As mentioned on this blog last month, some of our readers find the Sudoku puzzle that appears daily in SoundLife to be too simple.

We switched puzzle vendors in January from Pappocom to Creators Syndicate, which distributes Janric Classic Sudoku.

Features editor Norma Martin passed the complaint to Creators and recently heard back from them that harder puzzles are on the way. Beginning the week of April 26, the silver and gold puzzles will be made more difficult.

Another complaint we've received is that the size of the Janric Classic Sudoku puzzle is too small. In response to that we've recently had the vendor increase the size. We measure things in picas, which is a printer's unit equal to about one-sixth of an inch. Here's how the current puzzle size stacks up against our previous puzzle from Pappocom and the original version of the Janric puzzle. Our current puzzle is larger than both.

We had to change Sudoku vendors recently. Like many of the changes we make in the newspaper, the reception has not been universally positive. Callers to our reader representative the last couple of weeks have complained that the so-called "gold" level puzzle is not hard enough.

Our features editor, Norma Martin, contacted our new vendor this week. The representative for the syndicate was surprised to hear the "too easy" complaint. She said she normally hears that the puzzles are too hard. Anyway, she's going to research the matter and see if the level of difficulty can be addressed.

Covering a state basketball tournament is among the most difficult things for a sports department to do. The amount of teams and games and the intensity of play and interest make for a difficult mix to capture in our pages and online.

We annually devote lots of newspaper space and manpower to reporting on the state tournaments. This year, in addition to a considerable amount of coverage in the printed paper, we are doing several things online.

Let me pass along a few statistics about Wednesday's first day of tournament basketball coverage:

Posts to the Prep Blog: 75
Page views to the Prep Blog: 6,256 (It was the fourth most popular page on our Web site.)
Page views to the prep scores database: about 3,600
Page views to prep stories: about 2,000
Reporters and correspondents involved in the coverage: 9 (Doug Pacey, Mindi Rice, Todd Milles, Darrin Beene, Scott Fontaine, Doug Drowley, Mike Curto, Grant Clark and Tyler Hemstreet).
Photographers, photo editors and correspondents involved in the coverage: 11 (Jeremy Harrison, Janet Jensen, Lui Kit Wong, Joe Barrentine, Russ Carmack and six students from Pacific Lutheran University.)
Sports copy editors, page designers and team leaders involved in the coverage: 11 (Dusty Lane, Arnold Lytle, Liz Wishaw, Scott Oberstaller, Bill Schey, Jonathan Smith, Kenny Via, John Wallingford, Rob Wieman, Victor Yoshida and Paul Miller.)

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.

Rugby isn't often a subject we cover at The News Tribune. Compared to some other parts of the world, it is not a sport with a broad fan base in the United States.

The Rugby World Cup, however, which begins today in Paris has an aspect to it that might carry implications beyond the rugby world.

Three international news agencies -- Agence France-Presse, Reuters and Associated Press -- are boycotting coverage of the event because of restrictions being placed on media coverage. Here's the AFP story: Media keep up World Cup boycott ahead of opening game.

Among the restrictions are a requirement that no more than 40 images be posted online from matches in progress and a limit of three minutes on news conference or locker-room video posted online.

American media outlets are chafing at similar restrictions being implemented by the NFL this season. The league is limiting the length of audio and visual clips on media Web sites as well and some restrictions on what can be archived. The American Society of Newspaper Editors has a rundown on the dispute.

The NCAA also has developed some rules that prohibit media from doing certain things. This incident at a college baseball game is an example.

At base is the desire of league owners and organizations to control and ultimately monetize all the images and information coming from an event or game. In the case of the NFL, it has Web sties that in some sense can be viewed as competition for outlets such as The News Tribune and has a TV network that competes against other broadcasters.

From the point of view of The News Tribune and other media outlets the restrictions hurt the public because impartial coverage of what we consider news is hampered. Readers and viewers get only an officially approved view of the teams and events. It's kind of like getting your news about state government only from the governor's office.

