WEDNESDAY, AUG. 22  ▪  Teamsters vote to end 7-week strike against Celite in Quincy

Also today:  ▪   2007 workers' compensation conference will be Oct. 3-4 in Wenatchee

Election 2007:  ▪  Visit your county auditor's website for the latest primary election results.
▪  In today's Yakima H-R -- King unseats Sen. Clements in marquee 14th District race -- Sen. Jim Clements (R-Selah) calls it a career as political newcomer Curtis King sweeps past him after campaigning as a candidate who would bring a more hard-line Republican approach to Olympia.
▪  In today's Everett Herald - Rep. Brian Sullivan winning council race -- He is one step closer to winning an open seat after returns show he has a strong lead over state Sen. Jean Berkey.
▪  In today's Everett Herald -- Rep. Lovick, Greene lead in Snohomish County sheriff's race
▪  In today's Seattle Times -- King County Councilwoman Jane Hague faces drunk driving charges

Election 2008: 
▪  From AP -- Bush to visit Bellevue to raise money for Reichert -- The president will speak on Monday at a closed-door reception at the Hyatt Regency hosted by Rep. Dave Reichert's campaign and the state GOP.
▪  In today's Washington Post -- White House manual details how to deal with protesters -- Not that they're worried or anything. But the White House evidently leaves little to chance when it comes to protests within eyesight of the president. As in, it doesn't want any.
▪  At Postman on Politics -- How much help did Rove give Reichert? -- The Washington Post provides the most detailed look yet at how hard Rove worked to make sure the Bush administration was doing everything it could to help Republican candidates in 2004, including Rep. Dave Reichert.
▪  In today's NY Times -- Stacking the electoral deck (editorial) -- The Electoral College should be abolished, but there is a right way to do it and a wrong way. A prominent Republican lawyer in California is doing it the wrong way, promoting a sneaky initiative that would rig elections in a way to make it difficult for a Democrat to be elected president, no matter how the popular vote comes out. If it passes, it would do serious damage to American democracy.

Local news:
▪  In today's Seattle Times -- 149 face layoffs at booming Boeing -- The senior IT workers get 60-day layoff notices; Boeing is outsourcing their work to an El Segundo, Calif., firm. The people facing layoff are systems analysts and mostly long-serving and nonunion professional staff.
▪  In today's Yakima H-R -- Hourly pay rises for foreign-born workers -- Despite remaining among the lowest-earning populations, Hispanics netted more money after moving from agriculture work to better-paying construction jobs, says a new Pew Hispanic Center report.
▪  At The Olympian's Adam Wilson blog -- State worker dies after injury at L&I -- Bill Harmon, 87, an office assistant died after suffering an injury in a stairwell at the agency's Tumwater HQ.
▪  In the Daily News -- Longview Fibre agrees to pay $201,900 to settle worker's 2004 death  
▪  In today's Seattle Times --  Audit: State open to health-care risks -- The process for licensing health professionals opens the door for unqualified providers and leaves citizens at risk, it says.
▪  In today's Yakima H-R -- Prosser firefighters want their jobs back -- Volunteers who resigned want their positions back while a petition to recall two commissioners makes its way through courts.

Children's health care:  ▪  The Bush administration has imposed new rules to block states like Washington from expanding coverage to more kids. It's yet another example of the White House imposing its neo-conservative ideology upon states and helping its industry sponsors -- in this case, private insurers -- by circumventing Congress and imposing new "rules." The Washington State Legislature's action in 2007 to expand eligibility to 300% of the poverty level is in jeopardy.
▪  In today's Spokesman-Review -- Bush's child health care changes irk state -- Washington officials vow to oppose surprise federal rules aimed at limiting expansion of the popular SCHIP.
▪  AFL-CIO Now -- If stomping on children's health care is OK, why do Bushies do it on weekend?
▪  In today's NY Times -- Many eligible for child health plan have no idea -- Despite a decade of marketing efforts by governments and private foundations, nearly 30 percent of children who are eligible for the health insurance program and are not covered by private plans have yet to enroll.
▪  In today's Seattle P-I -- A callous fight over children's health (editorial) -- The Bush administration has raised valid concerns about the expansion's details. But this fight is largely unnecessary, too much on the side of insurance companies and not at all on the side of working families.
▪  In today's Wash. Post -- A Dickens of a President (Meyerson column) -- The Bush administration must be taking its moral guidance from Limbkins, Bumble and kindred Dickensian grotesques. How else to explain a president whose concern for the financial interests of private health insurance companies so greatly exceeds his concern for the health of his nation's children?