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
Ladenburg himself isn't nearly so optimistic about the state's intentions. He emailed me with this:

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.

Saturday:
A teacher strike is on in the Bethel School District, and the potential for long-lasting damage is real. Nothing splits the community like a prolonged school strike. Whatever the merits of the strike issues, the best outcome is a speedy resolution.

Sunday:
The No Child Left Behind Act is an overly rigid and unforgiving standard for schools to meet; it cuts no slack for districts like Clover Park and others where educators are focused and working hard to raise student achievement. But it has also been a valuable tool for keeping school systems from letting low-achievers fall through the cracks. Amend NCLB, yes, but don’t abolish it.

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:
Lakewood has cause to celebrate as a new Boys & Girls Club opens in an innovative partnership with Lakeview Elementary School. The generosity of the Milgard family and other donors made it possible.

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:
If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to david.seago@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.

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.

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.

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:

=> Read more!

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:
If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to david.seago@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.

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.

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.

Among the poll-site counties of King, Kittitas, and Pierce, the projected overall turnout is 25%. Turnout in the state’s two largest counties, King and Pierce, was driven down by poll voters. Combined turnout for poll voters in King and Pierce is expected to reach only 8%, while combined turnout for those voting by mail is likely to reach 33%.

“When voters receive their ballots at their homes, they are more likely to vote,” said Handy. “The 25% turnout difference between poll voters and vote-by-mail voters in King and Pierce really underscores why counties in Washington are moving to vote-by-mail.”

The vote-by-mail counties that held primaries report an estimated turnout of 32%. This suggests the vote-by-mail turnout in King and Pierce is tracking the statewide average.

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.

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.

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.
It will also have to relocate the current TOTE terminal on the Blair Waterway and build new rail infrastructure on the east side of the Blair. In ballpark figures, the port will spend about $815 million to make it all happen.

"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.

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.

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:

Yes, I survived the recital. My home is filled with the customary congratulatory bouquets, and "the applause has barely died down!" Thanks for the opportunity to share my stage fright with the entire Tacoma and Pierce County community.

We offer our own congratulations, too. Going from self-described bad shower singer to on-stage performer is no small feat. Julia's column was another of the "dispatches from real life" we enjoy getting from our six reader columnists.

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."

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:
If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to david.seago@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.

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.

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:
If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to david.seago@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.

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:

In the odd year primary, results are totally driven by local races. There are no state or federal races, and no state ballot measures to drive turnout. . . .

Where we have races or issues that are interesting and contested, we have good turnout. Lincoln County will hit 70%. We have a number of counties that may hit 50% and many in the 40% range. These are typically counties where races or ballot measures have generated good turnout.

Interestingly, in the three largest counties, King, Snohomish, and Pierce, we did not have strong county wide headline type races and turnout is in the low 20s, probably headed for 25% or a bit above. So, the turnout in those three highly populated counties is driving the overall state average down.

But, we have situations like Mason County that may hit 50% probably next to Thurston that is struggling to get to 30%. Mason County has a hot primary for Mayor. Thurston County really had no significant races.

And the same for neighboring Chelan and Douglas Counties. Chelan has had one high school for 100 years (my high school, class of 66) and the school board is proposing a big bond measure to fund a second high school. The second high school has already failed on the ballot once and has divided the town. So, Chelan will likely be in the 50% range, a strong turnout in an odd year primary (high school bond is failing). Neighboring Douglas (across the river in East Wenatchee) will struggle to get 25% with only low key races.

We have that situation all around the state and it tells us that this is a typical odd year primary. . . .If we had low turnout everywhere, we would suspect an "August" primary issue. But, it just doesn't make sense that voters are on vacation in one county but not in the neighboring county next door.

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.)

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.

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:

So how do American newspapers manage this passage while holding on to
their "souls" --- that sense that they are, uniquely, businesses worthy
of constitutional protection because their bottom line reckons service
to the common good alongside profit and loss?

One way is to maintain the serious news media's postwar tradition of
nonpartisan journalism, leaving advocacy to the editorial pages. As they give themselves over to more analysis and commentary, newspapers will have to be more vigilant about being genuinely honest brokers of ideas, opening their news columns to a far broader spectrum of serious opinions and perspectives --- liberal to conservative --- than even the best of them do now. Politicization is the enemy rather than the logical consequence of that process.

Newspapers can distinguish themselves from the current undifferentiated cacophony of substantial and frivolous opinion on the Internet --- and best serve their readers – by insisting that their analysis and commentary conform to the discernible facts. In a society that seems more deeply and reflexively divided along, that would be more than a service.

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:
In exports, Washington is fourth in the country, trailing only three much larger states, New York, California and Texas.

Our chief “import partners” – the people selling us stuff – are China, Japan, Korea, Indonesia and Vietnam, in that order.

But we’re selling stuff, too. Washington exported more than $30 billion worth of goods in the first half of this year – 20 percent more than the first half of 2006.

According to the WTC, we’re “the only state to have a positive balance of trade with China. Most of this is due to airplane sales.”

One bit of bad news: Washington’s chief imports from China are ... toys.

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.

A News Tribune story Monday looked at the problems some residents of the blossoming Sixth Avenue business district are having – particularly with late-night noise from places like Jazzbones and Chopstix. The city's not doing enough about the problem, they complain.

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.

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.

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:
If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to david.seago@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Bill Casper’s second-place finish in Tuesday’s Tacoma Port Commission primary contest surprised me, but Casper says he was “not the least bit surprised. I would have been surprised to not have finished second to Don.”

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.

The technology to reliably detect atomic materials inside a container is proven, tested, available for demonstration, and ready to go into service. The holdup is not technical, it is political. Tacoma has lobbied Senator Murray to lead the Port’s political opposition to participating in nuclear defense. That has been a disservice to Senator Murray, the Port itself, Pierce County taxpayers, and to America.

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
NP - Paul Carroll 4,359 5.88%
NP - Don Johnson 29,160 39.34%
NP - Bill Casper 11,942 16.11%
NP - Dave Hyres 8,736 11.79%
NP - David W. Lovell 9,987 13.47%
NP - Jerry Thorpe 9,129 12.32%

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:
If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to david.seago@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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:

I tell you that the great cities rest upon these broad and fertile prairies. Burn down your cities and leave our farms, and your cities will rise up again as if by magic. But destroy our farms and the grass will grow in the streets of every city in the country."

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.

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.

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:
If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to david.seago@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.

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:

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — A state audit is recommending that the Legislature eliminate the current process of credentialing registered counselors through the Department of Health, saying it creates the potential of unqualified people to practice in the state and “leaves citizens at risk.”
The 155-page audit released Tuesday covers the state’s regulation of health professions from November 2005 until July.
The Department of Health regulates different categories of behavioral health professionals, including registered counselors, hypnotherapists, psychologists, chemical dependency professionals and family therapists.
To be a registered counselor, the state requires a $40 fee, a four-hour AIDS prevention class and a criminal background check. The audit recommends that the Legislature revisit a measure it rejected last year that would establish requirements of minimum examinations, supervised training and other experience for varying credential levels.

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:

The good news is that the recommendations in this audit provide a pathway for improving health care in Washington. People will be safer if the Legislature, Governor, the Department of Health and the various health care professions implement the recommendations quickly and effectively . . .

One area the audit does not address is improving efficiency and reducing costs, as required by Initiative 900. That is unfortunate. Performance audits like this one are supposed to provide recommendations on getting a bigger bang for taxpayer dollars while also being a useful tool to improve overall performance.

