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Massive voter turnout ● Life/death on the ballot ● More work in Bellingham

Monday, November 5, 2018

 


ELECTION

 

► In today’s (Everett) Herald — Massive voter turnout marks end of volatile election year — With so much at stake up and down the ballot, turnout is expected to eclipse 75 percent.

ALSO at The Stand — Issues matter. Your voice matters. VOTE! — Tomorrow (Tuesday) is Election Day. That means voters have to drop their ballots in the mail — no postage is necessary — or in local county drop boxes today or tomorrow to be a part of this historic election. (Voters can log into MyVote.com to find drop boxes near them.) No one knows for sure what will happen in these elections — not the pollsters, not the pundits, and not Uncle Walter. But there is one sure bet: there will be some local, state legislative, or possibly even congressional races decided by a relative handful of votes. Make sure you are counted! VOTE!

► MUST READ from HuffPost — It’s not just about pre-existing conditions — Medicaid is on the ballot, too — People who depend on the Affordable Care Act’s protections for people with pre-existing conditions have a great deal at stake in Tuesday’s elections. But so do people who rely on Medicaid, even though they’ve gotten a lot less attention this election cycle. Overall, roughly 14 million people got insurance because of the Medicaid expansion, and that is the single biggest reason that the number of people without coverage has fallen to historic lows since the ACA took effect. But those gains could vanish, depending on what happens Tuesday. If Republicans hold onto both houses of Congress, they will almost certainly try once again to repeal the ACA. And if the legislation they consider looks anything like the proposals that they tried to pass last year, it will both eliminate the extra federal funding for the Medicaid expansion and ratchet down what the federal government spends on the rest of the program, as well.

► In today’s Washington Post — Midterms test whether Republicans not named Trump can win by stoking racial animosity — The fierce battle for control of Congress and the nation’s governorships has turned toward blatant and overtly racial attacks rarely seen since the civil rights era of the 1960s.

► From HuffPost — That racist Trump ad CNN refused to air? NBC just ran it in prime time. — NBC on Sunday aired a controversial political ad paid for by President Donald Trump’s campaign during the prime-time commercial breaks for Sunday Night Football.

EDITOR’S NOTE –If you think big corporate media cares about civil discourse and America’s drift toward fascism more than it cares about making money, you are kidding yourself. One of the biggest reasons Donald Trump is President of the United States is because he and his antics boosts network ratings. Here’s a thought. Turn off the TV for the next 48 hours. and If you haven’t already voted, fill out the ballot based on the information in your Voter Guide (and from your union), and VOTE without exposing yourself and your family to all the poisonous nonsense spewing from desperate politicians.

► In today’s Washington Post — ‘Full Trumpism’: The president’s apocalyptic attacks reach a new level of falsity — President Trump is painting an astonishingly apocalyptic vision of America under Democratic control in the campaign’s final days, unleashing a torrent of falsehoods and portraying his political opponents as desiring crime, squalor and poverty.

 


LOCAL

 

► In today’s Bellingham Herald — The Port of Bellingham is about to get a lot busier — A new three-year contract with Ports America, which has options for two additional three-year terms, will allow international cargo to begin regularly arriving at the Bellingham Shipping Terminal… A spokesman for the Port said, “it will mean a lot more work for our partners, and in particular the Local 7 ILWU… This will mean a dramatic increase of revenue coming through the shipping terminal as opposed to what we’ve had in the past.”

► In today’s Columbian — Washougal schools, union reach agreement — The Washougal chapter of the Public School Employees union and the Washougal School District have a new one-year agreement, which was approved by the school board this week. The union represents most classified positions, such as custodians, bus drivers, secretaries and staff assistants. The agreement provides a salary increase of 9.6 percent for most job classifications, with additional higher adjustments to some titles to bring those to a median level of pay with comparable positions in other local school districts.

EDITOR’S NOTE — Get paid what you’re worth! Contact a union organizer today and find out how you can join together with your co-workers to negotiate a fair return for your work.

► In today’s Seattle Times — Moses Lake’s high-tech plant is collateral damage in U.S.-China trade war — REC Silicon, a Norwegian company, sees Moses Lake at the center of a high-tech manufacturing revolution. But that vision is likely dead unless Washington and Beijing can settle their differences on trade.

► In the News Tribune — 164 workers to lose jobs as Federal Way health plan company closes — A closure and layoff notice of a Federal Way medical insurer caps Catholic Health Initiatives’ gradual move away from the health insurance business.

► In today’s Bellingham Herald — After a raid in Whatcom County, here’s how the community is helping undocumented workers — Ruby Castaneda and Marisol Chapina were reeling. Hours before, their partners had been arrested as they headed to their jobs at Granite Precast in Bellingham. The undocumented workers were among 16 men arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in what the agency called an “ongoing criminal investigation.” So, here were the women — scared and overwhelmed — at a meeting at Bellingham Unitarian Fellowship, listening to Community to Community Development, a Bellingham immigrant and farmworker rights group, and Bellingham immigration attorney Hannah Stone lay out the details of what had happened and what to expect next.

 


THIS WASHINGTON

 

► In today’s Seattle Times — T-Mobile delivers another wake-up call (editorial) — With T-Mobile US considering major expansion away from its hometown of Bellevue, and Amazon’s HQ2 announcement looming, state and regional leaders must remind big employers that the Greater Seattle area still has the right business climate and ample capacity for growth.

 


NATIONAL

 

► In today’s LA Times — Blue-collar jobs will survive the rise of artificial intelligence. But the work will change — For all the technical marvels inside Rolls Royce’s jet-engine plant near Petersburg, Va. , a fully automated, 8-year-old facility, the plant manager talks a lot about soft skills such as trouble shooting and intuition. Call it the automation paradox: The infusion of artificial intelligence, robotics and big data into the workplace is elevating the demand for people’s ingenuity, to reinvent a process or rapidly solve problems in an emergency.

 


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!