►  In today's Seattle P-I -- Strikers offer to return to Oak Harbor Freight -- The union representing nearly 600 workers on strike for more than four months at Oak Harbor Freight Lines in Auburn offers to return to work unconditionally. "There's no winners here," says Al Hobart of the Teamsters union. The company says it has five days to decide whether to accept the offer.  (Also see our Feb. 2 posting: KeyBank backing Oak Harbor Freight in strike)

►  In today's Seattle P-I -- Retro overpayments: All the way back (editorial) -- A BIAW program apparently has been receiving state overpayments of millions of dollars. Absent any express statute of limitations, the state should expect to recover all overpayments, not just the past three years' worth as BIAW suggests.

►  In today's Seattle P-I -- Students, faculty protest community college cuts -- Faculty members and students from Seattle Central pack a Board of Trustees meeting to protest the cancellation of several classes that fell victim to budget slashing earlier this year.

►  In today's Spokesman-Review -- WSU will offer early retirement -- Faculty and administration employees must be 55 or older and have been members of the WSU retirement plan for at least 10 years to be eligible. The university estimates it has about 600 eligible employees.

►  In today's Seattle P-I -- Mayor wants to fast-track city jobs, but demand far outstrips openings -- The city lists 35 job openings. A recent opening for an administrative specialist drew 701 applicants. A janitorial job has attracted 294 applications, about three times the usual number.

►  In today's Yakima H-R -- Many unemployed workers retooling , retraining -- Yakima Valley Community College's Career Connection Center helped 93 laid-off workers during the fall quarter of the 2008-09 year, compared with just 30 workers during the same period a year ago.

National news: 

►  In today's Washington Post -- At Wal-Mart, a health care turnaround -- Once vilified for its stingy health benefits, the world's largest company has become an unlikely leader in the effort to provide affordable care without bankrupting employers, their workers or taxpayers in the process. New figures being released today show that 5.5% of its employees now lack health insurance, compared with a nationwide rate of 18%. But Wal-Mart relies heavily on the government and other employers to play a role. Of the company's 1.4 million workers, just 52% are in a Wal-Mart health plan... the company charges its low-wage workers a substantial portion of their income for medical coverage.

►  In today's Pittsburgh Post-Gazette -- USW to distribute profit-sharing money to laid-off members -- Steelworkers union workers at U.S. Steel Corp. will give up about $120 of their fourth-quarter profit-sharing payment, distributing the money to more than 4,000 of their colleagues who were laid off due to dismal conditions in the industry. The gesture means the laid-off workers will get payments equal to what they would have received had they been on the job for the entire quarter. 

►  In today's NY Times -- N.Y. charter school's deadline to recognize union passes -- The union says school administrators intimidated teachers at a mandatory staff meeting, saying of their retirement, maternity and pension benefits that “all of that goes away,” if they formed a union.

►  In today's Spokesman-Review -- Rescuer says he has new postal gig -- The U.S. Postal Service is trying to make amends with a worker who was cheered one day for helping rescue an elderly woman but told days later his contract would not be renewed because he crashed his vehicle.

The following is a news release distributed by the Washington State Labor Council on behalf of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union: