Friday, October 12, 2018

LOCAL

► In today’s Yakima H-R — Larson Fruit settles guest workers’ retaliation suit — Larson Fruit has agreed to rehire about 18 guest workers who say they were blacklisted from employment after striking last year over unfair and unsafe working conditions at a Quincy orchard. The company will also pay them $275,800, according to a settlement announced Thursday. Earlier this summer, the workers filed a lawsuit in Yakima County Superior Court, saying the grower’s failure to employ them this year was not only in retaliation, but in violation of a labor agreement. Also named in the lawsuit was the labor recruiter, Lacey-based Wafla.

► A related story from The Guardian — Louisiana’s undocumented seafood workers unite to fight workplace abuses — Guest workers are organizing to push back against sexual harassment, poor conditions and other abuses. Seafood workers in Louisiana are beginning to lose the fear of retribution as they organize under the banner of the Seafood Workers Alliance. “The company has all the power, but with organizing, we are going to attack their power,” said Jesus Andres, president of the Seafood Workers Alliance.

► In today’s Seattle Times — Management shake-up at Alaska Air will bring layoffs — One manager said employees learned in an internal company webcast on Tuesday that the re-organization will result in about 100 job cuts, including layoffs.

THIS WASHINGTON

► In today’s Seattle Times — Death penalty struck down by Washington Supreme Court, taking 8 men off death row — The “death penalty is invalid because it is imposed in an arbitrary and racially biased manner,” the Supreme Court decided in a ruling published Thursday.

► In today’s News Tribune — Western State patient who bit off portion of nurse’s ear charged with second-degree assault — “She said Jones had been in her ward for approximately 6 months and has assaulted staff and other patients many times before.”

THAT WASHINGTON

► From Politico — Democrats could control trade deal’s fate — Congress is unlikely to have the time or political will to approve a new U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade agreement by the end of the year — increasing the chances that President Donald Trump will need to bring Democrats on board if he wants to put in place his replacement for NAFTA.

ALSO at The Stand — NAFTA 2018: Devil’s in the unknown details (by Lynne Dodson)

► From Gallup — More still disapprove than approve of 2017 tax cuts — With the midterm elections less than a month away and Republicans fighting to retain control of both houses of Congress, more Americans continue to disapprove than approve of last year’s sweeping tax overhaul bill signed into law by President Donald Trump, 46% to 39%. Americans’ approval of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, which included tax cuts for individuals and businesses, is unchanged from the previous reading seven months ago but is slightly higher than measures prior to and immediately after its passage.

► From Politico — Postal Service unveils price hikes, denies they’re meant to hurt Amazon — The U.S. Postal Service has proposed a series of price hikes including for a package delivery program used by Amazon, but the agency denied that the increases have anything to do with President Donald Trump’s frequent attacks on the company.

NATIONAL

► In today’s Washington Post — As stocks tumble, the U.S. wonders: Is this economy as good as it gets? — The steep sell-off on Wall Street this week underscored a growing concern among investors and economists that the economy may have nowhere to go but down. Almost no one is forecasting an immediate recession, but several factors appear likely to diminish the economy’s momentum.

ELECTION

► From Politico — Adelson drops tens of millions more to save the GOP Congress — Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson is pumping tens of millions of dollars more into Republican Party coffers in an 11th-hour push to save their congressional majorities.

EDITOR’S NOTE — It’s not free speech, it’s simply an investment. This is what plutocracy looks like.

► In today’s Washington Post — Georgia’s GOP gubernatorial candidate Brian Kemp sued over claims of suppressing thousands of minority voters — Brian Kemp, Georgia’s secretary of state and Republican gubernatorial candidate, has been hit with a lawsuit claiming his office is jeopardizing the voting rights of tens of thousands of minority Georgians.

► In the Washington Post — Here’s where Democrats are really picking up Trump voters (by E.J. Dionne) — “I think it’s all about the dignity of work,” says Democratic Sen. Sherrod Brown in an interview in the back seat of his Chevy Suburban. “I talk about how we value work. People who get up every day and work hard and do what we expect of them should be able to get ahead. I don’t think they hear that enough from Republicans or national Democrats.”

TODAY’S MUST-READ

► In today’s N.Y. Times — After ruining mayonnaise, can Millennials save America? (by the always excellent Timothy Egan) — Boomers gave us Donald Trump, the draft-dodging, tax-evading, wife-cheating poster child for ’60s-bred self-indulgence. It’s boomers who are bankrupting the nation with a trillion-dollar deficit from a selfish tax cut. And it’s boomers who are ignoring climate change while the earth convulses and heads toward an early end. I’ve given up hope that boomers can rescue us from the tyranny of the Trump age… But the moment of greatness will soon arrive for millennials, those born between 1981 and 1996. Within a year or so, there are projected to be more of them among eligible voters than us. This is good. Millennials are more progressive and unafraid of change. They are forward-looking. They are more appalled by Trump and his party than any other generation. Their lie detectors are first-rate. But millennials have one glaring, society-crushing character problem, and it has nothing to do with sandwich preference: They truly don’t vote.

T.G.I.F.

► Gather round, Millennials, and let The Entire Staff of The Stand tell you a story from before many of you were born… way back in the mid-1980s. Yes, everybody had crazy asymmetrical haircuts and silly blindingly bright clothes. But no, the music wasn’t all new wave pop with primitive electronic beats and synthesizers. There were some truly innovative rock bands, blending genres and styles of music. And one of the most talented — and most underappreciated — featured singer Corey Glover, guitarist Vernon Reid, bassist Muzz Skillings, and drummer Will Calhoun. Behold… Living Colour. You’re welcome.

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