Estate Tax update:  ▪  Lacking votes, Frist postpones Senate vote on estate tax rollback -- Sens. Cantwell and Murray will face heavy lobbying during the July 4 recess.  Contact them!
▪  Today from MarketWatch -- Senate Republicans delay estate tax vote -- In an effort to attract votes, the bill also includes a provision long sought by the timber industry and by timber-state lawmakers, which would cut the tax rate on timber-related capital gains for corporations.
▪  In today's Everett Herald -- Huge tax giveaways on worsen flow of red ink (Burbank column) -- Reps. Brian Baird (D-3rd) and Rick Larsen (D-2nd) both voted for the estate tax rollback. In doing so, they are as much enablers of this tax giveaway as any of the Republicans. Their votes only turn up the heat on Murray and Cantwell to bow down to corporate lobbyists. Let's hope they won't.

Local news:
▪  In today's Tri-City Herald -- Hanford plant funding fully restored -- Senate subcommittee OKs $690 million for Hanford's vitrification plant next year, but not without criticism of project supervisors.
▪  In Real Change -- Raising the bar: Hotel workers fight for living wage -- UNITE HERE brings its national organizing campaign to Seattle just as Westin Hotel workers begin contract bargaining.
▪  In today's Seattle Times -- Keep wings here (AFL-CIO letter... scroll down) -- Expanding international aviation markets is a worthy goal, but allowing foreign interests to take control over U.S. airlines is not the answer. If it happens, thousands of aviation jobs in America -- from pilots and flight attendants to mechanics and Boeing workers -- will be sold off to the lowest bidder.

Political news:
▪  In today's Salem (Ore.) S-J -- New political party makes ballot in Oregon -- The goal of the new Working Families Party is to get candidates to address bread-and-butter issues of working-class families, such as wages, health care and pensions. Party leaders say they intend to concentrate initially on changing Oregon law to allow fusion voting. 
▪  Today from AP -- Supreme Court nixes part of Texas' redrawn political map -- It upholds most of the Texas congressional map engineered by former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay but throws out part, saying some of the new boundaries fail to protect minority voting rights. It also rules that state legislators may draw new maps as often as they like -- not just once a decade.
▪  In today's Seattle P-I -- Campaign mercenaries slay initiative process (Connelly column) -- I-920 (repealing the state estate tax), I-933 (creating "pay or waive" system for land-use rules), and I-917 (cutting transportation revenue by $2.7 billion) are all examples of wealthy individuals and special interests subverting an initiative process for their own purposes. Don't sign them!
▪  In today's News Tribune -- Rossi compares state lawmakers to drunken sailors -- He says they must cut state spending, but won't say what to cut. “Now that I’ve actually written the budget I realize ("What would you cut?") is not a question that can really be answered,” he says.
▪  In today's Seattle P-I -- Group files signatures for a pair of Seattle schools initiatives 

Federal Employee news:
▪  In today's Washington Post -- DHS ruling deals Bush administration a setback -- A federal appeals court left no doubt yesterday that the Bush administration overreached in fashioning new workplace rules for the Department of Homeland Security. The department's regulation "renders 'collective bargaining' meaningless; and it is utterly unreasonable and thus impermissible, because it makes no sense on its own terms," the three-judge panel found.
▪  At AFGE.org -- AFGE wins again in battle over Homeland Security regulations -- “This is a good day for federal employees and the unions that represent them,” says AFGE's general counsel.

Health Care news:
▪  In today's Seattle Times -- State frets cost, impact of new Medicaid rule -- State officials say the new rule requiring recipients to prove they are U.S. citizens will be a costly nightmare to enforce and likely drive thousands of eligible poor people off the program.
▪  In today's Seattle P-I -- Health care should be affordable, available to all Washingtonians (op-ed by Sen. Linda Evans Parlette) -- It is the time for bold solutions, not vague government ideas.
▪  In today's LA Times -- More employers offer consumer-directed health plans -- More employers offer plans where workers take more responsibility for covering their medical costs, but a majority of companies remain skeptical about the programs' ability to lower costs.

National news:
▪  Today from AP -- Democrats push hard for increase in minimum wage -- They vow to block the pay raise for Congress unless the lowest-paid hourly workers get their first raise in a decade.
▪  In today's NY Times -- New rules force states to curb welfare rolls -- The Bush administration's changes represent the biggest changes in welfare policy since 1996. Under the new rules, 50% of adult welfare recipients must be engaged in work or training, or states will face financial penalties. In 2004, about 32% of adults on welfare nationwide were working. 
▪  In today's NY Times -- Patriotism and the press (editorial) -- The free press has a central place in the Constitution because it can provide information the public needs to make things right again. Even if it runs the risk of being labeled unpatriotic in the process.

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 28, 2006
Lacking votes, Frist postpones Senate vote on estate tax cuts