Government news:

►  In today's Spokesman-Review -- Budget reality strikes hard -- Consecutive years of belt-tightening are leaving Inland Northwest school districts with fewer notches available to further cinch up their spending. As federal stimulus dollars dry up, nothing will go untouched in the districts' new budgets, school officials throughout the region say: There are plans to increase school fees or implement new ones; eliminate or reduce athletic programs; leave district positions vacant or hand out pink slips; and, in Idaho, reduce salaries and benefits.

►  At SeattlePI.com -- Fewer cops, fewer services, higher taxes: Get used to it -- Local, county and state governments face increasingly debilitating deficits. Politicians have responded by doing two things they are loathe to do: raising taxes and cutting services. It's something they'll have to continue to do as the effects of the Great Recession depress tax revenues, inflate the need for services and expose unsustainable labor contracts negotiated during more hopeful times.

►  In today's Seattle Times -- King County must adjust labor costs to dire economic times (editorial) -- Labor leaders are mistaken if they think a compensation comparison study can stave off the inevitable. County employee costs must be reduced. The budget is unsustainable.  

►  In the PS Business Journal -- Q&A: Gov. Gregoire on tech, taxes and transit -- I'd like (Microsoft) to have everything back here. I'm upset that they think they have to send anything (royalty revenues) out of state. So I'm willing to try and look at ways that would be an incentive to them. 

►  In today's News Tribune -- Pierce Transit raises under scope -- Until recently, it planned to give employees 4% raises each year through 2015. Now, the agency is revisiting employee pay as it considers eliminating bus service in much of the county or asking voters to approve a sales tax increase. It’s asked the union representing most of its 980 employees to renegotiate the 4% raise set for this summer. And it’s now planning for 2.5% annual raises in future years.

►  In today's News Tribune -- Union questions addition of 5 deputies in hard times -- A union representing Pierce Transit employees is questioning a recent decision to hire additional sheriff’s deputies for security at a time when the agency is trying to save money.

Local news:

►  In today's Tri-City Herald -- DOE planning for end to Hanford stimulus spending -- Hanford has received $1.96 billion to accelerate environmental cleanup through September 2011. The money has been used to create the equivalent of 1,538 full-time jobs for DOE and its prime contractor employees. But with much of the work being done by subcontractors, the number of jobs created is at least double that. With that money scheduled to dry up in about 16 months, the DOE is looking toward training and placement programs for workers.

►  From MarketWatch -- Strike at Boeing C-17 plant might lead to program’s end -- The Pentagon has wrestled with Congress for years to cancel the C-17 military-transport jet program, but it could be a strike at the Boeing facility where the giant planes are built that will finally kill it.

►  In today's (Everett) Herald -- Federal contracts not only for Boeing -- Last year, the federal government paid private businesses $11.3 billion to perform the work it needed done in our state. Businesses located here received contracts for $8.6 billion worth of that work.

National news:

►  At AFL-CIO Now -- Join us today for the K Street Showdown! --  Congress is poised to vote on Wall Street reform -- the most important to our financial system in decades. We are taking our message “Good Jobs Now! Make Wall Street Pay” to K Street, the power corridor in Washington, D.C., where Big Bank lobbyists plot to kill real financial reform and peddle corporate influence on Capitol Hill. AFL-CIO Secretary-Treasurer Liz Shuler will lead a large contingent of working families and union staff today as we join with our partners from National People’s Action, Move On, SEIU and others to rally and call out the Big Banks' lobbyists.

►  In Roll Call -- Protesters to jam Wall Street today -- Thousands of protesters are expected to march on K Street today in support of financial regulatory reform. About 2,000 people from 20 states are expected to hold a series of demonstrations against lobbying firms in the D.C. area where lobbyists have their offices, according to several unions.

►  At Huffington Post -- Goldman Sachs publicly supports financial reform, but fights it with lobbyists -- For all of Goldman Sachs' professed support for an overhaul of financial regulations, it hasn't withdrawn its army of lobbyists. Far from wearing out its welcome, the firm is busier than ever safeguarding its interests while a Wall Street crackdown takes shape in Washington.

►  At AFL-CIO Now -- Fired Rhode Island teachers keep jobs in new agreement -- Teachers at Central Falls (R.I.) High School will keep their jobs under a new tentative agreement with the school system. The teachers will vote today on the new pact.