Viaduct news:
▪  In The Stranger -- Seeking compromise to avoid vote, viaduct players hold secret meeting -- The proposed solution: a 4-lane, cut-and-cover tunnel that would bypass downtown, serving north-south freight traffic and giving drivers who don’t want to sit through downtown traffic the option of paying a toll to pass it by.  Downtown traffic, meanwhile, would be routed to a surface boulevard, much like the current Alaskan Way.
▪  In today's Seattle P-I -- Seattleites may not get viaduct vote; Council may balk on ballot measure
▪  In today's Seattle Times -- Gregoire ratchets up pressure for vote on viaduct -- She says the state would move ahead with an elevated replacement if the city of Seattle fails to let voters decide.

Legislative news:
▪  In today's Seattle Times -- Lawsuit aims to force state to boost money for education -- School-district officials, union leaders and civic activists are poised to file the most sweeping lawsuit against the state of Washington over education spending in three decades.
▪  In Real Change -- Break even: Three small steps toward fixing Washington's unfair taxes (Marilyn Watkins op-ed) -- Hold the line on new tax breaks, require the Department of Revenue to tally and report on all of the tax breaks every two years, and adopt and enforce uniform standards of accountability for existing business tax breaks.
▪  In today's Everett Herald -- New legislature brings new hope to school levy bill -- Education boosters see good prospects for a bill to let levies pass with a simple majority.
▪  In today's Bellingham Herald -- Outside money mustn't influence our state legislators (editorial)

Local news: 
▪  In today's Seattle Times -- Chelan Wal-Mart built, but will it ever open? -- A county judge last week delivered a giant legal victory to a small group of local opponents of the 162,000-square-foot big-box behemoth, agreeing that the project violated the city's zoning rules.
▪  In today's Seattle Times -- Two "payday lenders' fined $1.2 million for violations of limits -- State moves to ban Zippy Cash and Advance Til Payday owners from doing business in Washington.
▪  Today from AP -- Number of laid-off workers filing claims for jobless benefits shoots up 
▪  In today's Kitsap Sun -- Kitsap Transit preparing foot ferry plan for public; vote will be in February 
▪  In today's Seattle Times -- Citizens' group wants to see Times-P-I JOA documents

Obscene CEO Pay news:
▪  In today's Oregonian -- Oregon Steel executives up for big buyout gain -- The CEO who negotiated the sale to a Russian company, stands to clear more than $6 million if the deal goes through.
▪  In today's News Tribune -- Fired Home Depot CEO's astonishing "golden handshake" (editorial) -- Home Depot’s shareholders (and employees) lost ground, but Nardelli made out like a bandit.

National news:
▪  Today from AP -- Illegal firings of activists blamed for fall in union membership -- "Starting at the end of the 1970s, but especially by the early 1980s, American employers began to engage in the systematic and widespread use of illegal firings as a strategy to undermine the success of campaigns for union representation," says new analysis of NLRB data.
▪  From Reuters -- U.S. Chamber of Commerce vows to fight efforts to make it easier to join unions
▪  In today's Everett Herald -- Washington's U.S. senators act fast on state sales-tax deduction
▪  From In These Times -- Does SEIU's Andy Stern talk his walk? -- High-profile victories by SEIU often run counter to its president’s rhetoric about the "power of persuasion."