Read this excerpt from a letter to the editor and see if you can guess the profession of the person who wrote it:

Hold on to your hats!! Here comes the latest torrent of sewer bilge from the insurance industry in the form of their evil dumb headed attack ads as they spend millions of your premium dollars to convince you - the consumer- to defeat I-67 (The Insurance Fair Conduct Act). How ironic.

You see, they know that if they actually have to settle and pay fairly on claims, maybe their CEOs can only go to Hawaii 3 times this year instead of 4!! The scare tactic they use is that if I-67 passes, your rates will go up. That would be a change, because usually they just raise your rates for NO REASON. Whenever they want.

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.

Remember the line from the old Malvina Reynolds song, "Little Boxes:" "They're all made of ticky-tacky and they all look just the same?"

Applies to this year's campaign yard signs in Tacoma, too. They may not all look exactly the same, but most of them are exactly the same size and are made of tough, ticky-tacky plastic. Otherwise known as Corex, a corrugated plastic that's the latest political fashion.

I consulted Katie Rose, who is managing campaigns for Tacoma City Council incumbents Julie Anderson and Spiro Manthou. (That's not as challenging as it sounds; Anderson's opponents are Will Baker and Robert "The Traveller" Hill). Here's the lowdown from Katie:

The Corex signs are more expensive than paper signs by about 50-60 cents per final sign. The paper signs are printed on one side, whereas the Corex signs are printed double sided right off. Thus, paper signs need two sign faces per stake whereas the Corex signs need one sign per stake. Also, the price per sign cost reduction for large orders (1,000 or more) is greater with paper signs than with Corex signs.

=> Read more!

The paparazzi were lying in wait when the much-anticipated Op-Tot visited the editorial board last week. OK, it was Dave Seago who was busy snapping photos of the child formerly known as Gritbaby (his dad is Grit City blogger Cole Cosgrove).

The Inside the Editorial Page crew decided we should have naming rights, because new mom and editorial writer Kim Bradford (Cosgrove) did all the real work in this production.

The Op-Tot (aka Jameson Michael Cosgrove) was born June 19, and we've concluded he looks a lot like Kim. He looks a little shocked in this photo, but we figure it just means he's forming some kind of opinion. Like, "That guy taking my picture sure is funny-looking."

Sigh. We do get some, uh, odd letters to the editor. Such as this one today:

Election day is tomorrow in Tacoma. I didn't vote for anyone because no party is designated for anyone except for a Libertarian. The idiotic voters pamphlet does not help since it is a morass of unverified and missing information.

Next, there is no party designation, which is so astounding that it’s hard to believe. There is absolutely no way to tell what their core values or beliefs may be or even an indication of past performance or judgments. Can you imagine President Bush picking someone for the Supreme Court based on a couple of paragraphs in a voters guide with no party designation? Obviously this concept plays well in Tacoma.

Important elective positions like those to be voted on absolutely require an indication of that person's party. Otherwise the wrong people will probably be picked and are picked.

Off-year elections for city councils and school boards are, of course, non-partisan. You don't need to be a Republican or a Democrat to fix potholes.

Former Tacoma City Councilman Kevin Phelps has a new job: helping state Auditor Brian Sonntag manage performance audits.

Phelps, who recently sold his interest and left his post as managing partner of the Landmark Convention Center in Tacoma, says he expects to start at the auditor's office sometime next month.

Even his critics acknowledge Phelps is a sharp pencil. During his stint on the council, he served as head of Sound Transit's finance committee and preached fiscal discipline. He also served on the boards of the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department and Pierce Transit.

Because of that experience, Phelps said, he's likely to focus on performance audits related to health and transportation agencies.

Norm Dicks came to Tacoma today, trailing headlines about another Dicks.

The other Dicks was the congressman's elder son, David, who last week was named executive editor of the Puget Sound Partnership, the state group formed to save Puget Sound. David Dicks has been an environmental lawyer in Seattle.

With fatherly pride, Dicks told the City Club of Tacoma this morning that his son would do an "outstanding" job for the partnership. Also sensitive to the appearance that his clout might have had something to do with the appointment, Dicks pointedly noted that his son would take a pay cut in the new position.

Anyone who has watched Dicks knows his concern for the sound, and especially for oxygen-depleted Hood Canal, long predates the creation of the partnership. Dicks told City Club he wants to make saving Puget Sound as much a federal funding priority as restoration efforts for the Great Lakes, the Everglades and Chesapeake Bay.

As chairman of the Interior Appropriations subcommittee for the interior and environment, Dicks is ideally positioned to do just that.

Continue for highlights from Dicks' visit with the TNT ed board today.

=> Read more!

Ask a snarky question, get a snarky answer.

Pierce County Council Chairman Terry Lee (R-Gig Harbor) sent a slightly prissy letter to county Auditor Pat McCarthy earlier this month. It seems some folks have complained about not having time to submit statements for the county voters pamphlet for the general election. I paraphrase the chairman a bit here:

Why on earth do you require people to submit for and against statements for the voters pamphlet even before the deadline the council has for putting measures on the ballot? And when the heck is the actual publication date of the pamphlet? It doesn't say anywhere in your guide to submitting statements.

Ho-kay. A couple days later, McCarthy fires back. Again, I paraphrase slightly:

Well, Mr. Smartypants,
We gave your staff this infomation two months ago. It's been on our website since January. As we already told your staff, the general election pamphlet is released to the public Oct. 17. So we send it to the printer Sept. 17. Federal law requires us to send voter pamphlets and ballots to overseas voters and military members by 30 days before the election.

Although the law authorizes the council to appoint committees to write the pro and con statements, you council bozos have never done it since I've been auditor. So I gotta do it myself. Geez, sometimes more than one group wants to write the statement on one side or another. I have to clean up the mess. So we gotta have deadlines. They're published at the beginning of every calendar year. Wake up!

Actual quote:

In the future, I would encourage you to make a general public announcement for seeking people to appoint to the committees at a time you determine is appropriate. There are usually plenty of people in the audience when you discuss these measures, both for and against the issues, who would jump at the chance to be appointed to a committee.

Wikipedia has turned up more foul play on its pages: It has discovered that some of its articles were quietly "edited" from computers belonging to the CIA, FBI, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, the Vatican and the Church of Scientology.

As might be expected, the tampering was self-serving. The Church of Scientology, for example, removed criticism of itself. The CIA tinkered with an entry on the invasion of Iraq.

OK – we can see a church, the Dems or even the FBI getting caught red-handed. But how did the CIA manage to blow THIS covert op? Couldn't it have employed some superspook tactic to keep from blowing its cover – like using the computer at the local public library?

The order apparently has gone out to the Northwest legal community: Send letters to the editor supporting Referendum 67, a measure that will be on the Nov. 6 ballot.

A couple of problems with the onslaught of letters we've received from all over the Puget Sound region in recent days.

1-They're virtually identical. On a hunch, I checked out the Washington State Trial Lawyers Association Web site and found a "talking points" page for letter writers. No surprise: Those talking points were incorporated virtually verbatim in the letters we received.

Other clues point to the fact that they are part of an organized letter-writing campaign. The e-mail subject lines are the same – Vote to Approve Referendum 67. And the salutation lines are identical – Dear The News Tribune (Tacoma).

2-The letter writers fail to identify themselves as lawyers (or staff of legal firms), although a quick check of Google and the Yellow Pages confirms that that's exactly what they are. You'd think with all those law degrees between them that the mouthpieces could come up with their own words and not have to crib.

