Friday, November 30, 2007

A1:

Jason Hagey's story on the casino and church was an interesting tale with many details. Great first paragraph, starting the story. Nice writing.

Love the stingers, especially the goat. Not sure the coach is a household name or face, so we could have used more about high school football in the text.

Caption of the Silver Star story should have referenced Jacoby as "left".

Southsound:

First Nose item was funny and well-written.

Sports:

Great photo of Terrell Owens. We thought it would have been nice the jump of the McGrath column landed on the same page as the game story.

Business:

Interesting page overall. Lots to read. Fun headline on the goat story. An aerial tram in downtown tacoma? Really?

Soundlife:

Local toys, leaf-free.

Go:

What's "butt rock"? Not everyone thought that worked. Makes you look though.

Gridiron Classic special section:

Reverse type can't be read. Great design, but we just can't do this much reverse type in newsprint.

This winter's University of Puget Sound alumni magazine, Arches, will feature former News Tribune photographer Bruce Kellman's work. A 1967 graduate, Kellman started at the paper as an undergrad. He retired last May after 42 years of shooting photos for the News Tribune. The magazine will feature nine pages of Kellman's photos and his commentary on them.

If you haven't seen it before, here's a gallery of his photos.

Thursday, November 28, 2007

A1:

Football story from the New York Times was a little thin. In hindsight, maybe we should have picked something else from the wires. Where's the controversy?

In the stingers across the top, we wanted a photo of Rashard Lewis.

ID theft story was fascinating, also the most read story on our site this morning.

The centerpiece from the soldier memorial was well-written. Photo editors wanted the secondary photo of the soldiers' portraits out front. We could have used mugs on the back with the breakout box or looked for a different photo out front.

South Sound:

DuPont police chief story is quite a tale. We wanted his age higher in the story.

Nice, bright writing in the snow short.

Sports:

Headline and photo from the Sonics game really worked well together. Downpage design was nicely done.

Business:

We wanted to know how long the condos have been on the market in the top story.

Soundlife:

Jeff Mayor's weekly column came back at local outdoor stores about Cabela's opening. Glad he did that.

Here are the top local stories on Page One of The News Tribune for Thursday:

• Pierce County prosecutors say Larry Alan Hayes was very accomplished at his chosen trade: stealing identities and using them to finance an expensive lifestyle that included fancy cars and underage girls.

Many of the stolen credit card numbers Hayes allegedly used came from people who used their cards to pay for haircuts at Great Clips, court papers allege.

• The black-footed albatross, the sooty shearwater, Lewis’s woodpecker and the greater sage grouse are among 49 species found in Washington state that are considered imperiled by two leading bird conservation organizations.

More than one in every four bird species found in the continental United States are on WatchList 2007, compiled by Audubon and the American Bird Conservancy.

• It's been several weeks since the last such ceremony, but the passage of time made Wednesday's memorial for three Fort Lewis soldiers killed recently in Iraq no less painful for family and friends.

Wednesday, November 28

A1:

Discussion of Tavares story, group liked how it knitted the facts together. We liked the breakout box about Tavares getting DSHS assistance. Interesting stuff.

Glad to see we had time stamps on the four local stories.

False alarm story should have run with the jump of the Open Space story. We found it odd tucked into its location.

B1:

Merryman columns have been on the homeless camp issue. Nice to have her write about our suburban areas too.

Superintendent story had nice context about other school districts looking to fill their open superintendent positions too.

Sports:

Interesting sidebar to the Taylor story pointing out other recent NFL deaths.

Business:

We wanted a few more tips about how to deal with demon bosses. Maybe broken out of the story in a box.

Soundlife:

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

A1:
Glad to see time stamps on stories that were posted on thenewstribune.com Monday.

In the Tavares story, we wanted to know more about what local law enforcement knows about Secret Service and FBI surveillance.

The centerpiece presentation on the Hanford reactor was great. Readable story.

