Election results: (Top two advance. WSLC-endorsed candidates in bold. Latest results.)
 

 
►  In today's Seattle Times -- Murray, Rossi advance in U.S. Senate race -- Republican Dino Rossi will advance to a November matchup with three-term Democratic U.S. Sen. Patty Murray in a race that could determine control of the Senate. Rossi, the former Sammamish state senator and two-time unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate, easily outpaced former NFL player Clint Didier, a Republican who courted tea-party voters, to place second in Tuesday's primary.

►  In today's Seattle Times -- Obama rips Republicans; raises money for Sen. Murray in Seattle visit -- The president flashed into Seattle in full campaign mode, encouraging voters to contrast his administration's 18-month record with the "snake oil being peddled" by Republicans.

►  In today's Columbian -- Heck, Herrera top congressional race -- State Rep. Jaime Herrera defeated two more conservative Republican candidates to win the chance to face Democrat Denny Heck in the high-stakes race for the 3rd District's open seat.

►  In today's (Everett) Herald -- Sen. Jean Berkey trails Nick Harper -- A coalition of powerful labor unions knocked down but do not appear to have knocked out two moderate Democratic senators in Snohomish County. Democrat Nick Harper led state Sen. Jean Berkey by 225 votes in initial returns in the 38th LD. Sen. Steve Hobbs had a 303-vote edge on Republican Dave Schmidt. Hobbs helped found a group of moderate Democrats known as the Roadkill Caucus. Union leaders blamed the caucus for hobbling their legislative priorities while protecting the interests of major banks, insurance firms and corporations.

►  At TheOlympian.com -- It's Reykdal, Hearn in 22nd to fill Rep. Brendan Williams' seat -- "The election was about the economy and it's about jobs. In our community that means protecting (state) workers," Reykdal said. "The other thing is people want us to examine the tax code. They want an honest revenue conversation, not an all-cuts budget solution."

►  In Huffington Post -- Labor group Working America to mobilize unemployed voters -- Working America, a community-organizing affiliate of the AFL-CIO, launched a campaign on Wednesday to organize and motivate hundreds of thousands of unemployed workers to head to the polls in the November elections. The organization is starting with 100,000 of its own members who are currently out of work. But the list of contacts could wind up being "several hundred thousand" of the nearly 15 million unemployed, said Karen Nussbaum, director of Working America.

Trade news:

►  At Huffington Post -- Free trade: Flawed theory and bad policy 
(by WSLC Vice President Stan Sorsher of SPEEA/IFPTE) -- Support for free trade is declining for good reason. Free trade came with a promise of prosperity. However, after 20 years of experience, we have structural trade deficits and an economy that cannot create jobs. ... We need a new trade policy. No country in the world is pure free trade or pure protectionism. Countries around the world have found middle ground including an industrial policy to guide their development. If we intend to rebuild our middle class and re-industrialize our economy, we will need a national industrial policy that recognizes the interests of environment, labor rights, human rights and public health, in balance with investor and business interests.

►  At AFL-CIO Now -- Congress must fix trade deficit by addressing China currency manipulation -- The U.S. trade deficit hit $49.9 billion in June, the highest it’s been in nearly two years. But many in Congress don’t see the need to solve this dangerous imbalance by addressing the problem behind the deficit -- China’s currency manipulation.

►  At SeattleTimes.com -- Fantasy press conference: Me and Gary Locke off-message -- Questions I would have loved to ask Commerce Secretary Gary Locke when he was in town with President Obama: How can you tell average Americans that they are net winners from the trade status quo? Millions of well-paid jobs have been sent offshore, often with the encouragement of U.S. policy, and now the nation faces its worst unemployment crisis since the Depression. Wages have been flat since the creation of the WTO. At least 3 million high-end service sector jobs are forecast to be sent overseas in the next few years. Nationally, none of this has been offset by export-related jobs. What is the administration doing to reverse this trend?

►  In today's Washington Post -- Rebuilding the Democratic brand with jobs (Harold Meyerson column) -- If they focused on boosting manufacturing, with a corollary upgrade to our infrastructure, they'd tap into the only area in which the public wants a more activist government.

Unemployment news:

►  In today's Seattle Times -- State jobless rate drops to 8.9% in July -- But even as unemployment dipped, so, too, did the ranks of the employed. Payrolls fell 2,300 between June and July as an estimated 5,400 government jobs -- most of those tied to the census -- were eliminated. Together, the data suggest rising numbers of discouraged residents have stopped looking for work amid "tepid growth," said David Wallace, the state's chief labor economist.

►  Local coverage -- Benton/Franklin (6.3%), Clark (13.3%▲), Cowlitz (11.7%▼), Kitsap (7.1%▼), Pierce (9%), Seattle metro (8.4%▲), Snohomish (9.4%▼), Spokane (8.6%), Thurston (7.3%▼), (Whatcom 7.8%▼), Yakima (7.7%▲)

Local news:

►  In today's (Longview) Daily News -- Federal mediator joins Longview Fibre talks -- The mediator, who began meeting with both sides Monday, was brought in to help continue talks between the company and AWPPW Local 153. The union's 750 members are working under a four-year contract that expired May 31, and on Friday, Local 153 gave Fibre a 10-day notice of their plan to terminate the contract, which paves the way for a possible strike.

►  In today's Yakima H-R -- City Council votes for additional budget cuts -- Cuts will be proportionate to each division's percentage of the budget, which sets the stage for the largest cuts to come from the public safety section of the budget, nearly 70% of the city's tax-supported revenue.

National news:

►  In today's NY Times -- In Mott's strike, there's more than pay at stake -- After nearly 90 days of picketing in the broiling sun outside the sprawling Mott’s apple juice plant here in upstate New York, Michelle Muoio recognizes that the lengthy strike is about far more than whether the 305 hourly workers at the plant get a fatter or slimmer paycheck. The union movement and many outsiders view the strike as a high-stakes confrontation between a company that wants to cut its labor costs, even as it is earning record profits, and workers who are determined to resist demands for wage and benefit givebacks. “It’s disgusting, honestly, that they want to take things away from the people who made them profitable,” said Muoio, a $19-an-hour machine operator who has worked at the plant 15 years.

►  At AFL-CIO Now -- L.A. car wash owners get jail time -- After two and a half years of fighting for justice, southern California carwasheros celebrated a big win on Tuesday. Two of the most unrepentant abusers of carwash workers’ rights -- the Pirian brothers, Benny and Nissan -- have each been sentenced to one year in jail for labor law violations. 

►  In today's NY Times -- Given stimulus funds, schools wait on rehiring teachers -- As schools handed out pink slips this spring, states made a beeline to D.C. to plead for money for their ravaged education budgets. But now that the feds have come through with $10 billion, some of the nation’s biggest school districts are balking at using the money to hire teachers right away.

►  In Daily Finance -- The Layoff Kings: 25 companies responsible for 700,00 lost jobs -- In order, they are GM, CitiGroup, Hewlett-Packard, Circuit City, Merrill Lynch, Verizon Wireless, Pfizer, Merck & Co., Lehman Brothers, Catepillar, JP Morgan Chase, Starbucks, AT&T, Alcoa, Dow Chemical, DuPont, Berkshire Hathaway, Ford, KB Toys, U.S. Postal Service, DHL Express, Sprint Nextel, Sun Microsystems, Boeing, and Chrysler.