Health Care news:

►  In today's Olympian -- Painful choices for state -- The state faces with the daunting prospect of taking away health insurance from 40,000 people at a time when demand is soaring. Shrinking a health insurance plan quickly is risky. No one wants to cut a cancer patient off chemotherapy or tell a person who needs dialysis that he or she is losing coverage. But healthier people stabilize the plan by paying in money and not ringing up much in medical expenses. If only those who really need health care are allowed to stay, costs likely will soar and even more people might be cut off the rolls.

►  From AP -- House Democrats mull major health care changes -- Democrats in Congress are looking at big health care changes, including federal aid to help families earning up to $88,000 pay for insurance and a requirement that all must carry coverage. A document obtained by The AP shows the plan would also require employers to offer coverage to their full-time workers, or pay a percentage of their payroll to the government. (Sound a lot like the Fair Share Health Care proposal in Washington state that the local Democrats couldn't stomach in 2006. Maybe Congress could start by not blocking states from enacting such laws.)

Legislative session redux: 

►  At SeattlePI.com -- Emergency declaration an option for community colleges -- The State Board of Community and Technical Colleges will decide next month whether to declare a state of financial emergency, which would streamline the process for laying off tenured faculty.

►  In today's Everett Herald -- Gregoire signs $7.5 billion transportation budget; projects begin -- About $4.7 billion is designated for equipment and construction. With $500 million in federal money added in, the state expects to undertake up to 400 new projects by June 30, 2011.

►  From KIRO TV -- 76 employees of Fish and Wildlife Department laid off -- Layoffs, along with elimination of dozens of vacant positions, will be effective at the end of the fiscal year June 30.

►  In today's News Tribune -- Agency to drop parole for many juveniles -- The cuts affect about one-third of juvenile offenders in state custody in an effort to plug a projected $9 billion shortfall.

School layoffs:

►  In today's Everett Herald -- Pink slips for 240 teachers in Snohomish County -- Friday is the state's deadline for school districts to tell teachers whether they have a job next year. Some may be rehired when budget projections become clearer; others will not.

►  In today's Seattle Times -- Seattle schools to confirm number of layoffs today -- The preliminary number is 170 teachers, librarians, counselors and other certificated staff to lose their jobs.

►  In today's Olympian -- Griffen warns 20 teachers of layoffs -- About 20 of the district's 38 teachers will get a layoff notices, though not nearly that many will lose their jobs next year.

Local news:

►  In the Daily World -- Some Weyerhaeuser jobs could be saved -- Union officials say about 36 woods crew jobs appear to be off the chopping block, reducing the proposed layoffs to as many as 109 workers. IAM-Woodworkers say the latest discussions with the company look to save about 18 positions from each of the Aberdeen and combined Raymond-Pe Ell crews.

►  In today's Seattle Times -- $800,000 to fix Seattle street department -- Department dysfunction will cost taxpayers at least $805,000 in consultants, investigations and payouts to employees.

►  At SeattlePI.com -- Boeing workers keep hydrated, caffeinated -- Tully's Coffee's top-selling store for cold drinks, throughout the year, is in the cafe inside Boeing's Everett factory. Sales of cold drinks at Boeing surpass even those at Tully's stores in Phoenix, its hottest market. 

National news:

►  In today's Detroit News -- UAW faces painful transformation -- The United Auto Workers, like the automakers whose employees it represents, is struggling to survive the worst financial crisis to hit the auto industry since the Great Depression. The UAW's ranks have been decimated, dramatically reducing income from membership dues, and further losses are on the way as Detroit's automakers close more factories. Its vaunted benefits, long the gold standard for America's working class, have become the subject of national scorn.

►  In today's LA Times -- E-verify program confirming workers' legal status grows in popularity -- Despite concerns about its reliability, more than 124,000 businesses are signed up -- and 1,000 are enrolling each week -- for the federal government's Web-based identification program, which aims to reduce the hiring of illegal immigrants by enabling employers to check whether an employee is authorized to work.  

►  In the Federal Times --  With collective bargaining likely, unions woo airport screeners -- AFGE and NTEU are trying to sign up as many TSA employees and charter as many local chapters as possible before the employees receive collective bargaining rights. Once employees can be unionized, they are expected to hold an election to decide which union will represent them.

►  From AP -- Low pay, long commutes probed in crash -- Rebecca Shaw of Maple Valley, the co-pilot in an airline crash that killed 50 people in upstate New York, was paid a salary so low that she lived with her parents and commuted across the country to her job. 

►  At AFL-CIO Now -- Massachusetts moving on paid sick leave legislation -- A coalition is trying to make the Bay State the first to require employers to provide paid sick leave for workers. 

Unemployment news:

►  From AP -- Jobless claims jump to 637K -- New jobless claims rose more than expected last week due partly to an increase in layoffs by the automobile industry, while the number of people continuing to receive unemployment benefits set a record for the 15th straight week.

►  From AP -- Free drugs, including Viagra, for jobless -- Pfizer Inc. says it will provide 70 of its most widely prescribed prescription drugs -- including Lipitor and Viagra -- for free to people who have lost their jobs and health insurance