Friday, January 11, 2019

TRUMP’S SHUTDOWN

► From the Washington Post — Furloughed federal employees rally against shutdown — Furloughed federal employees and supporters protested the ongoing government shutdown on Thursday in Washington, D.C., urging Trump and Congress to open the government.

MORE rally coverage from Mother Jones, NBC News, CBS News, and Bloomberg.

FROM The Calendar at The Stand:

FRIDAY in SEATAC — PASS (FAA aviation safety specialists) and NATCA (air traffic controllers) and their supporters will Rally to Stop the Shutdown from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 11 at the Sea-Tac International Airport Flag Pavilion and leaflet passengers in the airport walkway bridges.

SATURDAY in SEATAC — TSA security officers and federal prison workers represented by AFGE will conduct an informational picket to Stop the Shutdown on Saturday, Jan. 12 from 1 to 3 p.m. at Angle Lake Park, 19408 International Blvd. in SeaTac.

► From HuffPost — Thousands of federal workers just missed their first paycheck

► In today’s News Tribune — Help for workers affected by federal shutdown includes Sea-Tac resource fair, TPU pay options — BECU, WSECU, PSE, Seattle City Light and United Way of King County will be at fair Friday, Monday.

ALSO TODAY at The Stand — Port has Sea-Tac resource fair for federal workers amid shutdown

► In today’s Spokesman-Review — Federal workers in Spokane receive help as paychecks held

► In today’s Peninsula Daily News — Federal workers seek help; community offers aid

► In today’s Washington Post — Furloughed workers selling possessions to make ends meet — As hundreds of thousands of federal workers brace for their first missed paychecks of the government shutdown this week, some have become immersed in the frantic financial calculus of choosing what they can live without.

► In today’s Washington Post — Coast Guard families told they can have garage sales to cope with government shutdown — Employees of the U.S. Coast Guard who are facing a long U.S. government shutdown just received a suggestion: To get by without pay, consider holding a garage sale, babysitting, or dog-walking. The tip sheet, titled “Managing your finances during a furlough,” reads: “Bankruptcy is a last option.”

EDITOR’S NOTE — If these insulting stories about the treatment of America’s employees don’t make you angry, then decades of deliberate devaluing of civil service and government work has succeeded in numbing your humanity. Our nation has gone from superpower to worldwide embarrassment.

► From MSNBC — AFL-CIO chief pushes back against Trump’s claims (video) — AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka weighs in as hundreds of thousands of workers will begin missing their first paycheck on Friday as a result of the shutdown. Trumka says no AFL-CIO member he’s spoken with supports Trump in the shutdown.

► From TPM — Polls: Voters oppose Trump on shutdown by wide margins

► From The Hill — McConnell blocks House bills to reopen government — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Thursday blocked two House-passed funding bills that would reopen the federal government. McConnell has pledged that he will not bring up a bill that Trump doesn’t support.

► From TPM — House GOPers bucking Trump on shutdown grows to 12 — The group of House Republicans voting to buck President Trump and end the government shutdown grew to a dozen members on Thursday — including the GOP’s most recent campaign chairman.

EDITOR’S NOTE — Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-3rd) is among the 12, having voted to fund government and end the shutdown. Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-5th) and Dan Newhouse (R-4th) have voted to maintain the shutdown.

► In today’s Washington Post — Trump administration lays groundwork to declare national emergency to build wall — The White House has begun laying the groundwork for a declaration of national emergency to build Trump’s border wall, a move certain to set off a firestorm of opposition in Congress and the courts, but one that could pave the way for an end to the three-week government shutdown.

► In today’s NY Times — White House considers using storm aid funds as a way to pay for the border wall — Trump considers diverting emergency aid from storm- and fire-ravaged Puerto Rico, Florida, Texas and California to build a border barrier, perhaps under an emergency declaration.

► In today’s NY Times — Farm country stood by Trump. But the shutdown is pushing it to the breaking point. — Some farmers say the loss of crucial loans, payments and other government services has pushed them — and their support — to a breaking point.

► In today’s NY Times — At White House, empty desks and unpaid bills as Trump shows no sign of relenting

► From Reuters — Law enforcement agencies squeezed by government shutdown

► From Politico — Airline safety ‘eroding’ as shutdown drags on

► From TPM — Miami Airport will close a terminal due to TSA screeners calling in sick

LOCAL

► In today’s Tri-City Herald — School workers rally over pay — Kennewick School District paraeducators, cashiers, classified employees and family members rally early Thursday on West Fourth Avenue near the district administrative offices in Kennewick. The 600-plus workers, represented by Public School Employees of Washington SEIU Local 1948, and the district have been negotiating over pay for months.

ALSO TODAY at The Stand — Kennewick Paraeducators (PSE) vote to authorize strike

► In today’s Seattle Times — Following months of bus delays, Seattle Public Schools lays off transportation department leader — After several months of delayed school buses caused by a persistent driver shortage, SPS is laying off a key leader who oversees transportation — and who has served as the key liaison between the schools and its busing contractor.