Why are lawyers so intent on passing Ref. 67? It might have something to do with how the measure calls for up to triple damages plus attorney fees for claimants if an insurer is found to have "unreasonably" denied a claim for coverage or payment of benefits. Naturally, the biggest opponents are the insurance companies. I fully expect we'll get a similar deluge of anti-67 letters, and they're likely to be maddeningly similar, too.

Here's one of the pro-67 letters. We won't be printing any of the ones that are cribbed from the WSTLA Web site.

=> Read more!

A bid to remove protective zoning on Pierce County's best farmland suffered a setback today.

Saying he had acted on "bad data," County Councilman Terry Lee reversed his earlier support for controversial land-use amendments allowing "de-designation" of some – or nearly all – of the county's best farmland.

"I will not support de-designation," Lee said in a call to the editorial board. He called his committee vote for the amendments "one of the biggest mistakes I've made" and said he should have researched the issue more carefully before voting.

Lee said he will try Monday to persuade the council to send the plan back to the Community Development Committee for reconsideration. Even if that does not occur, he said, the amendments' backers "have lost my support."

County Executive John Ladenburg declared Tuesday he would veto the plan if it cleared the council with the amendments. A staff analysis showed the amendments would reduce the amount of protected farmland from 12,000 acres to 217.

An editorial on this issue will appear Sunday.

Tim Eyman (need I provide the customary description?) was in this morning to defend Initiative 960, his latest brainchild. It's a complex piece of work that tries – among other things – to put some teeth back into the spending limits of 1993's Initiative 601.

We've lambasted his antitax measures in the past – particularly Initiative 747 – for being simplistic and destructive. Today, he almost sounded abashed about some of those.

"We've done some kamikaze initiatives over the years, and there's a perception that this is one of them."

"I frankly think this is the smartest thing we've ever done ... I think this is pretty moderate."

Eyman actually has a charming streak of self-deprecation. But describing his old initiatives as "kamikaze" stuff? He almost sounded like us.

Headline on just-in press release:

Yellow water in Tacoma Water service area safe to drink

Michael Veseth, a UPS political economist I sometimes call upon for advice, has a clever academic scam going: He is studying the globalization of the wine industry. You can imagine the kind of field research this requires . . .

Anyway, Foreign Policy magazine's latest issue features an interview with Veseth on current turmoil in the international wine trade. For wine lovers, the truly alarming tidbit is the fact that global warming is going to mess with wine-growing. Start investing in Alaskan wineries. An excerpt:

MV: When I talk to my friends who are wine consumers, it still hasn’t trickled down to them that global warming is a serious issue that is affecting their wine. So I talk to them about the alcohol levels in their wines and ask them, “Haven’t they been going up?” And they say, “Well yeah.” Maybe 20 percent of the wine from California is now dealcoholized—not all of it, not every year, but the dirty little secret is that global warming is pushing up the sugar levels, pushing up the alcohol levels. It’s now a problem that needs to be treated in the cellar instead of just letting nature take its course. It’s something that the wine consumers need to know more about. Maybe it will help push them to take global warming more seriously. But clearly it is going to have an effect on the industry; it is going to change which wines can be produced where.

In the Pacific Northwest, it is having a good effect in British Columbia because there is a pretty good wine industry located around some of the lakes. They used to have to make cold-climate products, hardy Rieslings and hybrids, but now they can make anything that Napa Valley can make. You don’t think of Canada as having the ability to produce Shiraz, but there they are. Maybe wine can be that canary in the coal mine. People can say, “You love the wine; now look at what climate change is doing to it.”

Our editorial defense Thursday of the UW's doubts about baby DVDs created quite a stir – down in Walt Disney country.

The Disney company owns Baby Einstein, the nation's leading producer of "educational" DVDs and videos for infants. Brain development scientists have long had misgivings about such products, and a new UW study has linked them to smaller vocabularies in 8- to 16-month-old children.

After the editorial appeared, we got a spate of protests that all – by some strange coincidence – emanated from the Los Angeles-San Diego area. Excerpts:

"You should ask the university where it gets off being so arrogant and elitist."

"As a mother myself, I have watched these videos with my daughter and have found them engaging and informative, as well as a fun activity for both of us."

"It is stunning that your paper would take the position it has when Disney has clearly demonstrated that the university's PR machine got it wrong and misrepresented the findings of the actual study. ... Open your minds to the facts rather than just being a cheerleader for the ivory tower that is just up the road from you."

Speaking of cheerleaders, I wonder whose payroll these pompoms were on?

What we've got planned for the morrow:

1. Some felons released from prison get to vote immediately; others don't. The reason: the former have enough to pay their fines, the latter don't. The state Supreme Court says it's up to the Legislature do something about this. The Legislature should fix the inequity, which amounts to a backdoor poll tax.

2. It's bad enough that the Chinese poisoned our pets. But our kids, too? After the latest massive recall of lead-covered toys, China better get its act together if it likes export markets.

About our editorials:
If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to patrick.ocallahan@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.

Did Tacoma City Council candidate Jonathan Phillips cross an ethical line when he posed with city firefighters for photos he used in a campaign mailing trumpeting his endorsement by the Fire Fighters union?

The city is looking into it. I asked the city spokesman Rob McNair-Huff Monday if the city had any policy regarding use of city personnel and equipment for political purposes. Here's his response:

=> Read more!

An item I posted Aug. 8 – "Indignant Caller, leashless dog" – concerned a complaint about a candidate who allegedly walked her dog without a leash. I kept both the candidate and the complainer anonymous in an attempt to not hurt feelings.

Didn't work. Julie Anderson, who is running to keep her seat on the Tacoma City Council, concluded that she was the target of the Indignant Caller. She called and emailed me, complaining quite vehemently that we'd published an unsubstantiated smear.

Others had concluded she was the target, too. From an email: "For two days, there wasn’t a single meeting or event that I went to where someone didn’t ask me, 'Are you the dog-walker?' Or, 'You don’t use a leash?' No exaggeration."

From another email: "This must be a case of mistaken identity, as my neighbors will attest that I use a leash scrupulously. In fact, twice this month, my leashed dogs (notice the plural) have been attacked by unleashed dogs."

"Yes, I pick up my dog crap, too."

Such are the pitfalls of anonymity. In fact, the candidate in question was not Julie Anderson at all. I swear on a stack of Bibles.

One reason I didn't name the candidate was that the allegation was hearsay in the first place. So please, readers, don't conclude that any particular candidate fails to walk a dog without a leash. Especially not Julie Anderson, who's picked up more than her share of crap over this.

Today's City Club of Tacoma meeting featured a pair of speakers who talked about conducting effective executive searches. The obvious subtext: The Tacoma School District's Charlie Milligan fiasco.

And who should stand to ask the final question of the Q&A period? A fellow who admitted with a sheepish smile, "I'm Kurt Miller. I'm on the Tacoma School Board." Sort of like School Board Members Anonymous. Chuckles all around.

Gotta hand it to him; Miller's not hiding out. He asked, ""How can we have community participation in the search process without getting bogged down?"
The speakers, search experts Frank Hegel and another fellow – whose name, I'm afraid, I forget – recommended letting the search firm conduct the community involvement part of a superintendent search.

Miller told me afterward the board hasn't made any decisions yet about finding a permanent replacement for Milligan. He said he will propose at the board's Aug. 23 meeting that the board hire a management consultant to help guide the board in launching the next search.

Former Enumclaw School District Superintendent Art Jarvis is serving as interim superintendent.

The Disney Co. is trying to push the University of Washington around for announcing a UW study that shows that "educational" videos like Disney's Baby Einstein tapes actually hinder early learning, not promote it. UW President Mark Emmert ought to tell Disney where to stick it.

