A few of the discussion points from those huddled at the TNT critique table this morning:

* It was a smart idea by the crime team to come back around on the Supreme Court's Andress decision and see if the "gates of hell" doomsday predicters were correct. Clearly a lot of reporting and research went into this. We'd still like to know how much all these do-overs are costing taxpayers. Maybe that's why the rest of our local court system is so backed up, as a previous story documented.

* Did our newspaper do enough today to reflect the spirit of the Halloween holiday? One person offered that Andress was a fine story, but it was unncessarily forced into a centerpiece hole. This would have been a good day to blow out Halloween with pictures, since it's a highly visual holiday with wide interest for our readers (even if only for a day). By tomorrow, readers will have moved on. Seems like we do more with Day of the Dead in our pages than we do with mainstream Halloween.

* If you haven't checked out our special section on the eve of the Seattle Supersonics season, you should do so. We like the job that reporter Eric Williams is doing on a brand new beat, having to cover the team both on the court and in the court system. It can be hard to follow a reporter who's been on the beat a long time, like Frank Hughes was. This section is well designed and contains items of interest even for the non-diehard NBA fan. A question was raised whether Kevin Durant might have made the better cover story, but at least he gets prominent display on the website. Click here to see it at the top of our homepage.

We're working on:

McKinley: The East Side business district is looking up. We go visit with business people and residents about it.

McCabes: We're keeping an eye on action regarding the downtown nightclub. The Tacoma Police Department is working on two fronts to get the club's licenses suspended.

Morgan: We hear more today from the city and the state about the state of the 11th Street (Murray Morgan) Bridge, and who will pay for additional emergency services needed to serve businesses and residences on the Port side of the bridge.

An AP wire story appeared yesterday about a nationwide graduation rate study labeled all five of Tacoma's comprehensive high schools were listed as "dropout factories" - schools that graduate fewer than 60 percent of their incoming freshman.

We were interested - and confused. The claim of the AP/Johns Hopkins University study didn't jibe with the numbers we've seen from the state, which put the graduation rate at Tacoma high schools at 67 to 79 percent. Which numbers you use give you a radically different impression of Tacoma's dropout problem.

Education reporter Kris Sherman jumped on the story to see if we could unravel what was happening. After talking to the study's author and a Tacoma Public Schools numbers guy, it was clear that he uses a different methodology to estimate graduation rates. We try to sort all this out in today's story, but we're still not satisfied about why there's such a huge disparity. We'll keep digging and let readers know when we have a better answer.

A few of our discussion points during the Tuesday morning critique session:

* The lead Sonics headline ("First points -- Seattle") didn't play well on the Web, and not much better in the newspaper. Sports editor Dale Phelps says society in general (including the judge in this case) should stop trafficking in bad sports cliches. Great point, Dale! Swish, nothing but net!

* There was some uncertainty yesterday, but the A1 centerpiece about troubles at McCabe's American Music Cafe holds up pretty well. We plan most of our main front-page stories with photographs well in advance, so it's nice to have one that feels fresh and urgent. We did miss an opportunity to refer people to the website for further updates, such as whether the bar was quiet or violent Monday night. We also lacked a map or an address anywhere in the package.

* Inside SoundLife, the Yo! page today (E3) was a headscratcher. We appear to be schizophrenic about the page's intended audience. The puzzles and jokes are clearly geared for the wee ones, but a centerpiece about gay high school homecoming kings?

It's a fairly lively local news day today.

We'll be at Lincoln High School today for the governor's visit. We're told she'll answer questions from students about new graduation requirements for the Class of 2008.

The city is still buzzing about the shooting last week at McCabe's, the nightclub on Pacific Avenue, with talk beginning about whether it should stay open. We'll go down there tonight to check it out.

And we'll be at the Bethel School Board meeting tonight for the decision on condemning land for a new multi-district vocational education center.

Watch for updates online today and stories in tomorrow's paper.

