TUESDAY, MAY 29  ▪  H-1B visa program: Let's fix it before we expand it (Bender column)-- Sen. Cantwell has co-sponsored a bill to increase the H-1B visa cap while addressing employer abuse of the system and protecting American workers. I say, let’s fix the program before we expand it. Different legislation sponsored by Sens. Durbin and Grassley would accomplish that.

Local news:
▪  In today's Seattle Times -- $100 million jobs fund was mistake, legislators say -- Washington's largest job-development program is spending millions of dollars to attract employers that hire low-wage workers. Millions went to develop a Cabela's sporting-goods store in Lacey, a project touted to create 233 jobs, but the vast majority of them pay just $9 an hour.
▪  In the News Tribune -- Western State Hospital: Unrestrained, under attack -- As federal mandates limit restraints and seclusion of potentially violent patients, the number of attacks on workers by patients has increased 19% since 1999 and the number of severe assaults has risen about 80%.
▪  In the News Tribune -- Drugs might breed violence at Western State -- If present trends continue, one in four of the hospital’s 1,700 workers can expect to be assaulted by a patient in 2007.
▪  In the Olympian -- State weighs vote on union -- An effort to decertify WPEA at the Department of Revenue is in limbo as PERC considers a dispute over the age of signatures.
▪  In today's Tri-City Herald -- Audit criticizes layoff bonuses for nuclear workers -- At the Idaho National Laboratory, 291 employees took voluntary layoffs, costing the government $14 million. In contrast, 397 Hanford workers took involuntary layoffs in 2005 without an incentive program.
▪  In today's Seattle P-I -- Manufacturing a big part of state's economic recovery (Virgin column)

Political news:
▪  In today's Spokesman-Review -- Area legislative races heating up, a year early -- Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown says she's resisting suggestions that she consider leaving the statehouse to run for state treasurer. Republican Rep. Bob Sump has decided not to run again.
▪  In the News Tribune -- BIAW beats the rap, but donor tactic misled (editorial) -- Builders and others who created multiple PACs to funnel money to state Supreme Court candidates last fall may not have broken the law, but they certainly did tread on the integrity of judicial races.

National news:
▪  Today from Bloomberg -- Workers' job bias claims limited by U.S. Supreme Court -- In a 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court rules that workers can't sue to claim their paychecks are too low because of gender or race discrimination that occurred years earlier.
▪  In today's LA Times -- Immigration screening could snag too many workers -- A system to verify the legality of every employee within 3 years -- key to the Senate's measure -- is controversial.
▪  From AP -- Private security guards: A weak link in homeland security -- Despite a post-9/11 transformation, the industry still pays little more than minimum wage and offers little training. SEIU is trying to raise pay by negotiating master contracts in urban areas. It has contracts for guards in New York, Chicago, Minneapolis and San Francisco. Talks are under way in Seattle.
▪  In today's NY Times -- Getting to a Colombia trade deal (editorial) -- Colombia has yet to demonstrate that it means to take effective steps to protect endangered workers and punish those who terrorize them. Last year, an average of six union activists were murdered per month. Of the 2,100 labor murders recorded since 1991, there have been convictions in only 37 cases.
▪  Today from AP -- Obama offers universal health plan -- It retains the private insurance system. Those who can't afford coverage would get a sliding-scale subsidy, and virtually all businesses would have to share in the cost of their workers' coverage.
▪  In today's NY Times -- Not a noise you want to hear at 18,000 feet -- Pilots are worried about safety in an air travel system stretched tight, with airline work forces reduced.

Last throes update:
▪  Today from AP -- Memorial Day in Iraq: 8 more U.S. troops are killed -- Plus, two car bombings kills 40 people and destroy a mosque; at least three Westerners are kidnapped in Baghdad.
▪  Of the 3,464 U.S. troops killed in Iraq so far, 3,325 have died (see a list) since President Bush declared "Mission Accomplished" and an end to major combat operations in May 2003; 3,003 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.