From Wins to What’s Next – A Recap of the 2026 Legislative Session Welcome Introduction: Pam Crone, Chair PSARA Government Relations Comm. (GRC) 2026 Legislative Session Review: Nancy Sapiro, Northwest Justice Consulting LLC HR 1 Healthcare Impacts & WA Cares Rollout: Maddie Foutch, SEIU 775 Millionaires Tax: Beth Lindsey, Invest WA Now 2027 Initiatives: Libby Watson, No Hate in WA Campaign November Elections: Marilyn Watkins, PSARA GRC Committee Briefing on the timeline and activities around the 2027 WA Session: Pam Crone Closing: Karen Richter Co President PSARA Weds. May 27 @ 10:30 a.m. Zoom Meeting RSVP Here Agenda

PSARA Officers PSARA Officers Mike Andrew Executive Director/Editor Advocate Mike Andrew, PSARA’s Executive Director and Editor of The Retiree Advocate, is a journalist by trade. He came to PSARA as Associate Editor of The Retiree Advocate in April 2011, became a part-time and then a full-time PSARA organizer, and was hired as Executive Director in December 2018. Prior to coming on board with PSARA, Mike was a full-time reporter for Seattle Gay News. Before that, he was a fishmonger. He is capable of breaking down a salmon in 90 seconds and then turning around and writing a story about it. Mike has managed two political campaigns, one win and one loss. He’s proudest of the loss, however, because his candidate spent only 60 cents per vote and still came in at 46%. He is a member of the National Writers Union, and Pride At Work, an LGBTQ labor organization affiliated with the AFL-CIO. Mike was born in San Francisco, went to UC Berkeley, and then came to Seattle for grad school. Mike currently lives in Seattle with his husband, Simon, and their cat, Noel. Email: organizer@psara.org Karen Richter Co-President/Fund Raising Chair Karen Richter is a retired public servant, who worked as a transportation planner in Tucson, Chicago and Seattle and is a retired AFSCME member. She is a co founder of the Chicago chapter of the Women’s Transportation Seminar. Currently she is the Co-President of the Puget Sound Advocates for Retirement Action and the Vice President of the PSARA Education Fund. She also is the chair of the PSARA Fundraising Committee, and is an active member of the 34th Legislative District Democrats. She also works with the Social Security Works, Wa Coalition. Karen is an avid birder, organic gardener and loves spending time in her home and neighborhood in wonderful West Seattle. Tom Lux Treasurer Tom Lux is a 35 year member of the Machinists Union and was on the staff of the union for eight years and serves as a member of the Aerospace Joint Apprenticeship Committee. He is on the Visiting Committee of the Harry Bridges Chair at the UW and is the President of the Pacific Northwest Labor History Association. Richard Burton Co-Outreach Vice President I have been a PSARA member for approximately 10 years. I was a philosophy teacher at Seattle Central [Community!] College from 1992 till 2007 and served on the executive board of my faculty union local there, AFT Seattle 1789, from 1995 till 2007. I was involved with the Seattle King County organizing committee of Jobs with Justice, and was a delegate to the Martin Luther King County Labor Council through much of that time. I started working as a political organizer with AFT Washington then and have worked for several other unions since then (in New York and Maryland). I am now happily back working at AFT Washington. Lynne Dodson Secretary Lynne Dodson is back in the PNW after a stint on the east coast. She’s moving toward retirement, working three days a week with UFCW 3000 and WeTrain as a Workforce Development Director. Back east, she was the dean of the Harry Van Arsdale School for Labor Studies in NYC, before moving to the DC area to work with UFCW international. Lynne was the Secretary Treasurer of the WA State Labor Council, AFL-CIO for two terms prior to that. She came to that position after serving the faculty of the Seattle Colleges as president for AFT 1789 for many years. Besides being a union activist, leader, and trainer, she loved teaching Psychology in Seattle’s community college system. Lynne and her delightful husband, Richard Burton, are building a family home in Gig Harbor because Joey Sanger (with Briony DeKlerk) and Kia Sanger (with Bernard Rodriguez) recently bore grand-daughters!!! Willow-Rain DeKlerk Sanger; and Helena Lluvia Rodriquez Sanger (and their parents) will eventually all return from far off lands to live in lovely Pierce County. Lynne has a passion for justice and building the beloved community and is delighted to be joining the PSARA Executive Board to fight for a more just, equitable, and sustainable world. Jeff Johnson Co-President Jeff Johnson is the former President of the Washington State Labor Council (WSLC) which represents more than 500,000 employees in the state of Washington. Formerly the research Director of the WSLC, Jeff in his former life was a college professor. He is currently on the board of the Labor Network for Sustainability where he focuses on the intersection between labor, climate change and climate justice including a “Just Transition”. Email: president@psara.org Jessica Bonebright Administrative Vice President Retired from Boeing and SPEEA, IFPTE 2001 staff. PSARA delegate to WA Senior Lobby, Former President of Martin Luther King Jr, County Labor Council, MLKCLC ending in 2015. Active with 11th district democrats. Past KCLS Library Trustee and Past United Way KC Board. Angie Bartels Membership Vice-President Angie Bartels comes from a large working-class family and was born and raised on the southern shores of the Ohio River in 1956. College was out of reach, so she devoted those years to the United Farm Workers Union and raising her daughter. She worked with the UFW’s boycott from KY to Ohio and finally in the San Joaquin Valley of CA where she learned Spanish. She came to Seattle in 1978 and while working as a legal assistant, volunteered for many years in the sanctuary movement for Central American refugees. Finally, at the age of 37, she earned her bachelor’s in nursing at the UW. She devoted her nursing career to low income, uninsured patients at the 45 th St. Clinic where she was the diabetes educator for nearly 20 years. She also worked for 13 years in HIV and other infectious diseases at Bailey Boushay and the Madison Clinic at Harborview. She retired at the age of 58 in 2014 due to her own health issues and her husband’s ALS diagnosis. She nursed Tony through his battle with ALS for seven years until his death in November 2020. As well as Membership VP for PSARA, she serves as the surrogate grandmother or “auntie” for the baby of a low-income immigrant family. “It was the height of the pandemic and Tony was gone. I didn’t have anything to do and they needed child care so why not help a family in need? After all, I was a single mom for all those years so I understand some of the struggles that young families go through. It just seemed to make sense and indeed it has brought happiness and purpose to my life once again.” Lisa Dekker Co-Outreach Vice-President After 25 years in Seattle, Lisa and her husband retired to the North Olympic Peninsula in 2016. Her activism began by volunteering with the Seattle Sierra Club. While working for Washington Community Action Network on healthcare and social justice issues, she learned about PSARA and became a member. She is now part of a small but mighty Clallam County/PSARA team working