UPDATE: A compromise was reached just hours before the competition began. The story from the AP: News Agencies Drop Rugby Event Blackout.

Photo courtesy of Bob Rudolph

We got several e-mails Sunday and Monday from the local affiliate of Veterans for Peace. They put together an "Arlington Northwest" display at a park along the Ruston waterfront that was a moving display of the cost of war.

They were upset that we didn't ccover the event for our paper, even though we ran a photo from a similar event in California, on page 3 of the Sunday paper.

Here's Managing Editor Karen Peterson's letter to those readers, explaining what happened with our coverage:

Thank you for writing regarding the Arlington Northwest Memorial erected by Tacoma Veterans for Peace over the weekend at Marine Park. The pictures sent to us by a handful of folks show a moving display on Tacoma’s waterfront.

I have been retracing our steps to see how the event fell below our radar.

The first email I found from an Arlington Northwest organizer was dated August 20 and was sent to our NewsTips email address. That should have prompted an editor to add it to our list of weekend events or to pitch it at our weekend planning meeting, but neither happened. Another organizer called our Reader Representative last Friday, which would have been late in our coverage timeline, but should have allowed us enough time to consider coverage.

We should have communicated better about this event within our newsroom. We are already working to improve that process.

In the future, I’d ask event organizers to add calendar@thenewstribune.com to their notification list. That email goes to Mary Anderson, who edits our events calendars. Mary produces a list that we go through on Tuesday afternoons when we assign reporters and photographers to weekend stories.

For veteran or military events, I’d also suggest they contact our military reporter, Mike Gilbert, at mike.gilbert@thenewstribune.com, or his editor, Matt Misterek, at matt.misterek@thenewstribune.com.

Some organizers were especially upset that we ran a picture in Sunday’s A Section of an Arlington West event in California instead of a picture of the Tacoma memorial.

Inside the newsroom it comes down to a right-hand, left-hand error – the staffers putting out the Nation & World page are not the same staffers who track local events. That’s another place we can work to improve communication.

While covering the local event would have been preferable, I’m glad we at least represented the national effort in our paper.

Some readers suggested our paper didn’t cover the local event for political reasons. That’s not the case. In fact, The News Tribune has covered a number of events sponsored by Veterans for Peace and other local peace groups, including a story and photograph we ran Aug. 27 about Peace Fest in Tacoma.

Additionally, our editorial page staff plans to run a photograph from Tacoma’s Arlington Northwest Memorial tomorrow opposite the editorial page.

While we can improve internal communication, I can’t promise we’ll cover every local peace event in the future. Each weekend, we’re able to cover two or three of the dozens of local events happening. We try to cover the most widely attended and the smaller events we think will be of interest to our readers. We also try to spread the coverage around to different groups and local communities.

Thanks again for caring enough about your local paper’s coverage to write to us.

With the exception of the work of some columnists, we seldom ask reporters to write about themselves. We prefer to write stories about what folks outside our building are doing.

This piece in today's paper by sports writer Don Ruiz is an exception to what we normally do. Don, who covers University of Washington sports for us, is a native of New Orleans. His family was among the thousand affected two years ago when Hurricane Katrina moved through the Gulf Coast region. At the time, Don wrote a story about his family and the devastation of the hurricane brought to New Orleans. Don has since visited the region a few times. Today's story is update on what he has seen and what the future holds for his hometown.

Based on the the news meeting this morning, here's some of what we're planning for the Friday morning paper.

News

SUPER: The Tacoma school board is expected to name an interim superintendent at a meeting this evening.

VOTERS: Seven people have been charged with submitting fradulent voter registrations in King County, officials announced Thursday, as the county canvassing board voted to remove the names of 1,762 people from voter rolls.

Sports

MARINERS: Oakland at Seattle, 7:05 p.m.