B1:
Lakewood council story on B2 came in very late. Great to see it in the paper.

Sports:
Great presentation on the Bill Doba centerpiece. We especially liked the five coaches to watch. There was a date error in the McGrath column. 19762? Doba started his coaching career in Goshen (Ind.) High School as an assistant in 1962.

Business:
Two great accountability stories on the Business cover today: The hotel and port stories. Great toilet story headline on D4.

Soundlife:
Nice holiday arts roundup. Simple and usable.

Monday, November 26, 2007

A1: MRSA story was very interesting. It was educational and rationally written. We didn't realize how forward-thinking Pierce County has been about MRSA.

Educational use of the Second Life game is growing and will be worth keeping track of. Fascinating how technology is used for education. The word "Avatar" could have been more completely defined for readers.

South Sound: We should have referred readers to our online database of contractor complaints. Catchy headline on the Merryman column. Nicely written.

Business: Orman column has practical information for all of us.

Soundlife: Beer Society story was a nice slice of life story.

Sunday, November 25, 2007

A1: All local stories on the front of the paper. The package on seniors and the class of 2008 was great information. The inside design was great for readers. The jump line was wrong.

Glad we're still on the Tavares story. Touching story from the Mauck memorial.

Check out our online contractor database.

B1: A reader called about the Lake Tapps story and our inclusion of Auburn as a Pierce County city. Yes, part of Auburn is in Pierce County.

Sports: Great photo work from the Apple Cup.

Business: Centerpiece on small business Christmas shopping was great local enterprise reporting. Glad the chart was regional. The jump line was wrong on the Voelpel column.

Saturday, November 24, 2007

A1: Centerpiece story on Black Friday shopping was well-written and engaging. We liked the time stamps and how readers can follow the shopping madness.

Great reporting on the teen vandal story by Mike Archbold. Very interesting.

Business: So much to read on this page. Pet gifts, holiday decor, Dodger Chargers as police cars. Great Saturday Business section.

Soundlife: Centerpiece story was on native plants and their rescue. We would have liked to see more about where to get native plants for our gardens and maybe a better list with thumbnail photos.

The Non Sequitur cartoon was unnecessarily offensive.

News we expect to break today:

Bill Doba: Will he continue as WSU's football coach?

Foss hotel: Friday was the deadline for developers to file for their building permit for a new hotel on Tacoma's Foss waterway.

Scammer: A woman accused of scamming local seniors is in court today. We'll see what she has to say.

Here are the top local stories on Page One of The News Tribune for Thanksgiving Day:

• "Good to Go" does not mean you don't have to pay the toll to cross the new Narrows bridge. State transportation officials are hoping some new signage makes that essential fact clear to all bridge crossers.

• John Ladenburg fought hard, but could not dissuade the County Council from cutting off funding for the Prometa drug treatment program. The council did increase funding for drug treatment programs in general, however.

• As Fort Lewis hosted the cutting of downtown Tacoma’s Christmas tree this week, the thoughts of columnist Kathleen Merryman – and many others – were of the thanks we owe to absent heroes.

• It's tough to ski without enough snow, outdoor writer Craig Hill writes. But until the weather cooperates, skiers will just have to bide their time, or head elsewhere.

Here are the top local stories on Page One of Wednesday's News Tribune:

• Prosecutors say a 41-year-old convicted felon killed a Graham-area couple in their home over a $50 debt. The man, who was recently freed from prison in Massachusetts after serving time for killing his mother, now faces two counts of aggravated first-degree murder, the state’s most serious crime.

• Any landing you can swim away from is a good landing, two people learned Tuesday afternoon. They were rescued by boaters after their light plane crashed into Commencement Bay following a mid-air collision with another plane. The other plane managed to land safely.

