today’s Skagit Valley Herald — Environmental groups appeal Skagit County permit for refinery project — A coalition of environmental groups is appealing a permit issued by Skagit County for a project proposed at the Andeavor Anacortes Refinery, which was formerly Tesoro. The appeal marks the coalition’s second attempt to get the permit withdrawn and require the county to take a deeper look at potential environmental impacts of what is called the Clean Products Upgrade Project.
► In the Portland Mercury — Burgerville’s union will no longer be ignored by management — When members of the Burgerville Workers Union showed up to the fast food chain’s corporate headquarters in Vancouver last week, management wouldn’t let them inside. It wasn’t because they were holding a raucous protest or waving intimidating signs or throwing rocks at the windows. The small group of employees was there to deliver a single letter with a simple ask: Recognize our existence.
► In today’s Spokesman-Review — Major renovation, expansion planned for Spokane International Airport — Spokane International Airport officials are moving forward with a $130 million reconstruction project to meet passenger growth by expanding terminals, remodeling security checkpoints and adding a central baggage claim hall.
ELECTION 2018
► In today’s Columbian — Long raises $275,000 for challenge in 3rd District — Democratic challenger Carolyn Long has already amassed more than $275,000 since launching her bid for the 3rd Congressional District in November. Long is one of three Democrats hoping to unseat Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler, R-Battle Ground, who is seeking a fourth term.
► From AP — 8 unknown Dems target historically red Washington congressional seat — Eight unknown Democrats are fighting for a spot to challenge a high-profile Republican in Washington state’s reliably red 8th District. It’s a familiar battle in the 8th, where voters have chosen the Republican for almost four decades since the U.S. House district’s creation in 1980. But with the national GOP bracing for big midterm losses, the Democrats hope to finally prevail.
TEACHER STRIKES
► In today’s Washington Post — What striking teachers teach us (by E.J. Dionne) — The new teacher activism — born in West Virginia and spreading to Oklahoma, Kentucky and Arizona — is not a flash in the pan. And it’s about more than the demand for higher wages and benefits. It is a revolt against decades of policies that gutted public institutions.
EDITOR’S NOTE — Meanwhile, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin (R) says striking teachers are like “a teenage kid that wants a better car.”
► In today’s (Louisville) Courier-Journal — After massive rally, Kentucky teachers watching for Bevin vetoes on education funding — If Gov. Matt Bevin exercises his veto power to strike down tax or budget measures favorable to public education, a massive showing of teachers could overtake the state Capitol again.
► From Governing — Do weak labor laws actually spur more teacher strikes? — All four states where teacher strikes have happened, or may soon, are “right to work” states. Many labor experts believe weak labor laws — such as the right to work and the lack of collective bargaining rights — lead to lower salaries, eventually generating enough unrest for strikes to happen. In the states currently striking, strikes are technically illegal and can cost a teacher his or her job. But, as one labor expert says, “teachers know that will never happen. They can’t fire every teacher in the state.”
EDITOR’S NOTE — This part of the Freedom Foundation’s Janus v. AFSCME amicus brief aged well. (via Shaun Richman @Ess_Dog)
THAT WASHINGTON
► In today’s Seattle Times — As Trump orders judges to hurry up, look inside immigration court’s ‘alternate legal universe’ — The Trump administration is putting pressure on immigration courts to work faster. Judges, alarmed about the consequences for due process, want independence. The stakes are high, yet this “alternate legal universe” is largely out of public view.
► From The Hill — Poll: Trump approval drops to record low — His approval rating hit a record low in March, a new poll finds. Morning Consult’s 50 state approval tracker finds 41 percent of registered voters approved of Trump’s job performance during March while a majority, 54 percent, disapproved.
► In today’s Washington Post — Ohio workers love Trump’s tariffs, and that’s making trouble for the GOP — President Trump’s recent spate of tariffs are popular among his working-class supporters here. But his aggressive trade moves could help put a key Senate seat out of reach for his fellow Republicans, undermining the GOP’s fight to keep control of Congress in November.
► From Reuters — U.S. trade deficit rises to near nine-and-a-half-year high; jobs market tightens — The U.S. trade deficit increased to a near 9-1/2-year high in February, with both exports and imports rising to record highs, but the shortfall with China narrowed sharply.
NATIONAL
► From Bloomberg — Unions squeeze companies to divulge plans for tax windfall — Unions are pressing companies they bargain with to disclose details of what they’re doing with savings from the Trump tax cuts, the latest move by organized labor to pressure corporations to pass along their windfall from the overhaul.
► In today’s NY Times — Is Amazon bad for the Postal Service? Or its savior? — Five times in the last week, President Trump has pointed his Twitter arrows at Amazon over what he insists is a bad deal for the United States Postal Service. The details about the deal are not public — they are considered commercially sensitive information — but some of the available evidence suggests the opposite: that Amazon has been a boon to the Postal Service.
TODAY’S MUST-READ
Yes, detention is a business. In 2010, private prisons and their lenders and investors lobbied Congress to pass a law ordering Immigration and Customs Enforcement to maintain contracts for no fewer than 34,000 beds per night. This means that when detention counts are low, people who would otherwise be released because they pose no danger or flight risk and are likely to win their cases in immigration court remain locked up, at a cost to the government of about $125 a day.
The people detained at these facilities do almost all of the work that keeps them running, outside of guard duty. That includes cooking, serving and cleaning up food, janitorial services, laundry, haircutting, painting, floor buffing and even vehicle maintenance. Most jobs pay $1 a day; some work they are required to do pays nothing.
The Stand posts links to Washington state and national news of interest every weekday morning by 10 a.m.