to grow support on the Peninsula. She is also, in orca costume, a part of the North Olympic Orca Pod educating the public about our Southern Resident orca. Cindy Domingo Co-Outreach Vice President Cindy Domingo has been an activist for 50 years using her skills as an organizer, writer, political strategist, mentor, public servant and speaker to create social and radical change in the world. She is currently the Board Chair of LELO, A Legacy of Equality Leadership and Organizing, an organization led by people of color and whose mission is to empower low-income workers of color, recent immigrants and women workers to assert their rights, improve their working conditions and gain their voice in their workplaces, trade unions and communities in the US and across the globe. Cindy is also in leadership of the Seattle Chapter of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance and has also served on numerous boards locally including International Examiner Newspaper, Church Council of Greater Seattle and Community to Community. Nationally, she has served on the boards of National Asian Pacific Women’s Forum, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom and is in the leadership of Akbayan North America. Cindy has focused her work on the liberation of women and girls and building international solidarity between the peoples of the Philippines and the US and ending the 60 years old US blockade of Cuba.

Play Video Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tumblr Copy Link Link Copied PSARA Oral Histories Project: Frank Irigon Return to Oral Histories Main Page Frank Irigon Biography PSARA Advocate Archives July 2022 Page 5 (Part I) August 2022 Page 10 (Part II) Mud on Their Hands, An Interview With Frank Irigon By Angie Bartels It never ceases to amaze me how much newly arrived immigrants know about and give to our country. They work hard for the ideal of democracy and to improve their lives and the general welfare of the US. People like Frank Irigon have taught me more about the US than I had learned in school. His knowledge goes back generations and I believe is innate. Frank’s grandfather and father served in the Philippine Scouts, a military unit and remnant of colonialism. Frank was born on a US military base in the Philippines in 1947. His father was captured by the Japanese and spent time as a prisoner of war. After WWII, his father took advantage of an offer to join the US Army and shipped off to the USA. He sent for the family in 1950, when Frank, his mother, and two siblings boarded a ship bound for San Francisco. Frank’s mother did not speak English, and she didn’t realize that the fare for the voyage included meals. She brought what food she could carry, along with the children and their belongings, but then ran out of food mid-voyage. A Filipino passenger in a nearby berth heard the cries of the hungry children and asked if she could help. The friendly passenger led the family to the ship’s cafeteria where there was bounty. When they reached San Francisco, once again they relied on the kindness of strangers to help them find the train to Fort Riley, Kansas, where Frank’s dad was stationed. Frank was raised on US military bases and learned the signs of racism early on. He remembers growing up in North Ft. Lewis where there was an old military hospital that was converted into family housing. Most of the families living in that complex were Latino or Filipino. Newer complexes were built, but those were occupied mostly by white families. His fourth-grade teacher was African American, and her husband was a military pilot. She and her family were not permitted to live with the white officers, so they lived in an area set off by themselves. Frank himself enlisted in the US Army before high school graduation. He remembers training in Baltimore in the summer of 1965 and the civil unrest in that city. His sergeant called the soldiers of color into one room and began his lecture, “I know we got a lot of n------ troops.” Stunned, the Black soldiers stared at one another. The sergeant went on, “But we’ve got only one color here and that’s green.” But everyone in the room knew that he had made a grave error as soon as he said the N word. The soldiers stared at the sergeant as he too realized the mistake he had made. Per Frank, “It really lost its effect when he tried to tell us we were all one color, green, our military fatigues. He already knew that we were different because of our race.” Frank went on, “And I saw other things – an African American lieutenant not being given the respect that he deserved because of his rank, white soldiers talking behind his back, things like that. This wasn’t the first time I heard the word racism, but I remember we had a Black clerk and he wanted to go on leave. But he was denied it while many other soldiers were granted leave. The clerk claimed it was because of racism.” Frank spoke for some time with the clerk about the incident. The saving grace during Frank’s military years was his thirst for knowledge, which he quenched through reading. While stationed in Heidelberg, Germany, he happened upon an anti-Vietnam War protest where the marchers had occupied the streets. He then began reading about US involvement in Vietnam and its tragic effects. But for Frank, it was deeper and more complex than that. His mother wrote to him of his childhood friend, Eddie Caceres, who died in battle in Vietnam. Frank considered putting in a form 1049, a request to go to Vietnam, so that he could get revenge for Eddie’s death. But the more he thought and read about it, the more he felt that he really didn’t want to do that. And since he had less than a year left in the service, he wouldn’t be sent. The military had the draft to replenish troops that were discharged, or who deserted, or died. After discharge, Frank came to Seattle and attended Seattle Central Community College, and later, the University of Washington, majoring in history. His wife, Felicita, was working with the Asian Counseling and Referral Services as a social worker, and he was envious of her work and skill at helping people. Frank had been working for DSHS and was offered the opportunity to study for a master’s degree, along with a stipend, all while continuing employment and accrual of benefits. He decided to become a social worker and eventually earned his master’s degree. Frank became increasingly aware of the issues facing Asian and other families of color in the CID (Chinatown- International District) of Seattle. He remembers the fire at the Ozark Hotel, located near Westlake and Lenora, in 1970. The Ozark was six floors of low-rate rooms and SRO (single room occupancy) units, inhabited by low-income, disabled, and elderly residents. The hotel was not retrofitted with sprinklers, and twenty-one people died, some while trying to jump to safety from windows. As a result, a huge displacement of low-income residents citywide took place as the City closed down 6,000 low-rate rooms and SROs for failure to meet fire safety codes. Frank says the homeless problem in Seattle began at that point. Frank was working with the Asian Student Coalition at the UW in 1972, when it was announced that the King Dome would be built south of King Street Station. This sent shock waves through the CID, as affordable housing and businesses would be impacted by displacement and gentrification. Frank had co-founded the Asian Family Affair, the first pan-Asian community