Selected comments from our daily review of the paper and Web site.

Reporter Ian Dempsky's piece reviewing abuse cases at Rainier School was singled out for praise. Our investigative mantra around the newsroom is "get the documents." Meaning, if you think there's more to a story, make a public disclosure request to the government agency. In this case, Ian fired a request off following a TV report on an abuse case caught on video. His suspicion, that there might be other such cases, was confirmed when the records came back.

A couple of "talkers" momentarily diverted busy editors this morning. (You know, stories that prompt discussion, debate, conversation.)
- The front page L.A. Times story out of the fire coverage that explored what people grab when they only have a moment's notice to evacuate. (The conversation starter: What would you bring?)
- Todd Milles' provocative Football Friday cover piece, asking whether Alex Brink's stats (as opposed to win-loss record) should land him in the pantheon of great WAZZU quarterbacks. (The conversation starter: Are you joking?)

Elections: We're pressing to get the last of our local election set-ups in the paper by the weekend. Expect to see stories on the Puyallup and Tacoma city council races, Bethel and Tacoma school board races.

DuPont: For the past several years, this South Sound city has been among the fastest growing in the state. That's about to change as the Northwest Landing housing development is almost built out. Now the city has to be sure it has the parks, fire department and other services to serve the new residents.

Tacoma sentencing: We'll cover the sentencing today of one of the three Mount Tahoma students convicted of killing a Tacoma man last year.

This weekend, just in time for colder weather: Our annual ski tab runs in the Sunday paper, focusing on ways to ski on the cheap.

The International Women’s Media Foundation presented “courage in journalism awards” yesterday to women who risk their lives covering the news.

Six Iraqi women who work for McClatchy Newspapers bureau in Baghdad, were so honored. Four of them were present: Ban Adil Sarhan, Huda Ahmed, Alaa Majeed and Sahar Issa. (Not able to attend were Zaineb Obeid and Shatha al Awsy.)

Issa spoke for all in accepting the award. Here is what she said:

It is a great honor for me to stand here today.

To me, this award means that my colleagues and I have succeeded in what we set out to do; and that our voices have carried, through war, through death and sorrow, through sleepless nights and fear driven days in an effort to reflect the picture of our country as we see it, and of our people as only we can truly know them.

To be a journalist in violence ridden Iraq today, ladies and gentlemen, is not a matter lightly undertaken. Every path is strewn with danger, every checkpoint, every question a direct threat.

Every interview we conduct may be our last. So much is happening in Iraq. So much that is questionable. So much that we, as journalists, try to fathom and portray to the people who care to know.

In every society there is good and bad. Laws regulate the conduct of the society. My country is now lawless. Innocent blood is shed every day, seemingly without purpose. Hundreds of thousands have been killed for seemingly no reason. It is our responsibility to do our utmost to acquire the answers, to dig them up with our bare hands if we must.

But that knowledge comes at a dear price, for since the war started, four and a half years ago, an average of about one reporter and media assistant killed every week is something we have to live with.

We live double lives. None of our friends or relatives know what we do. My children must lie about my profession. They cannot under any circumstance boast of my accomplishments, and neither can I.

Every morning, as I leave my home, I look back with a heavy heart, for I may not see it again – today may be the day that the eyes of an enemy will see me for what I am, a journalist, rather than the appropriately bewildered elderly lady who goes to look after ailing parents, across the river every day. Not for a moment can I let down my guard.

I smile as I give my children hugs and send them off to school; it's only after they turn their backs to me that my eyes fill to overflowing with the knowledge that they are just as much at risk as I am.

So why continue? Why not put down my proverbial pen and sit back?

It's because I'm tired of being branded a terrorist: tired that a human life lost in my country is no loss at all. This is not the future I envision for my children. They are not terrorists, and their lives are not valueless.

I have pledged my life – and much, much more, in an effort to open a window through which the good people in the international community may look in and see us for what we are, ordinary human beings with ordinary aspirations, and not what we have been portrayed to be.

