The 250,000-square-foot warehouse is the nexus from which all of the states liquor is imported, processed, and moved out to the 315 state and contract stores, the only place where Washingtonians can buy hard liquor for home consumption.
As states scramble to deal with gaping budget deficits, many are looking for any opportunity to increase revenue, and Washington is one of a handful of states weighing whether privatizing liquor sales is the way to get back into the black.
Some lawmakers here want to sell the distribution center - bringing the state a one-time boost of about $33 million - and let - - - - >

In the process, he and his allies in Congress intend to force Republicans, through a series of upcoming votes, to choose between Wall Streets high fliers and Main Streets middle-class workers. With Democrats struggling to deliver on big promises such as overhauling health care, they hope their increasingly populist tone -coupled with Republican resistance to two Democratic-crafted, deficit-reduction proposals - will prevent wavering voters from drifting to the GOP.
The White House has pushed a job-creation agenda for months. But it wasnt supposed to reign as the top priority until Democrats achieved their much-touted health care revisions.
That trouble-plagued campaign still drags - - - - >

The average cost of a home increased 1.2 percent from the previous month to 163,481 pounds ($263,842), the mortgage lender said in a statement today. Prices are now 8.6 percent higher than a year earlier and down 12 percent from their peak in October 2007.
Bank of England policy maker Andrew Sentance said this week that there is scope for a “much stronger” housing market recovery if banking problems ease and interest rates stay low. Along with data today showing a pickup in consumer confidence, the report - - - - >

Union heads including Richard Trumka of the AFL-CIO and Andrew Stern of the Service Employees International Union will meet with Obama today at the White House. They argue that the proposed tax on family insurance plans worth more than $23,000 would hurt too many workers.
House Democrats are siding with labor leaders, with 190 of the caucuss 256 members objecting to the tax, which Senate Democrats are proposing to help fund health-care legislation. Unions have special sway this year: Democrats are depending on them to turn out - - - - >

House leaders may also discard a plan to impose a surtax on the wealthiest Americans, which has come under fire from some Senate Democrats, aides said.
Financing the expansion of insurance coverage to more than 90 percent of Americans looms as the largest issue facing Congress. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, seeking to merge her bill with Senate legislation, yesterday briefed the Democratic caucus on party leaders discussions during a conference call.
The talks are - - - - >

The president expressed a preference for a Senate proposal to tax so-called Cadillac plans in a meeting yesterday with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and top party lawmakers, the aide said. The White House meeting came on the eve of a conference call Pelosi plans for noon today with her chambers Democrats.
Pelosi is facing resistance as she tries to resolve differences in House and Senate bills that would mark the biggest changes to U.S. health policy in 45 years. The Cadillac tax is opposed by labor unions, - - - - >

A Senate bill would impose an additional 0.9 percent Medicare tax on individuals earning more than $200,000 a year in salary and on joint filers who make more than $250,000.
The House and Senate are at odds over how to pay for the health legislation. The Senate would impose a 40 percent tax on high-end employer-provided insurance plans, a move labor unions oppose; the House wants a 5.4 percent surtax on couples earning at least $1 million, which some senators dislike.
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With Democrats in both chambers under pressure to craft compromise legislation, the biggest areas of contention are the different taxes the House and Senate chose to fund their bills, how strictly to bar federal money for abortion and whether to create a government-run program to compete with private insurers.
Senate Democrats have more clout because they have no room for defections, analysts and lawmakers said. Even so, House members will push for their provisions, including the public insurance program, likely making the negotiations among the most complex - - - - >

The average cost of a home increased 0.4 percent from the previous month to 162,103 pounds ($260,086), the mortgage lender said in a statement today. Prices rose 5.9 percent from a year earlier. Home values are 12.2 percent lower than at their peak in October 2007.
The “restriction in supply meant that even a relatively modest pick-up in demand was able to put upward pressure on house prices,” Martin Gahbauer, Nationwides chief economist, said in the statement. “In addition, the stabilization of the banking system and emerging - - - - >

The Senate garnered the minimum 60 votes needed to overcome Republican objections and pass its measure overhauling health care, and any major changes would jeopardize final approval, said Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey, chairman of the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee.
“If we are going to have a final law, it will look a lot more like the Senate version than the House version,” Menendez said on “Fox News Sunday.” “Im sure therell be some compromises, but at the end of the day, I would expect that - - - - >