DAILY NEWS
‘Mothers could not stop crying’ | Boeing’s labor relations | The USSA
Monday, June 11, 2018
NO DECISION on the Janus v. AFSCME case today. However, the Supreme Court announced it will next issue opinions this Thursday morning. So stay tuned…
LOCAL
U.S. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Seattle) had just met with the 174 women being held at the prison, most of whom came to the U.S. hoping for asylum and fleeing violence at home. Their children were taken away when they were apprehended at the U.S.-Mexico border or when they turned themselves in to petition for asylum, Jayapal said. “These women have no idea, in the vast majority of the cases, where their children are,” she said. “They literally never had a chance to say goodbye to their children.”
► From The Stranger — Jayapal met with asylum seekers held at SeaTac prison — One woman fled El Salvador after gang members fatally shot her child. Another woman feared her husband would rape her child. Rep. Pramila Jaypal teared up as she spoke about the 206 undocumented immigrants held inside a federal prison in SeaTac.
► In today’s Washington Post — ‘Mothers could not stop crying’: Lawmaker blasts Trump policy after visiting detained immigrants
► In today’s Bellingham Herald — ‘A tough loss’ for firefighters, his death is ruled in the line of duty for Whatcom — A former Whatcom County firefighter who died of cancer this week is being listed as a line-of-duty fatality under state law that classifies certain kinds of cancer as job-related. Firefighter John Swobody died Monday night after a years-long battle with lung cancer
THIS WASHINGTON
► BREAKING from AP — Big win for tribes as Supreme Court refuses to review culvert ruling, could cost state almost $2 billion — The Supreme Court is leaving in place a court order that forces Washington state to restore salmon habitat by removing barriers that block fish migration. The justices divided 4-4 Monday in the long-running dispute that pits the state against Indian tribes and the federal government. The tie serves to affirm a lower court ruling in favor of the tribes.
ALSO from The Stand — Washington #1 state (by far) to build new Boeing jet, study says
EDITOR’S NOTE — The solution to smooth labor relations lies with the company itself, not with Washington state. As its profits continue to soar, if Boeing decides not to try to take another pound of flesh out of its workforce — as it did in 2013-14, when it took away the Machinists’ pensions — labor relations will be fine. If it decides to take away even more from its workers… not so smooth.
► In today’s Seattle Times — Interim chief to leave Western State Hospital as $53M federal funding decision lies ahead — The departure comes as the state moves to reshape the 857-bed hospital to focus on patients getting treatment as part of the criminal-justice system. A judge has fined the hospital millions of dollars for not providing timely services to defendants with mental illnesses.
THAT WASHINGTON
► From TPM — GOP fears Trump’s war on preexisting condition protections will backfire bigly — The Department of Justice’s announcement that it will take aim at the ACA’s most popular provisions — a ban on insurance companies discriminating against people based on preexisting conditions, and limits on how much insurers can hike premiums for older Americans — will be ammunition Democrats can use this November.
EDITOR’S NOTE — While the White House has circulated this photo in an attempt to portray Trump as an avenging angel for American workers harmed by trade, The Washington Post’s Greg Sargent writes, “The photo is all gesture, with nothing at its core other than Trump’s petulant narcissism, destructiveness and increasing detachment from reality… Trump’s conduct this weekend was rooted in fabrications, and nothing whatsoever about it was pro-worker.”
► From TPM — Supreme Court greenlights Ohio’s voter purge policy — Monday’s decision will likely encourage other states to implement similar aggressive purge policies. The Ohio system puts voters who sit out just one presidential election and two midterms at risk for removal. In her dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor noted that the most likely voters to be purged under Ohio’s system are minority, low-income, disabled, and veteran voters. She said the majority’s opinion “entirely ignores the history of voter suppression against which the NVRA was enacted and upholds a program that appears to further the very disenfranchisement of minority and low-income voters that Congress set out to eradicate.”
NATIONAL
► In the Seattle Times — Watchdog criticizes conditions at Chinese factory that builds Amazon Echo speakers — That assembly line, at a factory operated by Taiwanese manufacturing giant Foxconn, is described in a new report by a watchdog group that advocates for better working conditions at Chinese companies. China Labor Watch sent a letter to Amazon last month outlining what it said were violations of Chinese labor law and urging the Seattle company to improve conditions at its supplier. Foxconn is perhaps best known in the U.S. as the primary builder of Apple’s iPhones. It made worldwide headlines in 2010 after a rash of suicides at a facility in Shenzhen, China, that prompted the company to install protective netting.
► From Reuters — Rolls-Royce, preparing to cut thousands of jobs, says engine problem has spread — Britain’s Rolls-Royce said a costly compressor problem that had grounded Boeing planes had now been found in a different type of engine, compounding pressures on a group that is due to cut more than 4,000 jobs this week.
THE AMEЯICANS
► From Vox — There’s actually lots of evidence of Trump-Russia collusion
The Stand posts links to Washington state and national news of interest every weekday morning by 10 a.m.