NEWS ROUNDUP
Preventable strikes ● Still trying to repeal ACA ● Prime Day walkout
Monday, July 8, 2019
LOCAL
ALSO at The Stand — Portland grocery workers OK strike; SW Wash. could be next
► In the Seattle Times — Employee walkout at Slate Coffee’s Ballard store triggers discussion about ‘toxic’ work environments — On an early Saturday morning last month in Ballard, five baristas taped resignation letters to the front door of Slate Coffee Roasters in hope of shaming their bosses for issuing late paychecks and for failing to address what they claim is a “toxic work environment.” The local coffee chain’s flagship shop in Ballard has remained shut since the walkout, but all of Slate’s other locations have stayed open.
BOEING
ALSO at The Stand — Boeing’s cost-cutting business model is failing (by Stan Sorscher) — Will Boeing make great products, which generate cash flow, or will it continue being a company that generates great cash flow — and makes airplanes?
► In the (Everett) Herald — Suspended routes stack up as airlines wait for Boeing 737 Max — Southwest and American airlines have dropped direct routes across the country as the carriers continue to grapple with fallout from the grounding of Boeing 737 Max jets.
THIS WASHINGTON
EDITOR’S NOTE — Several business lobbyists and owners are interviewed. Number of actual working people interviewed: zero.
ALSO at The Stand:
State moves to close overtime pay loophole (June 5, 2019)
Immediate, widespread support for restoring OT pay (June 6, 2019)
► In the Columbian — State tightens up on rules for noncompete agreements — In the latest move in a string of changes aimed at tightening the state’s labor laws, legislators passed a bill in April that cracks down on the use of noncompete agreements.
► In the (Aberdeen) Daily World — Despite millions spent, ‘crucial’ DSHS electronic records system years behind schedule — A multi-million dollar project to bring electronic health records to Western State Hospital and other buildings overseen by the state Department of Social and Health Services is several years behind schedule, and the state says it doesn’t know when it will be completed.
ELECTIONS
► In the Seattle Times — Problems with Washington’s new $9.5M voter-registration system leave officials racing to get ballots printed, mailed — County officials across Washington are racing to enter a backlog of voter-registration data into a new statewide elections system in time to get ballots printed and mailed by mid-July, for the Aug. 6 primary.
► In the (Everett) Herald — As time expires, Eyman lacks signatures for anti-tax measure — Initiative promoter Tim Eyman failed to gather enough signatures for I-1648 to erase tax increases approved by lawmakers earlier this year.
► In the (Everett) Herald — Reykdal wants second term leading state public school system — Snohomish native, who narrowly won the seat in 2016, announced his re-election bid.
IMMIGRATION
► In the Washington Post — Fear of immigration raids looms as plans for ICE ‘family operation’ move forward — Trump’s threats have left immigrants living in the United States illegally in a fog of dread, putting neighborhoods on edge and making residents fear venturing outside.
► In today’s Washington Post — FBI, ICE find state driver’s license photos are a gold mine for facial-recognition searches — Federal agents have turned state driver’s license databases — including Washington state’s — into a facial-recognition gold mine, scanning through millions of Americans’ photos without their knowledge or consent.
► In the Yakima H-R — Yakima Valley farmers endure strain as immigration reform remains out of reach — While much of the recent conversation on immigration has focused on how the U.S. has handled and should handle border security, the Yakima Valley’s agricultural industry has continued to wait for an immigration policy that will provide a sufficient supply of legal foreign workers.
THAT WASHINGTON
EDITOR’S NOTE — If the Trump administration and the 20 Republican-led states that filed this lawsuit succeed, say goodbye to coverage for pre-existing conditions, coverage for adult children until age 26, the ban on lifetime coverage caps, and much more. All this from the party that, nearly 10 years later, still has no alternative proposal to keep Americans covered. Shameful.
► In today’s Washington Post — Appeals court’s decision on Affordable Care Act could create political havoc for GOP — A ruling that the health-care law is unconstitutional would almost certainly catapult the issue back before the Supreme Court — and to the forefront of the 2020 campaign, legal and political analysts say.
► In today’s Washington Post — The Trump administration has changed its story on the census citizenship question at least 10 times in four months — Trump’s renewed push to add a citizenship question to the 2020 Census has again thrown his administration, which until last week had gone nearly four months without a White House communications director, for a loop. In the interim, Trump and his officials have undercut one another’s public statements as well as the administration’s legal arguments for adding a citizenship question.
NATIONAL
► In the Washington Post — ‘This doesn’t look like the best economy ever’: 40% of Americans say they still struggle to pay bills — The stock market is at record levels, but this expansion has been weaker and its benefits distributed far more unevenly than in previous growth cycles, leaving many Americans in a vulnerable position. About 40 percent of Americans have seen paltry or volatile wage growth, rising expenses for housing, health care and education, and increased levels of personal debt. They tend not to own homes or many stocks.
► From HuffPost — Stadium erupts in ‘equal pay’ chants as U.S. women win 2019 World Cup — The chants began when FIFA President Gianni Infantino walked on the field for the postgame ceremonies.
The Stand posts links to Washington state and national news of interest every weekday morning by 10 a.m.