►  At HeraldNet.com -- Boeing included in study of failed outsourcing -- New study: businesses that cut their workforce or lean heavily on outsourcing are more apt to fail in the long-run.

Election news:

►  At the Retiree Advocate -- In Plain English, your voter guide to ballot measures (by D. Nolan Groves) -- for a people’s process, the ballot questions sure don’t use plain English. By the time the dueling attorneys are done beating all the common sense out the question, it's hard to tell exactly what we’re voting on. Translating all the pompous legalese, here’s your Plain English Voter’s Guide to this fall’s key statewide ballot measures.

►  In today's (Everett) Herald -- Unions spend to oust Berkey -- The state's largest unions are pouring tens of thousands of dollars into unseating Democratic state Sen. Jean Berkey of Everett, the most targeted incumbent lawmaker in this year's primary. Their efforts are boosting the first-time candidacy of Democrat challenger Nick Harper. Through a newly formed political committee, Stand Up For Citizens, they're running TV ads, sending mailers and hiring people to talk with voters at their front door and on the phone.

National news:

►  At Politico -- Obama pledges labor support -- The president vows to keep fighting for union-friendly legislation and urges labor leaders to go to the polls for Democrats in the coming elections. “You have to remind them for the next three months this election's a choice,” he told the AFL-CIO Executive Council. “You've got these folks who drove America's economy into a ditch. And for the last 20 months, we put on our boots and we got into the mud.”

►  At Huffington Post -- The best job training is a job (by SPEEA's Stan Sorcher, a WSLC Vice President) -- Education is part of the answer -- I am all for education. However, education, training and re-training do not cause new jobs to appear, particularly when new investment is heading overseas. To capitalize on our social investment in education, we will need to create new jobs in our domestic economy. That means new trade policies, new policies for investment, economic development, R&D, education and immigration, and we will need a national industrial policy to coordinate new growth.

►  In today's NY Times -- Senate debate looms on tax cuts for the rich -- Senate leaders said Wednesday that debate would most likely begin in September over whether to let the Bush income tax cuts for the rich expire at the end of this year as scheduled, setting up a new battle just weeks before the midterm elections. Obama, in a speech to the AFL-CIO executive committee, alluded to the issue in reviewing his administration’s efforts to emerge from what he called “the hole” Republicans dug in the Bush years. Advisers said he would engage more fully when Congress turns to the issue.

►  From AP -- Trustees: Health reform extended Medicare hospital fund 12 years -- The annual trustees report for Medicare and Social Security shows that the Medicare Hospital trust fund will not be exhausted until 2029, 12 years longer than estimated last year. That was credited to the cost savings that will occur with the passage earlier this year of health care reform.

►  Today from AP -- Jobless claims hit highest level since April -- Initial requests for jobless benefits rise, a sign that hiring remains weak and some companies are still cutting workers.