THURSDAY, JUNE 1  ■  SPEEA, doctors to rally TODAY outside Regence BlueShield -- Boeing engineers and technical workers are upset about the insurer's decision to suspend hundreds of doctors from its company health plan, affecting some 6,000 members in the area.

Also today:  ■  TAKE ACTION: Help tech workers get benefits -- WashTech/CWA urges support for Rep. Adam Smith's Trade Adjustment Assistance Improvement Act to extend benefits to displaced service workers, including software programmers and other high-tech workers.

More Boeing news:
■  In today's Seattle P-I -- Tanker wars: Boeing challenged -- In the battle to build a new U.S. Air Force tanker, The Boeing Co. faces a formidable challenge from a European competitor.
■  In today's Seattle P-I -- Boeing workers up for a fight -- Those who assemble 767 warn Congress not to be fooled by spin from those pushing Airbus tankers. Says one: "The main issue for me is that our military products should be built by workers in the United States and by U.S. companies -- and not by a company that is pretending to be an American company."
■  In today's Everett Herald -- Boeing's "Plane Genius" retires -- In his 40 years at the company, lead engineer Walt Gillette of Everett has worked on every plane from the 707 to the 787.
■  In today's Everett Herald -- Boeing starts final assembly work on new stretch 737 (brief)

NASCAR news: 
■  In today's News Tribune -- Kitsap racetrack proposal gains two key backers: Reps. Dicks, Smith
■  In today's Kitsap Sun -- ISC makes hard push for Kitsap NASCAR track -- State legislators hear the pros and cons of a proposed 83,000-seat raceway in South Kitsap.
■  In today's Seattle P-I -- As NASCAR bid in Kitsap revs up, a rival emerges -- The owners of Pacific Raceways in Kent say they could expand and upgrade their facility with no public subsidy.

Health Care news:
■  In today's Everett Herald -- Employers left paying for hospitals' shortfalls -- Washington employers paid more than $1 billion in 2004 to cover shortfalls incurred by hospitals and doctors serving Medicare and Medicaid patients, says Premera Blue Cross. (No word on when Premera plans to study the extent to which those employers passed those costs right along to their workers.)
■  In today's Everett Herald -- Stevens Hospital chief could get $600,000 deal -- The hospital has laid off about 100 workers after reporting losses of $765,000 during the first two months of the year.
■  Today from Knight-Ridder -- Study: Medicare drug benefit cap leads to increase in medical costs
■  In today's Peninsula Daily News -- Olympic Medical Center faces 'scary' financial situation -- Efforts to plug gaps in Clallam's health system and undercompensated care for Medicare patients cited.

News from Our Neighbors:
■  In today's Spokesman-Review -- Idaho welcomes high-wage jobs -- According to a new state policy, Idaho's only cash incentive to lure new businesses to the state will be reserved for firms that pay least $12 per hour, and provide health insurance to their workers.
■  In today's Oregonian -- Portland project changes labor landscape -- The $2 billion public-private South Waterfront project aims for all construction employers to have women and ethnic minorities work 35 percent of all hours, and apprentices to work 20 percent of all hours.

Political news:
■  In the PS Business Journal -- Business groups rate judges -- AWB, BIAW and other business groups got a big return on their investment in Justice Jim Johnson, who topped their rankings by siding with corporate interests fully 82% of the time. Now that's some good judgin'!
■  In today's News Tribune -- GOP's immigration plank radically unbalanced (editorial) -- It's no surprise that some GOP candidates are distancing themselves from it. (But not Reichert!)
■  In today's Seattle Times -- State, Seattle get less Homeland Security money -- "Paging ex-Sheriff Reichert. Has anyone seen Mr. Reichert? Bueller? Bueller?" Maybe he's already in Medina.
■  In today's Seattle P-I -- Reichert defeat fits into Democrats' national strategy -- A Darcy Burner victory would help achieve "a Democratic Congress (that) would ask the questions and seek the answers that a Republican Congress has failed to do," says DCCC Chairman Rahm Emanuel.
■  In today's Washington Post -- FEC adopts hands-off stance on "527" spending -- The same rules that allowed groups such as America Coming Together and Swift Boat Veterans for Truth to pump more than $400 million into the 2004 election campaigns will remain in place for now.
■  In today's NY Times -- On the low road to November (editorial) -- Republicans are trying to rally their far-right base for the fall elections with a mean-spirited sideshow threatening to the Constitution: a ban on same-sex marriage. Their Senate proposal would jeopardize the legal protections many state and local governments now provide for same-sex couples... and Batwoman.

National news:
■  In today's Tri-City Herald -- Search for Hoffa a costly folly by FBI (editorial) -- Outside his own family, the fate and present location of Jimmy Hoffa is of little interest.
■  In today's NY Times -- Big bonuses still flow, even if bosses miss goals -- Executive pay often exceeds the amounts allowed under the performance targets set by directors.
■  In today's Washington Post -- Exxon Mobil sharehgolders defy board -- For the first time in the company's history, a resolution is adopted over the objections of the company. The action is  seen as a sign of anger over the board's decision to award outgoing chief executive Lee Raymond a final-year pay package of $69.4 million and a retirement lump sum of $98.4 million. 

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