newspaper in Seattle, and they reported about the negative impact of the proposed King Dome on the community. He and Felicita were driving north on I-5 in their “hippie wagon,” a VW camper, when they heard an announcement on the radio about a groundbreaking ceremony. Frank felt like enough was enough as he looked at Felicita and said, “Fuck that shit!” His anger mounted as he started thinking about ways to demonstrate, to disrupt the ceremony, to show that “they” weren’t going to get the King Dome without a fight. Al Sugiyama noticed the sign Frank had placed on his office door at the HUB (UW Student Union building) stating “I will be going to the King Dome site to protest the groundbreaking ceremony.” Al called Frank and asked how many people would be going with him. Frank replied, “You, me, and Felicita.” Al laughed, but set himself in motion. He was a former president of the Oriental Student Union at Seattle Central and had a history of activism, lots of contacts, and years of organizing experience. By the day of the groundbreaking ceremony, when Al, Frank, and Felicita met up at the International District Drop-In Center, 50-75 people had joined them. The group marched from the CID to the King Dome site, a muddy rain-soaked field south of King Street Station. No presentation was planned; the protesters were there to disrupt. The former NFL great, Hugh McElhenny, was standing beside John Spellman, then King County Executive, and the group heard him say, “Just give me a football and I can run through that crowd.” A lively chant went up amongst the protestors. “We dare you! We dare you!!” A group of protesters then tried to occupy the dais that was set up on a stage. A King County sheriff’s deputy turned pleadingly to Frank and said, “Can you stop this?” Frank was reluctant but also concerned about the safety of the protesters, so he began herding people together and asked everyone to leave the stage. Then a friend from the School of Social Work picked up a piece of mud and threw it at the groundbreaking plaque. In a split second, other protestors began throwing mud at the plaque. About this time the Seattle Police Dept. (SPD) arrived, “. . . looking like Roman soldiers with their shields and combat gear,” and marched towards the protesters. Frank said, “We decided it was time to go!” Al felt that they needed to leave all together as a group. Al, Frank, Nemesio Domingo, and a few others picked up the rear to ensure that no one was left behind. Nemesio had been appointed to ensure that no one in the group was arrested. But the SPD intended to arrest anyone with mud on their hands because, according to their thinking, they were guilty of throwing mud balls. Frank said, “This made no sense because the site was very muddy, and if anyone slipped or touched anything, such as a football, there would be mud on their hands.” As the protesters left the site, two officers followed them. Nemesio turned to the officers and said, “Why are you following us? We’re leaving!” The officer unzipped his jacket, placed his hand on his gun, and said to Nemesio, “What are you going to do about it?” Nemesio, looked him straight in the eye, flipped him the bird, and said, “Fuck you!” Suddenly, a sister protester yelled, “Run Nemesio, run!” Nemesio took off running with the police officers right behind him. The chase lasted only a block or two when the officers caught up with Nemesio. One of the protesters was a law student, and he convinced the police to release Nemesio on the spot, without charges. The demo was over, and the officers decided it wasn’t worth their while to arrest anyone. If this incident had happened today, it’s frightening to think of the consequences. Over the next few days and weeks, it became apparent that the protest wasn’t merely a mud fight. It had put the City and County on notice that the people of the CID were ready to stand up for their homes and livelihoods. Frank and the group used this as an opportunity to get a meeting with King County Executive John Spellman and present a list of demands, one of which was a community health center for the CID. It wasn’t a novel idea, since other community clinics were starting up as well. Frank and his group had learned that the Filipino and Chinese elderly were using the Pioneer Square Health Station (PSHS) for medical care. PSHS was there to treat the homeless and Indigenous people who lived in the area. A doctor there told them that it wasn’t a good mix, Filipino and Chinese elderly waiting for care alongside people being treated for drug and alcohol addiction and problems related to homelessness. Also, PSHS was not culturally or language accessible for these Asian patients. When Frank presented the demand for a culturally appropriate clinic for the Asian elderly, Spellman responded, “Why should I fund a community health center that is in the city of Seattle and not serving all of King County? How do I know that you guys even need this? Frank responded that the health care center would be open to anyone who wanted to use it and added, “Prove to us that we don’t need it.” Spellman assigned a nursing student working on her master’s degree to do a community assessment. She worked with activist and journalist Doug Chin on an epidemiological study to assess the health care needs of the elderly living in the CID. She came to Frank and Doug and said, “You guys have a problem with your elderly. They’ve got diabetes, hypertension, heart disease, and a myriad of health problems, so they need good primary care. This will help you prove that you do need a clinic.” The study findings were presented to Spellman and he, along with King County Councilwoman and restaurateur Ruby Chow, got the International District Community Health Center funded as a brick-and-mortar facility, not the mobile unit that was originally proposed by the County. Frank became Executive Director of the IDCHC in 1980 and served in that capacity for about two years. Frank is modest when talking about this achievement, as well as his many others. He credits the hundreds of people he’s worked with, from all walks of life, for the contributions they made in the struggle for racial equality and health and social equity. I did volunteer work at the ID Clinic in the late 1980’s as a prerequisite for nursing school. Back then, it was a small clinic on the second floor of an old building on Maynard Street. It was impressive then and even more so today, with new buildings in multiple locations and services for its mostly Asian American clientele. Before speaking with Frank, I did not know that the IDCHC grew out of a mud-splattered disruption of the commemoration of the first of several sports facilities built in Seattle, facilities that continue to disrupt and displace residents of the CID. Nor did I know of the tremendous contribution that Frank had made. Frank spends less time looking back over the many years of service he has given to us, our city, state, and country, and more time on the challenges that lie ahead. City planners and developers continue to draw up plans for more building and development in the CID, completely overlooking the impact on the community, its character, its residents, and its viability. But now, just like then, Frank will tell you, “They’re not getting it without a fight and without consideration for the people affected.” Angie Bartels is PSARA's Membership VP. This story is one of a series of interviews she's doing with PSARA members.