A partnership between Metro Parks and Point Ruston developer Mike Cohen to build a new waterfront park on the old "slag pile" near Point Defiance Park looks like a terrific deal for both sides.

About our editorials:
If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to david.seago@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.

Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg is not shy about throwing the hammer down. He did so twice today, in fights over mental-health funding and saving farmlands.

With an official termination notice to the governor, Ladenburg carried out his threat to turn mental-health services back to the state. The county will stop operating a state-funded Regional Services Network Sept. 30.

Talks between the governor's office and Ladenburg's in recent days failed to resolve a dispute over what he calls a $3.5 million shortfall in state funding for mental health in Pierce County. "None of us in Pierce County government are willing to be a party such deprivation of care to those who depend upon us,"
Ladenburg wrote the governor.

In the case of farmland, Ladenburg advised the County Council by letter that he would veto the Alderton-McMillin land-use plan if it arrives on his desk with two controversial amendments allowing "de-designation" of prime agricultural land.

Ladenburg said a staff analysis shows the amendments would reduce protected Agricultural Resource Lands county wide from 12,006 acres to 216 acres. They would "strike at the heart of agricultural conservation" in the Orting Valley and turn it into a "warehouse wasteland," he warned.

Ladenburg said he will propose sending voters a $125 million bond issue for preserving farmland and open space. The two amendments would "send the wrong message" to voters, he said.

The City of Federal Way tried a billboard ban much like Tacoma's but lost a court case in 2002. A judge ruled that despite being given a decade to amortize their investment in billboards, the owners would still be victims of an unconstutional "taking" of their property.

I asked Federal Way City Manager Neal Beets for an update:

Short answer: No, we haven't given up; but, no, the amortization issue has not been tested here for the following reasons:

(a) We do not issue permits for new billboards since they are "prohibited signs" under our code (which is legal going forward); hence, we have no new billboards. And (b) existing billboards are slowly going away as a result of redevelopment of the property they are on; in other words, if you sell your property for redevelopment it is unlikely the redeveloper will find a billboard to be an attractive feature of the site and of his/her proposed redevelopment, hence the redeveloper cancels the billboard lease as soon as the property is acquired.

So, market forces are slowly reducing the number of existing billboards, and no permits are being issued for new billboards. Net result: The number of billboards is declining but we are not relying on amortization.
Best wishes,
Neal Beets

Thanks to Tacoma attorney Erik Bjornson for word on these developments in the City of Tacoma's effort to enforce a billboard law the council passed 10 years ago. (News stories here and here.)

1) The City and Clear Channel have entered an agreed order on 8/3/2007
keeping fines on Clear Channel from accumulating while the action is
pending.. An expected development.

2) On August 10, the City of Tacoma "removed" or transferred the case to
Federal District Court in Tacoma. This is an elective action on the part of
the City of Tacoma. They need no agreement to do this. They believe they
will fare better in Federal court than in state court. This is a positive
sign as it indicates that the city is actively fighting the legal action.
They are able to move it to federal court as clear channel is alleging "free
speech" rights under federal law which the federal courts have original
jurisdiction over.

Is Idaho going green? I was mildly surprised to learn that Idaho’s new Republican governor, Butch Otter, is taking steps to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions in his traditionally conservative state.

Idaho was the lone holdout among Northwest states in joining The Climate Registry, a group developing a national inventory of greenhouse gas emissions. But the Idaho Statesman reports that Otto signed on for Idaho last week, making it the 38th state to join.

Idaho Statesman blogger Rocky Barker notes Otter may have had two motives that he doesn’t share with Washington’s governor. Idaho farmers see the prospect of being paid for carbon credits if sequester carbon in the soil with new farming practices. (First time I’ve heard that one.) And one of Idaho’s most influential pastors is a conservative evangelical who contends Christians have a moral obligation to address climate change.

Kathy Fewins has a new job. The former Sumner City Councilwoman has resigned her No. 2 position in the Pierce County assessor-treasurer’s office to work for one of the county’s biggest developers.

Fewins is now community relations manager for Investco, the Sumner-based development company owned by the Corliss family. Her hiring appears to be a strategic move by Investco.

The firm is seeking a controversial land-use amendment that would allow it to develop 80 acres south of Highway 410 that is presently zoned for agricultural use. The City of Sumner hopes to annex the area. But the land would first have to be “de-designated” as prime farmland the county marked for protection in 2004.

Fewins was Democrat Ken Madsen’s aide during Madsen’s two terms on the County Council. She followed him when he was elected assessor-treasurer, serving as Madsen’s deputy. (Apologies for earlier version listing Madsen as Republican).

Fewins joined Investco Vice President Brian McCabe, Sumner City Administrator John Doan and Seattle attorney Jay Derr in an editorial board meeting today to discuss Investco’s proposed amendment. The board met Monday on the same issue with No. 2 county planner Chip Vincent and Councilman Calvin Goings.

We expect to editorialize, but not right away. We’re told County Executive John Ladenburg may threaten to veto both the Investco amendment and another that would make it easier for other cities to “de-designate’ prime farmland. We’re awaiting additional information. In a follow-up e-mail, Fewins took pains to say Investco supports only the first amendment.

=> Read more!

Our Aug. 9 editorial last week blaming recklessness and easy credit for the mess in the mortgage markets was well-timed. The next day the Dow plunged 387 points, prompting the Fed to "dump" $38 billion into the banking system.

Just how does the Federal Reserve dump, pump or inject money into the banking system? Whose money is it? Does the Fed get it back? I asked my friend Mike Veseth, an economics prof at the University of Puget Sound (and Lincoln HS '68) for an explanation a guy who nearly flunked Introduction to Economics could understand. His reply:

Glad to be asked. The central banks inject money by buying things. Usually
they purchase money market instruments (short term bonds or bills) that
banks, insurance companies, investors etc are trying the sell to raise
quick cash. An investor will need quick cash, for example, if she has
purchased stocks on margin (with borrowed money) and needs to cover the
margin when the stock price falls.

The data show that there were several cases last week where many banks
and investors wanted to sell these money market funds but there weren't
enough buyers, which sent short term interest rates upwards
dramatically. The central banks are acting as the "lender of last
resort" by buying the bonds and providing liquidity when others are
unwilling to do so.

Where does the Fed get the money? The short answer is that it creates
it (print it, conceptually but not literally). The central banks may get it back if
they sell back later the securities that they are purchasing now.

BTW the central banks' actions last week were unusually transparent. It
isn't common for them to make big announcements that they are pumping
money into the financial markets. Some European commentators say that
the ECB's big and open injections might have made the problem worse by
giving investors a panic signal.

Thank you, professor. How the Fed tries to stabilize the market without bailing out big firms and investors who should have known better is the story to watch this week.

Got a letter to the editor – it won't run – from a reader griping about the timing of the Aug. 21 primary election. Excerpts:

Like many people I scheduled a vacation in August. Like very few electoral jurisdictions, Pierce County decided to schedule a "primary" election while I am on vacation. God bless them. When looking over my ballot, in a rush, I realized I knew little about the candidates running for some very important elective offices . . .

I don't want to cast an uninformed ballot . . .This election is a travesty. It is not what democracy looks like.

Blame the Legislature, not the county. Lawmakers moved the date for all primary elections to mid-August at the request of Secretary of State Sam Reed and county auditors. They warned that there was not enough time to conduct a recount between the September primary and the November general elections.

I might note that mail ballots went out Aug. 5. We’ve already run all our endorsement editorials. The county voters pamphlet is already online and arrived in voter mailboxes more than a week ago. Reed predicts that primary turnout this month will be slightly higher than it was in the last off-year election, thanks to an increase in all-mail voting statewide.

