DAILY NEWS
Working without pay ● Big Census win ● ‘Massive presence’ in L.A.
Tuesday, January 15, 2019
TRUMP’S SHUTDOWN
► From Murray.Senate.gov — Sen. Murray shares stories of federal workers and their families amid shutdown — “This past weekend… I flew home to Washington state. I walked through security lines on my way out and thanked the men and women of TSA working to protect us — and not knowing when they will be paid. And when I got to the airport in Seattle, I sat down with federal workers who had tears in their eyes describing their fear over the uncertainty the Trump Shutdown has caused.”
► From ABC World News Tonight — Living without a paycheck (video)
► From KUOW — ‘Barely treading water’: Why the shutdown disproportionately affects Black Americans — African-Americans make up a higher percentage of federal workers than they do of the non-government workforce. That’s in part because, for generations, government work has provided good wages and job security to African-Americans who faced more overt discrimination in the private sector.
ALSO TODAY at The Stand — This shutdown has made America less safe (by Monika Warner of PASS) — Aviation safety workers want to do our jobs protecting you—and to get paid what we’ve earned. Is that too much to ask?
ALSO TODAY at The Stand — Larsen: Shutdown ‘is rippling through aviation economy’ — Rep. Rick Larsen (D-2nd) joined NATCA, air traffic controllers and other aviation workforce personnel to call on Trump to end the shutdown and put Americans back to work.
► From the Hill — Air traffic controller union official says if shutdown continues there won’t be any workers left — A NATCA official warned Tuesday that if the partial government shutdown continues for another few months, there won’t be any workers left, citing many cannot sustain working without due pay.
► From Politico — Dulles closes screening lanes, lines sprawl in Atlanta as shutdown strains air travel — Washington Dulles International on Monday became the latest airport to close screening lanes because of absences by unpaid TSA agents, adding to a pileup as the government shutdown strains air travel across the country.
► From CNBC — Delta CEO: Shutdown will cost the airline $25M this month
► In today’s Seattle Times — Cantwell, Murray among Dems pressing Trump to end shutdown so wildfire preparations, training can begin again
► In the Peninsula Daily News — Kilmer meets with Hurricane Ridge group on funding amid federal shutdown
EDITOR’S NOTE — Reps. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-5th) and Dan Newhouse (R-4th) have repeatedly voted against appropriations bills to reopen government. The rest of Washington’s congressional delegation have all voted to fund government and stop the shutdown.
► In today’s Washington Post — The shutdown is giving some Trump advisers what they’ve long wanted: A smaller government — Prominent advisers to the president have forged their political careers in relentless pursuit of a lean federal budget and a reined-in bureaucracy. As a result, they have shown a high tolerance for keeping large swaths of the government dark, services offline and 800,000 federal workers without pay, with the shutdown having entered an unprecedented fourth week.
► From The Hill — Trump’s polls sag amid wall fight
LOCAL
► In today’s Seattle Times — Alaska Air to add thousands of jobs in 2019 — Alaska Air Group plans to add just over 3,000 jobs in 2019, mostly front-line positions across Alaska Airlines and Horizon Air, with three quarters of the jobs in Washington state. The company’s workforce at its Seattle hub grew by about 35 percent between 2013 and 2017.
► In today’s Spokesman-Review — Spokane Valley voters asked to support $113 million fire department levy — The Spokane Valley Fire Department wants voters to approve a $113 million tax to help pay salaries, buy new fire engines and build a new Barker Road fire station and a new maintenance facility.
THIS WASHINGTON
► From The AP — Legislature begins 105-day session — Washington lawmakers started their 105-day legislative session Monday, tasked with writing a new two-year state budget while addressing a variety of costly issues, including addressing the state’s troubled mental health system.
► In today’s Bellingham Herald — Familiar names seek to replace Ranker in Olympia — Likely candidates include former state Rep. Kris Lytton and Whatcom County Council member Rud Browne of Bellingham.
► In today’s News Tribune — Deal reached on police deadly force law after sides iron out ‘good faith’ standard — Law enforcement groups and backers of Initiative 940 have reached agreement on a bill to change Washington state law on the use of deadly force by police officers.
► In today’s (Longview) Daily News — Kelso seeks statewide change to law regarding lowest contract bidders — When the city of Kelso set out to repave a large portion of its downtown thoroughfare, it was legally obligated to accept the lowest bid from a contractor, even though city officials thought the contractor was inexperienced and ill-equipped.
► In today’s Tri-City Herald — Daylight Saving Time all the time for Washington? — State Sen. Jim Honeyford (R-Sunnyside) has sponsored legislation that would halt the spring-forward, fall-back cycle of everyone’s clocks if Congress amends the Uniform Time Act to allow states the option of going onto Daylight Saving Time year-round.
THAT WASHINGTON
► In today’s Seattle Times — Witnessing firsthand the cruel and inhumane treatment of asylum-seekers (by Deborah DeWolfe) — Conditions at the U.S.-Mexico border are every bit as dire as you may have seen or read about. How can we, as a nation, permit the human suffering of immigrants and asylum-seekers to continue?
► From HuffPost — More than 42,000 immigration hearings canceled amid shutdown — The stalled hearings will only further jam up immigration courts across the country, which already have massive backlogs.
► In today’s Columbian — Rep. Herrera Beutler pregnant with third child — “Dan and I are excited to share that Abigail and Ethan will welcome a new baby sister near the end of May,” Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-3rd) wrote in a Facebook post.
► In today’s NY Times — A history of GOP Rep. Steve King’s racist remarks
► In today’s Washington Post — Why are Republicans suddenly outraged over Steve King’s racism? (by Eugene Robinson) — Perhaps King’s newly outraged critics were waiting for him to finally spell it out in language that even the “party of Trump” cannot ignore. Which he did.
NATIONAL
► From CNN — Los Angeles teachers union calls for ‘massive presence’ on day 2 of strike — After 32,000 educators went on strike Monday, the United Teachers Los Angeles union said they want day two of the strike to “show such a massive presence that disrupts business as usual in downtown LA.” Union leaders called for Tuesday’s demonstration at the California Charter School’s Association to be as big as or greater than Monday’s walkout, during which thousands of educators marched from city hall to the Los Angeles Unified School District headquarters.
LA flooded with public education supporters, demanding a reinvestment in our public schools. Not just a declaration and show of support for public education and teachers, but a rebuke of Beutner’s agenda to starve and privatize our schools. #LAUSDStrike #UTLAStrong #WeAreLA pic.twitter.com/tb9ZL3qpjX
— United Teachers Los Angeles (@UTLAnow) January 15, 2019
► From Vulture — The Oscars are feuding with the SAG Awards over famous presenters — “The apparent attempt by the Academy to keep our members from presenting on their own awards show is utterly outrageous and unacceptable,” SAG’s statement said. The guild asked the Academy to “cease this inappropriate action.”
TODAY’S MUST-READ
But there are many reasons to think that this theory of unions isn’t right… Other than massive government redistribution of income and wealth, there’s really no other obvious way to address the country’s rising inequality. Also, there’s the chance that unions might be an effective remedy for the problem of increasing corporate market power — evidence suggests that when unionization rates are high, industry concentration is less effective at suppressing wages. Repealing right-to-work laws and appointing more pro-union regulators could be just the medicine the economy needs.
The Stand posts links to Washington state and national news of interest every weekday morning by 10 a.m.