Contract in Everett | Head Start | I-001 bad for kids

Thursday, September 17, 2026

LOCAL

► From the Spokesman Review — Families worry after feds propose cutting some Head Start preschool programs: ‘Not what’s best for children’ — In the Spokane Community Colleges system, the cuts would amount to $1.6 million from its budget of $16.8 million to operate Head Start centers around Spokane. Between the 11 centers, including two on community college campuses, 691 kids are enrolled and staffed by 280 people, said Kevin Brockbank, Spokane Colleges chancellor. Statewide, the program serves around 15,000 kids. Brockbank couldn’t speculate as to how many staff they would cut if the rules were changed, but said roles like one-on-one educational coaches for kids, nutrition specialists and health specialists would no longer be required.

► From KUOW — Residents of this rural Washington town want their ‘mayor’ out of ICE detention — Martinez, 46, has been living and waiting to get legal status in the U.S. since he was a young man. He isn’t interested in self-deporting. Rather, his focus is on his long-running effort to get legal status…Since he’s been pulled into the Northwest ICE Processing Center, Martinez said he’s seen and experienced many terrible things in the facility. The fluorescent lights are on all the time, he said. A wheelchair bound man with no legs was handcuffed. A fever will wash through the holding cells, and there will be no “sick call,” or medicine he said. People would sleep in the bathrooms when there were no more beds.

► From KNKX — More Tacoma tenants form a union, join growing movement — The union represents tenants at three buildings near Wright Park: Brown, Dreher and Hillcrest. Those apartments are in the process of being sold to BlackRock Communities NW,  a property management and construction company based in Puyallup…According to the union, over 70% of residents at the three buildings have signed on. While no law requires landlords to recognize or bargain with tenants in a union, there’s a growing movement around the city to organize places of residence.

CONTRACT FIGHTS

► From the Everett Herald — Everett Public Schools OKs 2-year contract with teacher’s union — The contract, which the union had ratified on Aug. 26, guarantees teachers will receive salary increases of at least 3% for both the 2026-27 and 2027-28 school years. Raises in the 2027-28 school year would match the rate of inflation if it grows over the 3% mark.

► From KOMO — Shoreline union approves contract following months of negotiations — Members of the union representing more than 300 Shoreline School District employees voted Wednesday to approve a new collective bargaining agreement with the district…The Shoreline Educational Support Professionals Association had sought wage increases to bring members’ pay in line with neighboring school districts, with a particular focus on paraeducator pay. The union did not release details of the approved agreement.

► From Hotel Dive — Union workers at Seattle Hilton reach deal to end 85-day strike — The contract also includes reduced workloads for housekeepers. Additionally, front desk agents have secured the right to file grievances over workload issues, per the release. “We have seen firsthand the importance of unity, collective bargaining, and workers’ rights in achieving our goals,” Fritzie Corral, an Embassy Suites breakfast attendant, said in a statement.

NATIONAL

► From Stateline — States fight to inspect federal immigrant detention facilities — Washington state, for example, is embroiled in legal fight with the Florida-based GEO Group over a 2023 law that directs state health officials to regularly inspect privately run detention facilities, including those holding immigrants. The GEO Group operates nearly two dozen immigrant detention facilities nationwide…The state health department says it has received more than 3,500 complaints about the Northwest ICE Processing Center, but has been denied access 10 times since 2023…“It is worth saying that the detention system has changed a lot in the last year and a half. It’s roughly doubled in size,” said Scott Shuchart, who served as assistant director for regulatory affairs at ICE from 2022 to 2025.

► From the LA Times — Despite Trump’s pressure, companies that maintained their DEI programs did just fine — Businesses, universities, law firms and nonprofits felt themselves bound to consider how bucking Trump’s anti-DEI policies might translate into lost revenues, contracts and government grants. Many decided that capitulation was the safe choice. Now there’s evidence that many need not have worried. According to researchers at UC Berkeley and Stanford, firms that maintained their diversity, equity and inclusion programs in the face of the Trump attacks paid no financial price…And just last month, a federal judge in Boston threw out a Trump lawsuit against Harvard aimed at rescinding $1 billion in federal grants based on a fatuous claim that the university turned a blind eye to antisemitism on campus.

POLITICS & POLICY

► From the Bellingham Herald — OPINION: WA I-001 puts already vulnerable students at higher risk of abuse — While most children are fortunate to have safe, trusted adults at home they can talk to about anything and get support if they need it, not all children do. There were more than 117,000 reports of child abuse or neglect in 2024, and data shows, tragically, the vast majority of perpetrators are parents…But a political initiative, I-001, before voters in Washington this November would discourage students from getting the help they need about abuse, addiction or mental health issues from school counselors, teachers or school nurses.

► From the Camas-Washougal Post-Record — Southwest Washington groups join effort to defeat measures addressing parental rights, girls sports — More than two dozen Southwest Washington organizations have joined statewide efforts to defeat Initiatives 001 and 638, measures they say would dismantle safeguards for K-12 students. Backed by conservative multimillionaire financier Brian Heywood’s Let’s Go Washington group, the initiatives have been billed by their supporters as a way to bolster parental rights and protect female student-athletes. But opponents argue the measures are poorly written, lack enforcement provisions and would endanger the state’s most vulnerable youth.

► From Reuters — Democratic senators urge Delta to remain neutral in union organizing effort — In a letter seen ‌by Reuters, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey said flight attendants have been trying to organize at the Atlanta-based carrier for years and argued management’s posture is “threatening flight attendants’ future pay and ​benefits if they choose to organize” and called it inappropriate…In June, over 170 House lawmakers also wrote to Bastian urging him to remain neutral in efforts by flight attendants, fleet service ​workers, and technicians to organize.

► From the New York Times — Senate Takes Up Bill to Regulate ‘Wild West’ of Collegiate Sports — “Sharecropping is over,” Derrick Johnson, the president and chief executive of the N.A.A.C.P., said this week on a media call organized by the A.F.L.-C.I.O. “We should not ask athletes, particularly Black athletes, to generate revenue on the football field or basketball court and they share in none of the revenue.”

► From the AP — Federal Reserve hikes key rate for 1st time in 3 years, defying Trump demands for a cut — The quarter-point increase lifts the Fed’s key rate to about 3.9% and, over time, could result in higher borrowing costs for mortgages, auto loans and credit cards. In a set of quarterly projections, the Fed also signaled its rate-setting committee could raise it a second time to 4.1%. The move comes as Americans are already struggling with high costs for groceries, gas and housing. Affordability has taken on a leading role in the upcoming midterm elections, just seven weeks away.

► From the Sacramento Bee — Union representing Uber, Lyft gets certified in California. What to know — The move will allow the California Gig Workers Union to help drivers negotiate issues affecting working conditions and benefits. It comes as at least 30% of active drivers expressed support of the union…Assembly Bill 1340 helped bring the union to fruition by allowing the independent contractor drivers to engage in collective bargaining.

► From the Tacoma News Tribune — Tacoma council could hear new minimum wage proposal by the end of 2026 — Zaid Velasco, staff director for UFCW 367, said he was supportive of Bushnell’s work but wished the deputy mayor had been a more vocal proponent of the union’s work on the ballot measure. “I do wish that he was more open in supporting the Worker’s Bill of Rights because it just provides more for the working class,” Velasco told The News Tribune.

JOLT OF JOY

Warms my heart to see this story about high school girls in Alaska fighting to raise the minimum wage in a region with one of the highest costs of living nation-wide: “‘We decided that money was a problem, and that we wanted to help get, not just a few people, but everybody, what they need,’ Stasenko said.”

The kids are alright!

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