Allow me, ladies and gentlemen, allow me to reach out. Help us to build bridges of understanding and acceptance. Even though the war has cast a dark shadow upon your nation and mine – it is never too late.

I thank my bureau chief and our editors for retaining a high standard of balance and credibility, and I thank you all for being here today.

Good Day.

Photographs were not taken; their lives are in danger if their faces become known.

Election setups will dominate much of our local coverage this week. Tomorrow, we're planning a front-page story on the simple majority measure on the state ballot. We're also planning a story on the open seat on the Puyallup school board.

We're also announcing shortly online and in the paper tomorrow Bill Cosby's plans to meet with students from the Clover Park school district to talk about taking responsibility for their decisions.

Sound Life tomorrow will feature the winners of our annual pumpkin-carving contest.

For a year or more, we have been publishing videos, photo galleries and audio slideshows on TheNewsTribune.com on a regular basis. The promotion and aggregation of that content, however, has been hit or miss, making it difficult for readers to know where on the site they can reliably find multimedia content that was promoted in the print product.

Yesterday, we launched a new multimedia section that aggregates and displays all of that content in one spot making it easier for readers to browse all of our offerings. We've increased homepage promotion of this content from one static spot to four dynamically rotating spots. We've given dedicated space to our archived photo galleries and videos. We're also giving more weight to our reader-submitted photos and will do the same for reader-submitted videos when that feature is available.

We have a couple of short-term improvements to make to the new site, including offering the ability to comment on the content or email it to a friend. Tell us what you think in the comments.... we welcome your suggestions.

Everyone liked Kathleen Merryman's column on Ruby Thomas and her granddaughter Mercedes. It was a compelling read.

Local news editor Hunter George said he was late getting out the door because he was reading the front page stories.

Managing Editor Karen Peterson said she wanted statistics on incidents at the Lakewood bar – calls for service or something to give readers a sense of what was going on in that neighborhood. Local news editor Matt Misterek explained that he and his team worked on the issue right up to deadline and didn't feel that the numbers they had were the right ones. Karen and Matt agreed to keep working on it to provide context for the story.

On the local front: Nice centerpiece photo that referred readers to the stories on the Show & Tell page.

Karen Peterson was glad we did the obituary on the Federal Way teacher.

Biz: Editors laughed at the funny headline on the Alaska Airlines story. "If only they'd pack your bags for you"

SL: The group liked the missing recipes centerpiece.

Several months of intense work culminated this weekend as we produced the online and print versions of our Voter Guide.

In June, I sent questionnaires to more than 140 candidates in 62 contested races for city councils, school boards, park districts, the Port of Tacoma commission and King County prosecutor. I worked with various reporters and editors to tailor the questionnaires to each jurisdiction.

We asked about such issues as traffic in Orting; annexation in Bonney Lake; a Wal-Mart in Fircrest; potholes in Tacoma; development in Ruston; the use of eminent domain by the Port of Tacoma; the search for a schools superintendent in Tacoma; prosecuting gangs in King County; and improving math scores in the Orting, Clover Park and Bethel school districts.

I worked with Aaron Ritchey, one of our Web producers who repeatedly fixed the glitches in the database that's behind the online guide (my thanks again to all of the candidates for their patience). Photo editor Jeremy Harrison helped locate mug shots of each candidate.

We posted the online guide last night, with a link from our home page. The guide features candidates' answers to all of the questions (3-5 issue questions, depending on the race), plus a personal statement.

Then I repackaged the material and sent it to page designer Pat McCoid, who spent the past week assembling it into a 36-page print version. That goes to press today and will be inserted in the Oct. 21 edition of the paper. For space reasons, we only listed three issue questions per race, and we had to exclude the personal statement.

It's a ton of work (I've decided to blame the long hours on the guide for the flu bug I caught last week). But it's a labor of love. I hope voters find it useful between now and Nov. 6.

