DAILY NEWS
Work safety at Darigold ● The beginning of Trump’s end? ● Shareholders vs. America
Monday, August 20, 2018
LOCAL
PREVIOUSLY at The Stand — Darigold refuses to accept petitions on dairy safety
► In today’s (Everett) Herald — Strapped Everett Transit wants to double fares, cut routes — The recommendation to cut bus service by 7 percent and increase fares didn’t sit well with riders who attended the open house.
PAY OUR TEACHERS!
► In today’s Columbian — Ridgefield teachers vote to approve strike to start Aug. 29 — Members of the Ridgefield Education Association overwhelmingly voted to approve a strike Friday night. The strike would start Aug. 29, the first scheduled day of classes. Until then, the union and district will continue to hold bargaining sessions to try to work out a new teacher contract.
► In today’s Columbian — Salary standoff sizzles in Clark County schools — In the heat and haze, hundreds of Evergreen Public Schools teachers protested outside district administrative offices and stormed the school board meeting. It was the same story across town at the Vancouver Public Schools’ board meeting, where an estimated 400 teachers demonstrated in favor of increased wages. It’s a scene that’s played out at school board meetings across Clark County all summer.
► In today’s (Everett) Herald — No promises: New money, rules complicate teacher bargaining — These next 10 days are critical in determining whether thousands of students in Snohomish County will begin the new school year on time. With teacher contracts expiring at midnight Aug. 31 in nearly every district in the county, negotiations on new collective bargaining agreements are intensifying.
THIS WASHINGTON
► From KUOW — Rep. Matt Manweller sues Central Washington University after firing — Rep. Matt Manweller (R-Ellensburg), who is seeking a fourth term in the state legislature, is suing Central Washington University after the school fired the legislator following a workplace conduct investigation. Manweller was a tenured professor of political science before he was fired.
THAT WASHINGTON
► In the NY Times — Why cover up Brett Kavanaugh’s past? (editorial) — For the first time in modern history, Republicans are refusing to request a Supreme Court nominee’s relevant papers.
► In The Guardian — Too many Americans die on the job. Are things about to get worse? (by Gabriel Winant) — Who remembers Alphonse Maddin? Maddin came briefly to national attention in spring of 2017, after Donald Trump appointed Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court. Maddin was a truck driver and the central character in one of Gorsuch’s worst opinions as a circuit court judge. His story is one of the rare prominent examples of a vast, hidden world of American injustice: danger in the workplace… His case illustrates how a U.S. Supreme Court that is dominated by right-wing justices will have a devastating effect on worker’s rights and protections.
► From Politico — Liberals crushed in SCOTUS spending war — Conservatives are vastly outspending liberals and targeting vulnerable senators in the fight to confirm Brett Kavanaugh.
EDITOR’S NOTE — As Sen. Doug Jones (D-Ala.) says: “It’s just a sad state of affairs when a judicial nomination becomes a political campaign. I’m seeing myself more on TV than I did last year when I ran.”
► In the Washington Post — White House drafts more cancellations of clearances as Trump aims to punish critics — President Trump wants to sign off on “most if not all” of the documents revoking the security clearances, said one senior White House official, who indicated that communications aides have discussed the optimum times to release them as a distraction during unfavorable news cycles.
► From Politico — Guiliani: ‘Truth isn’t truth’ — President Donald Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani on Sunday claimed “truth isn’t truth” when trying to explain why the president should not testify for special counsel Robert Mueller for fear of being trapped into a lie that could lead to a perjury charge.
► In today’s Washington Post — America is slouching toward autocracy (by F.J. Dionne) — Slowly, Trump has accustomed us to behavior that, at any other recent time and with just about any other politician, would in all probability have been career-ending. We know what a military coup looks like. But a slow-motion dismantling of rules, norms and expectations can be more insidious because we don’t even notice what’s happening to us.
NATIONAL
ALSO TODAY at The Stand — AFT report IDs companies that profit from family separations
► From Vox — America’s prisoners are going on strike in at least 17 states — Incarcerated Americans are often forced to work for cents an hour. So they’re launching what could be their biggest protest ever.
► In the NY Times — Drug companies fight state efforts to rein in costs — Without waiting for Congress or the Trump administration, states have passed many laws to hold down drug prices, but drag manufacturers are challenging those laws in court.
TODAY’S MUST-READ
The Stand posts links to Washington state and national news of interest every weekday morning by 10 a.m.