More health care reform news:

►  From AP -- Dem leaders unite on health-care strategy -- Leaders are uniting around their last, best hope for salvaging President Obama's sweeping health care overhaul: pass the Senate bill with some changes to accommodate House Democrats. Leaders will present the idea to the rank and file this week, but it's unclear that they will have the votes to move forward. The new strategy is as politically risky as it is bold. Obama initially voiced doubts last week that a comprehensive bill was still viable, but he now seems to be pushing for it.

►  In today's NY Times -- Decision looms on advancing health care bill -- Seeking to avert the collapse of major health care legislation, the White House and Democratic leaders in Congress face a crucial decision about whether to use a procedural maneuver that would allow them to advance the bill despite the loss of their 60-vote Senate majority.

►  In today's Spokesman-Review -- Gregoire to Congress: "Get it done" -- The governor and other state officials who deal with health care have a message for congressional Democrats who may be wavering on the issue in the wake of last week’s U.S. Senate race in Massachusetts: “Regardless of one election, national health care reform is essential... Get it done.”

►  At TPM -- Leading health care group pushes Congress to pass comprehensive reform -- HCAN is stepping up their efforts to urge the House to pass the Senate's legislation, and then pair it with a separate package amending key financing and structural aspects of the bill. 

►  In today's NY Times -- Don't give up now (editorial) -- Democrats should take another look at what really happened in Massachusetts and then summon the nerve to enact comprehensive reform.

►  In today's NY Times -- Obama's credibility gap (Bob Herbert column) -- Obama is in danger of being perceived as someone whose skillful rhetoric cannot always be trusted. Questions have been raised about candidate Obama's candor when he sharply criticized John McCain for offering “a health care plan that would actually tax people’s benefits.” Now Obama favors taxing at least some people’s benefits.

State of the Union news: 

►  In today's Washington Post -- Obama to propose freeze on government spending -- The president will propose in his State of the Union address a three-year freeze on federal funding that is not related to national security, a concession to public concern about government spending that could dramatically curtail Obama's legislative ambitions

►  At Huffington Post -- Chief of Staff draws fire from left as Obama falters -- The president's liberal backers are directing their anger less at Obama than at Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, who they say is the prime obstacle to the changes they thought Obama's election would bring.

►  At truthout.org -- Freedom vs. public option (by George Lakoff) -- The conservatives are winning the framing wars again -- by sticking to moral principles as they see them, and communicating their view of morality effectively. In 2008, Obama ran a campaign based on his moral principles and communicated them as effectively as any candidate ever has. But the Obama administration made a 180-degree turn, trading Obama's 2008 moral principles for the deal making of Rahm Emanuel and Tim Geithner, assuming it would be "pragmatic" to court corporations and move to the right, in the false hope of bipartisan support. A clear unified moral vision was replaced by laundry lists of policy options that the public could not understand and made ordinary folks feel they were being bamboozled. And in many cases, they were. 

What is needed is an organized activist public with a positive understanding of what our values are and how to link them to every issue. An effective movement must be positive, organized, and long term, where an overall positive understanding defines the isolated negatives. And it must have all of the above. We have the beginning of such a movement in California.

Legislative news:

►  From AP -- Oregon votes today on higher taxes for rich, businesses -- Polling suggests the results on Measures 66 and 67 will be close, and the outcome may depend on turnout. The stakes in the struggle between business interests and public employee unions are high -- the revenue from the two measures is expected to account for about 5.5% of the state's general fund budget over the next two years.

►  Meanwhile in Washington....  in the (Everett) Herald -- Lawmakers propose candy tax to fill budget hole -- Gov. Gregoire says that extending sales tax to candy won't harm the state's economic recovery -- a key criteria she will use in deciding what taxes she'll back. HB 2388 would generate about $17.7 million in the remaining months of this budget and $32 million a year in the future.

►  In today's Olympian -- State workers face change with the rest of us (editorial) -- As legislative leaders consider furloughs, changes to sick pay cashouts, automatic pay increases and other compensation issues, it’s important that state employees recognize that they, too, must make sacrifices and be part of the budget solution. Defiance and confrontations will only drive a wedge between cash-strapped lawmakers and their work force. So don't get all uppity on us, just bend over. (OK, we wrote that last sentence.) 

►  At HorsesAss -- McKenna awards $600,000 in bonuses as state struggles to balance budget -- Total bonus payments within the Attorney General’s office exceeded those of any other state agency. Of the $1.9 million awarded as bonuses to state employees during FY 2009, nearly one-third -- $599,000 -- went to members of McKenna’s staff. The AG’s office awarded a total of 901 bonuses to its staff of 1,321, including 55 awards of $3,000 each.