PSARA Oral Histories Project: Tony Lee Return to Oral Histories Main Page Tony Lee Interview PSARA Advocate January 2023 Page 4 Holding the 8th, Flipping the 3rd By Angie Bartels In autumn of 2020, the days were growing short while our democracy was hanging by a thread, as was the life of my latehusband Tony Lee. Tony was in the final throes of ALS. The White House was occupied by Donald Trump and his cronies.While many activists across the nation were on the move, local activists Peter Costantini and Tom Berry created Team TonyLee. Peter: I hadn't been that involved in electoral stuff for a long time. I volunteer with immigrant rights groups and have donesome canvassing with them. But in 2016, when Trump was the candidate, it gave me a kick in the butt. I thought, we've suddenlygot a movement that is white nationalist, fascist in many ways, and international. I started to get scared and got to thinking, we really need to do electoral work, as it’s the most immediate way to slow it down and reverse it. Tom: We had all spent time with Tony over the years, including during those last few years when he was not able to be politicallyactive. When the 2020 election rolled around and we felt we needed to get organized, our thoughts certainly went to Tony. Wehad many political discussions with him, so we had a sense of which side Tony would be on and which candidates he was mostenthusiastic about. It seemed logical when we organized ourselves to memorialize Tony in that way. They invited numerous friends to sign up, myself included. We worked with various grassroots organizing groups and pennedthousands of letters and texts. We called voters in English and Spanish in states across the nation. We met on Zoom andtalked about our experiences and compared notes. It was the height of the COVID lockdown, and everything was done remotely. Early in the morning, five days after election day 2020, a friend called and told me the final presidential election results. I rushedover to Tony and said, “Wake up, Tony! It’s confirmed! Biden won!” No longer able to speak, he blinked acknowledgement. Five days later, Tony passed away. As we approached the election of 2022, the preservation of democracy was still at stake. InWashington State, Kim Schrier was threatened in the 8th CD, and a new candidate, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, had a decentshot to flip the 3rd CD. Once again, Peter and Tom reignited Team Tony Lee. Tom became our point person for the 8th and Peterfor the 3rd. They contacted staff from the campaigns and found volunteer activities for Team Tony Lee. They kept the Teaminformed through articles, position papers, and policies of the candidates. They organized carpools for canvassing. Peter: I realized that once Marie and Kim won their primaries, there were two races in Washington that could have an effect onthe balance in the House. And their districts both have large rural areas. I haven't had much experience with rural Washington,but that motivated me, because I think it's good for us city people to get more of a sense of what's going on there. Tom: It was eye opening in terms of getting to know different parts of the 8th CD. I guess I have an image of the 8th CD asconservative and suburban. We canvassed in parts of Issaquah that were much more working class and even low-income. We alsowent to parts of King County where there was a fair amount of ethnic and racial diversity. It was interesting to see the scope of the 8th CD and what Schrier was dealing with in terms of fashioning her particular kind of politics. I don’t believe anyone canvassedeast of the mountains, so we have little insight on that. Peter: In the 3rd CD, Marie's campaign focused heavily on rural America. One of her TV ads has her walking down a gravel roadcarrying a chainsaw. She’s talking about how she lives in rural Skamania County, how she and her husband built their home. Shethen starts the chainsaw and cuts down a tree. Marie sets herself apart from “Seattle Democrats,” and apparently there’s aweakness in the Democratic Party across the country -- people who can speak to rural concerns. Tom: I agree, it’s a national issue. But I think it’s important, the fact that Kim and Marie were behind in the rural counties butwon big enough in King (for Kim) and Clark and Pacific (for Marie) to carry them to victory. So all of these votes count. But it is important to reduce that dynamic of the cities and the ruralareas being in conflict with each other. It’s positive that both of them were trying to focus on that. Peter: I think that was one of the things that really drew me to the Marie Perez campaign – a desire to get out and meet the folks in Longview and Kelso, Centralia, and Chehalis. That's where I spent most of my time canvassing. Angie: Yes, me too. I wanted to see where people live, how they live, what their concerns are, and how open they are to speaking with you. I loved canvassing in Kelso, because in many ways it felt like the town where I was raised – poverty, dilapidated houses, and multi-generational homes where people lived together, not by choice but by necessity. There were Joe Kent signs everywhere, but the majority of people I spoke with were kind and appreciated the information. A few people told me to “take my flyers and get the hell out of here,” which I did willingly. But most people were friendly. Peter: Yes, the poverty. I really didn't realize how much of an industrial and union town Longview, especially, is. Someone told me that the ILWU in Longview had gone Republican. At least some of the officers’ support and leadership supported Trump, which was surprising and depressing. But there are other labor unions, and it was encouraging to see them turn out for Marie. Angie: Before one canvass in Longview, Marie spoke and gave an orientation on where she was taking the campaign. She said right up front, we are not Seattle; what we need in our area are good, decent-paying jobs and training for people to get back into the trades where they can make a living wage. She also supports the Second Amendment. But she made reproductive rights a part of the forefront of her campaign, as well as the jobs and living wage issues. Peter: Yeah, when I talked to people, I tended to emphasize jobs in the trades, and the fact that they hire apprentices and are supportive of community colleges. I thought that was good policy. For the tiny sample of people I talked to, I think it was well received. I mean, it's playing very much against the national Republican stereotype of rich, elite Democrats on the coasts. The three of us and other team members agreed that canvassing made us feel good. Even if you don't know how that person will vote after you walk away from their door, at least you've made contact and have made a connection. Doorbelling is an intrusion, but it’s heartening when someone answers the door and has a reasonable conversation with you. Peter: Towards the end, there was an editorial from the Colombian, a Vancouver newspaper, in support of Marie. We gave that to people who wanted more information. I think it helped because it’s different from campaign literature and more valuable. The article made comparisons between the two candidates, which was exactly the information we wanted to give. Kim Schrier’s victory over Matt Larkin was a huge relief. Marie’s upset over Kent was amazing, one of the few in the country that defied predictions and flipped the seat from red to blue. Marie was declared the victor on Saturday, November 12, the second anniversary of Tony’s death. I had spent the day quietly at home, and in the late afternoon, I received a text informing me that Marie had won. Reverently, like the good Catholic girl that I used to be, with folded hands and teary eyes raised to the sky, I said, “Tony my love, this one’s for you.” Angie Bartels is PSARA's membership VP. This article is one in a series of interviews she's conducting with PSARAmembers.

