The Seattle Times is reporting that Starbucks will cut 6,000 jobs and close 300 stores.

About 350 of those jobs will be at their headquarters.

Here’s part of the memo from CEO Howard Schultz: “Our revenues were down 6% from a year ago, driven primarily by a 9% decline in same-store sales. Retailers across the country have reported negative comparable store sales as high as 30%, in the midst of declining consumer confidence to levels not seen in 40 years. The forecast by experts suggests the economic situation will get worse before it gets better.”

Tags: layoffs

I just got a press release from the office of Rep. Marko Liias
telling me that Mike McCready, guitarist for Pearl Jam, and his wife, Ashley O’Connor, will be here on Thursday to testify on a bill.

The bill would allow those with certain conditions — like Crohn’s, which McCready has — to use employer restrooms in certain conditions.

Here is HB 1138. And here is McCready’s bio. Study up.

Tags: Add new tag, Domestic partnership

The press conference to announce the “everything but marriage” bill just started.

Rep. Jamie Pedersen said the bill would extend about 300 remaining rights and responsibilities of marriage to couples in domestic partnerships.

Watch live on TVW now.

One couple from Tacoma spoke: One partner is a police officer, and they said that, if this bill passes and if anything were to happen to her in the line of duty, she knows her partner would get the same benefits as another officer’s spouse.

Tags: Domestic partnerships, House, Senate

The Senate unanimously passed the “belt-tightening” budget measure, Senate Bill 5460, to save an additional $105 million from the state budget today. The bill now heads to the House.

Tags: Budget, Senate

Rachel La Corte at The Associated Press had this story last night: “State lawmakers are getting ready to introduce a bill allowing same-sex couples all the rights and benefits afforded to heterosexual married couples.
The measure would further expand the state’s domestic partnership law. It’s being introduced Wednesday.”

There’s a press conference on the bill at noon. TVW will air it live.

Tags: Domestic partnership

The Biz Buzz at The News Tribune says Gregoire is pledging to help those Russell employees who will be out of work soon. Russell announced earlier this week that they would cut 20 percent of their 2,100-person workforce.

Gregoire said in a statement: “It is frustrating that the world financial crisis continues to take a toll on Washington business, resulting in job losses for these skilled professionals. Our state’s Employment Security Department is working around the clock to help affected workers file for unemployment benefits, and more importantly, find new, well-paying jobs.”

And today: Boeing announced it will cut 10,000 more jobs. He said in a conference call that the jobs will be cut through “attrition, retirements and reductions.” Read more here.

Tags: Budget, economy, Governor, layoffs

Right now, I’m watching the Senate Early Learning and K-12 Education Committee. (Watch live or on tvw.org.)

The committee is discussing Senate Bill 5444, which implements the plans of the Basic Education Finance Task Force. That committee met for 18 months and on Monday reported on their ideas for reforming the school system.

Representative Ross Hunter said the funding model could increase school funding by 40 to 50 percent.

At the press conference on Monday, Rich Wood with the Washington Education Association walked up to me and said: “We hate this.”

Why? While Hunter and others have big plans to fund schools, the bill itself has no funding attached. Wood said that means if the bill passes and the funding piece gets tied up, the “reform” would come without the money to do it.

We’ll have more on this throughout the day. In other education news: Some rural high schools are asking for permission to go to a four-day school week.

For a full description of the WEA’s standpoint from Wood, click to read more: (more…)

Tags: Basic Education Finance Task Force, Budget, School

Randy Dorn’s appearance before the House Education Committee — to explain his proposal to kick the WASL to the curb — finished up about early this afternoon.

During the hearing, he elaborated on his plans and why they were necessary. He also said cooperation with the Legislature was important — a slightly different message than his press conference last week, where he said he had the power to scrap the test.

I’m going over everything now. In the meantime, here’s one tidbit I found interesting: Dorn said the state shuffles around 700,000 test booklets for the WASL every year. With computer testing, that huge amount of paper vanishes. He said Oregon has recently scrapped paper-based testing, and he’s had conversations with them about it.

Watch the video here.

Tags: Dorn, education, WASL

Joe Turner from The News Tribune asked Dick Thompson, Gov. Chris Gregoire’s federal stimulus liaison, for an update on how much the state might get.

Thompson spend last week telling various committees that his idea of how the federal stimulus would work had changed dramatically in recent weeks. First, he said, he thought we’d get one big check. As time went on, he said, he came to think the state will get lots of little checks.

From the sound of his latest estimate on federal funding, the checks won’t be that small: The state could get $4 billion, he told Turner.

Meanwhile, the projected budget deficit grows, or at least lawmakers’ estimates do: Before session, most people were using the projected $6.5 billion figure. Right after the dismal holiday shopping season, many started bracing for $7 billion. Last week, I heard a lawmaker say in committee that it could be $8 billion.

Tags: Budget, federal stimulus

I wrote yesterday about an exchange between Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen and the panel explaining the deep-bore Viaduct-replacement tunnel. In short: She disputed the Legislature’s funding commitment and said tolling would have to make up the cost difference.

Today, Jen Huntley reminded me that on last week’s The Impact, she interviewed transportation leaders. And they talked about tolls. Here’s the clip:

Tags: Budget, transportation, tunnel, Viaduct