STATE GOVERNMENT

► From AP — Gregoire proposes $1.7 billion in cuts, temporary sales tax increase — Gregoire proposes $1.7 billion in cuts to state government, including shortening the school year, reducing university support, and eliminating the Basic Health and Disability Lifeline medical programs for 55,000 low-income residents. But she is seeking more than $830 million in revenue to buy back some of these cuts, and she wants a voter-approved temporary half-cent tax increase that would bring in $494 million through 2013. That tax increase would expire in 2015.

EDITOR’S NOTE — I chose to feature this Olympian/AP link because it was the ONLY headline among all state newspapers that bothered to mention the proposed cuts. The newspapers with headlines focusing exclusively on the sales tax proposal include the Bellingham Herald, (Ellensburg) Daily Record, (Everett) Herald, (Longview) Daily News, Peninsula Daily News, (Spokane) Spokesman-Review, (Tacoma) News Tribune, and of course The Seattle Times.

► At WFSE.org — Gregoire unveils all-cuts budget; but would ask voters to raise sales tax to recoup some — The governor defended not cutting state employee compensation more — she produced a chart showing that public servants’ sacrifices made up $2 billion or 19% of the $10.5 billion in budget cuts the past three years. But she is cutting $16 million for funding of your health benefits.

► In today’s Daily News — Naselle Youth Camp not among Gregoire’s latest proposed cuts — In October, Gregoire had included the youth camp on a list of state facilities to be considered for closure.

► In today’s News Tribune — Tacoma schools fear state cuts

► In today’s Yakima H-R — Locals concerned with governor’s sales tax hike plan

► In today’s Columbian — Local Republicans assail call for tax hike

BOEING

► In the Wichita Eagle — Boeing studying future of Wichita site — Boeing is studying the future of its Wichita site, including whether to close the facility, company officials confirmed Monday. But the Kansas Congressional delegation and Gov. Sam Brownback said the company promised jobs to the state when it won an aerial refueling tanker contract, and “we expect the company to honor that commitment.”

SUPERCOMMITTEE!™

► In today’s Washington Post — As SuperCommittee!™ fails, parties pin hopes on 2012 elections — Both Republicans and Democrats hope that next year’s elections will give them a mandate to fix the deficit that the SuperCommittee!™ couldn’t — without having to compromise.

► In today’s NY Times — Failure absorbed with disgust and fear, but little surprise — From shoppers in Los Angeles to tourists in Atlanta to traders taking cigarette breaks outside the Chicago Board of Trade, the eye-rolling that often accompanies doings in Washington gave way to something bordering on dismay.

► At ThinkProgress.org — Sen. Kerry: Norquist was SuperCommittee!™’s 13th member — Republican intransigence was largely motivated by the shadowy influence of lobbyist Grover Norquist, the head of Americans for Tax Reform, who threatens to serve any Republican who breaks his anti-tax pledge with electoral defeat.

► In today’s NY Times — The SuperCommittee!™ collapses (editorial) — The smoke from the smoldering failure known as the deficit SuperCommittee!™ spread heavily across Capitol Hill on Monday, allowing Republicans to obscure the simple truth about the failure to reach an agreement. The only reason the committee failed was because Republicans refused to raise taxes on the rich, and, in fact, wanted to cut them even below their current bargain-basement level.

► At SeattlePI.com — Murray: ‘I was willing to put some blood on the table’ — Sen . Murray offered up cuts to Social Security and Medicare before the talks failed. “If my granddaughter is going to enjoy these entitlements some day,” she said, “we have to change the programs.”

EDITOR’S NOTE: That’s right, the party that was once known as the defenders of the greatest anti-poverty programs in American history and even our own beloved Sen. Patty Murray, have now joined Fox News in calling them “entitlements.” (Last time I checked my paycheck, I was paying for these programs.) Why is scrapping, or at least raising, the cap on Social Security taxes not even on the table? Because it would cause the rich to pay more?!

LOCAL

Shahram Hadian

► In today’s Yakima H-R — Gubernatorial candidate addresses social issues — Republican Shahram Hadian takes issue with unions in the public sector, saying collective bargaining has become a right, but it should only be a privilege. Washington should become a right-to-work state, he said.

► In today’s Spokesman-Review — Local retailers left behind by I-1183 — Two Clarkston neighborhood grocery stores favored the privatization of liquor sales, but not under the terms of the Costco-backed initiative, said Dave Clark, manager of Rick’s Family Foods. “The way the (initiative) was written, it was totally around larger chains, mostly wholesale. It doesn’t help small businesses.”

NATIONAL

► In today’s NY Times — Republicans in Indiana to seek ‘Right-to-Work’ — With an election year approaching, the Republican leaders’ decision to revisit the question places Indiana squarely in the center of a volatile political debate already playing out elsewhere.

► At Huffington Post — New Mexico House votes 65-0 to move state’s money to credit unions, community banks

EDITOR’S NOTE — An even better idea: A State Investment Trust

► In today’s NY Times — Ex-Saturn plant to reopen; GM to add 700 jobs

► In today’s Washington Post — Gingrich calls child labor laws ‘truly stupid’ — The Republican candidate for president says kid janitors “would be dramatically less expensive than unionized janitors.”

EDITOR’S NOTE — Newt hit the nutty trifecta yesterday by also advocating the privatization of Social Security and by calling the Congressional Budget Office a “reactionary Socialist institution.” His reward: he is surging in the Republican polls.

► And a related story in the Huffington Post — Fox News viewers know less than people who don’t watch any news, study finds

TODAY’S MUST-READ

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The Stand posts links to Washington state and national news of interest every weekday morning by 9 a.m. These links are functional at the date of posting, but sometimes expire.