Also today:  ▪  Unions and politics are democracy at its best (Bender column) -- Unions must be politically active to preserve the labor standards that powerful corporate interests and anonymously funded "think tanks" want to kill. But unlike corporations, we have a democratic process that encourages all union members to help decide which candidates to support.

Boeing news:
▪  In today's Seattle P-I -- Boeing 787 gives investors a sudden fright -- It has a contingency plan to hire more machinists to help with 787 final assembly in Everett should they be needed to keep the program on track. The added jobs -- Boeing wouldn't say how many -- would be temporary.
▪  In today's Seattle Times -- Boeing to pour billion more into R&D for 787, stretch version of 747 -- It says the new jobs are still just a contingency: "No work has actually moved to Everett yet."
▪  In today's Everett Herald -- Problems with 787 raise cost; weight issues dogging the Dreamliner 

Local news:
▪  Today from AP -- Shelton farm contractor fined for endangering brush pickers -- The contractor must pay $47,425 for transporting migrant workers in unsafe vehicles (two were killed in a wreck), plus $126,709 in back wages for not paying the federal minimum wage and overtime.
▪  Today from AP -- Hanford workers finish vacuuming of radioactive sludge in 1 of 2 basins
▪  In today's Seattle P-I -- Rumor has it Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis on short list for Port of Seattle post
▪  In today's Seattle P-I -- Seattle teachers' union (SEA) will continue to support school closures

Political news:
▪  In today's (Longview) Daily News -- Give Maria Cantwell another term in U.S. Senate (editorial) 
▪  In the new Stranger -- Under orders -- So, the Seattle Times endorsed McGavick over Cantwell because...? How about greed? McGavick supports Times publisher Frank Blethen's pet cause: repealing the federal estate tax, which would affect just about 0.2% of Americans. Fourteen Washington families with estates valued at $10 million or above would benefit. The Blethens own 50.5% of the Times, estimated to be worth $900 million. Given the Times' record of coming out against virtually all McGavick's signature issues, it's hard to escape the conclusion that its editorial board abandoned its convictions for the financial self-interest of its publisher's family.
▪  Today from AP -- Republican Party seeks money for 33 candidates -- The list of GOP candidates "most in need of support right now" include both WA Reps. Dave Reichert and Cathy McMorris.
▪  In yesterday's (Aberdeen) Daily World -- Anti-Buck ad funded by environmentalists, SEIU and IBEW

"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!)
▪  From Cox News Service -- Campaign ads' mudslinging hits new low -- The Republican Party runs a race-baiting ad in Tennessee against Rep. Harold Ford Jr., a Democrat who is trying to become the first black elected to the Senate from the South since Reconstruction. The ad features a sultry white woman saying, "I met Harold at the Playboy party... Harold, call me."
▪  In today's NY Times -- Weakening the fight for mine safety (editorial) -- Despite being twice rebuffed by the Senate, Bush has named Richard Stickler, a stolid mining industry careerist, to run the mine safety agency whose serial ineptitude has been laid bare this year by the deaths of 42 mineworkers. Waiting until the Senate left town for the elections, Bush resorted to a recess appointment to place Stickler at the heart of enforcing new safety reforms that, in earlier hearings, the appointee himself had claimed were not at all that necessary.
▪  From AP -- Exxon-Mobil posts $10.5 billion profit -- The oil giant posts the 2nd largest quarterly profit ever recorded by a publicly traded U.S. company. (Its 2005 4th Quarter was the largest.) 
▪  A related story from AP -- U.S. death toll in Iraq (96 so far in October) is the highest in a year 

National news:
▪  In today's Houston Chronicle -- Houston janitors' strike (SEIU) spreads, gains support 
▪  In today's LA Times -- Scabs hired for striking Teamster trash haulers in Orange County
▪  In today's Sacramento Bee -- The declining rights of workers (op-ed) -- Congress set this pendulum swinging back in 1947. It's time for Congress to take another look at the balance of power and find ways to restore the best means we have for achieving a fair sharing of profits and income -- collective bargaining and employees' full freedom of association and self-organization.