“Mossback is back!” – or at least the column by former Seattle Weekly publisher Knute Berger will be on April 2.

That’s the launch date of Cross Cut, an Internet-only Seattle “newspaper” being started by David Brewster, the original publisher of the Seattle Weekly and former executive director of Town Hall.

Berger will be one of Cross Cut’s staff writers and says he’ll resume the longtime Mossback column he wrote at the Weekly. His boss and editor, oddly enough, will be Chuck Taylor, who reported to Berger as the Weekly’s managing editor. Cross Cut plans to cover both Washington and Oregon, including having a writer dedicated to legislative news in Olympia.

Berger, Taylor, reporter Philip Dawdy, and columnist Geov Parrish exited the Weekly last year in the wake of New Times Media’s takeover of Village Voice Media, owner of the Weekly. One reason, says Berger: New Times is so “Seattle-centric” that one executive questioned why the Weekly ran an expose on U.S Customs and Immigration’s giant detention center in Tacoma. It’s only the gulag, Berger notes, where Seattle’s arrested immigrants end up.

Discount drugs

Despite high hopes and a bevy of task force recommendations, it doesn’t look like any major health care reform will come out of this year’s Legislature. In the meantime, the state is offering everyone a way to get prescription drugs more cheaply.

Last week, the governor announced that anyone, regardless of age or income, can sign up for a drug discount card issued by the new Washington Prescription Drug Program. The program, which was created by the Legislature at the governor’s request, offers savings of 20 percent on brand-name drugs and 60 percent on generic drugs thanks to the purchasing power of a consortium formed with Oregon last year.

The program is open to all Washington residents who do not have prescription drug coverage or whose insurance does not cover all their prescription needs. There are no fees or other eligibility requirements. To get a card, go to www.rx.wa.gov or call 1 (800) 913-4146.

—Cydney Gillis

Changed minds

The federal government reversed its decision to yank the health coverage of low-income babies born to undocumented immigrants March 20, putting off a legal challenge by the governor.

Gregoire, who had said the state would defy the feds’ order, filed suit against the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services over the new rules March 5. Her office estimates that 8,000 Washington newborn children of immigrants depend on Medicaid for early care. “These babies are legally entitled to be treated the same as any other newborn U.S. citizen,” she said in a statement. “It’s a basic issue of equality.”

—Adam Hyla