From reader D. L. Stave on Harstine Island, after reading Zeeck's Sunday column:

Seems that the state Supreme Court have been making quite a few 5 to 4 decisions negatively impacting the public. Would it be possible to include the names of the judges and how their vote was cast on some of the more controversial decisions? It could prove interesting.

Good idea. I'll share with the appropriate editors. On the decision in question -- where the court broadened the ability for agencies to keep things secret from the public -- the judges who signed the majority opinion were: Chief Justice Gerry Alexander, Justices Bobbe Bridge (author), Mary Fairhurst, Susan Owens and Barbara Madsen.

Signing the dissent: Charles W. Johnson (author), Richard B. Sanders, James M. Johnson and Tom Chambers.

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

• If you're inclined to send text messages while driving, be advised: Sending an e-mail or a text message while you’re behind the wheel could cost you $124, starting Tuesday. But you can still yacik on for cell phone for six more months before it will earn you a similar fine.

• They call it robotic surgery, but it's more like surgery by remote control. St. Joseph Medical Center and Tacoma General Hospital have begun using a surgical system that allows surgeons to use microscopic instruments to work inside the patient with minimal incisions.

From Parade magazine:

On Sunday, December 30th:

Best & Worst
In our annual year-end roundup we’ll remind you of the most memorable events, the quirkiest stories, celebrity spectacles, sports highlights, and say farewell to those who will be missed. Plus, President George W. Bush shares his best and worst moments of 2007.

In Step With: Poppy Montgomery
By James Brady
Australian beauty Poppy Montgomery, who plays FBI agent Samantha Spade on the CBS hit show Without A Trace, reveals her flaws and her unlikely path to fame.

Reader Richard Pittenger writes:

Thank you very much for championing the unique and beautiful lighting of our Narrows Bridge. The world would come to know us from this "dazzling display of color over the Tacoma Narrows". No one sees a picture of Seattle without the Space Needle, Paris without the Eiffel Tower, St.Louis without the great Arch, New York without the Statue of Liberty, Washington, D.C. without the towering Washington Monument, etc. I wish there were something that as an ordinary citizen, age 84, I could do to help.

I don’t’ know the answer about how one person can help, but I’ll ask Kathleen Merryman, who has covered this story from the beginning. Perhaps she can suggest a way for you to get involved.

(Kathleen (Kits to us) responds below. Click on comments at the bottom of this post.)

Jim Stark, a reader from Grapeview, writes:

Long time subscriber am I.....what's with your newsppaper? Several years ago iit was the issue over getting the sections..B,C,D, etc. in order...remember? And there was some reason about where and how and who that made it impossible to happen...then, guess what, it did happen. Now we have a folding issue. All of a sudden the paper isn't folded right in half. Its off center 1 1/2 "???? What is this all about?
Unfortuanately when you're retired things like this get your (my) attention. Thanks for listening.
Merry Christmas,

Jim, you're quite perceptive. Around Thanksgiving we began experimenting with the amount of overlap there is on each paper when it's folded in half. By adjusting our mechanical folders, we can give the carriers a greater or lesser "lap" to grab when inserting the preprint (sections D, E and F) into the "live run" (sections A, B and C, which are printed last).

It's just a way to make the paper easier for them to handle and, we hope, easier for them to get all sections in order: A,B,C,D,E and F.

Highlights from our morning discussion of the weekend paper:

Substantial front page on Sunday included an analysis of the Russell Investment Group possibly leaving Tacoma, a follow-up on the Prometa drug controversy and a consumer piece on new choices for home sellers.

We had particular praise for columnist Dan Voelpel's Russell piece. Dan's been around Tacoma journalism and government for a long time and his contacts and skill clearly paid off in this deep and thoughtful story.

A reader wrote today, upset that we included an "if you'd like to help" box with a story updating the Culley family, and the quadruplets born to them this fall who doubled the size of their household.

Here's what the reader said:

Thanks for your slow news day profile of the Culley family in today's South Sound section. Ordinarily, I would skip over a piece like this, but the "how to help" call-out at the bottom of the spread caught my attention. Why would this family need donations made to them? What extraordinary circumstances are they facing this holiday season that would warrant featuring them as a charitable outlet? After reading the article, my answers were "they don't" and "none."