► In today’s (Everett) Herald — City of Everett offers buyouts to 330 senior employees — As the city faces an $11 million budget gap, the move could reduce the need for later layoffs.

► In today’s Spokesman-Review — Former Tonasket officer says mayor asked him to change name because ‘Jose’ sounded too Hispanic

THIS WASHINGTON

► In today’s Seattle Times — State backers submit signatures for I-1000, to re-legalize affirmative action — Supporters of an initiative that would re-legalize affirmative action in Washington state say they’ve collected enough petition signatures to send their measure to the Legislature this year. The Initiative 1000 campaign last Friday submitted more than 387,000 signatures to the secretary of state’s office, said Jesse Wineberry, a former state lawmaker working on the campaign. About 260,000 valid signatures are required to qualify an initiative. Community activists launched the I-1000 campaign at Mount Zion Baptist Church in Seattle in August. Former governors Dan Evans, Gary Locke and Christine Gregoire backed the measure in October, and Gov. Jay Inslee issued a statement in support last week, pledging to “make it a priority to have (I-1000) passed by the Legislature in the upcoming session.”

EDITOR’S NOTE — The Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO has endorsed I-1000.

► From KNKX — Two decades after it was banished, a movement arises to restore affirmative action in Washington — If Initiative 1000 makes it to the state legislature, Washington lawmakers will be asked to once again allow affirmative action policies in public employment, education and contracting.

► In today’s Seattle Times — State Supreme Court declines to review ruling that killed Seattle’s income tax— The legal battle started after the Seattle City Council voted unanimously in July 2017 to adopt the 2.25 percent tax on total income above $250,000 for individuals and above $500,000 for married couples.

► From the AP — Schools, mental health system at top of Legislature’s 2019 agenda — Funding schools and fixing the state’s struggling mental health system are top priorities for the upcoming legislative session, lawmakers and the governor said Thursday during panel discussions in Olympia.

YESTERDAY at The Stand — Washington State Labor Council announces legislative agenda for 2019

► In today’s News Tribune — Inslee says he’s focused on the state as speculation swirls about presidential bid — Amid speculation that he’ll run for president, Gov. Jay Inslee laid out his goals Thursday for the upcoming legislative session, which starts its run Monday.

► In today’s Columbian — Inslee: Light rail is a must — The governor has a message for Southwest Washington: The replacement of the I-5 Bridge spanning the Columbia River will include light rail, or it won’t be built.

► In today’s Columbian — ‘Public-option’ health care (editorial) —  Inslee’s proposal for a “public-option” health care plan in Washington is interesting but will require extensive vetting.

PREVIOUSLY at The Stand — Inslee backs ‘public option’ for health care

► In today’s Seattle Times — New health plan is a step toward equity for school employees (editorial) — New state health insurance program will be good for school employees but a state budget challenge.

THAT WASHINGTON

► From Politico — Trump White House urging allies to prepare for possible RBG departure — The White House is reaching out to political allies and conservative activist groups to prepare for an ailing Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s possible death or departure from the Supreme Court — an event that would trigger the second bitter confirmation battle of President Donald Trump’s tenure.

► In today’s Washington Post — Trump’s immigration policy has foreign tech talent looking north of the border — Highly skilled foreign workers and the American firms that employ them are in a bit of a visa panic. Trump has vowed to crack down on the H-1B visa program, but there are no new rules yet, creating a climate of uncertainty and fear, particularly in Silicon Valley. Canadian businesses sense an opportunity.

► From Politico — Exasperated Democrats try to rein in Ocasio-Cortez — The effort is part carrot, part stick. But it’s far from clear the anti-establishment political novice can be made to play ball.

EDITOR’S NOTE — AOC responds: “To quote Alan Moore: ‘None of you understand. I’m not locked up in here with YOU. You’re locked up in here with ME.'”

We love her.

NATIONAL

► MUST-READ in today’s Washington Post — Even blue-chip companies fail. Here’s how to save their workers, and towns, when they do. (by Andrew Hedden) — The history of American business is defined by corporate failure: a long series of panics, recessions, slumps, bankruptcies and depressions. Yet while corporate leaders generally escape the financial repercussions of their own business mistakes, workers and the communities that depend on a company for their livelihoods do not. Workers must therefore prepare for economic failure. They can do so by organizing collectively. Consider the history of Seattle. Decades before it became Amazon’s company town, Seattle belonged to Boeing. The company may be a successful global aerospace manufacturer today. But almost a half-century ago, Boeing too came close to bankruptcy and nearly took down the city of Seattle with it. What saved the city and its workers? Unions.

► From Bloomberg — Air Force accepts long-delayed, still-troubled Boeing tanker — The U.S. Air Force has accepted the first delivery of Boeing’s long-delayed aerial refueling tanker despite flaws in the Everett-built KC-46A Pegasus that remain to be fixed.

T.G.I.F.

► In lieu of our usual Friday music video, The Entire Staff of The Stand presents the following segment from a 60-year-old TV show — it’s real, check Snopes if you don’t believe us — in which a con man with a penchant for threatening lawsuits tries to convince a town to build a wall to save itself from imminent doom. And you get one guess what his name is.

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