Antipoverty programs | SNAP lawsuit | Thurston road workers

Tuesday, October 28, 2025

LOCAL

► From the Olympian — Thurston County road workers, allies deliver workplace grievances to commissioners — Earlier this year, former county road workers accused leadership of creating a toxic work environment. The county responded by contracting an outside investigator to look into their complaints. Meanwhile, current workers approved a vote of no confidence in management, namely Roads Operations Manager Mike Lowman and Supervisor Nick Bemis…Tonya Sullivan, president of Local 618, said roads workers feel like their input is often ignored and their concerns are dismissed. She acknowledged that Public Works has made some efforts to address the situation, but she said the root problem persists…Sheree Neumeier, a retired Public Works employee, said Bemis and Lowman made her feel miserable. “I guarantee you, every one of those guys and women in orange put their life on the line for you guys in Thurston County, and you don’t appreciate them,” Neumeier said to the commissioners.

► From My Northwest — Rising jobless claims leads to fewer hours at ESD call center — The Washington Employment Security Department (ESD) is launching a 90-day pilot program to adjust unemployment call center hours in response to a growing backlog of claims, officials announced Monday. Commissioner Cami Feek said the department is experiencing a sharp rise in unemployment claims due to private-sector layoffs, the federal government shutdown, seasonal job losses, and longer durations of unemployment. Ongoing claims are up 20% compared to this time last year, according to ESD…Under the pilot program, call center hours will remain 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. On Tuesdays and Thursdays, phones will be staffed from 8 a.m. to noon, with afternoons dedicated to claim processing.

► From My Edmonds News — Local panel discusses vulture capitalism and vanishing local news — Panelist Alex Alex Bruell, a writer, photographer and editor with a decade of experience as a daily and weekly newspaper journalist in Western Washington, shared details on a familiar local story. “When Carpenter Media Group cut the Everett Herald staff in half [in June 2024], reporters wrote a story about it. Carpenter Media took it down and the reporting staff had to negotiate getting it back up,” Bruell said. “That’s not independence.”

► From the Seattle Times — Federal court ruling doesn’t stop WA immigration judges’ bond denials — On Sept. 30, the U.S. District Court ruled that Tacoma immigration judges were unlawfully declaring they can’t issue bonds to many detained immigrants, often relegating them to months or years in jail-like conditions. Yet Tacoma’s immigration judges have continued to say they can’t issue bonds, citing a purported lack of jurisdiction. “It’s just a willful defiance of a federal court order,” said Aaron Korthuis of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, which brought a class-action lawsuit resulting in the September judgment by District Court Judge Tiffany Cartwright.

► From the Cascade PBS Union:

On Sept. 22, @CascadePBSNews announced it was cutting its News and Investigations teams, laying off 9 @newsguild journalists. Here’s how you can help: https://t.co/tfzjMpVr68 pic.twitter.com/IczQQlCRc9

— Cascade PBS Union (@CascadePBSUnion) October 25, 2025

► From KING 5 — Food banks brace as Washington residents face loss of SNAP benefits by Nov. 1 — The crisis represents a convergence of multiple factors straining the food assistance network. Aaron Czyzewski, Director of Advocacy and Public Policy at Food Lifeline, explained that the region is already dealing with elevated food insecurity. “We have high levels of food insecurity left over from the pandemic, caused by high costs for groceries and inflation,” Czyzewski said. “Now you’re having the retreat of federal support.” “I think there’s going to be a massive increase for every food bank and every food pantry across the state,” Reynolds warned.

► From the Wenatchee World — Flock Safety setting allowed U.S. Border Patrol access to Wenatchee Valley license plate data without police knowledge — On Thursday, East Wenatchee Police Chief Rick Johnson heard about inadvertent access to the agency’s license plate data for the first time. He was aware UW had made public records requests, but hadn’t yet seen the findings. “I’m going to guess that a lot of places have not unclicked that default setting and we expressed our frustration with Flock that we obviously needed to know that, but it has been corrected,” he told NCWLIFE…Both police chiefs expressed commitment to compliance with the state law, and Reinfeld said if there was a violation, there would be an internal investigation. “Our intent is 100% to comply with the Keep Washington Working Act and still use this really valuable tool that’s helped us on a ton of cases already,” Johnson said. “But obviously, we’re having some growing pains with it.”