I'm sensitive to their needs as a young family with four children, but that's hardly unique. I found their problems of four mouths to feed and two mortgages on the "nice to have" end on the spectrum of life's challenges. In the photo on page B5, for instance, you can see many unwrapped toys over Lesley's left shoulder.

Is she aware, in even the slightest way, that there are many families in our community who have no toys for Christmas? What about those who struggle to find housing at all?

Next time you solicit help on behalf of a family or individual in need, please make sure they actually need assistance. The children in our most poverty-stricken public schools would be a good place to start.

Is the reader right?

UPDATE: Here's an explanation from local news editor Randy McCarthy:

We run "help" boxes because, from experience with past stories like this, we’ve found that many readers' first response is, How can I help? Especially at this time of year, when they see someone facing an uphill fight they like to pitch in. Had we not run the box I'm sure we'd have gotten several calls from people wanting to know how they could aid the family. We leave it to the readers to respond or not. If they don't think someone deserves the help, then we assume they won’t help. Others sometime see it differently.

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

• The state is giving a Tacoma non-profit group more than $1 million to provide temporary housing to recently released inmates. But some local officials think the money is simply going to attract more ex-cons to an area that already has more than its share.

• This avalanche season is shaping up as one of the deadliest ever. The latest victim is likely to be an Alderwood Manor man caught in a slide near Paradise.

• Tacoma has a hankering for some more public art, or so the City Council believes. As a result, it's agreed to pay more than $100,000 to finance a 104=foot sculpture to be placed next tot he remodeled Sheraton Hotel.

Every year, I get a kick out of producing the survey that lets readers choose the top stories of the year.

I go through archives and always have a "that happened this year?" moment while compiling the list.

Our Web folks posted this year's ballot on the home page today. Find it here.

The deadline to vote is noon on Dec. 27.

Check out the list, rank your top 10 and click "submit." We'll publish the results on Dec. 30 as part of a package reviewing the news of the year.

Unlike Pierce County, we won't make you wait hours for the result. And unlike King County, we won't change the result days after the polls close. (That sound you hear is an unamused county auditor ripping up my voter registration.)

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

• After months of negotiations, county providers and state officials are nearly finished with the agreements needed to keep the Pierce County mental health system operating after the New Year. Richard Kellogg, the state's Mental Health Division director, said there should be no disruption in service for clients, family members and providers.

• Congress cut nearly $23 billion from an omnibus spending bill to overcome a threatened presidential veto. But some programs actually received additional funding, Les Blumenthal reports, including the effort to clean up Puget Sound.

• Orting officials, struggling to avoid cuts in law enforcment and other services, will sharply increase the utility tax, Rob Tucker reports. But some residents are unhappy not only with the increase, but with the way in which it was enacted.

Reader Charles Creso asks why we said the Tacoma City Council members are generally considered part-time employees when he says they've already declared themselves full-time employees for retirement-pension purposes:

He said:

"The City Council isn’t just ‘considered’ full-time for payroll and retirement purposes as stated in the Tribune article. This fact is not debatable. They are legally defined as full-time. Was the Tribune’s choice of words meant to confuse readers or was this a simple mistake?"

Reporter Jason Hagey's story that prompts the question is here.

I'll post Jason's response when he gets back to me and the reader.

A few highlights:

We liked the street racing story package: It had a variety of elements of varying size and length, answered most of the questions we had, included lots of content from readers, and followed breaking news in a timely fashion. it also made effective use of a portrait shot by Drew Perine. The young man with his broken car muffler is striking (he looks like a snake charmer), and you can definitely see why racers would favor that stretch of road.

One editor said he appreciated the followup story on the University Place charity that got help with its dumping problem. Makes us feel good to see the power of the press to mobilize volunteers. Watch for more "whatever happened to?" stories in the next few weeks, catching up with people or groups who got headlines in the last year or so.

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

• The age-old battle between prostitutes and law enforcement has reached a new level in Fife, The News Tribune's Steve Maynard reports.
Prostitutes, who used to strut up and down Highway 99 in Fife to attract customers, now use the Internet to advertise their services.
In response the Fife City Council has made it illegal to use electronic means such as the Internet, e-mail or any other online services, to offer sex for money.

• The phenomenon of street racing has been around for a long time. But a space of recent accidents has prompted a new look at the impromptu, sometimes deadly, matchups.

