Boeing news:

►  At SPEEA.org -- Engineers at Spirit resoundingly reject company's contract offer (PDF) -- A contract offer by Spirit AeroSystems that had no guaranteed wage increases, could require four hours of unpaid overtime before receiving overtime pay and doubled medical premiums was rejected by 91% of the voting members in SPEEA's Wichita Engineering Unit. “I’m hopeful that the company will pay attention to this vote,” said Ray Goforth, SPEEA executive director. “We need a contract that rewards employees for the success they brought to Spirit since the divestiture from The Boeing Company.”

►  At HeraldNet.com -- "Heads would roll" if Qatar Air's CEO took charge at Boeing -- Qatar Airways CEO Akbar Al Baker, who has said Boeing is "run by bean counters and lawyers,"  tells reporters that Boeing had “lost its leadership” said that management should have anticipated problems with the 787. He adds, if he were Boeing CEO “a lot of heads would roll."

►  At HorsesAss.org -- Is Boeing going? -- What could possibly make more sense than starting a second assembly line at an existing Boeing facility in Everett with a highly-trained workforce that has proven track record of delivering quality product on time? And if that’s not reason enough to keep 787 assembly here in the Puget Sound region, no amount of tax or labor concessions will be enough to convince Boeing management to change its mind. 

►  At Huffington Post -- Enter Rahmbo -- White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel says that the U.S. House could vote on a health care bill next week, despite disagreements with conservative Democrats. "I can tell you what I know, which is that the speaker today announced to the caucus that their intention is to go next week, and she is working toward that goal," he said. The top Obama staffer met for several hours with Blue Dogs on Thursday in a hastily-called negotiating session. White House aides were also optimistic that the talks would result in a floor vote for next week.

►  In today's NY Times -- As health bill is delayed, White House negotiates -- White House officials negotiate furiously to keep major health care legislation on track after the Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says his chamber would not vote on a health measure until after Congress returned from its summer recess.

►  In today's NY Times -- For public, Obama didn't fill in health care blanks -- Wanting to believe the president’s assurances, many couldn’t see how his health care plan would be paid for.

►  At TheOlympian.com -- Insurance commissioner, insurers differ on "public plan" -- State insurance commissioner Mike Kreidler tells a legislative committee that he thinks a "public option" for health insurance might draw only as much as 15% of consumers. That's a lot less impact than critics of a public plan are suggesting.

►  At Huffington Post -- New rule: Not everything in America has to make a profit (by Bill Maher) -- It used to be that there were some services and institutions so vital to our nation that they were exempt from market pressures. Some things we just didn't do for money. The United States always defined capitalism, but it didn't used to define us. But now it's becoming all that we are.  Ask not what you could do for your country, ask what's in it for Blue Cross/Blue Shield. If conservatives get to call universal health care "socialized medicine," I get to call private health care "soulless vampires making money off human pain."

Employee Free Choice Act: 

►  At AFL-CIO Now -- Contract arbitration: Critical to workers' freedom to bargain -- One of the critical provisions of the EFCA would guarantee that workers who form a union get a fair first contract. Because right now, writes Catherine Fisk of the University of California-Irvine: “During the past decade, nearly half of all newly certified unions failed to reach a first contract within a year, and one-quarter of new unions did not have a contract after three years of bargaining.”

National news: 

►  In today's NY Times -- Unemployment checks for millions delayed as states struggle -- Years of state and federal neglect have hobbled the nation’s unemployment system just as a brutal recession has doubled the number of jobless Americans seeking aid. In a program that values timeliness above all else, decisions involving more than a million applicants have been slowed, and hundreds of thousands of needy people have waited months for checks. And with benefit funds at dangerous lows even before the recession began, states are taking on billions in debt, increasing the pressure to raise taxes or cut aid, just as either would inflict maximum pain. Sixteen states, with exhausted funds, are now paying benefits with borrowed cash, and their number could double by the year’s end. (But not Washington! We have one of the strongest unemployment insurance systems in the nation, which will be the subject of a forthcoming report in our "Outside the Echo Chamber" series.)

►  At AFL-CIO Now -- Minimum wage increases today -- 10 million see more pay -- Today, nearly 10 million workers in 31 states get a raise when the federal minimum wage increases by 70 cents to $7.25 an hour. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney says the raise will act as a significant economic stimulus “at a moment when it is critically needed -- one that will lift all boats so Americans and businesses can stay afloat and ride out this economic storm.”

►  In today's NY Times -- Where the jobs are (editorial) -- Today's minimum wage increase is badly needed, and wholly inadequate. With low-wage work expected to be the most plentiful in the years to come, raising the minimum wage should be a priority of the White House.

►  At AFL-CIO Now -- Ohio Chamber of Commerce kills parade because unions backed it -- In Findlay, Ohio, unions had been organizing a parade and all-day event for this Saturday to highlight American-made products and the need for U.S. trade and economic policies that reward job growth in this country. But the local Chamber of Commerce killed the parade.