Connect with us

DAILY NEWS

Blue wave arrives ● Kava… naw ● The attack on Evergreen

Wednesday, August 8, 2018

 


ELECTION

 

See The Stand’s roundup of Tuesday’s election results here.

► In today’s Spokesman-Review — Results point to real contest: Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Lisa Brown nearly tied in primary — Out of more than 120,000 votes counted, Republican U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers had a lead of a little more than 500 votes over Democrat Lisa Brown. The contest, between the high-ranking congressional Republican and a Democrat with years of experience in state political leadership, has drawn national interest and big spending as the parties vie for support in the first midterm election since President Trump took office.

► In today’s Columbian — Herrera Beutler, Long set for November — Incumbent U.S. Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Battle Ground) will face political science professor Carolyn Long in what Tuesday’s results suggest will be a close race.

EDITOR’S NOTE — The Daily News headline for this story: Area’s congressional race to be a humdinger. Well, brush my teeth and call me Pearly!

► In today’s Seattle Times — In 8th District, Dino Rossi advances; Kim Schrier, Jason Rittereiser lead Democrats — Pediatrician Kim Schrier was in second place Tuesday, with about 19% of the vote, just ahead of attorney and former King County deputy prosecutor Jason Rittereiser, at 17.5%. At a gathering with supporters in Issaquah, Schrier didn’t declare victory, but came out swinging against Rossi, calling him a career politician who “spent his career lining his pockets with campaign contributions from special interests.”

EDITOR’S NOTE — The WSLC endorsed both Schrier and Rittereiser. The three leading Democrats in this crowded race got 49%, while three-time loser Dino Rossi got just 43%.

► In today’s Seattle Times — Legislature: Democrats could pick up 4 GOP seats in Senate — Initial ballots show Democrats leading not just in the usual handful of Puget Sound-area swing districts. Democratic candidates were beating Republicans in normally deep-red places, such as the Spokane area’s 6th District, and Vancouver-area’s 18th District.

► From KUOW — After allegations of inappropriate behavior, state representative trails in primary results — Embattled Democratic state Rep. David Sawyer (D-Tacoma) was in third place in early primary returns Tuesday night, an indication of the political fallout he’s facing over numerous allegations of inappropriate behavior toward women and an investigation that found he violated House harassment policy.

EDITOR’S NOTE — Labor-endorsed Democratic candidate Melanie Morgan scored 40.2% of the vote, Republican Terry Harder got 24.4% and Sawyer, who WSLC delegates voted to OPPOSE, got 23.4%.

► In today’s Yakima H-R — 15th District shocker: Longtime state Rep. David Taylor out; challengers Jeremie Dufault and A.J. Cooper headed to November election

► In today’s Kitsap Sun — Democrats show gains on Republican-held seats in 26th, 35th districts

► In today’s Seattle Times — GOP tsunami sirens should be sounding as the blue wave arrives (Danny Westneat column) — Donald Trump is now officially hanging around the necks of Republicans here, whether they like it or not. Voters gave the GOP a thrashing in our state’s primary Tuesday, one that reverberated all the way down the ballot.

► In today’s NY Times — Missouri voters reject anti-union law in a victory for labor — After a succession of political setbacks in onetime strongholds and a landmark defeat in the Supreme Court, organized labor has notched a hard-won victory as Missouri voters overrode a legislative move to curb union power. A measure on the ballot on Tuesday asked voters to pass judgment on a prospective law barring private-sector unions from collecting mandatory fees from workers who choose not to become members. The law was rejected by a 2-to-1 margin.

ALSO TODAY at The Stand — Missouri voters’ RTW rejection offers inspiration, hope for all (by Eric González of the WSLC, who went to Missouri to participate in the NO on Prop A campaign)

► From In These Times — Voters just killed ‘right to work’ in Missouri, proving labor still has power under Janus — “The timing of this is essential. I think everyone wants to write the labor movement’s obituary,” AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler recently said. “It’s going to energize and activate us and show that we fight back.”

 


LOCAL

 

► In today’s (Everett) Herald — Mukilteo teachers rally in Everett for salary increase — Mukilteo School District teachers seeking a pay raise held a rally Tuesday in front of the Pilchuck UniServ Council office in Everett. More than 100 teachers and supporters, many in red shirts, held “Fair Contract Now!” signs and chanted during the sidewalk demonstration. The rally preceded a scheduled three-hour bargaining session with district officials.

► In today’s Tri-City Herald — School starts in 3 weeks. Will Tri-City teachers get the raises they want? —  Kennewick School District administrators and teachers were back at the bargaining table Tuesday, negotiating over teacher raises. They didn’t reach an agreement and will meet again Thursday.

► In today’s (Everett) Herald — Concrete company to expand 2 Everett sites, close a third — Plans by Cadman Inc. include adding a ready-mix plant to the company’s north Everett location.

 


THAT WASHINGTON

 

► In the Washington Post — Get ready for this nightmare scenario involving Trump, Mueller and Kavanaugh (by Greg Sargent) — We may soon face a situation in which a president whose campaign is under investigation for collaboration with a hostile foreign power’s sabotaging of our democracy — and who has gone to enormous lengths to both scuttle that investigation and to publicly vindicate that foreign power — is seeking to avoid questioning on these matters, with the help of the justice he just appointed, possibly (given what we know about Trump) in part for this very reason.

ALSO at The Stand — Urge U.S. senators to reject Kavanaugh nomination

► From The Hill — Sens. Collins and Murkowski face recess pressure cooker on Supreme Court — GOP Sens. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Susan Collins (Maine), seen as potential swing votes on President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, are facing intense pressure from activists during their August recess.

► In today’s NY Times — At the border, asylum seekers are being rejected in unusual numbers — Immigration attorneys and advocates report that asylum applicants in recent months are failing their crucial initial screenings with asylum officers at the border in record numbers, the first sign that the Trump administration is carrying out promises to reduce the number of people granted asylum in the United States and limit the conditions under which it is granted.

► In today’s Washington Post — Border arrest data suggests Trump’s push to split migrant families had little deterrent effect — U.S. border agents arrested 9,258 “family units” along the southwest border last month, down slightly from 9,434 in June and 9,485 in May.

ALSO at The Stand — Join vigil for immigrant justice Thursday at Seattle ICE office— Wear your union colors and bring signs to the Seattle Labor for Keeping Families Together Vigil from 8 to 10 a.m. Thursday, Aug. 9 outside the Seattle ICE Office, 1000 2nd Ave. in downtown Seattle. UFCW 21 will provide donuts and coffee. See the Facebook event page to RSVP or get more details.

► From The Hill — GOP Rep. Chris Collins charged with insider trading — Rep. Chris Collins (R-N.Y.), a top ally of President Trump on Capitol Hill, has been arrested and charged with federal securities fraud related to an Australian pharmaceutical company of which he had been the largest shareholder.

 


TODAY’S MUST-READ

 

► From The Outline — Racism and the battle of free speech at Evergreen State College (by Peter Moskowitz) — Last December, Naima Lowe, who had been a media and documentary professor at The Evergreen State College since 2010, resigned after the school, its students, and some of its faculty became the central focus of a national battle over free speech. Or at least that’s how most media outlets described it: In a seemingly endless stream of articles, Lowe and her supporters were described as a free-speech-stifling mob and as anti-white radicals… But the fight at Evergreen was only tangentially related to speech. In reality, it was by and large about students and some professors demanding more equity for students of color and LGBTQ students on the campus. This fact went ignored by the mainstream press, who reported a sanitized narrative that disregarded the consequences of these clashes: students and professors feeling unheard and even unsafe at their universities, left to battle online and real-life far-righters without institutional support.

EDITOR’S NOTE — In the wake of this right-wing campaign to discredit Evergreen, and the bad press it has successfully generated, enrollment has dropped significantly at the college and its budget is being slashed. That’s the goal. This dark-money campaign run by groups like the “Foundation for Individual Rights in Education” is funded by the same billionaires that have financed the Janus case and the anti-union Freedom Foundation: the Bradley Foundation, Koch Brothers, Scaife Foundation, et al. Their campaign to smear and discredit Evergreen and other progressive public liberal-arts colleges in the name of “free speech” continues. And the commercial media continues to eat it up.

Full disclosure: The Entire Staff of The Stand is the proud parent of a current Evergreen student who loves his college, his classes, and his professors.

 


The Stand posts links to Washington state and national news of interest every weekday morning by 10 a.m.

CHECK OUT THE UNION DIFFERENCE in Washington: higher wages, affordable health and dental care, job and retirement security.

FIND OUT HOW TO JOIN TOGETHER with your co-workers to negotiate for better wages, benefits, and a voice at work. Or go ahead and contact a union organizer today!