Wednesday, June 22, 2016

STATE GOVERNMENT

► In today’s Olympian — State workers rally on eve of labor negotiations — State workers rallied Tuesday in Tumwater as part of a summer campaign to persuade the state to provide a labor contract that would boost salaries, make health care more affordable and provide better working conditions for public-sector employees. Washington Federation of State Employees, the state’s largest union, organized Tuesday’s rally — the first in a series around the state — to raise awareness about setbacks in the public sector workforce over that past decade and the importance of the upcoming labor contract.

ALSO at WFSE.org — We can’t get ahead when 99% are behind

LOCAL

► In today’s Spokesman-Review — Sacred Heart nurses march for better benefits, working conditions — Hundreds of nurses gathered in a show of solidarity Tuesday morning in Riverfront Park, demanding better wages and working conditions from Providence Sacred Heart Medical Center. Officials from Sacred Heart and the Washington State Nurses Association have met 13 times since December, but they haven’t reached an agreement on a new contract for the union’s 1,787 Sacred Heart nurses. The main sticking points, nurses said, are chronically low staffing levels and diminishing benefits packages. “We need to see the bleeding stop,” said Linda Jones, a Sacred Heart nurse and union organizer.

ALSO TODAY at The Stand — Join Tacoma General nurses at June 27 rally

► From KREM — Triumph workers will vote on proposed contract — Hundreds of Triumph Composite System workers in Spokane will vote on a proposed contract on Wednesday. They are voting on a proposed four-year collective bargaining agreement after the majority of workers agreed to strike on May 9. The company locked out workers the next day. If the new contract is approved, the lockout would end and the machinists would return to work on Monday. If the contract is not approved, the lockout would continue. The contract would need at least 50 percent of the vote to pass.

ALSO at The Stand — IAM announces tentative deal with Triumph in Spokane

► In today’s Tri-City Herald — Hanford tank farm contractor says it is keeping workers safe — The Hanford tank farm contractor defended its protection of workers in a letter to the Hanford Atomic Metal Trades Council on Tuesday, a day after the union group issued a list of demands to better protect workers from chemical vapors.

► In today’s Seattle Times — The next $15: Seattle’s latest labor movement is about scheduling — and power — From “clopens” to on-call work, tales from restaurant and retail workers show how scheduling practices stink, sometimes literally. While secure scheduling isn’t as instantly inflammatory as $15, it’s the movement’s “second half,” Working Washington spokesperson Sage Wilson says. “$15 was about making sure you got a living wage for every hour you work, and secure scheduling is about making sure you know when you’re going to work.”

► In today’s Seattle Times — Seattle’s Virginia Mason hospital is denied full accreditation after lapses — Virginia Mason Medical Center was found out of compliance in nearly 30 areas during a surprise visit in May by the Joint Commission, a nonprofit group that accredits U.S. hospitals.

► In today’s Seattle Times — Suit claims Northwest Hospital fails to screen for charity care — A class-action lawsuit filed Tuesday alleges that Northwest Hospital & Medical Center fails to properly screen patients eligible for charity care under state law, instead sending their debt to collection agencies.

► In today’s Seattle Times — How Seattle can call out public health inequities (by Dr. Leana S. Wen) — Let’s call out poverty, violence and racism as health problems. Let’s use the lens of public health to level the playing field of inequities.

ELECTION 2016

► In today’s Washington Post — Clinton is vetting three for vice president — but is still studying a longer list — They are Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julián Castro, Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, and Sen. Timothy M. Kaine of Virginia.

► In today’s NY Times — Why Clinton probably won’t pick Warren as running mate — While the selection of Warren could help mollify liberal supporters of Bernie Sanders, there are ample reasons a Clinton-Warren ticket is unlikely to come to fruition: their frosty relationship in the past, and [blah, blah, blah].

EDITOR’S NOTE — We stopped reading this because the author turned very cynical about what Warren does and doesn’t bring to the ticket. But we linked to it anyway so The Stand’s readers can see that the media is already trying to deflate hopes. It could be that, on background, Clinton surrogates are managing expectations. We hope not.

► From AP — Trump’s campaign spends $6 million with Trump companies — Donald Trump is one of the wealthiest people to ever run for president, but his campaign appears to be flat broke. What’s more, fundraising reports show he’s used about $6 million in campaign money to pay his own companies and family members.

► Today from Washington Post — Rubio to seek Senate reelection, reversing pledge not to run — The decision, expected to be announced later today, transformed an already competitive race and improved the chances that the GOP can maintain a Senate majority.

PREVIOUSLY at The Onion — Dazed Marco Rubio wakes up in Koch compound to find cold metal device installed behind ear

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT

► From The Hill — Behind Ryan, GOP unveils plan to replace ACA — The plan repeals the Affordable Care Act and includes a range of standard Republican policy ideas, such as providing a tax credit to help people afford coverage, making Medicare more market-based, and capping Medicaid payments. However, the plan lacks many details that are crucial for understanding its effect on coverage and the federal budget, including dollar figures for the tax credit.

► In today’s Washington Post — U.S. will spend $2.6 trillion less on health care than expected before ACA, study projects — A new study predicts that the federal forecast of national health care spending under President Obama’s signature health law was a big overestimate — by $2.6 trillion over a five-year period.

► In today’s NY Times — Republican moves to block Harriet Tubman’s placement on $20 bill — Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) moved on Tuesday to block the Treasury Department’s sweeping plan to represent women and civil rights leaders on American currency, including the placement of Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill.

► From Politico — Get ready: The next ‘Citizens United’ is coming — Jim Bopp, the lawyer who spearheaded the blockbuster decision, wants to open another floodgate for unrestricted campaign money.

NATIONAL

► From Think Progress — Retail CEO salaries soar but workers’ hardly budge — With nearly seven years elapsing since the last federal minimum wage increase, workers across the country have been pushing their states and localities to boost wages up to $15 an hour — a full-time salary of just $31,200 annually. But while such an increase has thus far remained elusive for working families in most of the nation, another group has seen its salaries explode over the same time period: executives at retail companies.

► From Huffington Post — British rivals race to sway voters on eve of EU ‘Brexit’ referendum — Prime Minister David Cameron and his eurosceptic opponents were crisscrossing Britain on Wednesday in a final push for votes on the eve of a momentous referendum on European Union membership. The vote, which echoes the rise of populism in Europe and the United States, will shape the future of Europe and the West. A victory for “out” could unleash turmoil on financial markets.

TODAY’S MUST-READ

► From Huffington Post — How to talk your friends and loved ones out of supporting Donald Trump (from The Science of Us) — Political persuasion techniques don’t have a good track record of, well, persuading. Researchers haven’t really hit on a lot of approaches that work, because political preferences tend to be deeply and strongly held, and tend to come from a place that has more to do with emotion than careful deliberations (this is true of all voters, not just Trumpkins). That said, there are some important ideas to keep in mind when you’re arguing about politics that can at least help nudge the odds in your favor a bit. Here are three of them.

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