NEWS ROUNDUP
Border boondoggle ● Protect domestic workers ● Unaccountable Amazon
Thursday, September 5, 2019
BORDER BOONDOGGLE
ALSO at The Stand — Trump’s border-wall military cuts hit home
► From Politico — Trump defends cash grab for border projects as lawmakers lash out — Trump on Wednesday stood by his administration’s efforts to divert billions of dollars from different corners of the federal government for various initiatives along the U.S.-Mexico border, despite a bipartisan outcry from members of Congress.
► From AP — Border wall funding pulled from schools, defense projects
Meanwhile, much much more news coverage and commentary today is being devoted to Trump’s Sharpie-edited weather map and his tweet disparaging actress Debra Messing.
THIS WASHINGTON
► ICYMI from yesterday’s Seattle Times — Now corporate donors are abandoning Washington Rep. Matt Shea? They knew he was an extremist for years (by Danny Westneat) — Shea is under some official scrutiny now for palling around with extremist groups and fantasizing about waging a holy crusade to make everyone obey biblical law. But what rings so hollow about the belated corporate denunciations is that their lobbyists, for many years, have all known Shea is a far-right extremist with delusions of apocalyptic grandeur. They didn’t care — they gave him money anyway… It’s politics at its most transactional. It makes no difference to the companies if you’re a fringe religious zealot who imagines yourself carrying a sword into a new Christian civil war. If they imagine needing your vote on some matter, they’ll seek to influence it.
DOWN SOUTH
► From KATU — Initiative looks to limit number of self-checkout machines in Oregon stores — A ballot initiative looking to limit the number of self-checkout machines in Oregon stores will be moving forward on Thursday. The Oregon AFL-CIO, will submit signatures of people backing “The Grocery Store Service and Community Protection Act.”
THAT WASHINGTON
► In today’s NY Times — Three North Carolina judges step in where the Supreme Court refuses (editorial) — The Supreme Court’s conservatives said partisan gerrymandering was not a matter for courts, leaving the job of protecting democratic self-rule to state judges… But state courts shouldn’t have been saddled with this job in the first place. As Justice Kagan wrote in June: “What do those courts know that this court does not? If they can develop and apply neutral and manageable standards to identify unconstitutional gerrymanders, why couldn’t we?”
NATIONAL
► From Bloomberg — America’s chicken industry accused of conspiring to keep immigrant wages down — Companies producing more than 90% of America’s chicken have conspired to depress wages for a largely immigrant work force in some of the nation’s most dangerous jobs, according to a lawsuit.
TODAY’S MUST-READ
► From the NY Times — The human cost of fast, free Amazon shipping — In January, the 9-month-old Gabrielle Kennedy was killed when a driver delivering Amazon.com packages crashed a 26-foot rented box truck into the back of her mother’s Jeep. The baby was strapped into a car seat in the back. The delivery driver, a subcontractor ferrying pallets of Amazon boxes from suburban Boston to five locations in Maine, said in an interview that he was running late and failed to spot the Jeep in time to avoid the crash. If Gabrielle’s parents, who have hired lawyers, try to hold Amazon accountable, they will confront a company that shields itself from liability for accidents involving the drivers who deliver its billions of packages a year.
The Stand posts links to Washington state and national news of interest every weekday morning by 10 a.m.