August 8, 2019

Kaiser Permanente workers vote on nationwide strike

Kaiser Permanente workers began voting this week on whether to authorize a nationwide unfair labor practices strike.

Staffing is a major concern of the workers, which include medical assistants, registration representatives, certified nursing assistants, licensed practical nurses and housekeeping staff.

“It’s about keeping people in positions and providing good, safe, quality health care,” Jennifer Forrester, a medical assistant at Kaiser Permanente’s Interstate Avenue campus in North Portland, said Wednesday as workers trickled into a conference room to cast ballots on their breaks.

The ballot offers two options:

• “I vote YES to authorize our bargaining team to call for a strike to protest Kaiser’s illegal behavior and unfair labor practices and to show my support for a contract with good raises, no take-aways and a ban on subcontracting.”

• “I vote NO and am willing to accept a contract that increases our medical costs, cuts our pensions and retiree medical benefits, offers lower pay scales and raises that are less for Oregon and Washington than California.”

Read more: https://www.bizjournals.com/portland/news/2019/08/07/kaiser-permanente-workers-voteon-nationwide-strike.html
(Portland Business Journal)

August 8, 2019

Gov. Brown signs first-in-nation housing law

SALEM, Ore. (AP) – Lawmakers in Oregon hope the state can build its way out of a severe housing crisis.

Gov. Kate Brown signed a first-in-the nation law Thursday to encourage the development of duplexes, triplexes and other more affordable types of housing. Many local governments only allow for the development of large, single family homes typical of a suburb.

Speaker of the House Tina Kotek is the chief sponsor behind the law. The Portland Democrat says allowing different housing types is an important “first step” in addressing the state’s housing crisis.

Under the Oregon law, cities with more than 10,000 residents must now allow for the construction of some type of what’s known as “missing middle housing,” or housing types that are somewhere between high-rise apartments and single family homes.

Read more: https://www.koin.com/news/politics/gov-brown-to-sign-housing-bills/

August 8, 2019

Truckers and Loggers Started a Rebellion in Oregon. Political Insiders Took It Over.

Operatives see the groundswell of angry loggers as an opportunity to wield greater influence and revitalize the Oregon GOP.


The loggers were everywhere. At three June rallies, streams of honking timber trucks converged on Salem as burly lumberjacks and truckers swarmed the Capitol in hard hats and suspenders.

Oregon's wood products industry provided the outstanding visual of the 2019 legislative session. They got what they wanted: the death of House Bill 2020, the carbon-reduction bill known as "cap and trade."

In a state where Democrats hold a voter registration advantage of 10 percentage points over Republicans and enjoy super-majorities in both legislative chambers, the show of muscle by a grassroots group called "Timber Unity" provided a rare political highlight for mostly Republican rural Oregon.

"It was a win," says Eric Fruits, an economist and former Multnomah County GOP chairman. "I think Timber Unity was as important to killing the bill as the GOP senators' walkout."

Read more: https://www.wweek.com/news/state/2019/08/07/truckers-and-loggers-started-a-rebellion-in-oregon-political-insiders-took-it-over/
(Williamette Week)

August 8, 2019

With future of Kentucky's abortion clinic at stake, battle shifts to federal appeals court

CINCINNATI — With the fate of Kentucky's only abortion clinic at stake, a panel of three federal judges heard arguments Thursday over whether they should reinstate a law the administration of Gov. Matt Bevin had used to try to close it.

Lawyer Chad Meredith, representing Bevin, told the panel at the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals that the state simply wants to enforce safety standards.

"This is not about shutting down abortion clinics," he said. "This is about women's safety and health."

But a lawyer for EMW Women's Surgical Center in Louisville, the state's only abortion clinic, argued otherwise.

