1. The Hill assesses Sen. Patty Murray's (D-WA) performance on her two "assignments from hell"---chairing the budget supercommittee and taking the helm of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee---and concludes that she has "become a power player" in Congress because of her impressive performance in those roles.

2. The Stranger comes out in favor of district elections, arguing (as they did way, way, way back when Josh was the news editor and commissioned this piece ) that they give neighborhoods better representation.

However, one of their arguments against the current at-large system---that it deters challengers, giving incumbents "a death grip on lifetime jobs"---is wrong. Three members of the current council---Tom Rasmussen, Jean Godden, and Tim Burgess---got there by beating incumbents. That's a third of the council.

The rest were either elected to open seats (Richard Conlin, Nick Licata, Bruce Harrell, Sally Bagshaw, and Mike O'Brien) or appointed (Sally Clark).

Burgess, by the way, defeated David Della, a one-term incumbent who himself beat incumbent Heidi Wills: pretty rapid turnover for a system that supposedly guarantees "lifetime jobs."

3. National NPR reports on a major downside of the nation's war on undocumented immigrants: Washington state apple growers, expecting a bumper crop this year, don't have enough workers to get their product off the trees.

4. KUOW checks out the new passenger vans aimed at getting low-income and homeless people around downtown now that the Ride-Free Area is no more, and finds that very few people are riding them so far.

5. Car-tab taxes, they're all the rage: The Tacoma News Tribune reports that the city may impose a $20 vehicle license fee, in addition to eliminating 217 city positions, to make up an estimated $63 million budget shortfall.