Observation of W decay in 500 GeV p+p collisions

Electrons from W$^{\pm}$ decays have been observed in polarized p+p collisions at $\sqrt{s}$ = 500 GeV in the PHENIX detector at RHIC. The status of the analysis of data from an integrated luminosity of approximately 10 pb$^{-1}$ will be shown. The lepton energy spectrum and background estimate to the W signal from heavy flavor and hard QCD processes will be used to determine the cross section in the PHENIX central arms, which cover $\mid \eta \mid \le 0.35$. W production from polarized beams probes the spin and flavor structure of the proton. The proton beams had a longitudinal polarization of approximately 35\%, and progress on extracting an electron single spin asymmetry will be reported.