Budget cut news:  

►  In today's Olympian -- Basic Health Plan to cost more -- The Health Care Authority will save $238 million by raising premiums and out-of-pocket costs for the Basic Health Plan on Jan. 1. But it won’t toss any low-income workers completely off coverage, as once feared.

►  In today's Seattle Times -- State decides to let higher premiums do dirty work -- Premiums will increase by an average of 70% as part of an ongoing strategy to boot 30,000 to 40,000 people off the taxpayer-subsidized plan. Officials are hoping that boosting premiums will prod 7,000 to 17,000 members to leave the plan on their own, sparing the need to kick off people involuntarily.

►  At SeattlePI.com -- State residents without health insurance approaching 1 million -- That amounts to a 21% increase in residents without health insurance from 2008. "This is clearly not a sustainable system," says Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler. "Too many people fall through the cracks, and the costs fall on the rest of us. We need change now."

Local news:   

►  In today's Tri-City Herald -- GAO finds 31 work stoppages at Hanford -- Work was stopped 31 times at Hanford's tank farms or vitrification plant over nine years to address safety or construction quality issues, according to a new Government Accountability Office report. More work needs to be done to track the costs of the stoppages, the GAO concludes. It advised DOE to establish criteria for when its contractors should track the causes and costs of stoppages, but that the criteria should "fully recognize the importance of worker and nuclear safety."

►  In today's SeattlePI.com -- King County Sheriff challenges executive to cut costs, wages -- Rahr asks new county executive Kurt Triplett to give up his $200,000-a-year security detail and to renegotiate a 5% annual raise given to deputies under a labor contract with Ron Sims.

►  In today's Seattle Times -- Seattle-to-Friday Harbor ferry route in jeopardy -- The private ferry operator says the boat it typically uses for the seasonal run is already under lease.

►  At TheOlympian.com -- Fish & Wildlife union offered to talk furloughs -- The president of the WA Ass'n of Fish and Wildlife Professionals: "It's a subject of mandatory bargaining. We offered to talk to (management) and they flatly turned us down on Nov. 24 and every time since then."

►  In today's Yakima H-R -- Farmworker housing plan near Ringold has supporters -- Franklin County officials heard the other side of the seasonal farmworker housing plan Monday as the Farm Bureau and project supporters described the need for adequate and affordable facilities.

►  In today's Yakima H-R -- Migrant worker housing sounds like good solution (editorial) -- Many of those opposing the project are farmers, but we're guessing their crops don't require the use of seasonal laborers. If they did, they probably would be happy that their employees had actual housing to live in. Opponents say they are worried about traffic accidents, increased labor costs and an increase in crime related to drugs, fights, rapes and homicides. Wow. It sounds like these opponents are quick to label an entire group of people as just plain horrible folks. 

AFL-CIO elections: 

►  In today's Washington Post -- Next leader of AFL-CIO could see rise in power -- Richard Trumka is the favorite to become the next president of the nation's largest union federation later this summer -- its first new leader in 14 years -- at a time of great promise for a labor movement that has spent decades on its heels. Several unions that left the AFL-CIO four years ago are in discussions to come back. Lawmakers are trying to work out a compromise on a bill that makes it easier for workers to unionize. And it's all happening under a pro-labor president.

National news:   

►  At AFL-CIO Now -- Paid family leave, flight attendant security measures advance -- Under bills passed by the U.S. House, federal workers are a step closer to receiving paid family leave following the birth or adoption of a new child and flight attendants would receive self-defense security training. (GOP Rep. Dave Reichert joins all Washington Democrats in voting "yes" on paid family leave, while Reps. McMorris Rodgers and Hastings vote "no.")

►  At AFL-CIO Now -- Biden refuses to cross IAFF picket line -- The Vice President and a delegation of top administration officials, including Labor Secretary Hilda Solis, will not cross a Fire Fighters picket line to attend the U.S. Conference of Mayors Annual Meeting scheduled to begin Friday in Providence, R.I. Providence's mayor has waged a nearly seven-year campaign against the men and women of IAFF Local 799, refusing to bargain a fair contract.

►  In today's Washington Post -- Supreme Court delays Chrysler's swift sale -- The U.S. Supreme Court held up the sale of Chrysler's assets to Italian automaker Fiat, temporarily interrupting the White House's massive and speedy restructuring of the U.S. auto industry.

►  In today's LA Times -- Obama confronts doubts on stimulus, vows faster spending -- The president's assertions -- that 150,000 jobs have been saved or created already, and that the summer goal is 600,000 more -- appear to be elastic and are hard to verify.

►  Today from AP -- Boston Globe to cut wages 23% after union rejects contract -- Newspaper Guild members narrowly rejected $10 million in annual pay and benefit concessions that parent company New York Times Co. said were needed to keep the paper from shutting down.

►  At Huffington Post -- Hudson River co-pilot: Airlines hiring "very substandard" pilots -- "In the past it's been a very attractive career for people to join and the airlines have been able to select from a very qualified applicant pool. That's not happening any more. We're having to hire down to the FAA minimums, which most pilots have always considered to be very substandard."

►  In today's NY Times -- State of shame (Bob Herbert column) -- Farmworkers in New York do not have the same protections that other workers have, and the state’s agriculture industry has taken full advantage of that. One farm owner told me: “This notion that they need to rest is completely futile. They don’t like to rest. They want to work seven days.”

►  In today's Washington Post -- Geithner's last laugh (op-ed) -- Obama has said that the United States cannot be the world's consumer. On the surface, this sounds like a statement about the temporary condition of the business cycle. Actually, Obama was talking about something far more significant -- not outright protectionism but a coming policy of small tax, spending and regulatory changes that will encourage this quiet trend toward deglobalization. Like it or not, this shift reflects a growing Washington mind-set that globalization has gone too far.