We noted in an earlier posting that state Auditor Brian Sonntag is conducting a performance audit of selected local and state governments to test their compliance with the state Open Records Act.

Thurston County Commission Diane Oberquell is ticked off. She accuses Sonntag of using "sting" tactics that are wasting taxpayer money. She served her own public records request on the auditor to find out what he is up to.
Juicy little spat. Tim Eyman is cackling.

Details in this Daily Olympian story.

Campaign mailers from all four candidates for the At-Large Position 8 Tacoma City Council seat arrived in mailboxes Saturday. Let's break 'em down:

Marty Campbell plays off his Stadium Video connection with graphic of one-man spacemobile jetting across futuristic city skyline. "How can watching Science Fiction Movies help Tacoma? City Council candidate Marty Campbell knows the answer . . ." Not bad. Long and impressive list of his civic activities dominates the flip side. But Marty doesn't look his best in photo with wife and relatives. Campaign Web site.

Mayors for Marilyn: Marilyn Strickland plays up backing from three former Tacoma mayors in a lighthearted photo showing Karen Vialle, Harold Moss and Brian Ebersole cheering her. Notes she once worked for "Starbucks Corporate," but shown holding a Tully's mug. Campaign Web site.

Jonathan Phillips is definitely the firefighters' man. "Endorsed by Tacoma Fire Fighters. Committed to Public Safety." This message on a badge-like background. Photos on both sides pose the candidate in front of city fire engines. Chats with a couple women firefighters in one of them. I wonder if city has a policy on using police and fire equipment for political purposes. Campaign Web site.

David Curry goes for the family pose, wife and two sons with the tower at Old City Hall in the background. Endorsement by state Auditor Brian Sonntag prominently noted. Usual pledges on flip side: Budget discipline, etc. Campaign Web site.

If the name Rick Steves rings a bell for you, you've probably used one of his best-selling European travel guides, taken one of his company's guide-tours or heard his popular public radio show. He's the "Europe Through the Back Door Guy."

He's also the "Legalize Pot Guy."

Turns out he's a headline speaker for the Seattle Hempfest Aug. 18-19. He's speaking both days in Myrtle Edwards Park. Excerpt from his press release:

Steves hopes this opportunity to speak at Seattle Hempfest will bring an international perspective on this controversial domestic issue. “I’ve studied the European Union’s drug policy pages, and – while America tends to treat drug use as a moral and legal issue – the goal in Europe is simple: pragmatic harm reduction, starting with the premise that drug addiction is an illness, not a crime.”

Steves, a professional observer of European culture, will present his unique insight of European drug policy. In a recent article, Steves paints a picture of infamous pot-loving countries, such as the Netherlands, as pragmatic problem solvers creatively reducing drug related deaths and crimes. “In Zürich, I noticed blue lights in the public toilets. Why? So junkies can't find their veins.” Steves continues by saying that in Europe “marijuana is considered a soft drug, like booze and tobacco — a health problem, important to regulate, but not worth locking people up over… Rather than being ‘hard on drugs’, Europe chooses to be ‘smart on drugs’.”

For a longer take on Steves' views, go here.

Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg and the governor's office are still talking in hopes of averting county abandonment of mental health services.

But Ladenburg ratched up the pressure today. A spokesman said he would recommend on Wednesday that responsibility for the programs be turned back to the state. Ladenburg meets that day with the governing board that oversees the county's mental-health services.

Ladenburg, who contends the Legislature has seriously underfunded mental-health services in Pierce County, is adamant that the county's contract with the state will not be renewed unless the state provides more money. The contract expires Sept. 30. (Our July 19 editorial here.)

Holly Armstrong, a spokeswoman for the governor, confirmed that top officials in both offices met last week. She says:

Both agreed that a decision is necessary soon to ensure service system stability - so we hope to be able to arrive at some resolution by the end of this week.

We follow up on Sunday’s skateboard package. Publicly built skateboard parks are worth doing; the pluses generally outweigh the minuses. They are more successful in some communities than others, however. It’s up to each community to find the formula that minimizes the nuisance problems the parks sometimes create.

Narrows Bridge commuters have a legitimate beef: The state shouldn’t be sticking tollpayers with the ongoing maintenance and patrol costs that up to now have been paid out of the general fund. One out of every three dollars paid in tolls is going toward something other than paying off the construction costs.

About our editorials:
If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to david.seago@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.

It's always good to see public self-criticism from the Department of Social and Health Services.

DSHS appears to have been doing some serious soul-searching over the decision by Child Protective Services to return a 12-year-old South Hill boy to the "care" of his abusive grandparents last month. See our editorial.

Follow this link to DSHS' surprisingly quick report on its negligence in this case. Here's an excerpt:

Social workers, supervisors and management sometimes express concerns about the degree of evidence needed to support a dependency action and how such evidence is to be balanced against the rights of the parents and the need to demonstrate that reasonable efforts were made to eliminate the need for removal of the child from the child's home. However, in this case, the child told several people about the abuse in his home. He made statements to the social worker, neighbors, school teachers and law enforcement. He also had observable injuries as well as a history of repeated bruising to his face ...
The primary mission of the children's Administration is child safety. When the interests of parents and children compete, child safety should be the primary consideration.

I missed the Tacoma Utility Board's study session on the potential effects of climate change on the city's water and power utilities. But I caught up later with Tacoma Power Superintendent Bill Gaines for a briefing.

The gist: The predicted changes in the Northwest climate aren't likely to affect TPU all that much. But Tacoma Power has to worry about what governments might do.

That's greatly oversimplified, of course, but sums it up pretty well. Wetter and warmer winters would change the patterns of streamflows, moving more flow to the winter months and reducing snowpacks. That means problems for Eastern Washington irrigators, especially. It's not necessarily bad news for the regional hydroelection production upon which Tacoma Power depends.

Regulation of carbon emissions, however, is another story. Washington's dependence on hydropower means our emissions in the power sector are already very low. Cap-and-trade systems or carbon taxes wouldn't affect Tacoma Power customers much – unless the new regs penalize the Northwest in some way.

Gaines thinks a carbon tax is the way to go. The Northwest is already paying a form of environmental mitigation: a considerable chunk of local electric bills go to salmon restoration and mitigation efforts.

State law now requires Tacoma Power to get 3 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2012, 9 percent by 2016, 15 percent by 2020. Right now, Tacoma gets zero from such sources. Which is why it is pursuing an experiment with tidal power in the Tacoma Narrows. Later on, wind power will probably become more important.

Ironic but true: Low-growth utilities like Tacoma will buy renewable power whether they need it or not. Existing hydro doesn't count as a renewable source.

Fortunately, California has a renewable power mandate, too – and California considers hydro a renewable. So Tacoma will be able to sell hydro to California utilities at a nice price. If we're lucky, Tacoma Power will make enough to pay for the renewable power we don't need.

As the editorial writer who handles most of the letters to the editor, I see a lot of bad writing every day. It is my challenge to correct misspellings, fix grammatical errors and generally clean up after the American education system. Sadly, some of the worst offenders are schoolteachers.

Sometimes it's enough to almost make me cry. But then we get a letter like the one from Ann Boustred, which runs today. It was perfect. No tangled prose or mangled spellings. It was literate, to the point, even a little humorous in a sly and knowing way.

But here's the kicker: She's visiting from London, England. In her letter, she takes to task an earlier writer who suggests the UK is kowtowing to its Muslim residents.