PSARA Oral Histories Project: Thursten Muskelly Return to Oral Histories Main Page Thurston Muskelly Interview PSARA Advocate Archives November 2022 Page 9 Part I December 2022 Page 9 Part II “My Greatest Thing is Helping People” An Interview with Thurston Muskelly By Angie Bartels If you ask Thurston Muskelly what he likes to do most in the world, he’ll tell you it’s reaching out and helping others. He’s been doing this ever since childhood when he worked on the family farm. Thurston was born in Union, SC, in 1933, and grew up in Salisbury, NC. His mother, Eloise Robinson Muskelly, was an English teacher and taught middle school through college. She was full Cherokee, 6’6” tall and weighed 250 pounds. His father, Edward, was Native American, African American, Italian, and Caucasian, and 6’1” tall. He was an engineer for Southern Railway and ran Engine No. 34. He would be gone working a few days at a time so the Muskelly kids learned to take responsibility. At the age of 7, Thurston cared for the family’s 13 dairy cows and calves, feeding, milking, watering, and laying fresh straw for their beds. All the Muskelly children had chores to do “because my father pressed us into thinking that we help the family by doing these chores. And it was easy, but it was great responsibility.” When a cow or pig was slaughtered, Edward made sure that everyone in the community was given a share of the meat. “He believed in sharing, he just couldn't get around it. My mother would say, carry this piece of meat down to so-and-so. Everybody got a piece of joy.” Edward took Thurston to the railroad yard from the time he was quite young, where Thurston learned mechanics and how to fix the engines and other railroad equipment. Learning engineering came naturally to Thurston. Edward wept the day Thurston left for the US Navy in 1950. After boot camp, he was assigned to an aircraft carrier, the USS Albany. While serving in Pensacola, FL, Thurston met the love of his life, Joyce Williams. Joyce was working as a car hop at a BBQ joint, and he gently flirted with her. She talked with him, and soon Thurston was making frequent trips to the BBQ place to get his sandwiches and begin his courtship with Joyce. She was the eldest of five children and had the responsibility of raising her younger siblings. After a short while, they were married in 1954 in Lucedale, Mississippi, and made their home in Salisbury, NC, with his parents while Thurston served out his time in the Navy. Thurston had an accident on the ship where his arm was caught up in a winch. He received months of treatment but was permanently partially disabled. Upon discharge, he worked at the VA Hospital in Salisbury, NC. He and Joyce relocated to Youngstown, OH, upon the invitation of his uncle, who got him a job as a crane operator in a steel mill. “I was a part of the Steel Workers Union, and I worked off of the blast furnace. That's where you poured the ore into a furnace and the overrun went into a water well. The crane ran over the water well, and I would get that overrun ore that went into the water, lift it out, and put it in railroad cars. There were frequent national strikes, and one lasted six months.” In the meantime, Joyce visited her brother in Seattle, fell in love with the area, and told Thurston they should move there. Thurston was laid off at the time, so they came to Seattle in 1958. “After we got here, the family said they wanted me to work for Boeing, and I said no, I'm not going to work for Boeing because Boeing lays off too much. And I just come off a big layoff. So my brother-in-law took me to the US Public Health Service Hospital. And they only had one job available, which was a janitor's job. And I had to be a disabled veteran to get it. I was both. When I took the job, everybody laughed. With my resume and experience, I was overqualified. But I took the job because I had a wife and a young baby. I started off at $1.73 an hour. “ “There was an old German guy by the name of Mr. Monks. Monks came to me and said, ‘Thurston, if you stay here eight months, I’ll have an opening in engineering for you.' So I stayed there eight months and sure enough, I got a job in engineering with much higher pay. The job was repairman for blood pressure equipment, operating equipment, boiler room, all of this fell under engineering. They kept me in mechanics and I worked in that position for 25 years.” Thurston was instrumental in the formation of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 1170 at the USPHSH in 1970. “The employees at the hospital felt that the union was not representing what the needs of the employees were to the hospital administration. A lot of folks encouraged me to run for president, but a friend told me, ‘Thurston you could be jeopardizing your job.’ So, I went home and talked to the wife, and she said, ‘Well, you can always find another job’. So, I ran for president, and I won." It was during this time that Thurston’s natural ability to win people’s trust, to represent them fairly, and to bring them together in solidarity fully bloomed. “My father taught me leadership and responsibility, and that’s why the workers at USPHSH wanted me to be the president. It was my first time being the chief spokesman for employees in the union. We had an exciting executive board! I had people who worked together really hard. There was no animosity or division in the union. We were very together on issues that concerned employees and employees’ education, safety on the job, promotions, etc. We worked with the administration and Dr. Willard Johnson, the outstanding new director of the hospital. “Willard was out of Texas, and he was a very humble and good man who understood human needs. Dr. Johnson understood the problems that the employees faced, and he took it to heart. The employees were not treated fairly at the hospital until they elected the AFGE as the union spokesman for the group. We represented professionals and non-professionals alike. In fact, one of the doctors that we represented was Jim McDermott. He went on to be a State Senator” Dr. Johnson also began to understand the needs of the community at large. “He called me into his office one day and said, ‘Thurston, I know that you’re in charge of the union here at the hospital and I want to ask you for your help.’ He discussed that he had been in a meeting with the free clinics, and he had 5% of his hospital budget that he could donate to health care for people who didn’t have health care and couldn’t afford it. He wanted to use the US Public Health Service Hospital as a back-up for X-rays, lab work and treating people who didn’t have money. I told him that I would help him. Dr. Johnson put me in touch with David Loud, Tommy Byers, and a whole lot more people. My job with Dr. Johnson and the group was to keep all of the people and groups informed, keep them up to date what was going on and how they could help to sustain this fight.” The fight was against the federal policy to get out of the business of directly providing health care. Twenty USPHS hospitals had been closed under Republican and Democratic administrations, and the Nixon administration wanted to close the 8 remaining USPHS hospitals. However, the question of how to provide the health care of the legislated beneficiaries of the system - merchant mariners, commercial fishers, Native Americans, Alaska Natives, military retirees and dependents – had not been resolved. Dr. Johnson, who opposed closure, interpreted an obscure regulation in the Public Health Service Act which allowed 5% of the hospital's budget to be used for care of special cases of rare diseases for medical education purposes. He used this 5% of his budget to provide care to uninsured free clinic patients, care that the clinics were unable to offer (i.e., lab, radiology, specialities, acute inpatient care, surgery) and declared them to be special study patients. Thus, the free clinics' patients became beneficiaries of the USPHS, giving the community at large a stake in the preservation of the USPHS Hospital. This led to the formation of the Public Health Care Coalition, the group that would lead the fight against closure. Thurston got to know numerous elected officials throughout his time working at USPHSH with the union and the health care coalition. “Senator Warren G. Magnuson, Maggie, is the greatest in my time, the greatest senator of all times. He had feeling, charisma, patience, and he could work with anyone. He was also head of the Senate Appropriations Committee. He figured that the employees at the hospital would go the extra mile for people who couldn’t afford health care. He set up a program called Upward Mobility which was funded by the federal government. Hospital employees would apply and the executive board would select individuals blindly, without knowing their names. Everyone was assigned a letter such as A, B, C, etc. These individuals would attend college or technical school to advance their education and career. Many started as LPN or RN and got higher degrees including PhD. A lot of them went from nursing assistants to LPNs. The federal government, Maggie, set up the program so that the employees would work their jobs during the day and go to school at night. I also lobbied in Congress to save the USPHSH and although we didn’t save it, we were able to have the building transferred in 1981 from the USPHS, to the Pacific Hospital Preservation and Development Authority, created by the City of Seattle. That was the year I retired.” Although Thurston retired from his job at USPHSH, he did not retreat from work in the community. “For 10 years I was president of the Leschi Community Council. The city gave us 2.4 million dollars to rehab parks, so I did Powell Barnett Park, Flo Ware Park, and Peppi’s Playground. I was also president of the Central Area Senior Center for 10 years where I worked with Will Parry. Will was one of my executive board members at Central Area Senior Center. He was a very outstanding man and did a remarkable job. He would tell you right quick that he didn’t have a lot of money to spend, but he was willing to give his time and efforts to a cause. He and his son raised over $5,000 for the Senior Center. He was very persistent and went after things that people needed. I was grateful to work with him on issues concerning seniors. “I also brought in the Seattle Girls School to Jackson and MLK. I convinced the Leschi Community Council that this is what we need. We wanted the young ladies to be competitive with the young men. In other words, if a man got a degree in mechanical engineering so could a young lady. She could stand as tall as he.” “I was also president of the Central Area Development Association, which helped seniors maintain their homes by painting, doing repair work, and yard maintenance. People on Social Security can’t afford to keep up their homes, so CADA helped with that.” Thurston held these three positions simultaneously. Thurston lost Joyce, his wife of 64 years, to cancer in 2019. “Joyce was an outstanding person and a wonderful wife. She was a lady that loved responsibility. She worked for Frederick and Nelson, in handbags, for 26 years. She didn't like to see children that couldn’t read and didn't know how to do math so she volunteered down at the school. She also volunteered at the Central Area Senior Center working in the kitchen and serving food to other seniors. She could get along with anyone. She could make you feel welcome when you thought that you were all alone. She always had a smile, and she was a real people's person. My greatest thing is helping people, seeing that they enjoy life as well as anybody. I really get disturbed when people in power can do something for others and don't do it. I don't like individuals that prey on others and feel that others are less than they are. I think everyone is entitled to justice and care. If people can’t afford to pay forward, they shouldn’t be mistreated, and they should receive good care. My greatest hope is that people will look upon others with love and peace, not hate, and that everyone will reach out and help someone. Angie Bartels is PSARA's membership VP. This is one in a series of interviews she's conducting with members of PSARA. Dr. Johnson also began to understand the needs of the community at large. “He called me into his office one day and said, ‘Thurston, I know that you’re in charge of the union here at the hospital and I want to ask you for your help.’ He discussed that he had been in a meeting with the free clinics, and he had 5% of his hospital budget that he could donate to health care for people who didn’t have health care and couldn’t afford it. He wanted to use the US Public Health Service Hospital as a back-up for X-rays, lab work and treating people who didn’t have money. I told him that I would help him. Dr. Johnson put me in touch with David Loud, Tommy Byers, and a whole lot more people. My job with Dr. Johnson and the group was to keep all of the people and groups informed, keep them up to date what was going on and how they could help to sustain this fight.” The fight was against the federal policy to get out of the business of directly providing health care. Twenty USPHS hospitals had been closed under Republican and Democratic administrations, and the Nixon administration wanted to close the 8 remaining USPHS hospitals. However, the question of how to provide the health care of the legislated beneficiaries of the system - merchant mariners, commercial fishers, Native Americans, Alaska Natives, military retirees and dependents – had not been resolved. Dr. Johnson, who opposed closure, interpreted an obscure regulation in the Public Health Service Act which allowed 5% of the hospital's budget to be used for care of special cases of rare diseases for medical education purposes. He used this 5% of his budget to provide care to uninsured free clinic patients, care that the clinics were unable to offer (i.e., lab, radiology, specialities, acute inpatient care, surgery) and declared them to be special study patients. Thus, the free clinics' patients became beneficiaries of the USPHS, giving the community at large a stake in the preservation of the USPHS Hospital. This led to the formation of the Public Health Care Coalition, the group that would lead the fight against closure. Thurston got to know numerous elected officials throughout his time working at USPHSH with the union and the health care coalition. “Senator Warren G. Magnuson, Maggie, is the greatest in my time, the greatest senator of all times. He had feeling, charisma, patience, and he could work with anyone. He was also head of the Senate Appropriations Committee. He figured that the employees at the hospital would go the extra mile for people who couldn’t afford health care. He set up a program called Upward Mobility which was funded by the federal government. Hospital employees would apply and the executive board would select individuals blindly, without knowing their names. Everyone was assigned a letter such as A, B, C, etc. These individuals would attend college or technical school to advance their education and career. Many started as LPN or RN and got higher degrees including PhD. A lot of them went from nursing assistants to LPNs. The federal government, Maggie, set up the program so that the employees would work their jobs during the day and go to school at night. I also lobbied in Congress to save the USPHSH and although we didn’t save it, we were able to have the building transferred in 1981 from the USPHS, to the Pacific Hospital Preservation and Development Authority, created by the City of Seattle. That was the year I retired.” Although Thurston retired from his job at USPHSH, he did not retreat from work in the community. “For 10 years I was president of the Leschi Community Council. The city gave us 2.4 million dollars to rehab parks, so I did Powell Barnett Park, Flo Ware Park, and Peppi’s Playground. I was also president of the Central Area Senior Center for 10 years where I worked with Will Parry. Will was one of my executive board members at Central Area Senior Center. He was a very outstanding man and did a remarkable job. He would tell you right quick that he didn’t have a lot of money to spend, but he was willing to give his time and efforts to a cause. He and his son raised over $5,000 for the Senior Center. He was very persistent and went after things that people needed. I was grateful to work with him on issues concerning seniors. “I also brought in the Seattle Girls School to Jackson and MLK. I convinced the Leschi Community Council that this is what we need. We wanted the young ladies to be competitive with the young men. In other words, if a man got a degree in mechanical engineering so could a young lady. She could stand as tall as he.” “I was also president of the Central Area Development Association, which helped seniors maintain their homes by painting, doing repair work, and yard maintenance. People on Social Security can’t afford to keep up their homes, so CADA helped with that.” Thurston held these three positions simultaneously. Thurston lost Joyce, his wife of 64 years, to cancer in 2019. “Joyce was an outstanding person and a wonderful wife. She was a lady that loved responsibility. She worked for Frederick and Nelson, in handbags, for 26 years. She didn't like to see children that couldn’t read and didn't know how to do math so she volunteered down at the school. She also volunteered at the Central Area Senior Center working in the kitchen and serving food to other seniors. She could get along with anyone. She could make you feel welcome when you thought that you were all alone. She always had a smile, and she was a real people's person. My greatest thing is helping people, seeing that they enjoy life as well as anybody. I really get disturbed when people in power can do something for others and don't do it. I don't like individuals that prey on others and feel that others are less than they are. I think everyone is entitled to justice and care. If people can’t afford to pay forward, they shouldn’t be mistreated, and they should receive good care. My greatest hope is that people will look upon others with love and peace, not hate, and that everyone will reach out and help someone. Angie Bartels is PSARA's membership VP. This is one in a series of interviews she's conducting with members of PSARA.

Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid are Under Attack Social Security* Click here to see a slide presentation on the challenges to Social Security . Since taking office the Trump Administration has taken the following steps against Social Security: Announced plans to cut 7,000 employees. Closing of SSA offices across the country. Reduction in phone customer support services. Increases in wait times for services. Requiring in-person interviews for many recipients, Data security has become a major concern at SSA. Medicare* The Trump administration is introducing a new control on Traditional Medicare in a six state demonstration program, which includes Washington State. This program, called WISeR, is an attempt to control your medicare benefits by requiring prior authorization before you and your doctor can make certain medical decisions. Threats to Social Security staffing may spill over to Medicare impacting customer service. Privatization of Medicare (Medicare Advantage) is expected to expand. In 2025. Medicare is expected to pay $84 billion more for Medicare Advantage, or about 20 percent higher, than if Medicare Advantage enrollees were enrolled in Traditional Medicare. Medicaid* Discussions are underway to significantly reduce or eliminate Medicaid. As part of its overall service to the low Income Community Medicaid assists Medicare patients in the following ways: Click here to see what the impacts to Medicaid will be for the State of Washington. One in five Medicare enrollees relies on Medicaid to help pay Medicare premiums and cost sharing. Nearly 30% of Medicaid funding goes to people with Medicare. Medicaid is the primary payer for 63% of nursing facility residents. Without Medicaid, over 12 million Medicare enrollees would experience gaps in care that jeopardize their health and well-being. * Click here to review our source documents What you can do: Alert your friends and family to challenges faced by Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. On December 6th PSARA Board Members Robby Stern and Anne Watanabe (hosted by Dan Grey and Evegreen State College ) discuss the attacks on Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. Please listen to the interview and share with your friends: Click here to hear the interview Read Ann Widger’s Letter to Federal Employees and add your Experience in dealing with Social Security Sign the Social Security Works Letter: Tell Congress: Stop Musk and Trump from Destroying Social Security! Or separately write your U.S. Representative and your U.S. Senators. Even if you know that they support Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid make sure that they know how much you care about these entitlements and benefits and the importance of maintaining them for future generations. Participate in the Friday Rallies at the Seattle Federal Building Join PSARA Rallies to defend attacks on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid Click here for our Calendar page Click here for our resources page which further documents the attacks on Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid

Donate to Puget Sound Advocates for Retirement Action mission: Working across generations for Social Justice, economic security, dignity and a healthy planet for all of us. Donate to the PSARA Education Fund A donation to the PSARA Education Fund, a tax deductible 501c(3), of $20 or more entitles you to a year’s subscription to the Retiree Advocate. You can also donate to PSARA by becoming a member. Click here for more information.

In the Advocate May 2025: Pam Crone Final Legislative Budget Overview Pam Crone The 2025 Washington legislative session ended on April 27. The information below reflects the final legislative budget. The Governor has until May 20 to sign the budget and exercise his veto authority. The budget does not be- come final until he acts. This overview was prepared before the Governor has taken action. As a reminder, the Governor has line-item veto power, meaning he can eliminate funding but cannot add new spending or shift dollars around. Over the final weeks of the session, the Legislature returned to the drawing board multiple times to draft a budget that included new revenue to navigate a $16 billion deficit projected over the next four years. Why did the Legislature have to return multiple times to the drawing board? The Governor repeatedly and consistently expressed opposition to a wealth tax, as well as concerns about relying too heavily on new revenue to balance the budget. As a result, the final budget includes more, and deeper, cuts. Another major concern is the potential impact of looming federal Medicaid reductions. Although these cuts are largely unpopular – effectively reducing healthcare access for many Americans while further lining the pockets of the wealthy – the Repub- lican-controlled House continues to move closer to a budget proposal that includes them. If these cuts are en- acted, the Governor is expected to call a special legislative session to address the resulting healthcare crisis. Current Budget Snapshot: Final operating budget: $77.8 billion Four-year outlook: $7 billion in total reductions New revenue (2025–2027): $4.3 billion New revenue (2027–2029): $4.4 billion Rainy Day Fund: $2 billion remaining Cash reserves: $225 million Investments in K–12 Education: $750 million for special education services $213 million for materials, supplies, and operating costs $200 million in local effort assistance for low-income school districts Investments in State Workers: Approximately $1 billion to fund and approve collective bargaining agreements for state employees Housing Investments: $605 million to the Housing Trust Fund $117 million in grants to local governments to offset lost document recording fee revenues Maintaining Core Services: $93 million for emergency food assistance organizations $27.9 million for senior nutrition programs $20 million to expand resources for crime victims Pam Crone is a retired lobbyist and Chair of PSARA's Government Relations Committee (GRC). BACK TO THE ADVOCATE

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The Retiree Advocate Read You the Riot Act Mike Andrew If someone is annoyed with you, they may “read you the riot act.” In colloquial English, that means they’ll scold you vigorously and threaten you with consequences. But did you know there actually was a Riot Act? The Riot Act was passed by the British parliament in 1714, in response to a period of political crisis. Queen Anne had just died. Her nephew, James Francis Edward Stuart, had an indisputable claim to the throne. There was just one catch. James was Catholic. Even worse, James was living in exile in France, one of Britain's enemies. Worse still, British Catholics were known to favor monarchical absolutism. Protestant and parliamentary-minded Brits – lords and commons alike – were aghast. They insisted that the throne go to one of Anne’s cousins, a German princeling named George. He took the throne in 1714 and became the first in a whole line of Protestant Georges. But George was not universally popular. He was not outgoing. He was not cultured. He didn’t even speak English. Queen Anne had raised taxes to pay for foreign wars. At the same time, wealth was highly unequal. Less than five percent of the population controlled a third of Britain’s wealth. The result of all these factors was that public protests were very frequent, and very frequently protests became violent. In response, parliament passed a law that defined when force could be used to disperse an unruly crowd – the Riot Act. One of the requirements of the Act was that a specific order to disperse had to be read before force could be used. In other words, someone had to “read the riot act.” The wording that had to be read out to the assembled gathering was as follows: Our sovereign lord the King chargeth and commandeth all persons, being assembled, immediately to disperse themselves, and peaceably to depart to their habitations, or to their lawful business, upon the pains contained in the act made in the first year of King George, for preventing tumults and riotous assemblies. God save the King. And that's why we still "read someone the riot act." Michael Righi is a retired economics professor and a member of the Retiree Advocate Editorial Board. Back to the Advocate Table of Contents

Save the Date June 20 For PSARA’s Juneteenth Event With a Very Special Guest Our Juneteenth event, at 1-3 pm on June 20, will feature Delbert Richardson, national award-winning, extraordinary artist and storyteller, and his “Unspoken Truths” traveling history museum. Through displays, artifacts and narrative, Mr. Richardson presents history through an Afrocentric lens that allows us to truly understand the past and present. Everyone is welcome from 1-3 pm on Saturday, June 20 at the New Hope Missionary Baptist Church at 124 21st Avenue, Seattle, WA 98122.