NPI's Cascadia Advocate

Offering commentary and analysis from Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, The Cascadia Advocate is the Northwest Progressive Institute's uplifting perspective on world, national, and local politics.

Category Archives: Economic Security

Two-thirds of Washington voters support barring gender-based price discrimination

Excerpt: 67% of 874 likely voters interviewed in March of 2023 by Public Policy Polling voiced support for prohibiting people or businesses "from charging different prices for two substantially similar goods based on the gender of the persons to whom the goods are marketed," which is what Senate Bill 5171 would do if enacted. 59% were strongly supportive and another 8% were somewhat supportive.  
Written by:Andrew Villeneuve
Other Categories:Civil Liberties, Policy Topics
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Manka Dhingra’s youth-inspired bill to ban gender-based price discrimination advances

Excerpt: SB 5171 is youth-inspired legislation that Dhingra, a Northwest Progressive Foundation boardmember, introduced in partnership with civically-oriented students from Lake Washington High School in Kirkland. If passed, it will stop retailers from charging Washingtonians (especially those who identify as female) extra for products merely because they are marketed to a particular gender.
Written by:Andrew Villeneuve
Other Categories:Civil Liberties, Policy Topics
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Senator Maria Cantwell: A workhorse for the people and the Pacific Northwest in Congress

Excerpt: Cantwell, sixty-four, is not one of the usual suspects seen on networks’ Sunday morning talk shows or shouting over talk radio. She gets stuff done by mastering details, quiet work with colleagues and by serving on a trio of A-list Senate committees where legislation is put together.
Written by:Joel Connelly
Other Categories:Our Environment, Policy Topics, Public Service
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U.S. Senate Republicans use chamber’s undemocratic sixty-vote threshold to deny railroad workers sick leave they need

Excerpt: Senate Republicans used the chamber's undemocratic sixty vote threshold to nix a concurrent resolution in Congress to require paid sick leave for railroad workers. Democratic and independent senators voted for it, but most Republicans withheld their votes.
Written by:Andrew Villeneuve
Other Categories:Policy Topics
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U.S. House votes to adopt railroad labor agreement plus provide workers sick leave

Excerpt: If the Senate signs off on the proposed modification to the labor agreement, President Biden could sign the new terms into law and obligate railroads to provide sick leave to their workers, which they should have simply agreed to do in the first place in negotiations, obviating the need for congressional intervention.
Written by:Andrew Villeneuve
Other Categories:Policy Topics
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An overwhelming majority of King County voters oppose the Kroger/Albertsons merger

Excerpt: 68% of respondents surveyed for NPI by Change Research said they opposed the merger, while just 17% said they supported it. Nearly half (48%) said they were strongly opposed, while only 5% were strongly supportive.
Written by:Andrew Villeneuve
Other Categories:Policy Topics, World Commmunity
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Kim Schrier’s Republican challenger Matt Larkin calls for lowering the minimum wage

Excerpt: Having seemingly not learned any lessons from Dino Rossi's four unsuccessful bids for higher office this century, Kim Schrier's Republican opponent Matt Larkin declared this week in an interview with The Herald of Everett that Washington's minimum wage should be "closer" to the federal hourly minimum of $7.25.
Written by:Rich Erwin
Other Categories:Elections
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A majority of Washington voters agree more with Democrats about the causes of inflation

Excerpt: 50% of 782 likely voters interviewed for NPI by Public Policy from October 19th-20th said they agreed more with Democrats about the causes of inflation and price increases, while 43% agreed with Republicans more. 7% were not sure. 
Written by:Andrew Villeneuve
Other Categories:Policy Topics
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Federal government should move swiftly to thwart Kroger/Albertsons merger

Excerpt: The Department of Justice should fight this merger -- including in court if necessary -- to uphold our antitrust laws, defend U.S. households from anticompetitive business practices, and protect the shareholders of these companies from executives' counterproductive empire-building ambitions. 
Written by:Andrew Villeneuve
Other Categories:Policy Topics, World Commmunity
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Railway strike averted thanks to eleventh hour deal brokered by Biden administration

Excerpt: Negotiators representing American railroad workers have reached an agreement with the nation's biggest railways on a new contract that will keep the nation's railways open and avoid a strike that could have raised prices and hurt the economy.
Written by:Andrew Villeneuve
Other Categories:Policy Topics
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NPI at Netroots Nation 2022: Talking worker organizing, ALU’s future with Chris Smalls

Excerpt: In this sixth installment of NPI@NN (2022), NPI's Caya Berndt spoke with organizer and Amazon Labor Union President Chris Smalls about the unifying power of workers joining forces to bargain collectively and the future of the ALU.
Written by:Caya Berndt
Other Categories:Events, Policy Topics, Series & Special Reports
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Way beyond political theater: Greg Abbott is hiking prices on Texans by choking commerce

Excerpt: Business leaders are furious that truck traffic across the border with Mexico has mostly ground to a halt due to the implementation of Abbott's scheme requiring trucks to be "inspected" by state level officials answerable to him.
Written by:Andrew Villeneuve
Other Categories:Civil Liberties, Policy Topics
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Book Review: Left Behind puts the DLC’s failed track record under a microscope

Excerpt: Read NPI's review of Left Behind: The Democrats' Failed Attempt to Solve Inequality, by historian Lily Geismer, an associate professor of history at Claremont McKenna College.
Written by:Alexa Moormeier
Other Categories:Media & Culture, Policy Topics
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Washington State House of Representatives votes to protect workers, repeal BIAW’s I‑841

Excerpt: House Bill 1837 is simple: it gets rid of the restriction on the regulation of work-related musculoskeletal disorders and ergonomics. The bill is so simple that it fits on two pages (with margins removed)
Written by:Andrew Villeneuve
Other Categories:Legislative Advocacy, Policy Topics
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