Washington Closure Hanford

Trade & TAA, unemployment, Social Security… | The Stand

►  From Reuters — U.S. trade bills advance, but clash clouds future — U.S. trade deals with South Korea, Colombia and Panama cleared initial hurdles in Congress on Thursday, but a party-line clash over a program to help workers displaced by trade threatened future action. The Senate Finance Committee backed all three agreements, but panel Republicans unanimously opposed the Korea pact because of the fight over Trade Adjustment Assistance (TAA). Republicans object to a White House plan to include TAA in the implementing bill for the South Korea agreement on grounds the job training program is too costly and ineffective.

EDITOR’S NOTE — Washington state workers and businesses disproportionately benefit from the TAA program. As Republican leaders in Congress try to kill the program, where does Washington’s delegation stand? They won’t say.

Until they do… keep contacting your U.S. Representative and Senators to urge them to oppose these job-killing FTAs and to support reauthorization of a robust TAA program to help the workers victimized by existing U.S. trade policies.

►  In today’s Tri-City Herald — Hanford contractor plans to cut 210 jobs — Washington Closure Hanford and its prime subcontractor will cut up to 210 jobs in the fiscal year that starts Oct. 1 under a work force restructuring plan approved by the Department of Energy.

►  In The Stranger — Your Metro bus is caught in partisan crossfire — Few insiders expect a temporary two-year $20 annual car-tab fee to muster even five of nine council votes, let alone the six (two-thirds majority) required by the Legislature this year. Instead, the council is widely anticipated to bump the decision to the November ballot, which requires only five council votes and a simple majority at the polls.

►  In today’s Olympian — Initiatives get names in time for today’s deadline — Backers of three proposals – dealing with transportation tolls (Eyman/Freeman), training for home care workers (SEIU), and liquor privatization (Costco) – have appointments to bring in signatures for counting at the state elections offices in Olympia. A long-shot effort to legalize marijuana (Funyuns) also has scheduled a turn-in, but organizers say it’s looking unlikely that they’ll have enough signatures by today.

Late Pleistocene- and Holocene-age Columbia River sediments and bedforms, Hanford Reach Area, Washington

Hanford Site environmental report for calendar year 2008, (including some early 2009 information).

Hanford Site environmental report for calendar year 2006, (including some early 2007 information).

Hanford Site groundwater monitoring for fiscal year 2007

Summary of Hanford Site groundwater monitoring for fiscal year 2006