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Friday, August 31st, 2007
Posted by Patrick O'Callahan @ 04:12:25 pm
This is inside baseball, unless you're maybe mentally ill. But the Department and Social and Health Services and Pierce County look like they're working out a smooth shift of the county's mental health services to the state. This is happening because county leaders, especially Executive John Ladenburg, got fed up with state and federal funding for psychiatric care. The county's been squeezed in recent years, and Ladenburg said it needed $3.65 million more a year to meet its contractual obligations to the mentally ill. The money wasn't forthcoming, so the county has kicked those obligations back to the state. The risk here is that the psychiatric safety net will get ripped in the transition. There's been local concern, for example, that Crisis Triage center in Tacoma – where mentally ill patients in crisis are successfully stabilized – won't survive under state control. A delegation from DSHS came in today and basically said: We're not sure how to do this, but we're going to figure it out. The county has agreed to stay on the job through the end of the year to assure a smooth hand-off. Doug Porter, assistant secretary of the the Health and Rehabilitative Services Administration, said DSHS plans to keep Crisis Triage and other important services. "We are looking every way we can to preserve what's best about the (existing) system" Porter said the state is "highly motivated" to continue the county's success at keeping patients out of the extremely expensive beds at Western State Hospital. If the transition goes as planned, he said, the patients "won't notice any difference at all." UPDATE Patrick, saw the blog. I don't know if you knew this, but the Crisis Triage was a program that the State told us was "optional" and unnecessary. The letter that we got from the State that outraged the Board on the day they voted to withdraw spoke of "discretionary money" that we were spending. Crisis Triage was what they were talking about. Of course, the hospitals will tell you it is a "best practice" model, but the State doesn't care. They will kill it.
Categories: Who's visiting
Posted by David Seago @ 11:41:48 am
Saturday: Sunday: What the mountain wants, it usually gets. Mount Rainier has no pity for the battered Carbon River Road, regularly washing out sections of it with winter or spring flooding. But the damage caused by November’s historic flooding is so great the road may have to be given up for good, turning the famed, short and easy Carbon Glacier hike into a much longer slog. Trail lovers mourn, but it’s hard to fight the mountain. Monday: Labor-day themed editorial. Tuesday: Tacoma’s Russell Financial Group quietly donated $50,000 to pay for an independent review of the state’s controversial WASL math standards. It was another example of the way the firm makes well-considered and timely “impact gifts” that make a difference. About our editorials:
Categories: What's coming
Thursday, August 30th, 2007
Posted by David Seago @ 06:24:49 pm
Tacoma-based Russell Investment Group played a big part in bringing about a independent review of the state's discredited math portion of the WASL. (Our editorial on the review will be posted here Friday morning.) Fred Kiga, director of corporate and government relations for Russell, confirms that the company donated $50,000 for the review. The donation, channeled through the business-backed school reform group Partnership for Learning, helped prod the Legislature to act. An objective assessment was essential. The math WASL blew up last year when only 57 percent of the state's 10th-graders passed the test. The consensus was that the test was faulty and that the math curriculum in many school district's don't align with the WASL math standards. (Editorial). So the Legislature suspended the math part of the WASL graduation requirement for three years. Russell sought no publicity for the donation. Kiga said the company's goal was to contribute in a way that would have a real impact in improving public education in Washington. Kiga, by the way, is currently president of the University of Washington board of regents.
Posted by Patrick O'Callahan @ 05:27:23 pm
 There's a sad story in yesterday's Peninsula Gateway: the discovery of scores of dead dogfish sharks on the Purdy Spit. Nearly 100 were actually counted; many others were probably washed away by the tide and current. Almost certainly, they were tossed there by net fisherman cleaning commercially worthless "trash fish" from their nets. What's trash and what isn't is in the palate of the beholder, though. England uses dogfish in its fabled fish and chips (one of the few English dishes that are actually edible). Having been there and eaten them, I can certify that dogfish aren't trash. A shame they're just thrown away here.