• Three members of a Fort Lewis-based unit were killed Sunday in Iraq. The soldiers were assigned to the 1st Battalion, 38th Infantry Regiment, part of the 4th Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division. With their deaths, the Stryker brigade has now lost six soldiers in the past week, after more than seven weeks without a fatality.

The top local stories on Page One of Tuesday's News Tribune:

• Sheriff's investigators think they know exactly what happened when a Graham-area couple was shot to death Saturday.

What they can't figure out is the "why."

• State transportation officials hope new signage will eliminate confusion over the "Good to Go" slogan used on the new Narrows bridge.

Here's a hint: "Good to Go" doesn't mean you don't have to pay.

• A Longbranch couple had their power shut off Monday after refusing to let a developer tap into a power box that they paid $10,000 for years ago.

Double homocide: The Pierce County Sheriff's Department has arrested a couple in connection with the two people found dead Saturday in their Graham home.

Toll sign: State transportation officials have posted new signs on the Gig Harbor side of the new Tacoma Narrows bridge to better explain to out-of-towners that they have to pay a toll to cross.

Queen: We interview Queen Latifa, who appears in Tacoma later this week.

Adoption Day: Today is a special day for adoptions in local courts. We plan to profile a family adopting its eighth child.

Army kids: We'll go to a local event where school and military officials are talking about how they can better serve children of soldiers.

Cabelas: It opened this morning in Lacey. We were there alongside thousands of others.

McCabes: The latest news is that the state denied the Tacoma Police Department's move to for an emergency closer of the Tacoma nightclub.

Prometa: We are supposed to find out today whether Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg will veto the county council's move to suspend funding of this controversial drug treatment program.

Elections: The Pierce County auditor's web site last night said they didn't have updated election counts because of some "inconsistencies" in the counting. We'll attempt to learn more about that today.

Abuse: Lake Tapps resident Welton Marc Gilbert appears in federal court today. Gilbert is accused of sexually abusing teenage boys in his home.

Cosby: Bill Cosby is in Lakewood today talking to students and adults who work with them in the Clover Park School District.

Elections: We'll watch for new numbers due out at 4 p.m. from the county auditor. The simple majority ballot measure and city council races in University Place could be reversed from initial results.

Reporter Kris Sherman, who was Reader Rep last week, said she got several calls and e-mail saying we shouldn't list the occupation of the accused in crime stories.

Several comments were about the Lake Tapps pilot accused of sexual abuse of minors. One was about the school bus driver arrested after she was found intoxicated at work.

Kris made the point to the callers that in each case, the job was directly related to the crime. The pilot is said to have used flying trips and flying lessons as an inducement to lure alleged victims. The bus driver's very occupation made the allegations against her even more troubling.

I agree with Kris. Sometimes the occupation is important to the facts of the case. When it isn't we may not mention it.

From Ed Stanton in Chehalis:

PLEASE extend my THANKS to your sports editor and excellent writers for the outstanding COLLEGE BASKETBALL SECTION. it was well done.

i read 10 newspapers per day on the internet. YOU AND THE TNT HAVE THE VERY BEST SPORTS WRITERS.

Highlights from critique of today's paper by editors and others:

Thursday was a very newsy day around here, as evidenced by the 16 updates on thenewstribune.com yesterday and the 100 percent local front page. Editors praised thorough coverage of the Roy mayor scandal, the overturning of Initiative 747 and the ongoing Prometa controversy. We especially liked the print layout of the Japanese internment papers.

This morning's front-page story on MRSA cases in local schools prompted a deadline discussion last night. We debated whether we should name the schools that had been cleaned after MRSA cases were discovered. One district official argued that we should not - because doing so would raise unwarranted fears and stigmatize the schools. We ended up naming the schools that we knew of, but in the context of a story that put the danger of contracting MRSA in perspective and advised against overreaction.

Some Thursday morning quarterbacking about story placement:

• Should the feature story from Hillside Elementary gone on the front page instead of South Sound?

• Should we have placed the Aqua Dots recall story on the front page, rather than inside the A section?

