LOCAL

► In today’s Seattle Times — Aberdeen buoyed by 520 bridge project — In a county that has limped along with a 13% unemployment rate, one of the highest in the state, the $367 million contract to build the pontoons — some as long as a football field and weighing 11 tons each — is pumping new life into a once-thriving timber town that fell on hard times and stayed that way for years. The pontoon project will produce 300 union-wage jobs over several years. While it’s not the only burst of recent good news for Aberdeen, it’s clearly the most visible.

EDITOR’S NOTE — This is your government creating good jobs, improving freight mobility, and investing in Washington’s economy.

► In today’s News Tribune — 130 Tacoma employees would lose jobs under city budget plan — In addition to those potential layoffs across city departments, top city administrators and non-union employees face pay cuts and up to 12 furlough days per year, says interim City Manager Rey Arellano.

EDITOR’S NOTE — And this is your government cutting good jobs and public services at a time struggling working families desperately need both.

► In today’s (Longview) Daily News — Judge fines Longshore union another $65,000 –A federal judge Tuesday fined the Longview-based longshore union about $65,000 for blocking a train bound for the EGT grain terminal on Sept. 21. Coupled with a previous $250,000 fine related to the union’s dispute with EGT, the union now faces fines totaling $315,000.

► In today’s News Tribune — Saying it has no choice, City Council passes Wal-Mart proposal 6-3 — Tacoma’s temporary ban on new big-box stores will continue, but the controversial Walmart proposal that sparked the moratorium in the first place will no longer be affected by it.

► In today’s (Everett) Herald — Seattle shipyard to build newest ferry — The state ferry system reached an agreement with Vigor Industrial of Seattle, formerly Todd Shipyards, on Tuesday to build the $147 million vessel.

A CENTURY OF PROGRESS

► In today’s (Everett) Herald — Everett Massacre’s lessons are relevant today (Julie Muhlstein column) — On Tuesday — nearly 95 years after 5 to 12 IWW members and two local deputies were killed — the waterfront was quiet. Yet the same high-stakes issues that played roles in the Everett Massacre — free speech in public places and compensation for mill workers — are making headlines in today’s Everett. Historic Everett is planning events to commemorate the Everett Massacre on Wednesday night and on Saturday at Everett’s Anchor Pub, near where the shootings occurred.  Wednesday’s event includes an invitation for union members to share their thoughts at an open microphone.

STATE GOVERNMENT

► In today’s Olympian — Could private money tee up tax vote? — if lawmakers want to give voters a tax referendum early next year, they will have to get busy in the special session that begins Nov. 28. State elections officials need 10 weeks’ notice on a ballot measure. So lawmakers would have to approve a tax referendum by the first week of December to get it on the Feb. 14 ballot. A coalition of groups is also looking at options for privately funding some kind of revenue-generating measure to the ballot.

► From komonews.com — DOC rule changes leave thousands of offenders unsupervised — Victims Katie, Annie and Rob fear they are living on borrowed time. The criminals convicted of sexually assaulting them or their loved ones are free. And because of policy changes and new laws, no one from the Department of Corrections is watching. They are just three of thousands of offenders no longer getting any DOC supervision. Rob sums it up this way: “It’s an accident waiting to happen.”

► At the Slog — UW students call for closing tax loopholes, say they’re headed to Olympia Nov. 28 to demand action — At a press conference, student leaders will lay out a three-point plan for raising revenue that could offset Gov. Chris Gregoire’s proposed cuts to education.

► In today’s Olympian — In dispute, Gregoire’s $25 cut in worker health outlays — Gregoire has proposed trimming the state contribution to $825 per month on average — down from the $850 that lawmakers approved in their two-year budget in May. Not so fast, says WFSE.

► In today’s News Tribune — Mayors protest loss of liquor-tax profits — City governments are protesting Gov. Gregoire’s proposal to cut them off from state liquor profits and liquor-tax revenues.

USPS

► In today’s News Tribune — Public meeting on proposed USPS cuts set for Nov. 17 — Mail-sorting facilities in Tacoma, Olympia and Everett would be closed and their work moved to a central facility in the Seattle area under a budget-cutting plan the USPS rolled out this week.  A public meeting on the Tacoma shutdown plan will be at at 5:30 p.m. Nov. 17 at the Tacoma Main Library, 1102 Tacoma Ave. S. A similar meeting is planned for Olympia, but a specific time and place have not been announced.

► In today’s Washington Post – Postal Service compromise in the works? — A bipartisan group of senators closely tracking the fate of the USPS is set to unveil legislation Wednesday that would overhaul the mail agency’s finances. Some familiar with the negotiations said the new bill merges components from separate proposals previously introduced by Sens. Carper and Collins.

SUPERCOMMITTEE!™

► In The Hill — Reid: GOP ‘terrified’ of violating infamous Norquist anti-tax pledge — On the Senate floor, Majority Leader Harry Reid: “The truth is they are terrified to violate the infamous Grover Norquist tax pledge even though they know Norquist is wrong, or if they don’t know, they should know. They’re in a thrall, my Republican colleagues, they’re in submission to a man whose singular focus is keeping taxes low for the very, very, very wealthy no matter what the effect on the nation.”

► In today’s Washington Post — Why the Supercommittee!™ should disband (Katrina vanden Heuvel column) –Democrats have decided to get into a bidding war with conservatives about cutting government at a time of mass unemployment. And to make the offer enticing, they casually decided to throw in the core legacy of the Democratic Party — and the core obligation of the nation — to protect Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. The most sensible decision of the supercommittee would be to disband so Congress can reconsider the disastrous debt ceiling deal. Failing that, the supercommittee should be held to the following common-sense principle: Jobs first.

OCCUPY AMERICA

► In today’s NY Times — Occupy Oakland regroups, calling for a strike — A week after police in riot gear rousted and then tear-gassed Occupy Oakland protesters, supporters of the movement have rebuilt their encampment in front of City Hall and are calling for a general strike on Wednesday that will include an attempt to shut down the nation’s fifth-busiest shipping port. Several major labor groups, including local units of the ILWU, which represents port workers, have voiced support for the Occupy Oakland protests and the strike, though union officials have not authorized union members to strike.

► In today’s LA Times — Poll: New Yorkers are bullish on Occupy Wall Street — More than twice the number of voters statewide describe themselves as Occupy Wall Street supporters than supporters of the tea party — 44% versus 21%.

► Washington’s Occupy protests on Facebook: Occupy Bellingham — Occupy Colville — Occupy Everett — Occupy Olympia — Occupy Seattle (website) — Occupy Spokane — Occupy Tacoma — Occupy Tri-Cities — Occupy Wenatchee — Occupy Yakima

TODAY’S MUST-READ

► From AP — Bank analyst bares his teeth at Wall Street’s bull — Mike Mayo is the Wall Street analyst who has been a thorn in the side of banks for years. Outspoken, blunt, volatile and prickly, the 48-year-old has been ridiculed by his peers, shut out of industry conferences and slighted by CEOs. In 2000, Mayo was fired from Credit Suisse months after he wrote a negative report that exhorted investors to sell all bank stocks. Today, Mayo is a bank analyst at Credit Agricole Securities who sympathizes with the Occupy Wall Street movement. He says he’s as outraged as the protesters over the excessive pay Wall Street banks lavish on executives, even when they perform poorly. “That’s not capitalism; that’s entitlement,” says Mayo.

The Stand posts links to Washington state and national news of interest every weekday morning by 9 a.m. Make this electronic “clip service” your first stop each morning! These links are functional on the date of posting, but sometimes expire.