• A Tacoma attorney who used to spend his time dealing with malpractice suits against federal hospitals has a new assignment: heading the Justice Department's operations in Iraq.

We at The News Tribune take pride in stories that hold public insitutions accountable: large, medium and small. We had a couple examples of medium and small stories in Sunday's newspaper.

First, Lakewood reporter Rob Tucker sifted through 700 pages of state investigative documents about a counselor on McNeil Island who got in trouble while escorting a child rapist on a visit to Lakewood. The story started off looking at allegations of sexual misconduct, but it went in a different direction that potentially affects public safety.

Second, Pierce County reporter David Wickert came back quickly with a story after something didn't sit right during a public meeting last week. The County Council adjourned for a brief recess after a controversial vote and returned with a different vote total.

Another highlight from Sunday was Dave Boling's column about Brian and Beverly Mauck, the young couple recently slain in Graham. No need to be a sports fan to appreciate this rare intersection of hard news and sports. The column was inspiring, and might even make Seahawks fans feel like they matter.

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

• Pierce County will play a dual role in solving the state’s ferry crisis, reporter John Gillie writes. The county will lend the state one of its ferries to replace the deteriorating vessel pulled from the Port Townsend-Keystone run. And Tacoma's J.M. Martinac Shipbuilding Co. is expected to play a major role in building new replacement ferries for the state.

• There are plenty of big names – and local names – on the list of Major League baseball players alleged to have used steroids. News Tribune columnist John McGrath offers his take on the story.

• The Sound Transit board has signed off on proposals to build an elevated crossing over Pacific Avenue in Tacoma for the new Sounder route.

• It's more along the lines of animal owner control than animal control. The Pierce County auditor's plan for dealing with dangerous or obnoxious animals focuses on their owners more than the animals themselves.

Steriods: The Mitchell report on steroid use in Major League Baseball comes out this morning. We'll post a story online as soon as we know the details, including which players are suspected of having used them.

Dog rules: The county has issued proposed stricter rules for monitoring dangerous dogs and held its first public hearing Wednesday night. We'll give you the details and tell you how you can testify.

Japan: Military reporter Mike Gilbert files his first full story from Japan, where Fort Lewis commanders are participating in an exercise with their Japanese counterparts.

Here are The News Tribune's top local stories:

• Planning to buy your way into the carpool lanes on Highway 167 next year? The amount you pay – as little as 50 cents to as much as $9 – will depend on when you drive.

• The Tacoma City council wants an elevated crossing for the Sounder train that traverses Pacific Avenue, but they also have some conditions in mind.

• The Orting-Sumner valley finally has a plan to control development, Mike Archbold reports, one that comes with a pledge of no net loss of some of the area’s richest farmland. The County Council Tuesday unanimously voted to adopt the plan, which will take effect June 1.

Hot lanes: We're supposed to find out today how much the state wants to charge for allowing single drivers to drive in the HOV lanes on Highway 167.

Dog rules: The Pierce County Council holds a hearing today on its proposed stricter rules for owning dangerous dogs.

Alderton plan: The County Council last night finally passed the Alderton/McMillen growth management plan. We'll get the details today.

Excerpts of editors' comments about today's paper during the morning news meeting:

There were interesting local stories on the front page about the county jail's health system and the missing pilot.

The wire story about the planned mob museum in Vegas was interesting. Jonathan Nesvig, a veteran wire editor who remembers EVERYTHING that's ever happened here, chipped in with a fun sidebar on Meyer Lansky's connections to Tacoma.

BIZ
Interesting page: WaMu layoffs, Krispy Kreme ice cream (?) and airline food.

SPORTS
Nice package by reporter Todd Milles and columnist John McGrath on WSU's new football coach.

SOUNDLIFE
Editors enjoyed Rosemary Ponnekanti's experience with a handbell choir. It's part of an occasional feature we run, called the Wary Neophyte, in which News Tribune staffers try something they've never done before.

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

• Federal Way is trying to acquire one of Pierce County's last large pieces of undeveloped land overlooking Puget Sound for use as a park.

The land's owners, the Pacific Harbors Council of the Boy Scouts of America, want to sell. But trustees for the estates of the family that originally donated it to the Scouts are fighting the deal.