Categories: Taking notice
Posted by Cheryl Tucker @ 03:01:16 pm
 Congressman Adam Smith, D-Tacoma, has already endorsed Sen. Barack Obama for the Democratic presidential nomination. Now he's been named Washington state chairman of the candidate's campaign. The press release announcing the appointment quotes Obama as saying: “Congressman Smith is a strong Democratic voice on foreign policy and works in Congress to help our nation fight the spread of terrorism. I am pleased Adam will be bringing his innovative, common-sense approach to our Washington State campaign for change.” Congressmen Norm Dicks and Jay Inslee are supporting Sen. Hillary Clinton. Here's the rest of the release:
Categories: Taking notice
Posted by David Seago @ 11:32:29 am
We devote our entire editorial column today to a story bigger than the actual WASL results released today. While the reading and writing scores look good, a legislature-ordered review of what went wrong with the WASL math standards is a devastating portrayal of incompetence by OSPI. If this was a different culture, Terry Bergeson would fall on her sword. About our editorials:
Categories: What's coming
Posted by Cheryl Tucker @ 09:23:10 am
  Gov. Chris Gregoire and six other governors have declared Friday to be College Colors Day to celebrate the start of the collegiate athletic season. Gregoire encourages Washingtonians to show their school spirit by wearing their college colors tomorrow. Question is, will she wear University of Washington colors (she graduated in 1969) or Gonzaga's, where she got her law degree in 1977? My suggestion? Change outfits at noon so she can honor both. The event hasn't gotten a lot of publicity, so I don't really expect to see many purple-gold and crimson-gray ensembles tomorrow. And you won't catch me wearing my school colors either. Florida's orange and blue just look weird as office attire.
Categories: Taking notice
Wednesday, August 29th, 2007
Posted by David Seago @ 02:41:16 pm
Statewide voter turnout in the Aug. 21 primary was an estimated 28 percent, lower than the 34 percent Secretary of State Sam Reed had predicted. State elections director Nick Handy, who released the estimate today, said a lack of rousing races or issues in the state’s three largest counties dragged down turnout overall. Turnout ranged from 70 percent in Lincoln County to 22 percent in Franklin County. Echoing one of Reed’s favorite themes, Handy said the latest primary voting pattern demonstrates that all-mail voting boosts turnout.
Results by county are available here. King County is scheduled to begin all-mail voting in 2008. Pierce County Auditor Pat McCarthy has asked the County Council to approve all-mail voting, but the council is not expected to decide until early next year. If the council says no, Pierce County would be the last in the the state with election-day polling places.
Categories: Taking notice
Posted by David Seago @ 01:33:01 pm
The anti-war Democrats aren't happy at all with U.S. Rep. Brian Baird's call for giving the U.S. military more time in Iraq. MSNBC's FirstRead blog reports that MoveOn is planning to run YouTube spots blasting him for a "flip-flop." (YouTube ad here.) Naturally, the House Republican Leadership hastened to call attention to the ads, e-mailing editorial page editors around the county. Their message linked to a column by the Boston Globe's Jeff Jacoby asserting that “the left insists on defeat in Iraq” and “beats up any Democrat who strays off-message.” Baird, D-Vancouver, made the "more time" case in an oped article published in the Seattle Times and The News Tribune. Conservative columnist and blogger Michelle Malkin has an account of the rough reception Baird received at a town hall meeting in the Third Congressional District last weekend after his stance hit the news.