ORGANIZING

► From Deadline — Sundance Institute Workers Form Union Ahead Of 2026 Film Festival — Just a few months ahead of the 2026 Sundance Film Festival, the group of around 40 staffers delivered a petition to leadership asking for voluntary recognition of their decision to be represented by the Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 9003. Hours later, management agreed. “The Communications Workers of America Local 9003 proudly welcomes the Sundance Institute into our union family,” Marisa Remski, president of CWA Local 9003, said in a statement Monday. “We congratulate all the talented individuals whose collective efforts have brought this historic achievement to life. This marks another step forward in strengthening solidarity, ensuring equity, and amplifying the voices of creative professionals across the industry.”

► From Labor Notes — Loyola Marymount Is Trying to Bust our Union. We’re Fighting Back.  — Our struggle with LMU has national significance because it may set a precedent: The labor movement cannot allow the 600 unionized Catholic institutions across the U.S.—including hospitals, universities, nonprofits, and elementary, middle, and high schools—to embark on immoral union-busting. That would be a legal and moral disaster, and an insult to the church’s longstanding support for labor unions. As the late Pope Francis said: “There is no union without workers, and there are no free workers without a union.” LMU must again recognize the union and return to bargaining immediately.

NATIONAL

► From the New York Times — Government Shutdown Imperils SNAP and Other Antipoverty Programs — About 6.5 million low-income adults age 60 and older rely on SNAP. And the layoffs of federal employees earlier this year have made it even harder for them to get through to a service representative at the Social Security Administration, said Cynthia Walker, the benefits coordinator for Benjamin Rose, a Cleveland-based nonprofit that assists aging adults. Many are in need of help with benefit verification, which service centers stopped doing when the funding lapsed. Without these documents, seniors can be at risk of losing housing subsidies. And as the weather turns colder, millions of families may not be able to count on the federal heating subsidy program to heat their homes…“This program is essential, but what happens now?” Mr. Wolfe said. “It’s not just the shutdown, but you’re learning in real time what happens when you eviscerate the federal bureaucracy.”

► From the Wrap — Writers Guild: Paramount-Warner Bros. Merger Would Be a Disaster — “Merger after merger in the media industry has harmed workers, diminished competition and free speech, and wasted hundreds of billions of dollars better invested in organic growth. Combining Warner Bros. with Paramount or another major studio or streamer would be a disaster for writers, for consumers and for competition,” the Writers Guild’s statement read. “The WGAW and WGAE will work with regulators to block the merger.” So far, Paramount Skydance has made at least three offers to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery, including one for $60 billion. On Tuesday, WBD said in a statement that it would undergo “review of strategic alternatives to maximize shareholder value,” a signal that Warner Bros. would be back up for sale three years after the WBD merger was completed.

► From the New York Times — LISTEN: The Hidden Victims of America’s Wildfires — As wildfire seasons grow longer and deadlier, states are increasingly relying on private companies to provide thousands of firefighters to the front lines. Hannah Dreier, who has been covering the story, explains how lax rules and regulatory loopholes have left many of these firefighters sick, in debt and on their own.

► From KUOW — Amazon cuts 14,000 corporate jobs as spending on artificial intelligence accelerates — Amazon will cut about 14,000 corporate jobs as the online retail giant ramps up spending on artificial intelligence while cutting costs elsewhere. Teams and individuals impacted by the job cuts will be notified on Tuesday. Most workers will be given 90 days to look for a new position internally, Beth Galetti, Senior Vice President of People Experience and Technology at Amazon, wrote in a letter to employees on Tuesday.

► From the AP — Judge seeks assurances that Abrego Garcia won’t be deported to Liberia in violation of court order — During a status conference on Monday, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis questioned why the government does not simply deport Abrego Garcia to Costa Rica — a country he has said he is willing to go to because the government has promised he would welcomed as a legal immigrant and not re-deported to El Salvador. “Any insight you can shed on why we’re continuing this hearing when you could deport him to a third country tomorrow?” Xinis asked government attorneys. She noted that both the government and Abrego Garcia were “about to burn significant resources” in fighting over whether he can legally be deported to Liberia.

