Friday, November 30, 2018

THIS WASHINGTON

► In today’s Seattle Times — Tax protester Tim Eyman files for bankruptcy as legal troubles persist — The bankruptcy filing revealed Eyman has been making $42,573.84 a month since May, owns his home in Mukilteo and three cars; a 2013 Ford Explorer, 2013 Mercedes C300 and a Chrysler Touring 200 from 2012. The documents indicate he has $198,000 in his checking account and says he is owed $500,000 he loaned to his effort to place a $30 car-tab initiative on the upcoming ballot.

► In today’s (Everett) Herald — Eyman files for bankruptcy, blaming legal fight with AG — The state attorney general says the initiative promoter “brought these financial problems on himself.”

► In today’s Columbian — Oregon moving forward with I-5, I-205 tolls — The Oregon Transportation Commission will vote next week whether to create tolls along stretches of freeway through the Portland metro area in Oregon, marking the next step in a multiyear process.

LOCAL

► In today’s News Tribune — Dear Mr. President: End border mission and bring JBLM troops home for the holidays (editorial) — Defense officials now say this operation is expected to extend into January. That’s unfortunate not merely because service members will miss more family holidays, but because a drawn-out militarization of the border gets us no closer to the immigration reform our country desperately needs.

► In today’s Seattle Times — State Supreme Court rules against Microsoft in retaliation lawsuit by ex-employee — Microsoft managers likely knew that the former employee had filed a discrimination lawsuit against the company before the employee was given a poor review and laid off, according to the 8-1 ruling.

► In today’s Kitsap Sun — Veterans Benefits Administration to close benefits help desk in Bremerton — The agency is downsizing operations inside its Bremerton office by shutting down a help desk that’s staffed with employees who assist veterans with benefit-related queries.

BOEING

► In today’s Washington Post — Boeing CEO addresses flight system update after criticism from pilots — In an internal memo to employees, Boeing chief executive Dennis Muilenburg described the 737 as “a safe airplane designed, built and supported by skilled men and women who approach their work with the utmost integrity” and pledged to continue to improve safety processes. “Regardless of the outcome, we’re going to learn from this accident and continue to improve our safety record.”

SWAMP UPDATE

► In today’s Washington Post — ‘Individual 1’: Trump emerges as a central subject of Mueller probe — New evidence from two separate fronts of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s investigation casts fresh doubts on Trump’s version of key events involving Russia, signaling potential political and legal peril for the president. Investigators have now publicly cast Trump as a central figure of their probe into whether Trump’s campaign conspired with the Russian government during the 2016 campaign. Together, the documents show investigators have evidence that Trump was in close contact with his lieutenants as they made outreach to both Russia and WikiLeaks — and that they tried to conceal the extent of their activities.

► From The Hill — Federal agents raid office of lawyer who previously did tax work for Trump — Federal agents have reportedly raided the Chicago City Hall office of a lawyer who previously did tax work for President Trump.

► In today’s NY Times — Cohen lied. Here’s why it matters. (editorial) — Cohen’s guilty plea exposes Trump’s mind never strayed far from his business dealings and how to further enrich himself and his family, even as he was campaigning for the nation’s highest office. 

► From The Guardian — Donald Trump Jr may face legal peril after Cohen admits lying to Congress

THAT WASHINGTON

► In today’s Washington Post — Trump scores political win with signing of new North American trade pact at G-20, but deal still faces a hurdle in Congress — The deal faces uncertain prospects in Congress next year, where Democrats will control the House of Representatives. In the Senate, Sen. Patrick J. Toomey (R-Pa.) says he will oppose the deal unless changes are made to investor protection provisions. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), a likely Democratic presidential candidate, said Thursday that she would oppose the trade pact as inadequate for American workers, foreshadowing a possible 2020 campaign plank.

EDITOR’S NOTE — Also announcing his opposition is Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), who calls it a “raw deal for workers.” No word yet from Sens. Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell.