Categories: Taking notice
Tuesday, August 28th, 2007
Posted by David Seago @ 07:13:42 pm
Our ed board met with Tacoma Port Director Tim Farrell today to go over the basic financial aspects of the port's recent deal to build a $300 terminal for NYK Line. It wasn't easy to grasp all the complexities of the deal, and at times Farrell struggled to explain them in easy-to-understand terms. We needed Port Finance for Dummies. His basic point, however, is that the deal is an unprecedented "cost-plus" agreement that reduces the port's risk of being burned by volatile construction costs. It's a first in the U.S. port industry, he believes. The port has to do more than simply build the new terminal, the port's biggest. "There was no low-balling of the land value," Farrell insisted. The ultimate result, he said, will enable the port to maintain its benchmark goal of generating annual revenue equal twice the amount needed to pay its annual debt obligations. I believe the newsroom is working on a more comprehensive look at the intricacies of the deal that will help shed light on the port's big move. We told Farrell we thought the port needed to do a better job of explaining to the public how it does business. He said the port is coming to understand that, too.
Posted by David Seago @ 03:18:03 pm
We recently took note of Ian Morrison's new role as Gov. Chris Gregoire's Pierce County representative. In the same vein, we introduce Clark Mather, U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks' new Sixth District director based in Tacoma. We met Mather recently when accompanied his boss to a TNT editorial board meeting. A 2001 WSU grad, Mather worked for five years as a legislative assistant in U.S. Sen Maria Cantwell's Washington, D.C., office before signing on with Dicks. He's held the district post since January. Mather replaced Tom Luce, who took a new job as executive director of the Executive Council for a Greater Tacoma. The Sixth District takes in part of Tacoma and nearly all of the Olympic Peninsula. Mather can be reached at clark.mather@mail.house.gov.
Categories: Taking notice
Posted by David Seago @ 01:24:55 pm
In last Sunday's reader column on the Perspectives page, Julia Miller, an Edgewood mother, described her mounting anxiety as she awaited her first voice recital. The recital was Saturday night; she had to write the column in advance, nervous about how it would all turn out. As we suspected it would, it all went fine. Miller reports:
Categories: Taking notice
Posted by David Seago @ 01:09:49 pm
 Art Jarvis, Tacoma's interim school superintendent, left a good impression today in his first visit with the TNT editorial board. That was a whole lot better than now-departed superintendent Charlie Milligan did in his disastrous first visit a year ago. Milligan seemed to have a chip on his shoulder from the beginning, displaying obvious resentment at questions about his plans for his first year in Tacoma. His year was all downhill from there. Jarvis, by contrast, was easy-going and relaxed. He was a little tough to pin down on specifics at times, but he fielded questions comfortably, promising to "do my absolute best to be transparent" with the newspaper. Jarvis needs to rebuild an administration with key vacancies at the top. First priority is hiring a human resources director: "You build the entire system with hires," Jarvis noted. He's also seeking someone to serve as the equivalent of chief academic officer and has a couple assistant superintendent positions to fill. Action on school closures – which Milligan suspended last year – is unlikely anytime soon. Jarvis will provide the school board with updated research on enrollment trends and school capacity later in the school year. He wouldn't mind losing the "interim" from his title if the school board asks him to stay on, Jarvis said, but he won't be a candidate if the board decides to conduct a national search. Jarvis said the district needs to avoid "adult distractions" and focus on kids and learning. "I think people are ready to pick up the loose ends and move."
Categories: Who's visiting, Taking notice
Posted by David Seago @ 10:59:37 am
State lawmakers should heed the recent performance audit that points to ridiculously lax standards for obtaining certification as a professional counselor in Washington. Stronger training and licensing requirements are obviously needed. Gig Harbor’s new YMCA will be a great community asset. About our editorials:
Categories: What's coming
Monday, August 27th, 2007
Posted by Patrick O'Callahan @ 06:00:55 pm
Don't worry about Michael Vick's criminal tendencies anymore. The NFL star who just pleaded guilty to dogfighting charges has been rescued by amazing grace. "Through this situation I found Jesus and asked him for forgiveness and turned my life over to God," he said. This is a time-honored ritual of the American criminal justice system. Felon gets caught, throws himself on the mercy of the court, claims that the rottenness has been rooted from his soul by an influx of heavenly light. Instant redemption – and a play for sympathy from the public, if not the judge. OK, but why can't these cons get religion before they commit the crime – and then not commit the crime in the first place? Skip the maudlin religionizing, guys. It's tiresome. It's predictable. It insults our intelligence. Here's an idea: Make a convict's claim of a courthouse conversion grounds for an automatic sentence enhancement.
