Legislative news:

House Democrats choose committee chairs -- The House Democratic Caucus approves its committee structure and chairs for the 2009-11 Legislature. See the list.

►  In today's Everett Herald -- Dunshee loses bid to run powerful committee -- Rep. Hans Dunshee lost out to Rep. Kelli Linville (D­Bellingham) for the chairmanship of House Appropriations. Instead, he will chair the Capital Budget Committee, a position he held prior to 2008.

►  In today's Spokesman-review -- Driscoll wins recount -- Democratic challenger (and WSLC-endorsed candidate) John Driscoll was declared the winner -- again -- over Republican Rep. John Ahern at the end of a hand recount of nearly 76,000 ballots in Spokane’s 6th Legislative District. After about two days in which teams of election workers watched by party volunteers checked 75,947 ballots, Driscoll's margin of victory changed from 74 votes to 72.

►  In today's Seattle Times -- State lawmakers: Give counties revenue options (op-ed by members of the King County Council) -- If the State Legislature doesn't provide county government more options to raise revenues, officials from King County and other counties will continue to face tighter and tighter budgets. Without relief, deep cuts will be made to public safety, health and other vital services.

►  In today's Olympian -- PDC waits on blog ruling -- The PDC delays a decision on adopting a clarified rule on Internet lobbying. Two commissioners say it's needed immediately; two others said there is too little evidence of a problem and more time is needed to examine the issue.

Boeing news: 

►  In today's Seattle Times -- 2-year delay of 787 reported -- When Boeing releases the revised delivery schedule later this month, the 787 timetable is likely to be shoved out at least another six months. The Machinist strike can be blamed for perhaps three months of any new delay. Though it lasted only two months, Boeing has struggled in the subsequent month to get the assembly lines moving again -- even for its established aircraft programs.

►  In today's Everett Herald -- Strike, glitches still haunt Boeing -- The company delivered only four commercial aircraft in November. That's down from 36 jets the company delivered in August, the last full month before the Machinists went on strike. The 57-day work stoppage ended Nov. 2.

►  At CrossCut -- Boeing is going! Boeing is going! (by T.M. Sell) -- When Boeing’s Machinists went on strike this fall, the hand-wringing resumed: Boeing is going to leave town, unless we do something! Like rain in winter, this is a regular feature of the Puget Sound emotional landscape. The imminent departure of Boeing provides the unreflective pro-business elite with the opportunity to point out everything that’s wrong with this region and this state, as though Boeing’s business fortunes are entirely our fault. The frequent alarm that Boeing is heading out of town is false. More worrisome, argues a veteran Boeing-watcher, is the way the company is becoming, like GE, too focused on the short-term.

►  At 247WallSt.com -- A good time to dump Boeing management -- Boeing is moving up the list of worst managed US companies at lightning speed. The company's shares have dropped from a 52-week high of over $93 to $39. That means they have fallen by over 55% during a period that the DJIA is off 35%. Almost all of the plunge has been caused by poor labor relations and bad sourcing and controls of components. In other words, particularly poor management.

Grim news on jobs: 

►  Today from AP -- Employers cut 533,000 jobs in November, most in 34 years -- The unemployment rate has catapulted to 6.7%. The new figures, released by the Labor Department today, show the crucial employment market deteriorating at an alarmingly rapid clip, and handed Americans some more grim news right before the holidays.

►  At NYTimes.com -- Workers give up -- How bad was today’s jobs report? The unemployment rate rose to 6.7%, its highest level since 1993 -- and that understated the weakness in the labor market. The number of unemployed workers rose by 251,000 in November. But the number of people who were outside of the labor force -- that is, neither working nor looking for work -- rose by much more: 637,000. These people aren’t counted as unemployed in the government’s statistics, because they are not looking for work. Many of them have stopped looking for work because they didn’t think they could find a good job.

Other national news: 

►  In today's NY Times -- In trade post contender, political benefits for Obama -- Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-CA), who has emerged as the leading candidate to become U.S. trade representative, is known as a defender of workers’ rights and as a skeptic of trade agreements. That would please union backers of Obama, who spoke in the campaign about reopening the NAFTA.

►  In today's Wall Street Journal -- Daschle launches push for health-care overhaul -- Former Sen. Tom Daschle, who is slated to oversee health-care policy in the Obama administration, is emphasizing the importance of moving forward even amid the economic crisis, noting that rising health-care costs put more pressure on businesses and must be addressed.

►  Today from AP -- Auto bailout could be tied to government-run overhaul -- The government would order a major restructuring of Detroit's struggling Big Three auto companies in exchange for a multibillion-dollar bailout under a plan circulating in Congress.

►  At Forbes.com -- If GM collapses, don't blame the union (op-ed) -- U.S. automakers probably would have collapsed by now if not for the concessions made by the UAW over the past three years. Once bitter enemies, the Detroit Three and the UAW have long since buried the hatchet and are now working together to close the wage gap with Toyota, Nissan and Honda through various productivity improvements and more flexible work rules, for instance.

Must-read series on worker safety: 

►  In the Las Vegas Sun -- OSHA: An agency that is ripe for overhaul (editorial) -- During the recent construction boom on the Las Vegas Strip, 12 workers were killed in industrial accidents during a 19-month period. The deaths highlighted a serious problem in the nation’s workplace health and safety laws and regulations. The Las Vegas Sun has investigated the issue for several months, and the result is this five-part series of editorials that explores the problems with, and potential fixes to, America’s worker safety system.

►  In the Las Vegas Sun -- Public at risk (editorial) -- The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration has become an overwhelmed bureaucracy that, through years of budget cuts and political meddling, has been trained to respond to the climate in Washington, which often means keeping a low profile to escape inevitable criticism. As a result, the agency has shirked its responsibility, and put the public’s health and safety at risk.

►  In the Las Vegas Sun -- Worker safety eroded during the Bush years (editorial) -- The Bush administration’s priority has been to prevent OSHA from doing its job. It has stopped the agency from updating old regulations or writing new ones, changed rules already on the books and gutted its budget. In doing so, the administration has left workers in jeopardy of injury and death.

►  In the Las Vegas Sun -- Adding insult to injury (editorial) -- The U.S. Chamber of Commerce calls OSHA rules “a significant burden” for small businesses and suggests any more regulation would end with thousands of companies closing their doors. This argument has had great success in Washington, as business groups have been able to fend off regulation in the name of the economy. But the argument is little more than a scare tactic to avoid the cost of preventive safety and health programs. The result is that workers suffer avoidable injuries and illnesses, taking a significant toll on the economy because the bulk of the costs are paid by the public.

►  In the Las Vegas Sun -- A life and death issue for the nation's workers (editorial) -- By the Labor Department’s count, on average, 15 people are killed each day on the job and about 11,000 suffer occupational illnesses or injuries. For years safety advocates and labor unions have complained about OSHA's failure and for years little has been done about it. “It’s not like somebody is opposed to protecting workers on the job,” says Joseph Dear, who ran OSHA in the early 1990s. “It’s ‘How do you do that?’ ”