Ms. Boustred, I salute you. If only all our letter writers were of your caliber.
Here's her letter:

Re: "Great Britain sorely needs a resistance movement” (letter, 8-6).

Privileged to be a visitor to your delightful state, I was horrified to read Noel S. Williams’ attempts to make the case that Great Britain is “surrendering her heritage to Muslim immigrants.”

I do not recognize his description of my country.

=> Read more!

An earlier posting noted the death of Tacoman Al Brebner, a popular Teamsters member and Pierce County planning commissioner. His memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. Tuesday at Mountain View Funeral Home.

Harold Moss, former Tacoma mayor and councilman, former Pierce County councilman, pays tribute to his good friend Al:

Al was the most focused, brightest, committed working stiff, as he called himself, you could want to meet. He put his whole heart and effort in the things he believed made a difference for the average working man or woman. He would get out the troops, mostly Teamsters, to carry picket signs on strike lines, wave political signs on corners, pound yard signs for candidates all over Pierce County. And he would do this rain or shine, and day and night.

He would start a sentence with "I may not be the sharpest knife in the drawer but...." and then proceed to give his analysis of a problem in his clear and un-complicated way. He read everything put before him, and had no qualms about asking questions or rebutting some shaky assunption. These traits made him an ideal Planning Commissioner. He took the process of regulating land use to mean more than what is allowed and what is not allowed, to what effect will this regulation have on the people being regulated. He would call and say, "this don't make no sense to me so somebody's going to have to keep explaining it to me until it does or I'll vote against it ." He managed to keep his prospective and his sense of balance as a Commissioner and became a major contributor to the Planning Commission.

Breb was loved by more people than he ever imagined. His intensive care room was always full of people and family who hoped against hope that he would pull through this crisis. We who got to know him are the richer for it. He was a joy to be around and a true friend.

The dead-tree version of the TNT today didn't have anything about the state Supreme Court's decision to hear a challenge to Initiative 960 next month. So here's a Daily Olympian story on the move.

The initiative's foes claim it should be tossed off the November ballot because it attempts to amend the state constitution with an initiative. The constitution provides that a two-thirds vote of both legislative chambers is required to put
a constitutional amendment on the ballot.

Eyman's initiative is another sledgehammer anti-tax measure that would require a two-thirds vote of both chambers to raise taxes. It also would require a public advisory vote on any statewide tax increase. As bad as it is, we don't think the courts should intervene in initiative disputes until after the voters have spoken. I expect we'll editorialize on this one.

See a case for I-960 here. Opposing view here.

A former Tacoman and Foss High grad who spent four years at the University of Chicago at my expense sends a political note on Democratic presidential hopefuls. Daughter Laura reports:

The BIG news is that I was able to talk (lie) my way into scoring a couple of tickets to the AFL-CIO debate at Soldier Field last night! (Tuesday). It was so cool - especially since it was such a rowdy and lively crowd.

I was actually surprised to come away from it feeling like Hillary had really cleaned the floor with her opponents, Obama included. I didn't think I would really be too excited about her, given the war vote and the partial birth abortion ban thing, but she was quick, she was the only person who seemed to care about depth and detail in her proposals, and she just looked presidential.

Plus, it's really cool to hear these old white guys in suits say things like, "When the next president takes office, he OR SHE..." Obama, who I thought I was
leaning towards, continued to disappoint on immigration and just looked
not ready for prime time (he said "president of Canada").

A lot of folks in Pierce County labor and Democratic political circles are mourning the death Wednesday of Tacoma Teamster Al Brebner. He was a classic straightforward working man of strong loyalties – particularly to former mayor Harold Moss.

But few realize he also turned out to be a darn good public servant on the Pierce County Planning Commission. I first heard of his death from county Planning Director Chuck Kleeberg:

You might recall that you published something on Brebner on your editorial page blog a short time ago. He was the close friend of Harold Moss to whom Harold first consulted on running for City Council.
We weren't real sure about Al when Harold nominated him to the Planning
Commission a few years ago. He didn't really have any background.
Harold fought to put him on. But he turned out to be a real asset and
the hardest working guy in the biz, visiting each site as it was considered. He will be missed.

County planner Chip Vincent called Brebner "the blue-collar heart and soul of the planning commission." Brebner was appointed to the commission in 2003 and was re-appointed to a full term in 2006. Tacoma Mayor Bill Baarsma also recalled Brebner, who worked for Moss' unsuccessful 2001 mayoral campaign against Baarsma.

He was a dedicated Teamster and active politically. He was Harold Moss's most committed supporter during the campaign for mayor. He was always upfront with me on this which I respected. After the dust settled he and I became friends. He was truly one of the good guys in the labor movement.

I didn't even know the governor had an "operative" in Pierce County, but today I met Ian Morrison, the personable young man who serves as Gov. Chris Gregoire's eyes and ears in these parts.

Morrison, who grew up in Puyallup and graduated from Bellarmine and WSU, says his job is to advance local appearances by the governor and serve as a liaison between the gov's office and local groups and leaders. He is a former legislative aide to state Rep. Jim Kastama, D-Puyallup.

His email is Ian.Morrison@gov.wa.gov.

U.S. Sen. Maria Cantwell, home for August recess, dropped by to chat with the editorial board this afternoon. The routine sort of courtesy visit we occasionnally get from members of the state's congressional delegation.

Cantwell mostly wanted to talk about the bill the Senate just passed expanding health insurance coverage to anther 3.3 million children who now lack it. The House has passed similar legislation but it will have to be reconciled with the Senate bill. And President Bush has threatened to veto the measure, calling it too costly and a Democratic stalking-horse for universal health care.

Cantwell noted that the Senate bill drew 68 votes, enough to override a veto, so she's hopeful. The bill also would end rules that penalize Washington for its efforts to cover uninsured children; the state would gain around $40 million to use for that purpose if the bill makes it into law.

Cantwell wouldn't say whether she favors Obama or Clinton; she's got to work with both of them, she noted. But she did say Clinton has been "standing out" in her recent appearances.

If nothing else, the unprecedented massive closure of Interstate 5 in Seattle that starts tonight should give the region’s motorists a much greater appreciation of the virtues of transit.

We’re happy to see the arrival of automated red-light cameras in Tacoma. The recent death of a Tacoma boy who was killed by a driver running a red light shows the need for strong enforcement.

About our editorials:
If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to david.seago@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.

The word ricocheting around the blogosphere is that foes of Tim Eyman's latest initiative have succeeded in getting their case to the state Supreme Court.

Still no official confirmation, but since Eyman just issued an unhappy statement to the media, it must be true. Evidently the court agreed to hear an appeal on Sept. 6.

Last month a King County judge summarily dismissed a lawsuit trying to get Initative 960 thrown off the November ballot. The measure, which would require a two-thirds vote of both houses of the Legislature to raise taxes, qualified for the ballot last month.

A big state labor union (SEIU) and the environmental group Futurewise filed suit earlier this year, arguing that the measure is unconstitutional and should not be allowed on the ballot even it qualified. (Futurewise oped here.)
State attorney general Rob McKenna argued that the court has strong precedent for staying out of fights over initiatives until the voters have decided. (His statement on lower-court ruling here.)

So the Supreme Court's decision to hear the case has to be considered a surprising upset.

From Eyman's statement:

The State Supreme Court ruled 9-0 in 2005 that these kinds of
anti-initiative lawsuits are illegal. That unanimous ruling -- Coppernol v.
Reed -- made clear that voters have a First Amendment right to vote on
initiatives. We're confident the High Court will affirm the July 13th
ruling by King County Judge Catherine Shaffer, a Gary Locke appointee, and
voters will get to vote on I-960 in November.