Categories: Taking notice
• 6 comments
Posted by David Seago @ 01:51:11 pm
We thought Alberto Gonzales would be a trade up from John Ashcroft when he became attorney general; quite the contrary. He was ultimately done in by his evasions about his own blunders. School officials from three different districts point fingers at each other in the case of Jennifer Leigh Rice, the alleged child molester who got two teaching jobs in other districts after she’d been suspended for unseemly fraternizing with kids in the Bethel District. Something’s wrong here. About our editorials:
Categories: What's coming
Posted by David Seago @ 12:09:20 pm
Statewide voter turnout in last week’s primary elections will probably fall below predictions, but state election officials don’t believe the mid-August date should be blamed. The secretary of state’s office won’t release a turnout report until later this week, but state elections director Nick Handy believes the low turnout fit a typical off-year primary pattern. (Statewide results here) Here’s Handy’s unofficial, off-the-cuff analysis:
At the end of the day Friday, Pierce County's voter turnout stood at 24.3 percent. More than 93 percent of the ballots were cast by mail. In the Tacoma City Council District 3 race (Tom Stenger's seat), it looks like Ronnie Allen Warren is edging ahead of Donald Powell (by 25 votes) to face Lauren Walker in November. (Friday's election update here.)
Categories: Taking notice
Posted by David Seago @ 05:36:42 am
 I'd been hoping all summer to watch Lincoln High School's venerable statue of Abraham Lincoln being remounted after a couple years in storage. But he snuck out when I wasn't looking. As the photo shows, Abe is back on the G Street side of the school, just about where he was for decades. Only now there's a new addition near his right elbow. The passage behind him leads to the school gym and Lincoln Bowl. Abe had to be crated up when contractors began a $75 million renovation and expansion. As Stadium High School students had to do when their school was remodeled, the Lincoln student body spent two years at the old Mount Tahoma High School. Lincoln alumni are planning a three-day reopening celebration starting Sept. 14. The school and the statue will be re-dedicated at 11:45 p.m. Sept. 15. Alumni who register at www.lincolnabes.org (click on "Alumni") will be sent more information. Boosters are also selling $50 commemorative bricks to be installed near the statue. Info here.
Categories: Taking notice
Sunday, August 26th, 2007
Posted by David Seago @ 03:06:58 pm
My column in the "dead-tree" version of the TNT today talks about the diffference between newspaper bloggers and those who aren't bound by journalistic standards. It prompted TNT copy editor Rick Anderson to pass on this recent commentary from The Los Angeles Times about the ways newspapers may evolve to survive in the Internet age. Writer Tim Rutten contends newspapers will let their online versions take care of most breaking news and weight their print product with more in-depth reporting and analysis. Above all, they must keep doing what newspapers do best. I particularly liked this excerpt:
Categories: How we work
Saturday, August 25th, 2007
Posted by Patrick O'Callahan @ 06:39:58 am
As the cliché has it, Washington is the “most trade-dependent state” in the country. Another way to put it: Washington kicks butt in the Pacific Rim. Some numbers just released by Tacoma’s World Trade Center tell the story: One bit of bad news: Washington’s chief imports from China are ... toys.
Categories: Editorial cartoons
Friday, August 24th, 2007
Posted by David Seago @ 05:09:18 pm
You're an old-timer if you can remember Federal Way before it was Federal Way – those days before Interstate 5 when Highway 99 was the main drag between Tacoma and Seattle and there were no McDonald's, 7-Elevens or strip malls anywhere to be seen. Len Englund remembers those days. In fact, he's one of the most deep-rooted Federal Way candidate we've met. Federal Way has grown so much in the past 20 years that most people you meet in public life there are originally from somewhere else. Englund is running for Federal Way School Board Position 2, against Suzanne Smith. Englund grew up in Federal Way (before it became a city) and graduated from Jefferson High School. His mother was a teacher in the Federal Way School District.
