NEWS ROUNDUP
Investing in jobs ● Tax-cut bust ● Larsen steps up ● No more shutdowns
Thursday, February 7, 2019
LOCAL
► In today’s News Tribune — Instacart changing way it pays after workers speak out — Instacart appears to have done an about-face when it comes to how it pays its workers. On Feb. 2 The News Tribune reported that tips given to the grocery delivery service’s workers were affecting their pay structure. According to the workers, the higher the tip, the less Instacart was paying. On Wednesday, Instacart’s founder and CEO Apoorva Mehta announced changes to its pay structure, saying the company will keep tips separate “from Instacart’s contribution to shopper compensation.”
THIS WASHINGTON
EDITOR’S NOTE — Ending the undemocratic supermajority requirement for school bonds is part of the Washington State Labor Council’s 2019 Shared Prosperity Agenda and strongly supported by the state’s labor movement.
► In today’s (Everett) Herald — Controversial 2018 election mailers were audacious — and legal — Right-wing gadfly Glen Morgan isn’t getting pinched for his 2018 campaign mailers that urged voters to back write-in candidates who weren’t actually running — a fact Morgan knew. The content was accurate — though not for the 2018 election. It came from years earlier, when the purported write-in candidates were actually on ballots seeking elected office. In one of the races targeted, the candidate opposed by Morgan lost by 484 votes.
PREVIOUSLY at The Stand — Republicans double down with more phony election mail (Oct. 24, 2018)
TAXES
EDITOR’S NOTE — Don’t be shocked when you do your taxes and find out you’re paying more this year — so corporations and the rich can pay less. That tax giveaway — which was supported by Washington’s Republican Reps. Jaime Herrera Beutler, Dan Newhouse, and Cathy McMorris Rodgers — and its resulting deficits are being used as an excuse to cut Social Security and Medicare, just as labor warned it would.
► From Bloomberg — U.S. banks win $21 billion Trump tax windfall then cut staff, loaned less — Major U.S. banks shaved about $21 billion from their tax bills last year — almost double the IRS’s annual budget — as the industry benefited more than many others from the Republican tax overhaul. And while the breaks set off a gusher of payouts to shareholders, firms cut thousands of jobs and saw their lending growth slow.
► And then, there’s this…
NO MORE SHUTDOWNS
► From the AP — Some workers still unpaid after shutdown, dread what’s next — Thousands have not yet received full back pay while scrambling to catch up on unpaid bills and repay unemployment benefits — all while another government shutdown looms next week. Some contract workers still haven’t been called back to work.
YESTERDAY at The Stand — Pay issues lingering long after shutdown
► From Politico — Negotiators have deal within sight in talks to avert another shutdown — Congressional deal-makers working to stave off another government shutdown said they believe a breakthrough is in reach, following a closed-door Wednesday briefing from Border Patrol officials. Negotiators have just over a week to reach a deal before federal funding runs out at midnight on Feb. 15 for the same nine departments that were shut down for 35 days after Trump threatened to veto any spending bill that did not include $5.7 billion in supplemental funding for a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.
► From Politico — ‘Too hot to handle’: Pelosi predicts GOP won’t trigger another shutdown — Speaker Nancy Pelosi is vowing that the federal government will not shut down again, even as Trump ratchets up pressure for his border wall ahead of a fast-approaching deadline. “There will not be another shutdown,” Pelosi said Wednesday. “No, it’s not going to happen.”
THAT WASHINGTON
► In today’s NY Times — Painting socialists as villains, Trump refreshes a blueprint — President Trump has proved himself adroit at creating villains to serve as his political foils. In his State of the Union address on Tuesday, he introduced a new one: socialists.
EDITOR’S NOTE — Isn’t wanting better public roads and facilities socialism? Discuss.
► From Reuters — Democrats launch 10-year ‘Green New Deal’ for clean energy — Rising star Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D. NY) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) on Thursday laid out the goals of a Green New Deal to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in 10 years, setting a high bar for Democrats who plan to make climate change a central issue in the 2020 presidential race.
► From The Hill — CNN faces liberal backlash for Howard Schultz town hall: ‘This is how we ended up with Trump’ — Many of the critics argue that CNN should not provide an hour of prime-time to Schultz.
NATIONAL
► From The Onion’s archives — Boss thinks female employee might be ready to handle job she’s been doing for past 2 years
The Stand posts links to Washington state and national news of interest every weekday morning by 10 a.m.