In July 2006, the South Tacoma Way project started with a conversation. Restaurant critic Ed Murrieta suggested a project at features staff meeting while talking about a grocery store in the street’s international district. Then, feature reporters started talking about all the things on South Tacoma Way they had seen and what fascinated them about the thoroughfare. Debbie Cafazzo mentioned she wanted to write about the Rescue Mission. Niki Sullivan was interested in the B&I Public Marketplace. Bill Hutchens said the car culture would make a good story.

Confronted with a huge list of story ideas, team members started narrowing the scope of the project six month ago. We decided to organize stories using the actual geography of the street. First, we limited the stories to places with an actual street address on South Tacoma Way. Second, we divided the project into three sections: Pacific Avenue to 37th Street; 38th Street to 56th Street and 57th Street to SR 512. The first section appears in Sunday Sound Life. The second appears in Monday Sound Life, and the third in Tuesday Sound Life. (The entire project will publish online Sunday.)

Next, the team worked on the project’s focus. What did we want to tell readers about South Tacoma Way? The answer: Life on the street today, yet not ignoring how it was built or changed over time. The result: A story that weaves the street’s past with its present, providing context for the thoroughfare’s place in South Sound history. Niki wrote the story for Sunday’s Page One. Debbie wrote a historical timeline of significant events, which is divided into three parts.

South Tacoma Way is about the people who call the South Sound home, and the team wanted to capture the diversity of culture, the entertainment of generations, the entrepreneurial spirit of ownership and the local sense of place that builds a community. Thus, the team settled on 14 stories, and some members reported outside their area of specialization. For example, movie critic Soren Andersen wrote about a Tacoma police officer who works a night shift patrolling South Tacoma Way. Outdoor writer Craig Hill profiled a driving school instructor who closed his business. Arts reporter Rosemary Ponnekanti wrote about the 50-plus generation ballroom dancing at a community center. And, outdoor editor Jeff Mayor asked community leaders about the future of the street.

Besides police officer on the night shift, other team members took to the street after sunset. Music writer Ernest Jasmin reported on the flourishing nightclub scene on the thoroughfare, and he tackles the urban legends and documented history of the Java Jive. And, Arts and Entertainment Editor Craig Sailor, who is also a photographer, shot storefronts at night. It’s a visceral element, viewable in a slide show on our website.

Staff photographer Peter Haley told South Tacoma Way stories with engaging and compelling photography. He shot most of the images for the project, with one major exception, the Olympus Spa. Staff photographer Alison Yin took the photos at the Korean-style women-only spa. And, staff artist Fred Matamoros gave the project’s geographic structure a cool map, with each place we wrote about pinpointed.

Thursday, October 11, 2007

Front Page: Regarding the Kid's health care story, what is the result of these findings? For a lede story, we wanted a better sense of the effect of this health care shortcoming.

We liked Scott Fontaine's story, and the launch of the "Word on the Street" blog. Great Koepfler photo.

South Sound: Wonderful centerpiece photography by Olympian photographer Tony Overman from the sculpture unveiling at Ft. Lewis. There was discussion about our consistency in reporting traffic fatalities, spawned by the Stacey Mulick story about Bawny McQuistin. Were we late in reporting this story? Do we write a story every time there is a traffic fatality?

Business: The centerpiece by C.R. Roberts was interesting and something we didn't know.

Sports: Janet Jensen's photography from the UPS-PLU soccer game was fantastic. Make sure to check it out.

Soundlife: It's an Adventure day. The hunting package was very good, even for armchair hunters. The tag looked like a mistake. Both pictures should have photo credits. We wanted a photo with the Jeff Mayor column. If these are great places to take pictures, let's see at least one of them.

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Front Page: Nice writing and photos with the squirrel centerpiece. Good teasers at the top of the page, very inviting. Would the skins game have been a better choice over the Sonics?