Categories: Taking notice
Posted by Cheryl Tucker @ 01:34:03 pm
Well, as it turns out – and much to the City Council's surprise – Tacoma doesn't have a noise ordinance that would apply to that kind of public disturbance. That came out at a Tuesday meeting of the council's neighborhoods and housing committee. I found out about it when I talked to Mayor Bill Baarsma this morning for an editorial we're running Saturday. Needless to say, city staff has been asked to come up with recommendations and policy options for the council.
Categories: How we work, Editorial outtakes
Posted by David Seago @ 11:59:17 am
The state has just released the annual progress report for school districts required under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. The Tacoma School District remains in the Step 2 category for failing to make "adequate yearly progress" for two consecutive years. Bethel entered the Step 2 category this year after being in Step 1 last year. Clover Park entered the Step 1 category this year. The Seattle School District is also in Step 2. It should be noted that schools are expected to make AYP in 37 different categories, so subpar performance in just a few categories can result in a school or district failing to make AYP overall. Details at the Superintendent of Public Instruction web site here.
Categories: Taking notice
• 1 comment
Posted by David Seago @ 11:47:09 am
Saturday: The lively nightclub and restaurant scene that has grown in Tacoma’s Sixth Avenue business district is a good thing — but some of the neighbors living near the district aren’t exactly enjoying it. The city and nightspot owners should do everything they can to minimize the problems for nearby residents. Sunday: Surprising news from Iraq: The new U.S. military strategy is working, at least somewhat. Unsurprising news: Iraqi government isn't working at all. The military gains only buy time. Ultimately, the conflict must be solved politically, not militarily. Logging used to be a dirty word for many environmentalists. But some have come to realize that it’s better to buy forest land for sustainable timber production than to let it be developed — which is the rationale for a recent timber deal here in Washington. Another plus: tree regrowth after responsible logging helps reduce the CO2 problem. Monday: The biggest voting upset this month wasn’t in Tuesday’s primary. It was a vote by property owners that allows a controversial LID for infrastructure improvements in downtown Tacoma’s Broadway/St. Helens district to proceed. Previously, chances had seemed poor after cost estimates soared, prompting the city to conduct a re-vote. Now the district can look forward to an “urban village” look. About our editorials:
Categories: What's coming
Posted by David Seago @ 09:14:34 am
The Vancover Democrat made the assertion in an oped article published in the Seattle Times. The House Republican leadership wasted no time making hay of it, highlighting what it called Democratic "splintering" on withdrawal from Iraq. Update: We've received permission to reprint Baird's oped on Sunday. On the minus side for Republican backers of the surge, Virginia's Republican U.S. Sen. John Warner called for a troop drawdown to begin by Christmas. And a new National Intelligence Estimate was grimly pessimistic about the chances of political reconciliation among Iraq's bitterly divided sectarian groups.
Categories: Taking notice
Thursday, August 23rd, 2007
Posted by David Seago @ 06:33:47 pm
On Tuesday night, it looked like voter turnout in Pierce County's primary would be around 18 percent. Now it looks more like 22 percent, and it will probably edge higher by the time the election is certified, says Pierce County elections director Lori Augino. If it doesn't reach 27 percent, the first summer primary will mark Pierce County's lowest off-year turnout since 1993, when September turnout was only 14.1 percent. Only 14.3 percent turned out in 1987. Turnout statistics here (PDF). The turnout in the 2005 primary was only 26.6 percent, not a lot higher than the county might reach this time. So participation in our first mid-August primary will be poor, but not as bad as it has been in a few September primaries. Secretary of State Sam Reed forecast a 34 percent turnout statewide, but the actual result will probably be lower. There might be some rumblings about returning to a September primary, but that's not likely. Part of the rationale for the change was allowing more time to get ballots to overseas military personnel so they could return their ballots in time. In today's climate of concern for soldiers, that stance isn't likely to change.