Read more: https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/elections/kentucky/2019/08/08/battle-over-kentucky-abortion-clinic-rules-shift-to-federal-appeals-court/1946352001/

August 8, 2019

What Fancy Farm told us about Matt Bevin and Andy Beshear

FANCY FARM, Ky. — For all its hoopla, the political speaking at the Fancy Farm Picnic rarely has much effect on statewide elections. But it always provides a unique measurement of the candidates, their campaigns and their prospects, and this year’s version told us some meaningful things about Republican Gov. Matt Bevin and his challenger, Democratic Attorney General Andy Beshear.

The speaking has a major player not on the stage: the raucous crowd. It can throw speakers off, but it can also give them moxie. This year, perhaps reflecting Bevin’s weakness among Republicans, Democrats did a better job turning out chanters, yellers and sign-wavers. That helped Beshear, who is usually a stiff, wooden speaker with weak timbre. He seemed to draw strength from the crowd, matched up well with the incumbent, and beat expectations. For a challenger, that’s a gain.

But the theme of Beshear’s nominally front-running campaign is still “I am not Matt Bevin,” and it depends on teachers and their desire to punish the governor who has disparaged them. “Matt Bevin is the single greatest threat to public education we’ve ever seen,” Beshear declared with typical Fancy Farm hyperbole. Beyond that, his argument for himself was a medley of issues that seem short of saliency, such as drug-company profiteering.

Bevin spoke extemporaneously, as he almost always does, but had a more pointed sales pitch. It could be reduced to three words: abortion, economy, Trump.

Read more: https://www.courier-journal.com/story/opinion/columnists/cross/2019/08/08/what-fancy-farm-told-us-matt-bevin-andy-beshear/1956977001/

August 8, 2019

Bevin rips Fischer for loud protest at McConnell's house, but was the noise illegal?

Gov. Matt Bevin took his beef with Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer from the internet to the airwaves Wednesday, saying a protest Monday night was likely unlawfully loud and "we need better leadership" in Louisville.

"Greg Fischer, I’ll be honest – the people of Louisville deserve better," Bevin said on the Leland Conway Show on WHAS radio. "They really do. I’ve known Greg a long time, this isn’t about him personally. But he frankly has lost control of the city of Louisville in ways that matter, and it’s not reflecting well."

Bevin's comments came around 36 hours after a protest outside Sen. Mitch McConnell's Louisville home that started late Monday evening and lasted until around midnight.

A video of one protester at the event saying someone should stab a McConnell voodoo doll and that the senator should have broken his neck when he fell and fractured his shoulder over the weekend went viral. The demonstrators, who rallied against McConnell in the aftermath of two major weekend shootings over his failure to bring gun reform legislation to the Senate floor, also chanted and made other loud noises throughout the event in the Highlands-area neighborhood.

Read more: https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/2019/08/07/matt-bevin-greg-fischer-noisy-mitch-mcconnell-gun-protest/1941815001/
(Louisville Courier Journal)

August 8, 2019

'It's insulting': Gov. Matt Bevin attacks Andy Beshear's faith over abortion stance

Republican Gov. Matt Bevin questioned Democratic challenger Andy Beshear's faith and family roots on Wednesday and appealed to Kentucky Baptists to weigh-in on abortion as he lashed out at his rival's first television advertisement.

In his first TV ad of the fall campaign, Beshear played up how his grandfather and great-grandfather were Baptist ministers. The spot, which launched on Monday, features the attorney general volunteering at a food pantry and his family praying at their dinner table.

"I think it's insulting to the Baptist tradition," Bevin said in a video posted to his campaign Facebook page. "I think it's insulting to people of Baptist faith to couch what his grandfather and great-grandfather did as sort of covering for his pro-abortion stance."

The governor's video drew a response from Beshear's minister, Leigh Bond, who is the senior pastor at Beargrass Christian Church in Louisville, a Disciples of Christ church.