South Sound: Merryman column did a great job of summarizing the community reaction to a big news event (Atlas explosion). So glad she did this column. And the expletive? Approved by an editor, but in the light of the next day the general feeling is that we could have toned it down.

Sports: Loved the golf centerpiece. Great photos and excellent storytelling in the writing.

Soundlife: Is there a beer recipe we could have run? Or a sidebar on getting started homebrewing? Otherwise, lots of content for our readers.

Tuesday, October 9, 2007

Front page: Story about the plane crash could have been higher on the page. Photos from the search also moved on the AP wire around 7 p.m. and it would have been good to use something newer.

The back page photo was interesting, maybe more so than than the photo we used on A1. It was very similar to what we had in Monday's paper. There was not a lot more for us to shoot Monday, so it could have gone either way.

South Sound: Interesting centerpiece. Strong local story with a connection to history. Headline could have been more encompassing of the topic than "linguists", since the MIS was broader in nature. Otherwise, it was great to have a local centerpiece story on the South Sound cover.

Sports: Was Mack Strong a bigger story than the Yankees? Should it have been centerpieced? Maybe, but the design was very strong on this Sports cover and Mack was played well with the career numbers and such. Nice job by our new Sports designer, Liz Wishaw.

Business: Little Holland story was a good pick and conversational story.

Soundlife: Great idea for an illustration for the writers' conference.

Saturday, October 6, 2007

Front Page: The group liked the centerpiece by Kris Sherman on Stadium High School's crowding. Dean Koepfler's photo was excellent. Looking for how the "School of Choice" enrollment affects their numbers? That part wasn't available.

Was the headline on the house price story too deep with five lines? Probably not. And the story was nicely couched with the word 'rare'.

That the Spanaway water supply was again safe to drink was news to a lot of readers Saturday morning. Reporter Adam Lynn worked hard to get that in Friday night.

South Sound: Kathleen Merryman's column was a fun idea, written largely in text-speak. Glad we had a translation though.

Sports: Excellent headline: 'Infield flies rule'. Very clever.

Sunday, October 7, 2007

Front Page: Strong team effort to report on the explosion at the Atlas foundry. We had the news online right away and continued to update with stories, photos and video throughout the afternoon. Almost every other local media outlet was citing us in their coverage. Great photos and a reader brought us this video. Have a video or photos to share? Send it to us.

South Sound: Giant pumpkins are always fun. Especially with Bill Hutchens writes about them.

Business: The scrap metal story was really well-done. Excellent photos too. That's been a continuing story in our area and it's great to learn more about the local scrap metal industry.

Monday, October 8, 2007

Front Page: Excellent photos by Drew Perine. We liked the photo of the truck's axle. We're talking Monday about the next round of stories on the Atlas and Saturday's explosions.

Lakewood budget story is ahead of the city. Great reporting.

Good teasers today. Really got our attention.

South Sound: Traffic Q&A by Hunter George was one of the better ones. That merge is the stuff of legend and it's great to get the final word on it. Use both lanes!

Sports: The editor group loved the top of the page and the strong design of today's sports section. The numbers were great to have broken out of the story on the cover too. Well done.

Soundlife: This story needed more local photos with it. Well, we planned for that but had to go a different route. The group generally thought that the page had way too much design and not enough content. Wanted another story or more of the centerpiece story out there.

The team dispatched to cover the fire at Atlas included Drew Perine, C.R. Roberts and Jeff Burlingame.

Crime and Breaking News Team Leader Randy McCarthy was at The News Tribune office when the propane tanks at Atlas Castings and Technology exploded.

Here's his account:

I was walking across the parking lot, heading into work shortly before 3
p.m., when I heard a strange sound in the distance. Nothing big but unusual.

Just then two copy editors also coming into work called to me and said a guy
at an adjacent business had just yelled to them that there had just been a
big explosion nearby.

