Legislative session redux:

►  In today's Olympian -- State budget nibbles pension plans -- Legislators balked early this year when the governor suggested a new plan for public pensions that would save $400 million in two years. They worried it risked underfunding the new plans in the same way the old plans have been shortchanged by at least $5.9 billion. But the budget finalized last weekend still manages to wring $429 million in general fund savings from pensions. 

►  At TheOlympian.com -- PERS 2 rate to drop -- Due to changes made to state retirement plans this year, the 121,000 active workers in PERS 2 will pay 3.89% of their salary for the next two years, compared to 5.45% now. But both the state and its workers will pay more in the future.

►  In today's Olympian -- Legislators: Budget cuts will hurt South Sound -- “I think the 22nd district will end up being hurt more by that than any other,” says Rep. Sam Hunt (D-Olympia). “The state employees that are going to be (losing jobs), the majority will come out of this area.”

►  In today's Spokesman-Review -- Gregoire "convinced" special session necessary -- With tens of millions of dollars for school districts hanging in the balance, Gov. Chris Gregoire said Wednesday she plans to call lawmakers back to Olympia in May to finish critical budget bills.

►  At TheNewsTribune -- Special session May 14-15? -- Those dates are in play because school district Reduction in Force notices go out in May, and HB 1776 may head off some of those.

►  At TheOlympian.com -- Maverick lawmaker finds way to pass more health reforms -- Rep. Tom Campbell (R-Roy) continued his mastery of a Democrat-controlled legislative process this year.

►  In today's Columbian -- Sen. Benton misses 157 of 847 votes -- Sen. Don Benton (R-Vancouver) missed more votes in the 2009 legislative session than all but two other members. Efforts to reach Benton on Wednesday were unsuccessful.

All-cuts budget fallout:

►  In today's Seattle Times -- UW gives details of $73M in budget cuts -- Sixty-day layoff notices for some staff members will likely go out today and Friday to remove those salaries from the books before the fiscal year begins in July. Emmert says about 600 to 800 positions will be eliminated through a combination of attrition and layoffs. The general approach to UW's budget was to cut administrative and support functions more deeply than academics, says UW's Mark Emmert.

►  At SeattlePI.com -- UW to borrow from private financial model -- For several months, UW officials had been mum about it. As the Legislature got closer to slashing UW funding by one quarter, administrators started dropping hints. UW President Mark Emmert and members of the Board of Regents had been asking themselves, "Is this the privatization of the university?"

Local news:

►  In today's Daily News -- Unions picket near Chinook Ventures offices -- About 105 union supporters, led by Longview-based ILWU local 21, picketed outside Chinook Ventures on Industrial Way on Wednesday morning, protesting the wages the company pays its non-union dock workers. The informational picket included ILWU members from Portland, Vancouver and Astoria, as well as members from the painters, ironworkers, woodworkers and laborers unions.

►  In today's Everett Herald -- Unpaid leave for Arlington city workers -- Sales tax revenue is below projections, so about 100 city workers are told they must take eight unpaid furlough days and four unpaid holidays in 2009, essentially a 5% pay cut. Firefighters and police are exempt.

►  In today's Bellingham Herald -- Ferry system bill could bring $200 million to Washington -- Sen. Patty Murray's bill would provide more than $1 billion to the nation's ferry systems.

►  In today's Everett Herald -- Boeing makes progress on 787 -- The company says it has cleared about two-thirds of the federal certification hurdles needed to put its new 787 into service.

National news:

►  In today's NY Times -- Boeing presses Congress to order more of its planes -- Hit harder by the Obama administration’s spending cuts than any other defense contractor, Boeing is pushing Congress to increase its orders for planes and fighter jets by $3 billion. It is trying to get orders for C-17 cargo planes and F/A-18 fighter jets added to a supplemental war-funding bill, officials said. Boeing’s lobbyists contend that building the extra planes would help preserve the military’s industrial base. (Meanwhile, Boeing remains committed to exporting America's commercial-jet industrial base, despite evidence it has been a horrible business decision.)

►  In today's NY Times -- Local health agencies, hurt by budget cuts, brace for swine flu -- The recession has drained hundreds of millions of dollars and thousands of workers from the state and local health departments that are now the front line in the country’s defense against a possible swine flu pandemic. (Maybe we can just teabag that dang flu bug into submission!)

►  In today's NY Times -- As Detroit is remade, the UAW stands to gain -- According to restructuring plans proposed this week, the union will have more than half the stock in Chrysler and a third of General Motors, meaning it will have tremendous influence, with the government, in determining the future of the companies. (Stop the presses. BREAKING NEWS: AP sources: Chrysler to file for bankruptcy.)

►  In today's NY Times -- BofA chief ousted as chairman -- The applause thundered as a fading star of American finance, Kenneth D. Lewis, was stripped of his chairman’s title at Bank of America -- a stinging blow that leaves his stewardship and legacy in doubt. He remains chief executive, but many wonder if he can hang on.

►  In today's Washington Post -- On his first day as Democrat, Specter (again) bucks his party -- Sen. Arlen Specter (D-PA) casts another vote against Obama, opposing his budget as too authoritarian in the rules it establishes for the health-care debate later this year. 

►  At Huffington Post -- Obama to GOP: You have to start meeting me halfway -- Only three Republicans in total cast votes in favor of the budget or stimulus package (and one of them just became a Democrat). "Simply opposing our approach on every front is probably not a good political strategy," Obama says. "I can't sort of define bipartisanship as simply being willing to accept certain theories of theirs that we tried for eight years and didn't work."

►  At AFL-CIO Now -- World Bank scuttles anti-worker index -- The World Bank’s decision to revise the controversial labor-market ratings in its flagship publication, Doing Business, is long overdue and a “significant step” in the right direction. The index focused almost exclusively on a narrow “private investor” perspective, with little regard for social impact. (Sound familiar?)