Taking GEO to court | SC guts voting rights law | Horizon flight attendants

Wednesday, April 29, 2026

LOCAL

► From the Washington State Standard — WA asks judge to force Tacoma immigrant detention center operator to let inspectors in –Officials from the state Department of Health have tried to get in to inspect 10 times since 2023. But The GEO Group, which runs the for-profit detention center, has kept turning them away, the state says. When they tried last month, GEO told state inspectors they needed to file a request with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in Seattle to access the Northwest ICE Processing Center, according to the state. ICE has not responded, according to the state…“Now is the time where action is right,” AG [Brown] said. “Washingtonians are entitled to accountability and transparency in private companies that turn detention into profit, and we understand that that urgency is so acute in this moment.” Brown called it “not just a legal obligation. It is a moral obligation.”

► From the Bellingham Herald — WATCH: Fallen workers mourned — Union workers, state and local officials, friends and colleagues gathered Tuesday to honor people around the nation who were killed on the job in 2025, including two Whatcom County men — a firefighter and a public works employee.

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From the Seattle Times — Alaska Airlines launches first flight from Seattle to Rome — Meanwhile, outside Sea-Tac’s main terminal, flight attendants from regional carrier Horizon Air rallied to call on Alaska management to agree to higher wages. The flight attendants, organized under the Association of Flight Attendants that is part of the Communication Workers of America union, have been bargaining with Alaska over their next contract since November 2023. With the company’s ongoing international expansion, “it’s time they recognize Horizon Air,” said Lisa Davis Warren, the AFA Horizon president.

ORGANIZING

► From KING 5 — Renton workers behind popular video game seek to unionize — “At Wizards, we’re organizing for a say in layoffs, accountability that runs up and down the chain, and a living wage that actually lets people build a life. I’m hopeful about what we can build here and being clear-eyed about why it’s necessary,” said UWOTC-CWA member Damien Wilson, a senior software development engineer for Magic: The Gathering Arena. Workers have asked senior management at Wizards of the Coast to recognize the union by Friday, citing concerns about working conditions and calling for improved job security.

► From Publishers Weekly — Hachette Employees Seek to Unionize — The HWC would be the largest union in trade publisher history, according to the announcement, comprising hundreds of in-person and remote non-management workers. Among the Big Five, it joins the Association of HarperCollins Employees, members of Local 2110 of the UAW, which encompasses 180 staffers. “We are hopeful that Hachette can meet us in good faith,” said Julia DeVarti, associate editor at Little, Brown. DeVarti added that, in addition to making Hachette a more desirable place to work, “we see [the union] as something that is positive for the company and for the publishing industry as a whole.”

POLITICS & POLICY

► From the AP — Supreme Court weakens a landmark Civil Rights-era law in a Louisiana case — It is unclear how much is left of the provision, known as Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the main way to challenge racially discriminatory election practices. Not much, Justice Elena Kagan wrote in a dissent for the three liberal justices. “The consequences are likely to be far-reaching and grave. Today’s decision renders Section 2 all but a dead letter,” Kagan wrote. The voting rights law succeeded in opening the ballot box to Black Americans and reducing persistent discrimination in voting. Nearly 70 of the 435 congressional districts are protected by Section 2, election law expert Nicholas Stephanopoulos has estimated.

► From Wired — A DOGE Affiliate Is Now in Charge of the US Government’s ID Platform — “There’s a push to make Login a national ID in the sense that we would retain all info you’d need for any government interaction: In addition to standard ID (name, etc.), we’d also have income info, citizenship status, info on dependents, etc.,” believes a TTS employee who spoke to WIRED on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation. “This would be great [editor’s note: ehh, questionable.] if implemented right,” says the employee. “With a DOGE guy in charge … this will look more like a central repository for surveillance.”

► From the AP — White House says funds to pay TSA and other Homeland Security workers will ‘soon run out’ — The House is expected to vote as soon as Wednesday on the Senate budget resolution that is designed to unlock a multistep process to eventually fund the department, and the administration warned GOP lawmakers off making changes that could prolong passage.

► From Law 360 — Labor To Make AI A Key Issue In Midterms, AFL-CIO Head Says — Organized labor intends to make guardrails on artificial intelligence a key issue in the coming midterm elections and beyond, AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler said Tuesday amid the federation’s public campaign to elevate the labor movement’s role in the development and implementation of AI systems in the workplace. During a speech in Washington, D.C., Shuler said regulation of AI will be at the forefront of the AFL-CIO’s messaging leading to this fall’s midterm elections and a test for candidates seeking approval from organized labor as the focus shifts to the 2028 presidential campaign. “You will feel this in every bit of our political work on the ground, in the run-up to these midterms and beyond,” Shuler said. “We are the movement that is banging the drum.”

► From the Seattle Times — Wilson expands free student meals, childcare for Seattle families — Wilson’s plan calls for all Seattle Public Schools to offer free breakfast and lunch to all students beginning this fall — expanding the program from about half of the district’s 106 schools that currently offer free meals…She also announced moves Tuesday to use the levy funding to expand the city’s free and reduced-cost childcare programs. “We’re also sending a message to parents who are trying to make it here: This is your city,” Wilson said. “We want you raising your families here. And we’re doing everything we can to make it easier for you to afford to build a life here.”

INTERNATIONAL

► From Wired — ‘It’s Undignified’: Hundreds of Workers Training Meta’s AI Could Be Laid Off — In all, more than 700 employees stand to potentially lose their jobs at Covalen, according to an email reviewed by WIRED. Roughly 500 are data annotators…Sometimes, the work involves cooking up elaborate prompts to try to bypass guardrails meant to prevent models from serving up child sexual abuse material, say, or descriptions of suicide. “It’s quite a grueling job,” claims Bennett. “There was a stage where we had to spend days on end pretending to be suicidal or a pedophile.” Last week, Meta announced plans to cut one in 10 jobs as part of sweeping layoffs aimed at making the company more efficient. Between the two rounds of layoffs, Covalen’s headcount in Dublin is on track to be almost halved, according to the Communications Workers’ Union (CWU), whose members include some Covalen staff.

► From Mother Jones — The “Age of Electricity” Is Upon Us — In 2025, renewables edged out coal in global electricity generation for the first time in more than a century. This progress was fueled by China and India, the world’s two most populous countries that together comprise 42 percent of global fossil power generation. The nations both saw electricity generated by fossil fuels fall in the same year for the first time this century. Like other countries around the world, China and India have been rapidly building out solar, wind, and battery infrastructure…For years, emissions declines were driven by developed countries like the United States and European Union member states. Last year, however, emissions from advanced economies grew faster than emissions from developing countries for the first time since the 1990s, according to the IEA. The trend reversal was driven by the US, where coal demand rose 10 percent last year.

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