Legislative news:
▪  In today's Olympian -- Community colleges' part-time pay, full-time positions at issue -- College faculty unions say the Faculty and College Excellence Act -- increasing pay for part-time instructors and adding full-time positions -- could improve graduation rates and student learning.
▪  In today's Spokesman-Review -- Limit payday loans (editorial) -- The federal government has capped the interest rate at 36% for payday loans to military families. But it's not just soldiers and their families who get caught up in the siren song of easy credit. The type of protections extended to members of the military ought to be available to everyone. Oregon passed a law last May that mirrored the congressional bill. Washington and Idaho legislators ought to do the same.
▪  In today's Seattle Times -- City Council appears poised to put viaduct to March vote -- It might revive hope of replacing it with a waterfront tunnel -- an idea many declared dead Wednesday.
▪  In the Tri-City Herald's blog -- Hanford cleanup bill resurfaces in Olympia -- A bill that appears to be a cleaned-up version of the 2004 Hanford cleanup initiative has been introduced.
▪  In today's Seattle P-I -- Gregoire unveils port roads initiative -- If Washington wants to keep its title as a trade state, it had better fix the bottlenecks on its rail lines and roadways, she says.
▪  Today from AP -- Democrats unveil election reform plan -- The bills include a measure to have the public pay for state Court of Appeals and Supreme Court campaigns.

Sports section:
▪  In today's Seattle Times -- Sonics want $300 million; some legislators roll their eyes -- While the Sonics found a mostly sympathetic audience in the Ways and Means Committee -- chaired by their chief legislative ally, Sen. Margarita Prentice -- other legislative leaders were skeptical.
▪  In today's Seattle P-I -- Sonics present plan for new arena -- The Sonics' tentative plan is for a $530 million multiuse arena. They ask the state to kick in $300 million. (SEIU 775 no likey.)
▪  At ShiftBreak.com -- Unions split on Sonics subsidy (MP3) -- Unions are lining up on both sides of the issue of the Seattle Sonics' request for government subsidies to build a new multiuse arena. Interviews with David Rolf, SEIU Local 775, and Rick Bender, Washington State Labor Council.
▪  In today's Kitsap Sun -- Legislators to get an earful on speedway -- Talk about the speedway for NASCAR races and other events are intensifying between Kitsap County and Olympia.

Local news:
▪  Today from AP -- Boeing rival not expected to bid on tanker contract -- Northrop Grumman is not expected to bid on the $100 billion contract for Air Force refueling planes. 
▪  In today's Everett Herald -- Not your father's 747 -- "It absolutely rocks." That's how airline customers are describing the redesigned interior of the Boeing Co.'s 747-8 passenger plane.
▪  In today's Seattle Times -- Chelan judge remands permits for Wal-Mart -- Judge says the permits used to erect the 161,000-square-foot structure in the scenic tourist town by the lake are not valid. Meanwhile, Wal-Mart plans to go ahead and open the store anyway on Monday.
▪  In today's Kitsap Sun -- Opposition group sets sights on defeating Kitsap foot-ferry tax -- A group calling itself "No on Ferry Tax Proposition 1" files papers with the PDC as Kitsap residents began receiving their ballots on the measure to subsidize private passenger-only ferry service.
▪  In today's News Tribune -- 45 workers to lose jobs at Portac lumber mill in Tacoma
▪  In today's Seattle P-I -- Former mayor Schell: Seattle police did "excellent job" during WTO event
▪  In yesterday's Columbian -- Unions striking out in court (Hovde column) -- The Legislature and the WEA should end the legal wrangling once and for all by making union dues optional.

National news:
▪  In today's NY Times -- House votes to rescind oil drillers' tax breaks -- Rep. Dave Reichert (R-8th) joins all Democrats from Washington in voting for the CLEAN Energy Act to rescind $14 billion in tax breaks and subsidies for oil drillers and reserve the money to develop alternative energy projects and conservation technologies. The measure passed 264 to 163.
▪  In today's LA Times -- Stater Bros. grocery workers approve contract -- Members of six union locals that represent more than 13,000 employees approve a 3-year contract. The UFCW plans to use the pact as a model for talks with three larger grocery chains in Southern and Central California that were involved in a 4 1/2-month strike and lockout three years ago. The pact eliminates a two-tier wage system implemented after that labor dispute ended in February 2004. (The UFCW's contract talks with Puget Sound-area grocers commence later this year.)
▪  In today's NY Times -- Groups offer health plan for coverage of uninsured -- A broad coalition of business and consumer groups, doctors, hospitals and drug companies lay out a major proposal to provide health coverage to more than half of the nation’s 47 million uninsured by expanding federal benefit programs and offering new tax credits to individuals and families.
▪  In today's NY Times -- Fed chief warns Social Security, Medicare growth could harm economy