This will be an opportunity for the High Court to send a message to all
anti-initiative groups that they shouldn't go knocking on the court's door
every time an initiative qualifies for the ballot. No one knows whether the
voters will approve or reject any particular initiative and the courts
shouldn't waste their limited time and resources ruling on measures the
voters may not support. The voters have a right to vote and that right
shouldn't be taken away just because a bunch of special interest groups
don't trust the voters.

State Auditor Brian Sonntag says he'll try again next year to win passage of legislation requiring public councils, boards and commissions to tape-record their executive sessions.

A bill Sonntag requested solo this year didn't get anywhere. Next year's proposal will be a joint request with state Attorney General Rob McKenna. If the legality of an executive session is challenged, a judge could listen to the recording of the meeting and determine whether any action was improperly taken in secret. (More on Open Meetings Act here.)

Sonntag, a former Pierce County auditor, also said his agency is conducting a performance audit to determine how well state and local agencies are complying with the Open Records Act. The report is due for release in November.

Incidentially, here's a good blog on open government in Washington state.

Like Dave Barry says, I didn't make this up! Actual press release:

ChickaLatte Beautiful Coffee Opening Next Week

Seattle---August 8, 2007--- "Every day is a cross between Mardi Gras and Halloween" explains Darin Benofsky, speaking of his new drive-through espresso chain called ChickaLatte Beautiful Coffee.

If you've ever dreamed of your favorite barista/model dressed as a nurse, sailor, cowgirl or firefighter then this is the place to come. ChickaLatte is not just another drive-through like the many which are positioned throughout the area. "We empower our barista/models to let their personalities out in the costumes they choose to wear," states Benofsky . . .

I posted earlier about the pains that Art Jarvis, Tacoma's interim school superintendent, is taking to get to know the community. District spokeswoman Leanna Albrecht sent the list of officials and groups he's trying to meet with this month.

Meetings to Schedule for Dr. Art Jarvis

1. TEA – Gayle Nakayama
2. Tour Lincoln and Stadium HS with Planning and Construction
3. TNT – Kris Sherman
4. Tacoma Weekly – Jamie Forsythe
5. Tacoma Black Collective
6. Tacoma Urban League – Dorothy Anderson
7. NAACP – Wanda Stewart Wilder
8. Latino Education Association
9. Tacoma Council of PTA – Lorrie Brunson
10. City Hall – Mayor Bill Baarsma
11. City Manager – Eric Anderson
12. Metropolitan Park District – Jack Wilson
13. Police Chief – Don Ramsdell
14. Boys and Girls Club – Gary Yazwa
15. Safe Streets – Prscilla Licisich
16. Tacoma Ministerial Alliance – Pres. Paul Warren
17. University of Washington Tacoma – Chancellor Patricia Spakes
18. University of Puget Sound – President Ronald Thomas
19. Bates Technical Vocational Institute – President David Borofsky
20. Tacoma Community College –President Pam Transue
21. Junior Achievement of Pierce County – Sue Elkin
22. United Way – Rick Allen
23. Tacoma Chamber of Commerce – David Graybill
24. MESA – State Director Patricia MacGowan

Beats me why my neighborhood, a half-mile north of Tacoma’s Proctor District, should have a “walk score” of only 57 out of 100. With miles of nicely gridded streets and sidewalks and panoramic views of Commencement Bay, it’s a terrific neighborhood for walking.

But Walkscore.com, a new website that ranks communities for their “walkability,” says my neighborhood is barely above average.

This Washington Post article led me to the website, which was started by – of course – three guys in Seattle who figured out another Google Maps mashup. And it looks the highest walk scores go to highly urban neighborhoods chockablock with espresso stands, bars, delis, restaurants, offices and small businesses.

Say, that sounds a lot like Seattle, doesn’t it?

For charity's sake, I will keep Candidate anonymous and Indignant Caller anonymous.

Candidate was endorsed by The News Tribune for the Aug. 21 primary because she was eminently competent and experienced in an office she already held.

Indignant Caller – who caught me a couple days ago – asked, "How could you endorse a woman like that? You must not know anything about her."

Huh? We actually knew quite a bit about her. But one dark secret we'd never learned. After some fishing around, I got to the bottom of things: Indignant Caller lives in the same neighborhood as Candidate. And she's indignant because Candidate walks her dog without a leash.

"Doesn't she know the pet laws?" Indignant Caller said. "That tells a lot about a person."

I tried several tacks. "Are you sure her opponents walk their dogs with leashes?" I asked. And: "I'm not sure her use of a leash has much to do with the office she's seeking."

None of it satisfied Indignant Caller. I tried, I truly did.

Like most newspapers, we decline to publish letters to the editor from active election candidates except in unusual circumstances. We don't want them using our letters columns to advance their campaigns; even a letter about a non-election topic serves to get the candidate's name in the public eye.

But it's worth noting this letter we received from Tacoma port commission candidate Bill Casper.

An engineering consultant for the container and port industry, Casper thinks the Port of Tacoma should help preserve the deteriorating Murray Morgan bridge. State transportation officials would rather see it torn down. The Port of Tacoma isn't fond of the bridge, either.

Time is running out for this beautiful historic structure but it can be saved if a small number of repairs are made annually to slightly gain on the relentless corrosion enemy.

The most serious safety hazard is the suspension system for the giant concrete counterweight that hangs overhead. There are something like 40 wire ropes holding that counterweight. They are rusting away and for decades have been rated unsafe and getting worse each year. Year after year the State postponed replacement for just one more year for no better justification than “It has not failed so it probably will be OK for another year.” Replacing 10% of these wire ropes every year is an example where a small step can gain safety faster than the continuing corrosion is stealing safety.

=> Read more!

Like the rest of the nation, Washington hasn't been increasing its investment in maintenance as roads age and costs rise. As the Minnesota bridge collapse demonstrates, deferring or slighting maintenance means gambling with lives.

Wall Street – and the millions of Americans who invest – is mighty nervous about about the turmoil in the home-mortgage market. It all goes back to something that was clearly a bad idea: making too many loans to people with bad credit. In other words, greed and irresponsibility.

About our editorials:
If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to david.seago@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.

We are 13 days away from the state’s first August primary, and a lot of people are wondering whether a summertime polling date will result in lighter-than-usual turnout.

But Secretary of State Sam Reed thinks the Aug. 21 turnout will be 34 percent statewide, a couple points higher than in the last off-year primary in 2005.

Reed believes an increase in all-mail voting will offset the effect of a mid-August election date. All counties except Pierce, King and Kittitas now use all-mail voting; by 2008, Pierce County will be the only county still offering some traditional polling places.

Pierce County Auditor Pat McCarthy has asked the County Council to adopt all-mail voting in 2008, but the council won’t take up the issue until next year.

Check out the secretary of state’s website to see how the office is using MySpace to promote voting.

Why is the Tacoma Rescue Mission dropping out of Housing First, a $1.1 million experiment that takes the homeless out of the local Hoovervilles and puts them in rent-free apartments?

David Curry, the mission's executive director and a City Council candidate, told us why a few days ago. He turns out to be quite quoteworthy. Here are a few of his remarks:

"We have here a lot of people trashing the apartments. They're doing the same illegal things inside the apartments they were already doing."

"We had one guy who was pimping out his girlfriend."

"The program isn't really working because it's fighting human nature."

"I don't think (city officials) really understand what's possible with $1 million and what this program is doing."

