State Election News:
▪  In today's Everett Herald -- Ballots go in mail today; Republicans prepare for post-election fight -- With ballots in the mail, the State Republican Party -- which unsuccessfully contested the results of the 2004 election -- is already is loading up for potential post-election litigation.
▪  In today's Daily World -- Republicans file records request to counties ahead of elections -- The party requests all communications from every county auditors' office with any Democratic official, plus anyone else interested in the election process from the ACLU to the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law. They deny they're prepping for another court challenge of the election. 

Presidential Debate #3:
▪  In today's NY Times -- The final debate (editorial) -- When John McCain embarrassed himself last month by declaring that the “fundamentals of our economy are strong,” he quickly claimed that he was talking about his belief in the American worker -- and darkly implied that anyone who disagreed was not patriotic. So it’s a shame that he hasn’t come up with policies that would actually help workers. Instead, he’s served up the same-old trickle-down theories and a government-is-wrong, markets-are-right fervor that created this economic disaster.
▪  In today's LA Times -- McCain deals no lethal blows in final debate with Obama -- The Republican appeared more lively and focused, but also angry and inconsistent. Early instant polls give the night to Sen. Barack Obama.
▪  In today's Washington Post -- What Joe the Plumber can't fix (Dionne column) -- McCain tried hard last night to paint Obama as a big-spending liberal who hangs around with radicals. But ideology may matter less to voters this year than temperament, and in this economic downturn, conservatism may be even more suspect than liberalism. In assailing Obama from the right, McCain may only have deepened the problems he already has.

Local News:
▪  In today's Seattle P-I -- UW budget faces $10 million cut -- A UW spokesman says it's likely the $10 million cut can be achieved with steps such as scaling back travel expenses and equipment purchases. No specific programs will get the ax -- at least not this time around.

National News:
▪  In today's LA Times -- New stimulus package might be next effort to gird economy -- Democrats and Republicans have different views of what a stimulus package should contain, and Bush has signaled his opposition to some of the key ideas being floated. What could force compromise is evidence that the nation is headed for tough times even if the financial system begins to stabilize.
▪  In today's NY Times -- Settlement will allow thousands of Mexican workers in U.S. to get back pay -- Thousands of Mexicans who labored in the U.S. under a World War II-era guest worker program will be eligible to collect back pay under a settlement to a long-fought lawsuit. From 200,000 to 300,000 laborers, called braceros, worked as farmhands or railroad workers from 1942 to 1946.
▪  In today's Ny Times -- A Somali influx unsettles Hispanic meatpackers -- The dispute peels back a layer of civility in a Nebraska town, revealing slow-burning racial and ethnic tensions that have been an unexpected aftermath of the workplace raids by federal immigration authorities.
▪  At NYTimes.com -- Change to Win touts its campaign machine -- Success has many parents, and with Senator Barack Obama gaining a lead in many polls, the Change to Win union federation is claiming that its ads, fliers and volunteers have helped him.

Employee Free Choice Act news:
▪  In today's USA Today -- Give workers free, fair choice (op-ed by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney) -- Remarkably, the nation's economic meltdown is completely absent in the debate over the Employee Free Choice Act, legislation that would restore working people's single best ticket to the middle class -- the freedom to form a union and bargain for a better life. That's like discussing the color of the fire engine while the house is burning down.