TUESDAY, APRIL 24  ▪  Summer School for Union Women June 27- July 1 in Olympia -- With the theme "Organizing for Healthy Workplaces and Healthy Families," the Labor Center at The Evergreen State College hosts its 17th annual Summer School for Union Women and Community Activists from June 27 through July 1 on the Evergreen Campus in Olympia.

Legislative news:
▪  In today's Seattle P-I -- State budget pleases higher education -- UW gets $807 million -- that's a 15% increase over its previous two-year budget and the largest increase in almost 20 years 
▪  In today's News Tribune -- Gavel rests, but not Chopp -- '08 looms -- He's already plotting how to boost the overpowering Democratic majority in the state House, just one day after adjournment.
▪  In today's Salem S-J -- Conservatives knock bill to allow Oregon workers to skip meetings -- A religious conservative group and some state representatives are unhappy with a House-passed bill that would allow workers to skip mandatory prayer breakfasts and on-the-job political rallies.

Legislative reviews:
▪  In today's News Tribune -- Session a success, albeit a pricey one, for Democrats (editorial) -- They can rightfully claim exercising a fair amount of restraint, given their unbridled power. One of their marquee proposals -- paid family leave -- faced fierce opposition from the business community and emerged a shell of its original self, covering far fewer workers and lacking a funding source.
▪  At Postman on Politics -- Chopp reviews the session -- Chopp says he has three ideas for funding (family leave insurance) that are "better than the proposal from the Senate." His ideas -- which he said are all still in the early stages of review -- include using interest earned from the UI fund and trying to get money from the federal government as part of a children's health care program.
▪  In today's Seattle P-I -- The people's will (editorial) -- It was a more-than-credible year on the issues, if not on long-term finances... Contrary to Republican spin, the state doesn't have a spending problem as much as it suffers from a regressive finance structure, which burdens the middle and working class without keeping pace with the needs and population growth.
▪  In today's Seattle Times -- A missed opportunity in Renton (op-ed by Mayor Keolker) -- The proposed King County Events Center promised more than $400 million in annual economic activity and 5,800 jobs, plus an additional 8,000 construction jobs. I agree that the state has higher priorities. However, the irony is that the center would've made the state general fund the largest recipient of new tax revenue -- as much as $257 million over the next 25 years, at no cost to the state.

Local news:
▪  In today's Seattle Times -- Hostile Bellevue (editorial) -- The right to care and provide for loved ones is the cornerstone of family, whether they are gay or heterosexual. Bellevue has burnished its landscape with shimmering skyscrapers and flourishing businesses. It ought to act like the modern city it has become and extend domestic-partner benefits to gay employees.
▪  In today's Seattle P-I -- 520 plan gets closer, but not there yet, Chopp says -- The Speaker says he's no more willing to support private financing now than he was before (on the Narrows Bridge).
▪  In today's Yakima H-R -- Pact would ease road, pathway requirements for Wal-Mart -- "They're letting Wal-Mart off the hook and making the taxpayers pay for it," says the neighbors' attorney. "We will be subsidizing Wal-Mart. If we want to have safe conditions, we'll have to build it."
▪  In the Daily News -- Castle Rock, clerical union (IBT 58) turn to mediation for first contract 
▪  In today's Bellingham Herald -- Whatcom expands leave program for county workers in military
▪  Today from AP -- Paper-maker's profits rocket -- Profits jump 64% at Kimberly-Clark, which has a plant in Everett, thanks to a double-digit surge in diaper sales and baby ass-wipings.
▪  In today's Seattle P-I -- Retired Port boss Dinsmore won't seek severance -- Amid scandal about how it was approved, he now says he won't take the $261,416. (He gets a $107,000-a-year pension, plus he'll make $340,000-plus-Big Bonuses at his new hedge fund job. Shed tear here.)
▪  In today's Seattle Times -- King County elections officials prefer Diebold -- Diebold's new high-speed vote-counting machines aren't yet certified for use in the United States, but King County election officials want to buy them to support next year's planned move to all-mail voting. (For more information, check out Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s "Will the next election be hacked?")

National news:
▪  At AFL-CIO Now -- The ugly face of union-busting -- At the turn of the 20th century, union-busting took the form of Pinkertons inciting riots on picket lines so the government would have a reason to bash heads and break up strikes. At the turn of the 21st century, the practice is just as ugly.
▪  In today's Washington Post -- Minimum-wage accord produces protests -- Democrats have stripped out a variety of contentious tax measures that had been tied to the minimum-wage legislation, under pressure from some of the nation's largest business lobbies. 
▪  In today's NY Times -- A deal on minimum wage (editorial) -- Congressional negotiators have finally reached an agreement on a bill to raise the federal minimum wage. But some Dems have shown the same disturbing tendency as their GOP kin to turn pressing issues into pretexts for tax cuts.
▪  Today from AP -- Boeing Machinists vote to authorize strike in St. Louis -- Nearly 2,600 workers could walk off the job when the current contract expires May 20 if negotiations fall through.
▪  In today's NY Times -- Toyota overtakes GM in sales for first time -- It's another milestone in America’s long decline from unchallenged industrial preeminence.
▪  In today's Oregonian -- Overweight workers cost more in workers' comp claims, study finds 
▪  Today from AP -- Social Security, Medicare trustees extend programs' estimated life by one year
▪  In today's Washington Post -- On issues from Medicare to medication, AARP's money will be there
▪  Today from AP -- Solid growth in tech sector -- With California leading the way, the U.S. tech sector also is growing at a surprisingly brisk clip -- for now. But an industry lobbying group warns of a dramatic worker shortage and urges Congress to relax restrictions on H-1B visas. (WashTech/CWA is raising money to buy an ad that responds to the worker-shortage myth.)

Last Throes update:
▪  In today's NY Times -- Democrats back date for start of Iraq pullout -- The bill, which Bush says he will veto, orders the White House to begin pulling U.S. troops out of Iraq by Oct. 1. "On Iraq, the American people want a new direction, and we are providing it,” says Sen. Patty Murray.
▪  In the Seattle P-I -- Iraqi doctor who disputes civilian death toll denied visa to visit U.S. -- His study in The Lancet, a respected British medical journal, estimated an Iraqi civilian death toll of nearly 655,000 -- nearly 10 times larger than other studies -- since the U.S. invaded Iraq. "The magnitude of that has been lost on the American people," says a colleague. The U.S. and British governments have both blocked him from delivering a medical conference speech.
▪  Today from AP  -- Car bomb in Iraq kills 9 U.S. troops, wounds 20 -- Meanwhile, British forces transfer another military base to Iraqi troops in the country's south, ahead of the planned withdrawal this summer of about half of Britain's contribution to the U.S.-led coalition in Iraq.
▪  Of the 3,333 U.S. troops killed in Iraq so far, 3,194 have died (see a list) since President Bush declared "Mission Accomplished" and an end to major combat operations in May 2003; 2,872 have died since Saddam's capture. Five-and-a-half 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.