I looked in that direction and saw a tall plume of smoke rolling into the
sky. I ran into the newsroom and saw Drew Perine,sitting as his photo
station. "A guy says there was just a explosion," I told Drew. "Would you
check that out?"

Drew took off and I went to the front of our building with Scott
Oberstaller, one of our sports staffers. He got there first and said
something I can't repeat but that made it plain there was big fire nearby.

When I saw the same thing I ran back into the newsroom to see who was
available to cover the story. Marce Edwards, the team leader handling the
night editing shift, told me that our two Saturday reporters were in the
building. I told the reporters, Bill Hutchens and C.R. Roberts, what was up
and sent them out.

Three our our copy desk staffers were monitoring the police scanners. I
asked if any of them had ever been a reporter. Jeff Burlingame said he had,
so I dispatched him, too.

As he was heading out the door we heard another explosion. This one was much
stronger and louder.

"Go! Go! Go!" I yelled as we all ran toward our cars. "Get as close as you
can but don't get hurt!"

Minutes later we had a photographer, three reporters and an editor on the
scene. In the newsroom, Marce had already posted our first news alert on the
Web site.

It really helps coverage when readers add to the news we gather.

On Saturday reader and former TNT employee Craig Arndt and his daughter Kacie Arndt were headed north on South Tacoma way to get lunch downtown about 3 p.m.

"As we approached the Highway 16 viaduct, we could see that something was on fire, but didn't know what it was," Arndt said. He pulled his car over, got his point-and-shoot digital camera out and began videotaping the scene as he and Kacie watched the fire.

This photo, actually a "screen-grab" of the video, gives you some idea of the scope of the explosion. To see the full video, click on our home page here and then click on the video link just under the photo.

Reader Debbie May has a question:

Earlier in the year you did a story about a Fircrest teenager being "stalked" on her cell phone, and I believe you even did a follow up story.

I am a University Place resident and travel through Fircrest to get to I-5 and sometimes think about her and her family and the awful experience they have been through. Has the case been solved? Did it ever stop?

Reporter Sean Robinson responds:

The answer at this point is nothing new. The victims say they’re still getting occasional calls and messages, but the volume is much lower than before. We know that law enforcement folks are still trying to pinpoint the source of the problem (some experts at the FBI are helping), but they haven’t reached any conclusions yet. We’re staying in touch with the family, and we’re planning to follow up with them soon.

Author and sports essayist John Feinstein (bio, columns) has an interesting column in the Washington Post (link below) about Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy's tirade directed at The Oklahoman columnist who questioned quarterback Bobby Reid's toughness. (Daily Oklahoman column here.)

Here's Feinstein's take on the columnist's total reliance on anonymous sources to make her case:

There are times in journalism when you have no choice except to grant sources anonymity: Watergate was one example. When lives are at stake or a source might lose his job for divulging information involving a scandal, it's okay to do it.

To me, it is almost never okay in sports. There isn't anything going on that's so important that you allow people to hide behind anonymity. My general policy is that I NEVER use an anonymous quote as a means to criticize someone. On a rare occasion you might protect someone who provides you with important information. Anonymous quotes expressing an opinion are a cop-out for both the source and the writer.

Read Feinstein's full take here.

We have been getting phone calls from unhappy readers the last two days about how the new weather page does not list Yuma, Ariz. When we redesigned the weather page, Yuma was inadvertantly dropped. We are now working to fix this problem for the Thursday paper.

Based on the morning news meeting, here's some of what we are working on for the Wednesday paper. (Kind in mind that changes are likely throughout the day.)

MALL SHOOTING: Reporter Adam Lynn is continuing to wait for a verdict in the trial of accused Tacoma Mall shooter Dominick Maldonado. Adam filed this report this morning on our Lights & Sirens blog.

SOUP: Wednesday is food day in SoundLife. The centerpiece subject is minestrone soup.

SONICS: Eric Williams is up at the first day of Sonics practice.

BASEBALL: We'll preview the baseball playoffs, which begin Wednesday.