Legislative news:
▪  In today's Olympian -- Many public employee union bills survive cutoff -- As the session enters its second half, state worker unions are gearing up for a fight over the gain sharing benefit.
▪  In today's News Tribune -- Legislature heads into final days -- A roundup of some of the major legislation still alive in 2007.
▪  In the PSBJ -- Economic development councils could get a raise -- A bill would double state funding for local EDCs and add performance measures.
▪  In the Walla Walla U-B -- Mandating pay for family leave could create new problems (editorial) -- (Four of five in Eastern Washington say they support the Family and Medical Leave Insurance.)
▪  In today's Seattle Times -- Prescription drug card shaves drug costs -- Two years in the making, the Washington Prescription Drug Program discount card makes Washington one of about a dozen states to harness the clout of the uninsured to negotiate discounts.
▪  In Sunday's Olympian -- Republicans try to get heard -- Democrats say they’ve gone out of their way to accommodate them, but GOP legislative leaders complain they've been left in the dust.

Local news:
▪  In Sunday's Everett Herald -- Former Machinist gave hope to other lung patients -- Told he had six months to live, Bob Neumann spent 12 years as a tireless volunteer for other lung patients. He worked for 29 years at Boeing, was an IAM 751A union steward, and served on the community services committee of the Snohomish County Labor Council. He passed away last month. 

National news:
▪  In the NY Times -- Why wage insurance is dividing Democrats -- Under one proposal, by Rep. Jim McDermott (D-WA), the government would pay as much as 50% of the difference between a person’s old and new wage -- with a maximum benefit of $10,000 a year -- for as long as two years. A welder who lost a job that paid $40,000 a year and who took a new job paying $30,000 would receive $5,000 a year in supplemental pay for two years. The measure would cost an estimated $3.5 billion a year, money that supporters say could come from reserves in the federal unemployment insurance trust fund. But, perhaps surprisingly, the most vocal opposition to wage insurance comes from labor unions, which assert that it would effectively subsidize downward mobility by providing money to employers offering the lowest wages possible.
▪  In today's NY Times -- The Medicaid documentation mess (editorial) -- Exaggerated fears that illegal immigrants are fraudulently receiving Medicaid benefits have led to a crackdown that is preventing U.S. citizens from obtaining legitimate coverage. Congress needs to fix this injustice.
▪  In today's NY Times -- NLRB seeks rehiring of reporters fired in labor dispute -- The NLRB will prosecute the Santa Barbara News-Press newspaper for unfairly firing eight reporters. The paper has been in a tense standoff with its reporters, who overwhelmingly voted to unionize last fall.
▪  At Jesus' General blog -- U.S. corporations profiting from the other side of the war -- Politicians have been expressing shock that a true-blue American company like Halliburton would "take the money and run" by moving corporate headquarters to Dubai after fleecing the American people for billions in no-bid contracts... None of this is new -- American corporations have been trading with America's enemies for as long as they have been able. They are corporations first and Americans second. A corporation's ultimate allegiance is to the bottom line and the pursuit of profit, not to American liberty or justice. American corporations have a long history of sacrificing the long-term interests of the environment, their own workers, and even the economy for the sake of the short term and the profits of the next quarter.