• Should we have run the story on the new AIDS director on the cover of South Sound in place of one of the out of town stories?

I-747: The state Supreme Court today struck down Tim Eyman's 2001 voter initiative to limit property tax increases. The court said the initiative was misleading.

Prometa: County Executive John Ladenburg says he'll veto the Pierce County Council's vote to discontinue funding for Prometa, a controversial and experimental drug treatment program.

Abuse: Local law enforcement officials return from Atlanta today with Weldon Marc Gilbert, the Lake Tapps pilot accused of molesting local teenage in his home.

From a mental-health professional who is both a veteran and someone who deals with injured military folks.

As a mental health and trauma counselor, this is one of the best "plain language" and in-depth researched collection of articles on what is now universally recognized as one of the most debilitating injuries to impact our troops in modern warfare. Given that TBI and PTSD both have long term effects, it may be years before we as a nation face the overall result of their impact on individuals, families, local communities, and our economy.

The links are here and here.

Editors spent much of today's meeting discussing our election coverage, both online and in the print edition.

This election was a real breakthrough for the new Political Buzz blog, which we used as a vehicle for live election coverage. It had 4,095 hits yesterday and nearly as many this morning. Several posts are attracting good discussions, as well. Editors and reporters posted 20 updates after 8 p.m. yesterday.

Election package in this morning's paper got lots of praise. The A1 centerpiece on the quaint practice of poll voting breathed some humanity into the politics heavy page. We packed a lot of information into the available pages, though we wished we would have had more breathing room and space for additional photos.

Some standouts among the many nice performances:

• Page designer John Ellingson, who barely broke a sweat juggling lots of deadline stories into a challenging presentation. A talented veteran designer, John recently traded the day shift designing the SoundLife section for the night shift designing the front page.

• Reporter Jason Hagey, who wrote two stories out of the Tacoma City Council meeting, then covered council election.

• Reporter Kris Sherman (one of the newsroom's "Martha Stewarts"), whose platters of baked goods whipped the troops into a sugar-fueled blogging frenzy. Executive Editor Dave Zeeck: "The chocolate chip cookies with pecans were just classic." Local editor Matt Misterek: "I'm glad there wasn't an eighth layer in the seven layer bars or I would have had a heart attack."

Like any army, a newsroom travels on its stomach.

Many of our local news reporters and editors aren't in yet this morning. They'll come in this afternoon and work election night. We'll be blogging results tonight as we get them.

Morgan: We have word the state will give Tacoma some money to help pay for additional fire coverage in the tideflats after closing the Murray Morgan Bridge that inhibits emergency access.

Homes: A report on area home prices will be released today. We're expecting another drop in Pierce County.

On Monday, editors and reporters discuss the weekend papers and Web site content.

A key theme today: Lots of great online content the complemented our weekend stories. Check out our multimedia page for:

• A video accompanying the story on flood damage.

• A photo slideshow that goes with our Sunday package on brain injuries.

• A video that pairs with Sunday's business story on a controversial Port of Tacoma project south of Olympia.

• Videos and slideshows of high school and college football games, step dancers and the Franklin Graham revival at the Dome.

• Elsewhere, you'll find a cool (no pun intended) online form where you can figure out the size of your carbon footprint.

As you may have noticed, we're creating more and more multimedia content for the Web. Unfortunately, some of our best stuff goes up over the weekend, when not everybody looks for news online. The good news is that the material has a long shelf life, so you can catch up when you get to work Monday (on your lunch hour of course!)

Another interesting election-season topic came up during the discussion. Some newspapers are dropping election endorsements. The theory is that endorsements only serve to aggravate readers and make it more difficult for impartial news reporters to cover the race. We have no intention of stopping our endorsements, but a number of news editors thought that we should. What do you think?

Child abuse: The investigation continues into a Lake Tapps man accused of molesting teenage boys in his home. We'll report what we learn as we learn it.