► From the Guardian — Trump cuts probably hindered warning process for Alaska storm that displaced hundreds, experts say — On Monday, Alaska’s governor, Mike Dunleavy, said it could be more than 18 months before survivors could return to their homes due to the severity of the damage. Trump authorized a federal disaster declaration – which frees up crucial federal assistance – on Thursday, nearly a week after being requested by Dunleavy. “This is directly keeping funding out of the hands of disaster survivors who need it,” wrote emergency management expert Samantha Montano in a post on social media, also calling the delay “absolutely insane”…In addition to the delayed federal response, a majority of western Alaska’s weather balloon network was not operating during the landfall of the storm last weekend due to staffing constraints inflicted by the Trump administration, current and former National Weather Service officials have confirmed to the Guardian.

POLITICS & POLICY

► From the New York Times — Dozens of States to Sue Trump Administration Over Planned Food Stamp Cuts — The states, including officials in Arizona, California and Massachusetts, asked a federal judge to force Washington to tap emergency reserve money so that families would not see an interruption to their benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, starting Nov. 1…Many congressional Democrats and Republicans had encouraged the Trump administration to use this funding to preserve food stamps into November. But the Trump administration declined on Friday to extend that reprieve, even though the Agriculture Department said weeks ago that it could reprogram the money to prevent benefit cuts.

► From Common Dreams — ‘Midnight Massacre’: ICE Leaders Purged as Trump Admin Eyes ‘More Aggressive’ Nationwide Campaign Led by Border Patrol — In an effort to further ratchet up its already brutal and indiscriminate mass deportation campaign, the Trump administration has begun a sweeping purge of Immigration and Customs Enforcement leadership across US cities. The agency’s leaders are expected to be replaced with even more aggressive officials from the Border Patrol and Customs and Border Protection. In what was dubbed a “midnight massacre,” the Washington Examiner reported that over the weekend, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) quietly relieved the ICE field office directors in five US cities—Denver, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Phoenix, and San Diego—of their duties. It is expected to be just the beginning of a broader overhaul, carried out “in hopes of netting more arrests and ratcheting up its flashy, high-profile deportation campaign.” Fox News national correspondent Bill Melugin later reported that up to 12 of the agency’s 24 regional directors may be replaced, including those in El Paso, Seattle, Portland, and New Orleans.

► From the Washington State Standard — Thousands of preschoolers could lose access to Head Start due to shutdown — Funding for scores of Head Start programs hung in the balance as the government shutdown continued Monday without an end in sight.  Unless a deal is reached to end the ongoing funding lapse that began Oct. 1, more than 65,000 children in 140 local Head Start programs across 41 states and Puerto Rico will not get their federal grant funding come Nov. 1, according to the National Head Start Association. The federal government spent about $12.3 billion on the program in fiscal 2025.

► From HR Dive — Trump’s actions on independent agencies ‘endanger’ workers, think tanks say — President Donald Trump’s “unprecedented” actions regarding independent agencies “will directly undermine the safety and well-being of workers, consumers, and the public,” the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute and The Century Foundation said in a joint report released Wednesday. The report, which was co-authored by former National Labor Relations Board Chair Lauren McFerran, details how the functions of independent agencies “would be compromised if brought under the direct control of the Trump White House.”

► From Bloomberg Law — Punching In: White House Has New Rules for Cutting Regulations — The Trump administration is trying to accelerate plans to cut regulations at workplace agencies and other parts of the federal government with new guidance that views rescinding rules as fundamentally different than creating new ones. The White House’s regulations czar Jeffrey Clark authorized agencies in a memo last week to “streamline their compliance” with several rulemaking requirements from past executive orders because they “tend to not be as relevant when agencies deregulate.”

► From the Tri-City Herald — Murray: Newhouse prioritizes billionaire tax cuts over healthcare for WA families — I think it’s important that people know Congressional Republicans weren’t particularly interested in “debating the merits of the tax credits” while government was open. In fact, this summer, while Congressman Newhouse helped pass massive tax breaks for billionaires, he also delivered the largest CUTS to Medicaid in American history (this was despite the fact that there are more than 300,000 people who rely on Medicaid in his district). In the Senate, Republicans voted down amendments from Democrats to extend the ACA tax credits 3 times.

► From KUOW — WA voters might say yes to amending the state constitution this fall. Here’s why — There might be only one thing the socialist alt-weekly The Stranger and the libertarian think tank the Washington Policy Center agree on this election season, and it’s at the very beginning of your Nov. 4 ballot. If passed, Senate Joint Resolution 8201 would amend the Washington Constitution and let the state invest money in the stock market to try to grow a long-term care program.

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