12 | EXPRESS | 06.13.2018 | WEDNESDAY
nation+world Money from companies would have helped pay to fight homelessness SEATTLE Seattle leaders on Tuesday repealed a tax on large companies such as Amazon and Starbucks after a backlash from businesses, a stark reversal from a month ago when the City Council unanimously approved the effort to combat a growing homelessness crisis. The council voted 7-2 after supporters and opponents packed a meeting with signs saying, “Tax Amazon, housing for all” and “No tax on jobs,” with some shouting for more time to discuss the issue.
‘JAVANKA’ INCOME
$82M
The vote showed Amazon’s ability to push back aggressively on government taxes, especially in its affluent hometown, where it’s the largest employer and where some have criticized it for helping cultivate a widening income gap that is pricing lowerincome workers out of housing. The tax was proposed as a progressive revenue source aimed at tackling one of the nation’s highest homelessness numbers, a problem that hasn’t eased even as city spending on the issue grew. Businesses and residents demanded more accountability in how Seattle addresses homelessness and housing and said it should take a regional approach to the problem. Many worried that Amazon
TED S. WARREN (AP)
Seattle repeals business tax
People attend a Seattle City Council meeting Tuesday where a tax on large corporations was repealed.
and others would leave the city, with construction workers in hard hats packing City Hall to object to the tax.
Amazon, Starbucks and others sharply criticized the tax as misguided, and the online retailer even temporarily halted construction planning on a new high-rise building near its Seattle headquarters in protest. Supporters praised it as a step toward building badly needed affordable housing. They argued that too many people are suffering on the streets and that the problem is deepening, despite city-funded programs finding homes for 3,400 people last year. Seattle spent $68 million on homelessness last year and plans to spend even more this year, not counting the tax that would have raised roughly $48 million annually. PHUONG LE (AP)
Study: Science rife with sexual harassment
Orlando marks two years since Pulse shooting
JOE RAEDLE (GETTY IMAGES)
The amount in outside income that Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, the president’s daughter and son-in-law, earned while serving as senior White House advisers in 2017, according to financial disclosures out Monday. The income includes money from D.C.’s Trump hotel and severance from the Trump Organization. (TWP)
ORLANDO, FLA. | People gaze at the memorial set up outside Orlando’s Pulse gay nightclub, where 49 people were killed and 53 wounded in a 2016 shooting. Tuesday marked two years since the tragedy. The day was recognized by survivors and victims’ family members with a “rainbow run” and exhibit at the local history center. Survivors and relatives of those who died have filed lawsuits against Pulse’s owners and Orlando police.
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WASHINGTON Sexual harassment is rampant in academic science, and colleges and universities that train new scientists need a systemwide culture change so women won’t be bullied out of the field, a national advisory group said Tuesday. In fact, it’s time to treat sexual harassment as seriously as research misconduct, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine concluded in recommendations aimed at U.S. institutions of higher education and the groups that fund them. While women are still outnumbered by men, universities are recruiting more women to science-related fields than ever before. The new report makes clear that pervasive sexual harassment puts those gains at risk. Most common in science is what the National Academies termed gender harassment, a hostile environment rife with sexist commentary and crude behavior that can harm a woman’s education and career, as well as her mental and physical health. “Even when the sexual harassment entails nothing but sexist insult without any unwanted sexual pursuit, it takes a toll,” said University of Michigan psychology professor Lilia Cortina, a member of the committee that spent two years on the study. “It’s about pushing women out.” LAURAN NEERGAARD (AP)
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