- Working Washington
- Socrates Bravo, left, and Kadra Osman, right, were arrested yesterday along with Seattle City Council Member Kshama Sawant and one other person. They were part of a protest aimed at getting $15 an hour for SeaTac Airport workers.
About that minimum wage protest in SeaTac yesterday: Why, exactly, was it focused on Alaska Airlines? According to Working Washington, which organized the protest, it's because the company was part of a failed attempt to keep SeaTac's $15 minimum wage vote off the ballot back in 2013, then gave big money to the campaign against the measure, and then, when the measure passed, was part of a lawsuit that affirmed the Port of Seattle's power to ignore SeaTac's $15 vote and set its own wages at the airport. Now, Alaska Airlines is also part of a lawsuit over a planned minimum wage hike—to a lower $13 an hour by 2017—at SeaTac Airport. At yesterday's protest, Seattle City Council Member Kshama Sawant and three others were arrested.
In 2013, Boeing paid its CEO more than it paid in federal taxes: According to Bloomberg News, the United States government gave Boeing a "federal tax benefit of $82 million" last year. Meanwhile, the company paid its CEO $23.3 million in "executive compensation."
And what does Boeing pay in Washington State taxes? Might be nice to know, but sorry, it's a state secret. So is the total number of Washington State tax breaks given to Boeing. So are the specific values of those tax breaks. As Darwin BondGraham reports in this week's Stranger, it's the same story if you're asking about Microsoft, Amazon, or any of the "small number of big, highly profitable corporations in aerospace and high tech that are claiming the bulk of Washington's most lucrative tax breaks."
Seattle police may halt body camera rollout: At issue, according to the Seattle Times: "Concerns about broad-reaching public-disclosure requests that officials say could cripple the city of Seattle financially and tie up employees for countless hours."
- DAVID T. HANSON
- When you plug in to Puget Sound Energy, you're plugging in to this dirty coal plant in Colstrip, Montana.
Where does Puget Sound Energy's energy come from? "If your electricity comes from Puget Sound Energy, it may surprise you to learn that one-third of your supply comes from coal power," write the mayors of Bainbridge Island, Mercer Island, and Olympia. "And most of that coal power is generated by a single outdated, out-of-state coal plant in Colstrip, Mont. The Colstrip plant is one of our region’s largest greenhouse-gas polluters and its leaking toxic ash ponds (a byproduct of coal burning) threaten the health of our Montana neighbors."
Seattle from space: Then and now images of a bunch of neighborhoods.
A tunnel boring machine that's actually working: "Pamela is almost ready," reports KIRO 7. "In the next few days, the tunnel boring machine named after a contractor's wife will begin digging a new Sound Transit light rail line from Northgate to Husky Stadium."
- Edmund Lowe Photography/Shutterstock
- If only Seattle traffic was as relaxing as looking at this image.
A separate roads package for the Puget Sound region: "Members of the Puget Sound Regional Council are preparing a new transportation plan separate from a statewide road package in case Olympia lawmakers fail to pass a new transportation plan of their own," reports KING 5. "The group is made up of officials from King, Pierce, Snohomish and Kitsap counties. While it is still months from containing any specifics, the 'sub-regional' plan would allow those four counties to tax themselves to fill the void left by inaction at the capitol."
Director Mike Nichols: The man responsible for "The Graduate" is dead at 83.
Obama's immigration address: Preceded by conservative fury.