SONICS: Veteran big man Kurt Thomas is introduced to the Seattle media at the Furtado Center.

FIGHT: Story out of press conference for Saturday’s WBC Super Welterweight title fight between Carlos Balomir and Vernon Forrest at the Emerald Queen.

SoundLife

SIMPSONS: Movie critic Soren Andersen reviews the Simpsons movie.

Based on the morning news meeting, here's some of what we plan to have in the Thursday morning paper. (Keep in mind it's all subject to change.)

News

ADAAHN: A Pierce County judge today ordered Terapon Dang Adhahn, suspected in the abduction and death of 12-year-old Zina Linnik, held in Pierce County Jail in lieu of $2,025,000 bail on rape charges involving two school girls. Not guilty pleas were entered on behalf of Adhahn, 42, during a brief hearing in Superior Court.

TOLLS: We're doing a follow-up on the story Joe Turner wrote this morning on tolls on the new Narrows bridge.

Sports

MARINERS: The Mariners don't play today. Darrin Beene is writing an off-day feature on Mariners pitching coach Rafael Chaves.

SoundLife

HAIRSPRAY: Movie reviewer Soren Andersen is writing a review on the movie "Hairspray".

Golfers Ryan Moore of Puyallup and Michael Putnam of Tacoma are in the field for the British Open this week in Carnoustie, Scotland.

Because of our interest in both of their careers, we sent golf writer Todd Milles to the U.S. Open last month and are planning for him to go to the PGA Championship in Tulsa next month. A trip to Scotland, though, is not in our budget. To fill the gap, we've asked golf writer Ron Green Jr. of the Charlotte Observer, a sister paper in the McClatchy chain, to follow Moore and Putnam for us at Carnoustie.

Ron had a short story on Putnam's preparations in this morning's sports section and will be checking in with both players after their rounds during the tournament.

Todd interviewed both golfers before they left the United States for the tournament. His story ran on Tuesday morning.

Based on the morning news meeting, here's some of what we plan to have in the Thursday morning paper. (Keep in mind it's all subject to change.)

News

KIDHEALTH: The Senate Finance Committee is working up a children’s health care package that could provide a boost to Washington state. The state has lost $200 million in federal funding over the years because it had aggressively moved to provide health care insurance. The new package could allow the state to start covering an additional 70,000 children. Les Blumenthal of our Washington bureau is doing this story.

SOIL: This summer, workers are digging up Asarco-contaminated soil from school playgrounds in Federal Way and Steilacoom. The state's list of soil removal projects identifies 27 public and private schools serving children from kindergarten through high school in Pierce and King counties. Enviornmental reporter Susan Gordon is doing the story.

Sports

MARINERS: Baltimore at Seattle, 7:05 p.m. Darrin Beene is covering the game.

SOCCER: The Seattle Sounders play a U.S. Open Cup match against MLS team Chivas USA. Don Ruiz is covering the game.

Adventure

STP: We will travel along with a group of riders who will tried to tackle the Seattle-to-Portland Bicycle Classic in one day. Craig Hill is filing the story.

Based on the morning news meeting, here's some of what we plan to have in the Wednesday morning paper. (Keep in mind it's all subject to change.)

News sections

BLAZE: Twenty-four women between 16 and 19 years old from around the Puget Sound area and across the U.S. and Canada will gather in Tacoma on Tuesday for training exercises as part of Camp Blaze.

ZINA: We continue to follow developments in the Zina Linnik case.

FIREWORK: The Tacoma police are issuing a report that looks at how the fireworks policies worked this year and how they might enforce them next year.

Sports

MARINERS: The Mariners play Baltimore in the second game of a three-game series at Safeco Field.

GREEN: We take a look at the other Sonics first-round pick: Jeff Green of Georgetown.

Business

JOBS: The Washington jobs report comes out this morning.

SoundLife

JERKY: Wednesday is food day in SoundLife. The main story is on jerky.