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Inslee x 3 ● It’s a WAREHOUSE ● Trump’s America

Thursday, August 22, 2019

 


THIS WASHINGTON

 

► In today’s Seattle Times — Jay Inslee exits presidential race; plans to run for 3rd term as governor — Gov. Jay Inslee ended his presidential run Wednesday evening, announcing it had become clear that his climate change-focused campaign would not succeed. The AP is reporting that he plans to run for a third term as governor. He said he would make a statement Thursday about his political plans. No Washington governor has run for a third term since Republican Gov. Dan Evans, who ran for, and won, a third term in 1972.

MORE coverage from The Hill, HuffPost, Politico, locally from the Olympian, Spokesman-Review and from the AP.

► From Vox — Jay Inslee, exiting the presidential race, reflects on his campaign — He drove climate onto center stage and left behind a comprehensive plan.

► From Crosscut — Poll: WA feels good about the economy, bad about Trump’s tariffs — The picture that the results paint is of a population that is feeling good about the economy, but that disagrees over many of the mechanisms that shape that economy. The defining factor in many of those disagreements is partisanship, largely mirrored in our state’s geography.

► In the Skagit Valley Herald — Republicans prepare to replace Sen. Bailey — Republican officials in the 10th LD plan to select nominees to replace retiring state Sen. Barbara Bailey (R-Oak Harbor) in the first week of October.

► In the (Everett) Herald — To expel or not to expel Matt Shea, that may be the question (by Jerry Cornfield) — Nelson G. Robinson holds the ignoble distinction of being the first lawmaker expelled from the state House of Representatives. Matt Shea could be the second — if he doesn’t walk away on his own… We’ve already learned about a manifesto Shea penned laying out “Biblical basis for war.” There are emails linking him to a religious group that trained children and young men for religious combat. The Spokesman-Review in Spokane has chronicled the state lawmaker’s attempts to surveil progressive leaders in town.

 


LOCAL

 

► In today’s Spokesman-Review — Providence nurses prepare to strike if contract negotiations continue to stall — Nurses in the Providence hospital system are preparing to strike after 10 months of contract negotiations have produced little progress. Nurses and other unionized workers in the Providence system are negotiating separately against similar proposed changes to paid time-off policies from Providence. Nurses at Providence Sacred Heart, represented by the Washington State Nurses Association, have begun official strike preparations this week. Nurses with the association have begun to sign up their colleagues to commit to strike if they have to, a news release from the association says.

► In today’s Tri-City Herald — Mediator called in to avert Kennewick teacher strike on first day of school — A mediator is stepping in to avert a strike that could shut down Kennewick schools on the first day of classes next week. Kennewick School District leaders asked for the Public Employment Relations Commission to “explore possible contract solutions” between the district and Kennewick Education Association.

► In today’s News Tribune — Tacoma Screw’s plans for Gig Harbor area fulfillment center under last stages of review

EDITOR’S NOTE — We post the link above for no other reason than to complain about journalists’ complicity with Amazon and other corporations in calling warehouses “fulfillment centers.” It’s not only creepily Orwellian, it requires many more characters in the headline, so they’re going out of their way to use this nonsensical corporate-speak. Worse, in Europe where they do sectorwide bargaining (as Bernie is proposing we do here), Amazon is paying substandard wages below what all other warehouse workers get by claiming their “fulfillment centers” aren’t warehouses. They’re WAREHOUSES.

 


TRUMP’S AMERICA

 

► From Vox — Trump says he’s ‘seriously’ considering ending birthright citizenship — President Trump said he’s looking into ending birthright citizenship for the children of non-citizens. Speaking outside the White House Wednesday, Trump told reporters he plans to do away with the constitutional right, which he called “frankly ridiculous,” through an executive order.

► From the AP  — Trump’s fake accent angers Asian Americans as they veer left — When Amanda Berg heard reports that Trump mocked the accents of the leaders of South Korea and Japan at a recent fundraiser, it brought back painful memories from her childhood. It made her feel like she was a foreigner in her own community. Berg is among a growing and crucial bloc of Asian American voters leaning further to the left in the age of Trump. “It empowers people who would be predisposed to doing that kind of thing anyway,” said Berg, a high school English teacher in Denver. “And it makes it acceptable to be openly, increasingly discriminating.”

► From Insider — Drivers in Idaho keep harassing busloads of immigrants’ children on their way to pre-school — Idaho drivers have reportedly been harassing busloads of young kids, prompting a local nonprofit to remove signs from the buses that identify the riders as children of migrant workers. A spokesperson for the Community Council of Idaho told The Idaho Statesman that one bus driver reported experiencing threatening incidents with other drivers while she was driving a busload of children under the age of five. “It’s really heartbreaking, because they’re children,” spokesperson Sonnay Alvarez told the newspaper. “They don’t understand what hate is.

ALSO TODAY at The Stand — Protest Ingraham, anti-union group on Sept. 21 at Hyatt Bellevue —  The anti-union extremists at the Olympia-based Freedom Foundation have invited white supremacist and Fox News talking head Laura Ingraham to be their keynote for their annual dark-money fundraiser at the Hyatt Regency Bellevue on Sept. 21. And union members and community supporters plan to be outside to tell the Freedom Foundation and the Hyatt Regency Bellevue that hate has no place in Washington state!

“Laura Ingraham is what’s wrong with America,” said WSLC President Larry Brown. “This is a woman who has monetized hate speech, enriching herself while mainstreaming the tropes of white supremacy.”

 


THAT WASHINGTON

 

► From the AFL-CIO — ‘State of the Unions’ podcast: Save our apprenticeships — On the latest episode of “State of the Unions,” podcast co-host Tim Schlittner talks to North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU) Chief of Staff Mike Monroe about a Department of Labor proposal that would undermine world-class apprenticeships in the construction industry.

ALSO at The Stand:

Save veteran construction training programs (Aug. 19)

Urge Labor Department to save state-registered apprenticeships (Aug. 1)

► In today’s Washington Post — With deficit rising, worries grow the U.S. may be out of tools if recession hits — The U.S. federal deficit will expand by about $800 billion more than previously expected over the next decade, the Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday. The annual U.S. deficit will come close to hitting $1 trillion in 2019, an unusually high number during a period of economic growth, the CBO added. Driving that number is spending as well as a large tax cut in corporate and individual income taxes passed by Republicans in 2017. The new deficit estimates could deepen worries that U.S. policymakers face a shortage of tools to bolster the economy should the country fall into recession, some economists say.

 


NATIONAL

 

► From HuffPost — The wage gap costs Black women nearly $1 million in their lifetimes — Aug. 22 is Black Women’s Equal Pay Day. It marks the point when Black women’s income finally caught up to earnings of white non-Hispanic men in the previous calendar year. On average, Black women in America make 61 cents to every dollar a white man makes. Regardless of socioeconomic or education level, Black women work decades longer than white men to match their earnings, according to a new study. The analysis shows Black women are losing out on $23,653 yearly. Over the course of a 40-year career, that totals $946,120.

EDITOR’S NOTE — Want equal pay? Get a union! Get more information here about how you can join together with co-workers and negotiate a fair return for your hard work. Or go ahead and contact a union organizer today!

 


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

CHECK OUT THE UNION DIFFERENCE in Washington: higher wages, affordable health and dental care, job and retirement security.

FIND OUT HOW TO JOIN TOGETHER with your co-workers to negotiate for better wages, benefits, and a voice at work. Or go ahead and contact a union organizer today!