Health Care news:

►  In today's Olympian -- Basic Health Plan waiting list grows -- The waiting list for the taxpayer-subsidized Basic Health Plan shot up by 3,000 people in the past two weeks, an unprecedented increase that state officials attribute to the bad economy. Unfortunately for insurance seekers, lawmakers have crafted budgets that cut the number of slots in the plan by more than one-third. As of Monday, 17,800 eligible people were waiting for coverage in the plan.

►  Today from AP -- Thousands could lose state-subsidized health care -- Thousands could be kicked off the state-subsidized Basic Health Plan under a bill approved by the state House.

►  In today's Wash. Post -- Health care dialogue alarms Obama's allies -- As Congress returns to begin an intense debate over reshaping the health-care system, left-leaning organizations and liberal House members are issuing a warning to their Democratic allies: Don't cave on us. The early skirmishing is an indication yet of the uphill battle President Obama faces in delivering on his promise to make affordable, high-quality care available to every American.

►  In today's NY Times -- With son in remission, family looks for coverage -- When Danna Walker left the second-floor conference room and returned tearily to her desk -- where someone had already deposited a packing box for her belongings -- her first thought was not of the 14 years she had worked for DHL or the loss of her $37,000-a-year salary. It was of Jake, her son who learned three years earlier that he had metastatic testicular cancer. Since that day, the Walker family's odyssey has become all too familiar to millions of newly uninsured Americans who suddenly find themselves one diagnosis away from medical and financial devastation.

Legislative news:

►  From AP -- Bill to overhaul education passes -- The Legislature has passed a sweeping overhaul of the state's K-12 education system, setting up an ambitious 10-year plan to create and bankroll quality schools. Lawmakers have not set aside money to pay for the new policies, which some have predicted could cost the state an additional $2 billion or more over a two-year budget cycle. The WEA says the overhaul is the wrong move at a time when lawmakers are likely to cut heavily from K-12 spending to make up a $9 billion budget deficit.

►  In today's Everett Herald -- Scrap the seniority system (editorial) -- Young, talented teachers, whose skill and enthusiasm represent our public schools' greatest hopes for the future, will be first on the chopping block as districts cut jobs because of the state budget shortfall.

►  In today's Columbian -- House, Senate OK light-rail tax bill -- The bill would let C-Tran ask voters whether they want to create a taxing district for the operation of light rail in Clark County.

►  Meanwhile, other states think outside the conservative box... in today's Oregonian -- Oregon House votes to phase out 51 tax breaks -- Some of these tax credits, collectively worth $1.4 billion in 2009-11, may still be canceled this year as legislators scramble for money to maintain state programs and services. But all of them would expire in 2014, if HB 2067 becomes law.

Local news:

►  In today's Everett Herald -- I-5 due for lots of work this year -- Nine major construction projects are planned along I-5 in Snohomish County with a combined price tag of more than $125 million. Work on three of the projects has already started. The others are scheduled to begin by this summer at the latest, and some might not be finished until early 2011.

►  In today's Yakima H-R -- Stimulus will drive job creation in I-82 construction zone -- Jobs and better pavement. The federal government's economic stimulus efforts are bringing both to a worn stretch of Interstate 82 between Grandview and Granger.

►  In today's Everett Herald -- Fire departments shift toward paid crews -- Pressed to cope with the ballooning population, greater demands for service and tougher training requirements, many fire departments in Snohomish County are turning away from a traditionally volunteer force.

►  In today's Olympian -- Lacey firefighters' union draws flak -- IAFF Local 2903 wants to recruit candidates to run against incumbent city council members this year. Council members have criticized the union for involving the local political parties in nonpartisan races.

►  In today's Spokesman-Review -- Spokane fire chiefs get raises despite layoff concerns -- The city council is told it had little choice but to give members of the Spokane Ass'n of Fire Officers -- the union that represents 10 battalion chiefs – raises negotiated in collective bargaining.

►  In today's News Tribune -- With profits down, Port of Tacoma plans layoffs -- Its director says he doesn't yet have a timeline for the staff cuts or a number of positions the port will eliminate.

►  In today's Seattle Times -- 2 companies settle in man's death from 2006 Bellevue crane collapse -- Lease Crutcher Lewis and MKA, which were involved in erecting the crane, confirm an agreement had been reached for the victim's parents to receive an undisclosed sum.

Employee Free Choice Act news:

►  In today's NY Times -- Bid to organize nurses faces setback in Congress -- Nurses around the country who want a union, but have faced illegal interference by their employers, had expected a Democratic president and Congress to retool labor laws to make it easier to win. Instead, organized labor may be facing a major setback in the most contentious fight over labor laws since the 1940s. Right now, unions seem to lack the 60 votes needed to block a Senate filibuster against the EFCA. With Congress returning Tuesday from a two-week recess during which unions deluged the airwaves with advertisements supporting the bill, labor leaders voice confidence that Congress would still enact some far-reaching legislation this year to make it easier to unionize -- and they are discussing making some modest changes in the bill to help firm up support.

►  At AFL-CIO Now -- Sen. Specter's staff threatens to trash petitions supporting EFCA -- Is it common practice for congressional staff to throw away letters from constituents hoping to have their voices heard? That’s what some of Sen. Arlen Specter’s staff threatened to do to thousands of Pennsylvanians who support the freedom to form unions and bargain.

►  At Fredericksburg.com -- Union choice: Who's bullying whom? (op-ed by John Sweeney) -- Every day corporations deny American workers the right to form a union by forcing them to conduct company-controlled elections, in which companies routinely coerce, harass, and fire workers.

National news:

►  In today's NY Times -- Immigration and the unions (editorial) -- The unions see immigration reform as an issue of worker empowerment. If undocumented immigrants undercut wages and job conditions for Americans -- and many do, by tolerating low pay and abuse and bolstering an off-the-books system that robs law-abiding employers and taxpayers -- it is because they cannot stand up for their rights. “Workers don’t depress wages. Unscrupulous employers do,” says LIUNA President Terence O’Sullivan.

Making the pro-union case for reform is not necessarily going to be easy. Even as immigration has changed the face of many American unions, hostility to foreigners remains a problem among some of the rank and file. Union leaders are going to have to work hard to make members understand that false populism is not on their side.

►  In today's NY Times -- Obama has no plans to reopen NAFTA talks -- “The president has said we will look at all of our options, but I think they can be addressed without having to reopen the agreement,” says U.S. Trade Representative Ronald Kirk. The AFL-CIO says it would have preferred “more definitive” language on addressing key labor concerns, but that it was understandable for a new administration to start its review with a less confrontational approach.

►  In today's Washington Post -- Executive pay rule led Chrysler to spurn loan -- Top officials at Chrysler Financial turned away a government loan because executives didn't want to abide by new federal limits on pay, according to new findings by a federal watchdog agency.

►  In today's LA Times -- Sen. Dodd benefits from "payday loan" industry -- The lawmaker praised for taking on credit card providers over predatory lending practices has raised more than $44,000 from pawnshop owners and other businesses that provide high-interest loans.

►  In today's LA Times -- SAG to lay off 35 workers to help close deficit -- Hollywood's largest actors union is suffering from a drop in investment income and shrinking dues.