Local news:
▪  Today from The Stranger -- Westin workers protest in downtown Seattle -- WSLC Research and Organizing Director Jeff Johnson, UNITE HERE Local 8 President Rick Sawyer, and "a group of mostly young people in their 20s who were both union staffers and rank-and-file hotel workers" (says Johnson) were arrested at a Hotel Workers Rising protest to support Westin workers.
▪  In today's Seattle Times -- Nearly 20 arrested at Westin protest for blocking downtown traffic (brief)
▪  In the (Aberdeen) Daily World -- Grays Harbor County to require apprentice workers -- A measure requiring contractors to employ a minimum number of apprentices if they work on major county-funded public works projects is approved unanimously by the county commissioners.
▪  Today from Bloomberg -- Big Boeing sales jump expected -- Boeing may report its biggest sales increase in five years today after bigger rival Airbus SAS delayed production of some jets.
▪  In today's Seattle Times -- With shortage of workers, apple crop falls on rotten times -- This year, amid a tightening border and a strong economy that has lured many farm laborers to other jobs, apple growers have scrambled to cope with a significant labor shortage.
▪  In today's Seattle Times -- Outgoing port chief Dinsmore gets raise -- criticizes dissenters -- At $339,841 a year, the highest-paid port commissioner in America, gets his 6% parting raise and uses the occasion to publicly criticize the two commissioners on the board who voted against it.
▪  In today's Seattle Times -- Alaska Air's flight path of profitability goes off course in quarter -- The company blamed the performance on 475 union-employee buyouts, among other things.
▪  In today's Salem S-J -- Federal court rejects unions' challenge of Oregon's 2003 PERS reform 

Political news:
▪  In today's Bellingham Herald -- Yes on I-937: Push on alternative energy is much needed (editorial) -- We find Initiative 937 a very moderate proposal, but one that is desperately needed.
▪  In today's Oregonian -- $500,000 in Oregon teachers' union ads give Kulongoski a lift 
▪  In today's Wash. Post -- Report warns of voting problems in 10 states -- A nonpartisan group that tracks electoral reforms includes Washington among states that remain ripe for voting problems because it has departed from the tradition of polling sites in neighborhood precincts.

National news:
▪  In today's NY Times -- When jobs are plentiful , but pay isn't -- Minimum wage increases don’t appear to kill many jobs. Recent state increases have created a series of natural experiments for researchers to study, and they have generally found that modest changes have only minor effects -- if any -- on employment levels. (See Rick Bender's column on the subject.)
▪  In the Houston Chronicle -- Which came first? Unions or janitors' grievances? (Richard Berman op-ed) -- Shameless scumbag-for-hire Dick Berman surfaces in Houston where janitors are on strike.
▪  Today from Reuters -- Wal-Mart says political storms over wages, benefits are blowing over 
▪  In today's NY Times -- China trade policies draw a warning from Europe -- Unlike the U.S., Europe threatens to act if China doesn't work toward creating a two-way street for global commerce.
▪  In today's NY Times -- To lower costs, hospitals try free basic care for uninsured -- For patients with chronic diseases, it's cheaper to give free preventive care than to absorb emergency costs.

"If you aren't outraged...":
▪  In the new Rolling Stone -- The worst Congress ever -- These past six years were more than just the most shameful, corrupt and incompetent period in the history of the American legislative branch... They have castrated the political minority, abdicated their oversight responsibilities mandated by the Constitution, enacted a conscious policy of massive borrowing and unrestrained spending, and installed a host of semipermanent mechanisms for transferring legislative power to commercial interests. They aimed far lower than any other Congress has ever aimed, and they nailed their target.  (This article is long, but a MUST-READ. Print it!)
▪  In today's NY Times -- Hastings pal Hastert testifies before Hastings' panel -- The Poison Speaker wishes aloud that the Ethics Committee would find Democrats who knew about Foley's behavior. 
▪  The beat goes on... in today's NY Times -- Arizona congressman focus of inquiry -- Yet another Republican U.S. representative may have illegally tried to help his dad's employer.
▪  From AP -- Limbaugh mocks Michael J. Fox's stem-cell ads -- Drug-addicted right-wing windbag says the Parkinson's-stricken actor "is moving around and shaking, and it is purely an act."
▪  In today's Wash. Post -- Social Security enters elections -- In recent days, Bush has again said Social Security privatization remains one of the "big items" he wants to tackle next year. Some Republicans are perplexed by Bush's timing on the politically unpopular issue. Says one: "I guess you could argue if it gets Iraq off the front page, it was probably a good thing at this point."

Last Throes update:
▪  In today's Wash. Post -- More U.S. troops may be Iraq-bound -- The top U.S. commander in Iraq says he may call for more troops to be sent to Baghdad, possibly by increasing the overall U.S. presence, as rising bloodshed pushes Iraqi and American deaths to the highest levels of the war.
▪  In today's Wash. Post -- Halliburton cited for Iraq overhead -- Administrative overhead accounted for more than half the costs the company passed on to the government under a key Iraq contract.
▪  The WSLC's affiliated unions have called for an end to the U.S. occupation of Iraq.  Between 44,661 and 49,610 Iraqi civilians -- roughly the populations of the cities of Olympia or Pasco -- have been killed since the invasion.  Of the 2,803 U.S. troops that have been killed there so far, 2,666 have died since President Bush declared "Mission Accomplished" and an end to major combat operations in Iraq on May 1, 2003, and 2,347 have died since Saddam's capture.  More than five years after 9/11, Osama bin Laden is still at large.