KORUS trade talks:
▪  At AFL-CIO Now -- Workers in Seattle protest closed-door U.S.-South Korea trade talks 
▪  Today from AP -- U.S., South Korea trade talks draw protesters -- South Korea wants goods produced in Kaesong, an industrial zone in North Korea run jointly by the two countries, to be subject to the trade agreement. U.S. negotiators oppose that idea. Businesses in the Kaesong zone pay $57.50 per worker per month, and the workers only receive a fraction of that, with the North Korean government keeping the rest. The situation borders on indentured servitude.
▪  In today's Seattle Times -- Trade talk foes hit the streets -- A broad array of local labor unions, from longshoremen, machinists and aerospace engineers to service, food, postal and autoworkers, turned out to swell the number of demonstrators from the South Korean contingent.
▪  In today's Seattle Times -- Another bad backroom deal (op-ed by Dave Freiboth and Oh Young Teak) -- While the Bush administration boisterously makes claims about the wonders of free-trade agreements, the real story behind the rhetoric is: undemocratic, unfair and unconscionable.

Political news:
▪  In today's Seattle Times -- Building industry ads hammer judge -- Ads portray Supreme Court Chief Justice Gerry Alexander as a geriatric judge who is no longer fit for the job. (Where does the BIAW get the $325,000 it's spent so far to elect Alexander's opponent, a BIAW attorney? The group has skimmed a record $6.4 million from the state workers' compensation system refunds due to its member businesses. BIAW freely admits the 20% cut it takes before forwarding those refunds exceeds its administrative costs and is spent on politics... like these offensive ads.)
▪  In today's Olympian -- Race turns on Sen. Tim Sheldon -- The campaign for his seat is quickly becoming a referendum on Sheldon and his support of Republican causes and candidates.
▪  In yesterday's Columbian -- McGavick similar to Bush, local Democrats say -- Voters who like Bush's positions on taxation, Social Security privatization and the war in Iraq will love Mike!™
▪  In today's Seattle Times -- McGavick's apology strategy was a winner in 1988 Gorton race 

Local news:  ▪  Diversity forum planned this Saturday at Seattle Labor Temple
▪  In today's News Tribune -- State proposes 2% cut in workers' comp rates in 2007 -- The new rate -- the first general rate reduction in six years -- would save employers $31 million in premiums.
▪  In today's Spokesman-Review -- State finally clears air on workplace smoking (Caldwell column) -- It has taken officials in Olympia the better part of a year to posit authority for regulating smoking in business offices with L&I. Last month, the department published proposals that tighten to near the strangulation point rules governing where office employees can light up.
▪  In yesterday's Daily World -- Past, present Hoquiam firefighters celebrate 75 years with the union  

Boeing news:
▪  In today's King Co. Journal -- Hiring streak continues at Boeing; 646 jobs added last month 
▪  In today's (Everett) Herald -- New Boeing chief Carson pledges to keep jobs in area -- "The core of what we do, the fundamental system engineering and system integration, is done here. The high value jobs are done in this region. It is through the community that we get talented people..."
▪  In today's Seattle P-I -- Carson optimistic about Boeing -- The new chief executive of Boeing Commercial Airplanes is asked to comment on the region's transportation infrastructure before an audience of Rotarians, and not once did he use the word "suck."  Consider it a new era.

National news:
▪  In today's Seattle P-I -- Emphasis should be on shared sacrifice, not personal gain (op-ed) -- Despite public outrage over non-competitive contracting and evidence of widespread fraud and waste by war profiteers, Congress has done little to uphold its responsibility to oversee the massive funds it has authorized for President Bush's War on Terror™.