Categories: Taking notice
Posted by David Seago @ 02:16:35 pm
The Snohomish County sheriff's election provides a preview of what Pierce County might expect when it elects a sheriff next year for the first time since 1975. Term limits will force Snohomish County Sheriff Rich Bart to step down in December after 12 years in the job. Three candidates emerged: State Rep. John Lovick, D-Mill Creek, a former Washington state patrolman, and two top sheriff's officers, Lt. Rob Beidler and Chief Tom Greene. Lovick and Greene appeared headed for the general election after Tuesday's primary. Greene, a 35-year veteran, is the department's top administrator. Beidler, the candidate most critical of the current administration, had strong backing from rank-and-file officers. Pierce County Sheriff Paul Pastor, appointed by County Executive John Ladenburg in 2001, plans to run for the job next year. A charter amendment on the ballot in November would make the position non-partisan. No rival has declared yet.
Categories: Taking notice, Editorial cartoons
Posted by David Seago @ 11:09:00 am
Casper and I have been exchanging respectful e-mails since he testily corrected a sloppy error in our editorial endorsing Simpson Tacoma Kraft executive Don Johnson for port commissioner. The editorial poorly described Casper’s occupation and mistakenly said his business was located on the Tideflats. Mea culpa. Actually, Casper is best described as a port construction engineer with expertise in cranes and port civil engineering. He’s a principal in the design firm of Casper Phillips and Associates, located in University Place; the firm’s business is international in scope. He’s put a lot of work into a campaign Web site detailing his views on port operations and prospects. He argues for a $150 per container surcharge to pay for inspections of containers for nuclear explosives. Casper maintains this is the nation’s greatest vulnerability to a terrorist attack.
Casper pulled 16 percent of Tuesday’s vote to Johnson’s 39 percent. (Johnson’s campaign Web site here.) It would be unusual for our editorial board to change its primary-election endorsement in the general election, but it’s fair to say that Casper is far more knowledgable about port operations than most port commission candidates we’ve seen over the years. The Casper-Johnson contest will pit a well-informed maverick against a well-known business and civic leader backed by the county’s business establishment. The port commission vote totals as of Wednesday night: Port of Tacoma Commissioner Pos. 3
Posted by David Seago @ 10:20:29 am
The Western Climate Initiative, a sort of mini-Kyoto mounted by Gov. Gregoire and other Western governors, sets an ambitious but not unreasonable target for reducing carbon emissions. The effort underscores the lack of action on climate change at the federal level, by both the president and Congress. It’s too soon declare the Chambers Bay golf course a financial success, but it is certainly off to a good start in its opening summer. More importantly, the minor annoyance of overflow parking in nearby neighborhoods reflects the course’s popularity with non-golfers who come for the views, the trail and the chance to treat golf as a spectator sport. About our editorials:
Categories: What's coming
• 1 comment
Wednesday, August 22nd, 2007
Posted by David Seago @ 03:45:26 pm
it wasn't any surprise that Don Johnson, a big hitter in Pierce County business and civic circles, easily topped the field for Tacoma Port Commission Tuesday. Evidence of Johnson's well-funded campaign, in yard signs and mailings, was everywhere, and he drew 39.42 percent fo the vote. (The TNT endorsed Johnson, president of Simpson Tacoma Kraft Co.) The surprise was that Bill Casper, a cargo-handling engineer who as far as I know didn't spend a nickel beyond his filing fee, finished second with 16.12 percent, well ahead of others who campaigned harder. Update: Casper tells me he did spend about $400 and put up a Web site. URL to come. Teamster David Lovell enjoyed strong labor support and had plenty of signs up, but he finished third with 13.26 percent. Port security consultant Dave Hyres mounted an active campaign, too, and was the only candidate who called for cutting the port's countywide property tax in half. Hyres thought he might catch a groundswell of discontent over port taxes, but the port's recent coup in landing NYK Line for its biggest terminal yet probably took the wind out of his sails, to use an appropriate metaphor.
