Updates: New AFSCME Members Swell Council Affiliate Ranks; No Free Lunch for The Donald

(Metropolitan Washington Council, AFL-CIO)New AFSCME Members Swell Council Affiliate Ranks: The 1,500 State employees in the Office of the Comptroller, Department of Education, Retirement and Pension System and Transportation Authority in Annapolis who recently voted to join AFSCME ("1,500 MD State Workers Vote AFSCME," UC 1/28/2013) will be represented by AFSCME Council 3 Locals 1535, 1803 and 3644; locals 1803 and 3644 are both affiliated with the Metro Washington Council.

No Free Lunch for The Donald: There is no free lunch for billionaire Donald Trump, after all. Trump asked DC to forgo millions in local property taxes to redevelop the Old Post Office Pavilion into a luxury hotel ("Tax Break for Trump Could Cost DC Millions," UC 1/22/2013) but DC Mayor Vincent Gray and members of the city council turned him down, saying it would not have been fair to offer the fabulously wealthy Trumps a tax break.