Local news:
▪  In today's Spokesman-Review -- Spokane mayor braces for battle over city job cuts -- A day after saying he'll seek another term, Mayor Dennis Hession faces reaction from unions expected to lash out at a consultant's recommendation to cut about 100 of about 2,000 city jobs.
▪  In today's Everett Herald -- Hospital project challenged -- A coalition of labor and consumer groups (including SEIU 1199NW, SPEEA and UFCW 21) challenges the state's approval of Providence Everett Medical Center's $500 million expansion. They say the state Department of Health hasn't adequately considered the financial impact the expensive project would have on consumers.
▪  In today's Tri-City Herald -- 1,000 pause work at Hanford -- Workers on the Hanford river corridor closure project stop to focus on safety and compliance issues after second problem in a week.
▪  Today from AP -- Court rejects Western State injury claims -- State appeals court upholds the dismissal of personal injury claims by employees who said the hospital intended to hurt them.
▪  In today's Tri-City Herald -- Richland residents concerned about privatization of ORV park

National news: 
▪  In today's NY Times -- Appeals court rules for Wal-Mart in Maryland Fair Share Health Care case -- By forcing Wal-Mart to revamp health care plans, the court finds the Maryland law violated ERISA. The ruling, upholding a lower court decision, threatens to derail health care legislation known as "fair share" under consideration in states across the country... The narrow focus on a single company, legal experts say, may have influenced the decision... Maryland may choose to rewrite the law, using an approach upheld in several other states that requires companies with uninsured workers to pay them higher wages that can be used for health care premiums.
▪  Today from Bloomberg -- Senate panel adds tax cuts to minimum wage bill -- The Senate Finance Committee adds $8.3 billion in tax breaks for small businesses to the bill. The committee voted unanimously to approve the tax measures, including an extension of the Work Opportunity Tax Credit, which benefits companies such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. that hire workers on welfare. Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Montana) says the tax breaks are necessary to help the minimum-wage increase pass in the narrowly divided Senate and avoid a veto by the president.
▪  Today from AP -- Bush balancing budget by delaying Social Security privatization -- The decision to purge costs associated with Bush's plan for private accounts makes it much easier to achieve balance without politically dangerous cuts to Medicare or other programs popular with the public. 

Last Throes update:
▪  In today's LA Times -- Poll: Most oppose troop buildup in Iraq -- A strong majority of Americans oppose Bush's decision, and about half of the country wants Congress to block the deployment.
▪  Today from AP -- Iraq resolutions exposes GOP divisions on Bush's Iraq policy -- Republicans are struggling to come up with a united response to Bush's plan to send 21,500 more troops.
▪  Of the 3,026 U.S. troops killed in Iraq so far, 2,889 have died (see a list) since President Bush declared "Mission Accomplished" and an end to major combat operations on May 2003; 2,561 have died since Saddam's capture. More than 5 years after 9/11, Osama bin Laden is at large.
▪  The WSLC's affiliated unions have called for an end to the U.S. occupation of Iraq.