►  In today's Seattle Times -- Ask citizens to help boost job creation through Jobs Act bonds (guest column by Rep. Hans Dunshee) -- With 165,000 jobs lost in our state in this recession, it's smart to look at an idea that could put 38,000 people to work. Some would say do nothing because of the added debt, but a 4 percent increase in debt-services costs will grow the economy and save more tax dollars overall. That's a smart investment. When we faced dark days in the past, our leaders -- Franklin Roosevelt and Dan Evans -- took bold action. Their courage created jobs for millions of Americans, and we should do nothing less. 

►  At SeattlePI.com -- Quick! Spend $70 million in stimulus funding -- With a deadline looming, the state DOT has about $70 million in leftover money due to savings from a down construction market. The state has until March 2 to get projects "obligated" for the money, or risk losing it.

►  In today's Spokesman-Review -- States' rights bills waste lawmakers time, efforts (editorial) -- The Republican state legislators sponsoring these bills were not sent to Olympia to second-guess the long history of federal court decisions that form the guidelines of federalism.  

►  In today's (Everett) Herald -- Bill would kill Boeing tax breaks -- Rep. Jeff Morris (D-Mount Vernon) wants to claw back tax breaks from Boeing if the company ever starts building the majority of its 787 jets outside Washington state. "Boeing has changed the nature of our relationship with the South Carolina decision," Rep. Morris said. "They made a business decision. This is a business decision we need to make to protect Washington State taxpayer's interest." Boeing spokesman Bernard Choi responds, “I don’t know how you don’t call that a partnership.” (It's not clear whether Mr. Choi was referring to Rep. Morris's bill or to Boeing's decision to expand 787 production elsewhere after agreeing to do it in Washington state in exchange for $3.2 billion in tax breaks.) 

Boeing news:

►  At SeattlePI.com -- Boeing engineers file grievance over education program -- SPEEA says its contract, while not specifically mentioning the Learning Together Program that Boeing wants to scale back, contains provisions that cover the program and, therefore, it couldn't be changed without union consent. "More than 3,300 of our members trusted Boeing to honor its promise to fund their continued education," says SPEEA's Ray Goforth. 

►  In Sunday's Seattle Times -- Boeing's Charleston tax breaks top $800M -- Disclosure of Boeing's tax breaks, probably worth close to $1 billion, provides further ammunition to Airbus in the long-running fight over what government aid the WTO counts as illegal subsidies.

►  Today at HeraldNet.com -- Analysts: Expect Boeing to post 4Q profit -- Analysts say Boeing will post a profit in the fourth quarter when it announces its earnings tomorrow.

►  In today's Bellingham Herald -- Mayor proposes new standards for big-box stores -- The stores could be regulated more lightly or more heavily, depending on whether they pay their workers enough, sell items made regionally or are in a mixed-use urban village.

►  In today's Yakima H-R -- OSHA still looking into death of Job Corps worker at mill -- Federal investigators say they are still looking into the Jan. 7 death of a 20-year-old Fort Simcoe Job Corps student at Yakama Forest Products.

National news:

►  In the Wall St. Journal -- White House decides to outsource NASA work -- The White House has decided to begin funding private companies to carry NASA astronauts into space, but the proposal faces major political and budget hurdles. The goal is to set up a multiyear, multi-billion-dollar initiative allowing private firms, to compete to build and operate spacecraft capable of ferrying U.S. astronauts into orbit -- and eventually deeper into the solar system.

►  At AFL-CIO Now -- Solidarity Center supports extends workers' effort to build unions -- Through its work in more than 60 countries, the AFL-CIO Solidarity Center is supporting and extending workers’ efforts to gain a better life by helping them to build strong unions.

►  In today's NY Times -- British Airways is training employees as fill-ins if flight attendants strike -- It is teaching employee volunteers, including engineers and pilots, how to conduct safety demonstrations and serve meals if the attendants walk off the job. (Jack London's definitive definition of a scab: "A two-legged animal with a cork-screw soul, a water-logged brain, a combination backbone of jelly and glue. Where others have hearts, he carries a tumor of rotten principles... A strikebreaker is a traitor to his God, his country, his wife, his family and his class."

►  In the News Tribune -- This country pays a high price for cheap goods (Judy Hauser column) -- With our unintended blessing, we’ve allowed a gung-ho foreign work force to reach across the world and break the backbone of our working class, just to save a buck. The Wall Street Journal reports, “One in three jobs (six million total) have been lost in the manufacturing sector since 1997, the last year the sector posted job gains.” Americans pride themselves as bargain hunters. We take longer perusing a price tag than the morning paper, looking to get something for nothing. When we do, we should know, we’re paying a heavy price for a whole lot of nothing.