NEWS ROUNDUP
Carolyn for Congress ● White farmers’ welfare ● Trump’s slum-in-law
Wednesday, July 31, 2019
ELECTIONS
► In today’s (Longview) Daily News — State Labor Council endorses Carolyn Long — The Washington State Labor Council has endorsed Democrat Carolyn Long, who is running against Vancouver Republican Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler for Southwest Washington’s congressional seat. The AFL-CIO, which represents unions across the state, voted Saturday to endorse Long in her second attempt to unseat Herrera Beutler, who will be running for her sixth two-year term.
ALSO at The Stand — WSLC endorses Carolyn Long for Congress
► In today’s Columbian — No surprise in trickle of primary ballot returns — With less than a week to go, only 12.41% of eligible voters have returned their ballots.
ALSO at The Stand — Union members: Fill out, return primary ballots—postage free! — There are important local elections for city and county offices. Find out which candidates have earned labor’s support in your area.
LOCAL
► In today’s Anchorage Daily News — Alaska ferry workers have been on strike for a week. The effects continue to ripple throughout coastal Alaska. — Yakobi Fisheries typically ships about 150,000 pounds of seafood — salmon, halibut, rockfish and more — throughout the summer via the state ferry system. But Alaska’s ferry workers have been on strike for about a week now, and the state’s vessels have been docked. That has sent a shock through communities that rely on the ferries to transport people and goods.
ALSO at The Stand — As Alaska ferry strike drags on, supporters rally in Bellingham
► In today’s Bellingham Herald — More cancellations of Bellingham run as Alaska ferry strike enters its second week — More Alaska ferry cancellations were announced as a labor strike enters its second week. The Alaska Marine Highway System announced it has canceled sailings of the M/V Columbia into Bellingham through Wednesday, Aug. 7.
INTERNATIONAL TRADE
► From the AP — Trump administration, Democrats make progress on new NAFTA — Congressional Democrats appear to be moving from “no way” to “maybe” on President Donald Trump’s rewrite of a trade pact with Canada and Mexico. House Democrats have met four times with U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, most recently on Friday, and both sides say they are making progress toward a deal that would clear the way for Congress to approve Trump’s U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA. Negotiators so far have not offered details on where they’re making progress.
► In today’s Washington Post — Trump backpedals on China threats as trade deal shows signs of slipping away — Trump said Tuesday that a new trade deal with China might not come until after the 2020 elections, a significant departure from more than a year of trying to exert pressure on the world’s second-largest economy.
► From New Food Economy — USDA gave almost 100 percent of Trump’s trade war bailout to white farmers — Last July, the Trump administration announced a major new $12 billion subsidy program designed to help farmers weather America’s ongoing trade war with China. That initiative — dubbed the Market Facilitation Program (MFP) — has become the single largest source of subsidies for farmers. The MFP has almost exclusively benefited white men and their families, who appear to be disproportionately upper middle-class or wealthy. These payments further entrench already drastic inequalities in agriculture, along racial, ethnic, gender, and class lines.
► In today’s Olympian — How much did the Trump administration pay Washington farms to make up for the trade war? — Search the McClatchy Washington database to see how much money farmers in your county got in trade-war tariff subsidies, according to data obtained by The Associated Press.
THIS WASHINGTON
► From Crosscut — Washington is about to get its first female House speaker — For the first time in two decades, the top leadership post in Washington’s House of Representatives is changing hands. On Wednesday, Democrats who control the state House will meet in SeaTac to decide who will become the next House speaker — one of the most powerful jobs in state government. The winner is going to be a woman — a first in state history. Competing for the job are four experienced female legislators: state Reps. Laurie Jinkins of Tacoma, June Robinson of Everett, Monica Stonier of Vancouver and Gael Tarleton of Seattle.
► In the (Longview) Daily News — Alan Thompson, former legislator, newspaper man, dies Sunday — Alan Thompson, longtime local legislator, newspaper publisher and “true gentleman,” died at his home in Olympia on Sunday at the age of 92.
THAT WASHINGTON
► From The Hill — Trump pick Scalia becomes 2020 target for labor unions — Trump has yet to formally nominate Eugene Scalia, the son of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, to replace former Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta. But critics are already vowing to put a spotlight on Scalia’s anti-labor agenda and his work as a lawyer for businesses in high-profile labor fights. “Scalia is not going to help folks at all and that’s why it’s so important that we have a group of candidates that are pushing and supporting issues that have impact on working families,” AFSCME President Lee Saunders said.
► From the AP — Trump ‘rodent’ tweets ring true at Kushner-owned apartments — Davon Jones doesn’t have to look far to see the irony in Trump’s tweets that Baltimore is a “rat and rodent infested mess.” His apartment owned by the president’s son-in-law has been invaded by mice since he moved in a year ago. Jared Kushner’s family real estate firm owns thousands of apartments and townhomes in the Baltimore area, and some have been criticized for the same kind of disrepair and neglect that the president has accused local leaders of failing to address. Residents have complained about mold, bedbugs, leaks and, yes, mice — plenty of mice. And they say management appears in no hurry to fix the problems.
The Stand posts links to Washington state and national news of interest every weekday morning by 10 a.m.