► From Reuters — Automaker groups warn U.S. tariffs will undermine new NAFTA deal — AFL-CIO trade policy specialist Celeste Drake said that the enforcement mechanism for new, higher labor standards was weak, relying on a seldom used state-to-state dispute settlement mechanism. “We urge the commission to make clear that if the obligations are not enforced, the lure of cheap and easy labor exploitation in Mexico will continue to draw production and hold down wages in both countries,” she said.

PREVIOUSLY at The Stand:

— New NAFTA is the beginning of the end for ‘free trade’ (by Stan Sorscher) — The “USMCA” deal steps away from the failed globalization model, and begins to recognize our national interests. But we can do better.

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

► In the Wichita Eagle — Trump labor secretary out of running for attorney general after Miami Herald report — Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta is out of the running to be President Donald Trump’s attorney general following a Miami Herald report that he oversaw a sweetheart deal for a wealthy financier accused of sexually abusing dozens of underage girls, according to two people close to the president.

► From HuffPost — Republicans sink Trump judicial nominee hostile to black voters’ rights — In a shocking defeat for President Donald Trump, Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.) announced Thursday that he can’t support his controversial judicial nominee Thomas Farr, torpedoing the nomination.

► In today’s Washington Post — ‘It’s a business. We’re numbers’: Many hurt by GM cuts blame others, not Trump — The economic struggles in Ohio — even amid a booming national economy — pose a potential political challenge for Trump, who built much of his 2016 campaign around the idea that he alone could turn the tide on generations of decline across the Rust Belt. Yet interviews with residents here this week show that few tie their region’s continuing troubles to the president.

TUESDAY at The Stand — ‘We didn’t bail out GM so it could hoard profits, close plants’ (Statement by UAW Vice President Terry Dittes)

NATIONAL

► Today from ProPublica — Ill nuclear workers’ benefits petitions have to be reviewed within 6 months. Some have languished about a decade. — A petition filed by a Los Alamos worker has been in limbo for 10 years. At the Savannah River Site, a petition has lingered for 11 years. At Sandia National Laboratories, workers have been waiting seven years for a final decision. Taken together, the delays show the glaring holes in a process set up to help injured nuclear workers collect compensation for radiation-linked cancers in a “timely, uniform and adequate” way, an investigation by the Santa Fe New Mexican and ProPublica has found. Petitions linger for years without resolution, violating the spirit, if not the letter, of the law. And NIOSH has repeatedly made improper conclusions about the safety and recordkeeping at Los Alamos and other sites, only to be contradicted by independent consultants and forced to redo its assessments.

ALSO at The Stand — Feds oppose workers’ comp protections for Hanford workers — Earlier this year, state lawmakers approved labor-supported legislation to address the nearly insurmountable barriers that workers at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation face when they get sick due to toxic exposure and seek relief via the workers’ compensation system. Now the Trump administration is threatening to take that hard-earned victory away. The U.S. Department of Justice has threatened to sue the State of Washington to take away the new protection for sick Hanford workers, claiming that it “discriminates against the federal government and those with whom it deals.”

► From In These Times — How graduate unions are winning — and scaring the hell out of bosses — in the Trump era — The Columbia graduate students’ decision is the latest—and one of the most notable—in a string of concessions by university administrators at private institutions across the country. It’s a wave of labor action that belongs to the Trump era: The NLRB’s Columbia University ruling, extending bargaining rights to graduate workers at private universities, was issued in August 2016, just before Trump won the electoral college. Graduate unions have spread quickly in the two years since.

T.G.I.F.

► The Entire Staff of The Stand has had the pleasure of seeing the legendary Rolling Stones in concert (Tattoo You tour, 1981, Capitol Centre, Washington D.C., yes we’re that old), but when we saw what they are charging for tickets that went on sale this week for their May 22, 2019, show at CenturyLink Field, we decided to take a pass. This one goes out to Mick & Co.™.

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