Gregoire: The governor is at Stadium High School tonight in the last of her "town hall" meetings across the state.

Ikea: We'll give you a peek at the interesting-looking new warehouse being built in Graham.

Dozens of high school journalists are at the TNT today to learn more about the craft.

The annual event is produced by News Tribune staff members and gives students a day of workshops about reporting, editing, newspaper design and photography.

In the photo at right, TNT reporter Stacey Mulick leads a workshop on interviewing techniques.

A reader asks:

I noted your recent discussion re. weather in your recent Sunday column and decided to seek your influence in including India, a subcontinent with 20% of world's population,in Tribune's world weather report.In the past couple of years, I have talked to a couple of reader's rep. who expressed surprise about the omission and promised to talk to the right people, but nothing has happened so far.Hope going to the top will finally make it happen for this native Indian, a proud US citizen and a devoted NT patron of 40 years. Thank you

I asked her to pick a representative city (New Delhi? Mumbai?) and we'll consider the addition.

Anyone got a city they want to delete? Adding one means another will have to go.

We welcomed dozens of South Sound area high school journalists to this morning's news meeting. They'll be attending seminars and learning about our craft all day.

Here are some of the reflections on Friday's paper that the students heard:

* Sonics X three = one explosive front page. Was it too much use of the same word? Probably not because they were three distinct topics: professional basketball, military artillery and the reunion of a 1960s garage band.

We liked the Fort Lewis "sonic boom" story because it's framed as more than just boys playing with their gee-whiz toys. Right off the bat, the reporter points out the potential noisy ramifications for neighbors of the Army post.

We also liked the Sonics garage band story. Executive editor Dave Zeeck notes that it shows our music writer has "institutional memory" and a sense of history that predates his years here. Ernest Jasmin doesn't just write about the flavor of the month. Click here to read EJ's blog, including excerpts of his interviews with Sonics bandmates.

* A question was raised whether we could have/should have sent our own writer to the Bill Clinton global warming presentation in Seattle. Kudos to the night crew, though, for chasing down Tacoma Mayor Bill Baarsma and at least getting a localization on the run.

Plenty of news is breaking today:

Sonics: A local group of entreprenuers asks to talk to Sonics owner Clay Bennett about buying the team and keeping it in Seattle. And we're expecting Bennett to make an announcement sometime today about his intentions with the team.

Mall shooting: The man convicted in the Tacoma Mall shootings two years ago is sentenced today.

Franklin Graham: The weekend revival at the Tacoma Dome by the son of Billy Graham begins tonight and is expected to draw thousands. We'll be there, too.

Preps: We'll cover a number of high school football games tonight and tomorrow as they run up to the state playoffs.

Here is some of the collected wisdom (or off-the-cuff remarks) of editors assembled to deconstruct the Thursday newspaper:

* We liked the centerpiece about the McKinley Hill renaissance, which succeeds at conveying "sense of place" and "introducing readers to people like me." Glad we could cover some good news coming out of this neighborhood for a change. Unfortunately the name of the woman who co-owns the Top of Tacoma bar is spelled wrong in the photo caption. She is Jaime Kay Newton.

* Some thought that we should have maintained a degree of healthy skepticism about the cat killer story on page B1 today. At least we could have hedged a bit in the first paragraph instead of proclaiming: "And it wasn't the work of animals." We may never know for certain.

* We hope readers take a few minutes to look at our online Halloween photo gallery. Our only regret is that we didn't capture the youngsters out trick or treating in the evening. It was fun to see all the grownups having fun, however!

Pac 10 Hoops: Our college beat writers will attend media day all day today and report from there about how the season is shaping up.

Artillery: We're in Yakima today with Fort Lewis soldiers firing a new mobile artillery piece.

Tacoma band: Remember the Sonics, Tacoma's influential boy band of 30 years ago? They're back together for the first time this weekend, playing in a New York event.