Categories: Taking notice
• 5 comments
Posted by David Seago @ 03:20:32 pm
Tacoma School Board member Debbie Winskill, an 18-year incumbent, is going to have to work at it if she wants to win a fourth term in November. Winskill mounted no visible primary campaign and fell well below the 50 percent mark that usually signals trouble for incumbents. Her two challengers, mathematician Elly Claus-McGahan and parent activist Stan Smith, with 29.84 percent and 22.12 percent respectively, together outpolled Winskill's 46.91 percent. Winskill was unopposed in 2001, but the board's disastrous hiring of Superintendent Charlie Milligan, his firing and costly severance package after less than a year, and several board missteps with closed meetings apparently worked against the incumbent Tuesday. The TNT ed board endorsed Winskill, partly on grounds she was the first board member to turn on Milligan when problems with his bullying management style surfaced. Pierce County election results will be updated at 5 p.m. today.
Posted by David Seago @ 03:01:27 pm
The 1-2 finish Tuesday by Marilyn Strickland and David Curry for Tacoma City Council At-Large Position 8 wasn't especially surprising, although a lot of political wise guys were betting on Marty Campbell to make the final. The surprise is that the four-way race wasn't closer. Strickland, development officer for the Tacoma Public Library, finished well ahead of the pack with 43.33 percent of the vote to Curry's 26.06 percent. Curry is head of the Tacoma Rescue Mission. But Campbell, the Stadium Video owner whose campaign mailers played on movie themes, finished a distant third with 18.49 percent. And trumpeting a Fire Fighters Union endorsement didn't help Jonathan Phillips, dead last at 11.66 percent. Phillips, who did a short temporary stint on the council when Kevin Phelps resigned before the end of his term, was backed by Mayor Bill Baarsma. Strickland's endorsements by former Tacoma mayors Karen Vialle, Brian Ebersole and Harold Moss as well as Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg may have had an impact. (The TNT endorsed Strickland and Curry). Allies of Ebersole and Ladenburg added heft to Strickland's campaign. With a commanding 62 percent of the vote, Hilltop housing activist Lauren Walker looks to be in good shape for Tom Stenger's District 3 seat; her three rivals are too closely bunched together to tell which will advance. District 1 incumbent Spiro Manthou and former mayor and councilman Harold Moss will square off in November's final. Pierce County election results will be updated at 5 p.m. today.
Categories: Taking notice
• 1 comment
Posted by David Seago @ 02:27:56 pm
What's Tim Reid been up to, anyway? Has he ticked off somebody? That's what we'd like to know after the incumbent Metro Parks commissioner barely topped 50 percent in Tuesday's primary – against two opponents who weren't even trying. Challenger Jim Schmidt, who is moving out of town, withdrew too late to get his name off the ballot; he still got 5,900 votes to Reid's 8,377 in the election-night returns. Gizella Miller, whose campaign was invisible if it existed at all, drew 1,859 votes. This presumably means Reid has abandoned all hope of winning statewide office. He optimistically ran for state lands commissioner a while back. Pierce County election results will be updated at 5 p.m. today. UPDATE: Pierce County Auditor Pat McCarthy says unless she hears otherwise from legal advisers, Schmidt will advance to the general election ballot – even though he's moving out of town. If he wins and isn't able to take office, the park board will have to appoint someone to serve for the next two years.