• Black Diamond pilot Thomas Maxwell dropped his flight instructor off at an airfield in Kent Thursday and took off for his home base, Thun Field.

Maxwell, 78, hasn't been seen since and search aircraft are scouring his projected flight path, searching for clues.

• The court-appointed doctor chosen to monitor medical care at the Pierce County Jail has been replaced, and a new report on conditions at the jail is due soon.

If it's favorable, it could help the county escape from the shadow of a 1995 lawsuit filed by prisoners seeking better medical care at the county lockup.

As we do every day, editors began the day with a look back at what we liked or didn't like about the Saturday, Sunday and Monday papers. Here are excerpts from notes taken during the meeting:

Monday, Dec. 10

Folks loved the Christmas tree centerpiece. Nicely done by Ian and Dean.

Executive Editor Dave Zeeck said he likes the reader service provided by the Traffic Q&A, which is published every Monday. He and others say they've sat on in traffic the Milroy Bridge and wondered about it.

BIZ
Topical Q&A with the Weyerhaeuser economist.

Dilbert is really weird today.

SPORTS
Praise for the comprehensive coverage. Four of the top five stories online came from Seahawks coverage. There was some second-guessing about not making it the centerpiece on the front page today.

Sunday, Dec. 9

Matt Misterek objected to the "And justice for some" headline on the centerpiece about the deaths of two teenage girls. Matt, who edited the story, says the story was more compelling as a look at family grief, not an investigation of the administration of justice.

SPORTS
Mark loved Don Ruiz's lead sentence on the UW hoops story: "Justin Dentmon had 4.3 seconds to be the hero. He needed 4.4."

SL
War movies: Interesting package by Soren Anderson. Nice illustration. Matt said the sider helped make it local.

Saturday, Dec. 8
FLOODING: Great photos by Janet Jensen. Nice color in the story from Joe Turner.

MILGARD: Interesting story by Sean Robinson about the Milgard embezzler.

BONDS: Several editors thought the Barry Bonds story was misplaced on A3. It was originally on A1, but got bumped by other news. If a topic that normally goes in another section is going to get bumped from A1, then it should go to sports, Zeeck and others say.

SEX OFFENDER: Brent Champaco did a good job with the nuances in the story about how much information should be made public about sex offenders in public schools - and who should make that information public. Karen is glad we did a Hot Button poll on it.

B1
Zeeck thought it was a good local run on B1.

BIZ
Zeeck liked the headline on the Levitz brief. "If you love it at Levitz, get set for the end of your affair"

Zeeck is glad we ran the WSJ story on Boeing's outsourcing problems.

SoundLife
We loved the package by reporter Debbie Cafazzo and photographer Peter Haley on the authentic pub in a Spanaway couple's basement. In fact, I propose that we move our daily critique meeting there.

Pierce County ethics: A County Council committee will vote today on stricter ethics rules for council members and those who lobby the council.

Dog rules: The Tacoma City Council will rule tomorrow on stricter rules for pet owners, including those who own dangerous dogs. And we'll tell you how to attend county hearings on the same topic.

Puyallup alert: The East County city has a new phone line available 24 hours a day for residents to report downed trees and other problems.

“We write, they wrong.”

—Slogan of the Writers Strike, Week 6, by LAW & ORDER writer Matthew McGough, 2007 (See http://www.strikeswag.com/)

Reader Randy Scott wrote to say we didn't give enough detail on the actions of the USS Nevada the day Pearl Harbor was attacked.

The ship was home to G.W. Mayo of Tacoma the day of the attack, and our story on Mayo was featured in our Dec. 7 edition. Our story focused on Mayo and merely mentioned that the injured Nevada steamed away from battleship row and was ordered beached to keep the harbor channel open and navigable.

Scott refers to this military history site and said:

In my view, your article completely missed the opportunity to let the readers know that the Nevada (BB 36) beached herself on order at the end of a heroic attempt to exit Pearl Harbor.

I found this U.S. Navy history site that concludes with a less-heroic-sounding second grounding -- backwards with the help of tugs -- to keep the channel clear.

Anyway, you be the judge of whether we were fair to the Nevada. Comments welcome.

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

• Coverage of the Western Washington storm and its aftermath continues, with the big news the opening of Interstate 5 to limited truck traffic late Thursday.