Read more: https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/politics/2019/08/07/matt-bevin-attacks-andy-beshears-baptist-faith-over-abortion-stance/1946065001/

https://twitter.com/AndyBeshearKY/status/1158411958414139393

August 8, 2019

Thorns & Roses: The Worst, Best & Most Absurd

Thorn: Then, Abolish Horse Racing!
Pushing back at gubernatorial candidate Andy Beshear’s call for expanded gambling, Gov. Matt Bevin told WKDZ radio that gambling causes people to commit suicide “because they’ve wasted the last semblance of dignity and hope that they had.” He offered no proof, but he must be talking about horse racing.

Thorn: Pot Smoking Causes Disease
Again, offering no proof, Bevin told WKDZ that Colorado’s legalization of pot has led to disaster: “Look at the amount of disease and things that have spiked up as a result of people who are coming because they can smoke pot legally.”

-snip-

Thorn: In God… If We Must
When students return after the summer, every Kentucky school will display ”In God We Trust” because of a new state law. Maybe it will encourage prayers for when someone gets shot because the state has eliminated the concealed weapon permit requirement.

-snip-
...
Rose: Doctor, Heal Thyself
Jacqueline Coleman, a teacher and Beshear’s running mate, slapped a third-degree burn on Bevin’s running mate, state Sen. Ralph Alvarado, during the Fancy Farm picnic last weekend. “Senator Alvarado, what does it feel like running with the least popular governor in the country? That sounds like political malpractice to me, but Ralph you know a lot more about malpractice than I do,” Coleman said. Alvarado is a doctor.

The complete editorial is at https://www.leoweekly.com/2019/08/thorns-roses-worst-best-absurd-112/ .

August 8, 2019

Mitch's Nickname, GOP AG Cand Unqualified

Stood on the bathroom scales, did you? You can’t say you weren’t warned. Anyone with the gift of sight can see that midriff of yours is losing its battle with gravity. But I can see why that would annoy a preening narcissist like you. Just wait ’til the rest of your Barnett deserts you the way it did me.

I’m not annoyed about that specifically, although I am rather proud of my lush, silver crest. No, I’m miffed that we’ve spent three years calling McConnell every name under the sun, and someone else came up with one that’s sticking.

“McC**t McConnell” was never going to get far beyond the pages of LEO. Not in this puritanical backwood. But it is delicious to see how it’s rankled him. I think he’s genuinely pissed, and I’ve never seen that in over four decades of living in this benighted state. If only there were a single decent candidate to run against him.

Obviously, he’s livid because Moscow Mitch is true, in the sense that he’s standing in the way of doing anything at all about Russian election interference since he’s a personal beneficiary of said interference. Plus his “McCarthyism” whine is pathetic: He’s spent his entire career labelling anyone who disagrees with him a socialist. McConnell’s not the only one who’s rattled, either. Bevin’s doing a passable impersonation of someone shitting a brick too.

Read more: https://www.leoweekly.com/2019/08/mitchs-nickname-gop-ag-cand-unqualified/

August 8, 2019

Warrant issued for Luke Sky Walker in Carter County

Luke Sky Walker is in trouble again, and no Jedi mind trick will save him.

The 22-year-old Carter County man is charged with property theft of more than $1,000. Last year he was arrested for violation of probation, which came as the result of a felony theft charge.

The Carter County Sheriff’s Office had fun with Walker’s “Star Wars” name on Wednesday, announcing on Facebook that, “He is not … armed with a light saber, flying an X-Wing (or) missing a hand.”

And none other than Mark Hamill, the original Luke Skywalker, is making jokes about Walker.

https://twitter.com/HamillHimself/status/1159179444721876992

Read more: https://www.knoxnews.com/story/news/2019/08/08/luke-sky-walker-warrant-arrest-carter-county-tennessee-mark-hamill-skywalker-star-wars/1954215001/

Last fall Hamill tweeted that “the real crime here is Mr. & Mrs. Walker saddling this poor guy with that name in the first place” and added #AlsoTooShortForAStormtrooper in reference to Walker’s 5’6” height.