Categories: Taking notice
Posted by David Seago @ 05:32:53 am
I like this quotation a reader sent apropos the controversy over Pierce County's proposed Alderton-McMillin community plan (see our Sunday editorial). The passage is from William Jennings Bryan's famed 1896 "Cross of Gold" speech:
Categories: Taking notice
• 1 comment
Tuesday, August 21st, 2007
Posted by David Seago @ 06:14:59 pm
A new citizen group called Friends of the Port has been formed to push for more openness about the Port of Tacoma’s finances and operations. The TNT’s Biz Blog has the story. Among other things, the group wants the port to put video of all port commission meetings on the Internet. The Tacoma City Council already does that for its regular council meetings, but not for study sessions (I wish it would). Seems to me it should be a no-brainer for the port. By coincidence, I ran into Tacoma political consultant Ronnie Bush, a Friends of the Port co-founder, on my lunch break today before I had heard about the group. Filling me in, Bush said the group doesn’t aim to simply be negative about the port, but to raise questions that deserve answers. She praised the fixtheport.com blog written by Seattle Port Commission candidate Thom McCann, who is running as a young reformer. Looking over his blog – which has devolved into his campaign website as well – I notice he favors combined regional management of the ports of Tacoma and Seattle. “Regional port” used to be fighting words in Pierce County. They might be again, thanks to NYK’s recently announced plans to move from the Port of Seattle to the Port of Tacoma.
Categories: Taking notice
• 1 comment
Posted by Patrick O'Callahan @ 06:03:15 pm
The chairman of the LeMay Car Museum board cut to the chase today with the Tacoma City Council today. Michael Phillips (who in his spare time chairs the Russell Investment Group) was briefing the council on the museum's proposal for a faster, easier-to-finance plan to begin construction by the Tacoma Dome. The City Council has to sign off on any changes to the museum's original agreement with the city. Phillips and museum CEO David Madeira offered a variety of reasons for the streamlined startup. The clincher was the possibility that, with enough delay, the museum's board might decide to build the attraction somewhere other than Tacoma. "It's breaking ground in Tacoma that's so important," said Phillips. He said there's considerable pressure to display the late Harold LeMay's spectacular car collection in a more central location – Detroit, for example – rather than a middling-sized city in the Northwest corner of the United States. So Tacoma had better grab the museum before it drives off. "The best way to do that is by starting to dig a hole in the ground," Phillips said.
Categories: Editorial cartoons
• 2 comments
Posted by David Seago @ 04:55:29 pm
We lead with a look at the new Sunshine Committee that has been appointed to examine the burgeoning number of exemptions to the Open Records Act. We urge the committee to err on the side open government, which is specifically directed in the law itself. Lakewood city officials were right to shut down the cheap motels on Pacific Highway South that were blighting the community. Unsafe and beset with crime problems, the motels were being used as cheap permanent housing in violation of city law. And city officials did a good job of trying to treat low-income evictees as humanely as possible. About our editorials:
Categories: What's coming
Posted by David Seago @ 03:36:53 pm
State Auditor Brian Sonntag's second performance audit since the passage of Intiative 900 gave him that authority last year came out today. Here's the AP news brief:
Details of the audit are available here. The Evergreen Freedom Foundation, a cheerleader for performance audits, gave the latest one mixed reviews. From EFF President Bob Williams:
Categories: Taking notice
Posted by David Seago @ 02:36:59 pm
Read this excerpt from a letter to the editor and see if you can guess the profession of the person who wrote it:
Yep, a little Google searching was all it took to verify that the writer is a Tacoma lawyer – one who doesn't seem to realize that the ballot measure in question is Referendum 67, not an initiative. Our policy in controversies pitting one interest group against another is to insist, to the extent possible, that letter writers identify their professional or commercial interest. If we get an anti-R-67 letter that seems likely to have been written by a lawyer – like the one above – we'll try to make sure it's disclosed if appropriate. Ditto with the insurance companies opposed to R-67. Here's a news story about the big bucks they're putting into the fight. Here's the campaign website for R-67; the opponents' site here. |
Washington's U.S. Rep. Baird made some waves today by saying U.S. troops "have earned more time" due to recent military successes in Iraq.