State transportation officials hope to make the highway available to all users sometime today. Damage to the roadway seems to be less than anticipated.

• While there's some good news on the weather front, that's not the case for search teams seeking three missing snowboarders in an avalanche-prone area east of Crystal Mountain ski area.

Searchers found the camp the three Seattle men were believed to be headed for, but there was no sign of the boarders themselves.

• Pierce County officials are objecting to the size of boundaries of the area designated as contributing to the high levels of soot detected in Tacoma's air. The County Executive's office believes the boundaries amount to overkill and are the product of bad science.

Coverage of the Western Washington floods continues to dominate the front page of The News Tribune for Thursday.

• Staff writer Ian Demsky reports that a 20-mile stretch of Interstate 5 is expected to remain closed at least until the weekend and one mile of the highway remained underwater Wednesday, state transportation officials said.

• There's some good news for users of state highways as well. More than two years of construction work on I-5, I-705 and Highway 16 will come to fruition this weekend witht he opening of a number of new lanes and other features intended to make our travel travails easier.

• In Federal Way, the skyline is due for some major changes. The City Council has given its approval to plans to erect four downtown buildings ranging from 16 to 24 stories. Construction on the first is scheduled to begin in June of next year.

Editors liked the coverage of the floods around our state. Lots of good photos but we wished we had more room to run more pictures.

Reporter Scott Fontaine and photographer Dean Koepfler did a great job of being on the scene of the floods.

"You gotta be there to get the stories," says Managing Editor Karen Peterson.

Sports: We liked the story on the Gonzaga-WSU basketball game.

Soundlife: Few of the editors were fans of raisin pie.

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

• Coverage of the Western Washington storm and its aftermath dominates the front page of Wednesday's paper. News Tribune reporters and photographers traveled to the flooded areas of Interstate 5 near Centralia to compile their reports.

At least two additional deaths can be attributed to the storm – hikers caught in an avalanche near Snow Lake in the Cascades. Three other people were reported missing, snowboarders who disappeared east of Crystal Mountain.

• A Fort Lewis-based soldier has been charged with negligent homicide in the shooting death of Sgt. David Cooper.

• Local gospel singer Crystal Aikin has won BET’s national “Sunday Best” competition. Aikin, a Fife resident who grew up in Tacoma, was selected from thousands of contestants to perform on the show, a gospel version of the popular “American Idol” singing competition.

MONDAY
The front page: Editors thought the story on the murder from the 1930s was interesting and had lots of detail.

The weather story had good info. We should remember to send readers to the Web for updates on stories like this one.

Business section: Glad we did the Q&A on the slot cars at Freighthouse Square.

Sports: A couple of editors said they liked the BCS information at the top of the page.

Soudlife: The story on products that make it through airport security was a good consumer read.

SUNDAY
Several people like the Puyallup Tribe story. Lots of details. A couple of people said it would have been nice to hear more from the tribal council members who were voted out of office. Randy McCarthy, the editor who worked on the story, said the reporter tried for a month to get them to talk to him.

Soundlife: Nice White Pass story.

Business: Surprising story on the lagging sales of lowest price homes.

SATURDAY

The front page: Most weren't crazy about the headline on the recycling story: "It's a sham shame."

Sports: The story on the state championships was a good read.

Business: Yum. Candy and other goodies.

Soundlife: Editors thought the "For Hire" graphic wasn't the right illustration for the holiday lights story. People thought it would be about hiring professionals to decorate your house and it wasn't.

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

• Tacoma and its environs seem like an island in a sea of weather-related problems. While flooding and wind damage affects much of the Puget Sound area, we are avoiding most of the more serious problems.

One threatened community was Sumner, where more than 100 homes faced the possibility of evacuation Monday evening.

• Jack Connelly, who has made something of a career out of suing state agencies – and winning – is going after the Department of Corrections. He claims the agency was negligent in releasing and improperly supervising Raymond Porter.

After his release, Porter fatally shot King County Deputy Steve Cox, then committed suicide. Connelly is seeking $20 million from the department on behalf of Cox's widow and 2-year-old son.

• The Defense Department says a Fort Lewis military policeman has been killed in Iraq by a homemade bomb. Cpl. Blair W. Emery, 24, of Lee, Maine, died Friday, of wounds suffered when the device detonated in Baqubah.