"The assumption is what they do (drugs, etc.) in their apartment is their own business. You and I go home and have a couple beers in our house; why should they be any different? But I'm not going home and having a couple beers and having the police called because I'm harassing my neighbors, beating up my wife and pimping her out."

So there, Housing First.

See our editorial today. We endorsed Curry in the primary, by the way.

Environmental activist Bill LaBorde's seat on the Tacoma Utility Board is likely to be filled by someone with a similar outlook.

Transit advocate Peter Thein's nomination was well-received at the Tacoma City Council's committee of the whole meeting today and will face a council vote later this month, Mayor Bill Baarsma reports.

Thein is executive director of the Washington Transit Association. He led the successful 2000 campaign against Tim Eyman's Initiative 745, an anti-transit measure. Baarsma adds:

His interview demonstrated a deep knowledge of the issues facing TPU. And we add a little geographical diversity given that he lives in the 4th district. It is an excellent choice, I believe.

Thein lives on Fawcett Avenue in the neighborhood between Holy Rosary Church and Lincoln High School. LaBorde did not seek reappointment because he is moving to Seattle, where he leads Environment Washington. LaBorde was a transit advocate, too, when worked for Transportation Choices several years ago.

I like the way Tacoma interim school superintendent Art Jarvis is hitting the ground running in his new job. His schedule is packed with meetings, not only with staff but with community leaders and groups.

I ran into Jarvis this week at a restaurant where he was lunching with Metro Parks Director Jack Wilson and Tacoma City Manager Eric Anderson. Jarvis has already scheduled an Aug. 28 meeting with the TNT editorial board to introduce himself and talk about his goals for the year.

This strikes me as the sign of a pro who understands something the departed-but-not-lamented Charlie Milligan did not: A school superintendent needs to build bridges to the community.

Jarvis was superintendent of the Enumclaw district for 11 years and CFO for the Seattle School District for several months before taking the Tacoma job earlier this month.

Tacoma’s Housing First experiment, aimed at giving apartments to people in homeless camps, was given a budget of $1.1 million to house 100 people. There have been surprisingly few takers. If that budget is to make any kind of sense, the housing should be offered to homeless people who aren’t encampment alumni – or else the money should be redirected.

The proposal by Tacoma City Councilman Bill Evans and Tacoma Port Commissioner Connie Bacon to exchange trade offices with a sister city in China should be laid gently to rest. Sister cities are really about cultural exchanges; promotion of international trade is not a city function.

About our editorials:
If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to david.seago@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.

“Restoration of electrical, HVAC and plumbing systems on Tacoma Rail’s Business Coach.”

That cryptic item in a meeting notice Tacoma Public Utilities placed in the TNT made me curious. It turns out that TPU owns a classic 1948 "Streamliner" dining car built by the Edward G. Budd Co. that was only one of 16 made during that era, according to Tacoma Rail Superintendent Paula Henry.

Henry says Tacoma Rail bought it from a private collector in 2003 and had it updated and reconfigured by what was then called the American Orient Express Co. to serve as meeting space. Alas, the car was recently vandalized. Henry adds:

The coach was wireless with flat screens and ready for meeting/company presentations. Tacoma Rail held its annual customer workshops in the car. The car was well received by our customers and many of then wanted to rent for their use. This was the plan until it was vandalized earlier this year. (the thieves have been arrested) The car was located at a City of Tacoma railcar repair shop near Tenino. The cost of repair is approx. $108,000. I expect to recover this cost over time with the rent of the car to private parties. The rent of the car will include use, movement and crews.

Not gonna be a profit center, but it's cooler than hauling containers across the Tideflats.

A reader asks:

Hey David, I got this in the email the other day, is this true?? If it is, please alert our readers in your/our paper. This will be great if we get a clear night.
Hope you don't mind me emailing you this.
Thanks,
J.B.

Subject: Mark your calendar!!!
Two moons on August 27, 2007
The whole world is waiting for August 27.
Planet Mars will be the brightest light in the night sky starting August.
It will look as large as the full moon to the naked eye. This will culminate on August 27 when Mars comes within 34.65M miles of earth. Be sure to watch the sky on August 27 at 12:30 am. It will look like the earth has 2 moons. The next time Mars may come this close is in 2287.

Share this with your friends as NO ONE ALIVE TODAY will ever see it again.

Sorry, J.B.,
Check this link to the urban legends website. The actual event occurred in 2003, and mars was spectacular that night but certainly not the size of the full moon. No reason to stay up late on Aug. 27.
Dave Seago, TNT

--

With the primary election coming up fast, this is a good time to start educating kids about voting. One way is to let them help fill out the absentee ballot, giving you the opportunity to show just how well you understand the concept of a levy lid lift.

Here's a way that may be a little less fraught with parental embarrassment: Let them vote for what name to give Pierce County Library's mascot (pictured). Five candidates are listed, and there's also a write-in option.

To access the election site, click here.

Here's what the Library says:

The mascot is a human-size ladybug. It is red all over with black spots and two antennas. The mascot loves to read, share stories, download music and movies, and play games.
 
Choose from one of five names or write in your own idea. The five names to choose from are Dotty; The Reading Bug; Book Bug (which correlates with the Library’s book buggy that takes books to childcare centers); Lily, the Librarian ladybug; and Spot the ladybug.

=> Read more!

It's been a bad year for the Tacoma School Board, but we believe Debbie Winskill should be elected to her fourth term.

Fourteen fire districts and one city have tax requests on the Aug. 21 ballot. We note that most of them are “levy lid lifts,” asking voters to restore levy funding that has been squeezed by Initiative 747’s 1 percent limit on property tax increases. “Yes’ is the smart answer to these proposals.

About our editorials:
If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to david.seago@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.

Norm Dicks is a piker. True, the 6th District congressman ranks seventh among House members in the dollar value of earmarks inserted in seven current spending bills, according to The New York Times (story). Dicks was credited with 33 earmarks totalling $44,025,000.

Not too shabby, if you like home district pork.

But the undisputed champ is U.S. Rep. John P. Murtha, D-Pa., chairman of the House defense appropriations subcommittee. Murtha has unabashedly inserted a staggering $163 million worth of earmarks, nearly twice that of his nearest rival, U.S. Rep. David Obey, D-Wis.

Dicks has always been a master at bringing home the bacon, but the Democrats’ return to majority control has made him one of the 13 House “cardinals” who head the appropriations subcommittees.

For more data on earmarks, see the Taxpayers for Common Sense website.
I'm working with them to see if we can get a breakdown on Dicks' current earmarks.

Former Puyallup legislator Dan Grimm is returning to a high-profile public role as chairman of a new education funding task force.

Grimm, who was in the House 12 years and ruled its Ways and Means Committe for six, went to work in the private sector after serving as state treasurer for two terms. He has been a member of the Puyallup planning commission and serves on the board of the Washington State History Museum.

Gov. Chris Gregoire announced five task force appointments Friday. Eight other members will represent the Legislature and the state superintendent of public instruction. According to her office:

The Task Force will look at ways to implement a new, comprehensive financing formula for kindergarten through 12th grade education that supports proven education practices and connects money to accountability and results.

Tacoma Utilities Director Mark Crisson will be leaving his post Oct. 24 or Oct. 25, sooner than expected.

Crisson found he would need to start his new job as executive director of the American Public Power Association by Nov. 1. He previously planned to stay on in Tacoma until fall or early winter.

The Utility Board has already hired a search consultant and begun a national search. Board member David Curry, who recently turned over the gavel as president to Bob Casey, said the board hopes to decide by mid-September so that Crisson can help break in his successor.

The field will include both internal and external candidates, Curry said.

The Utillity Board vacancy created by the resignation of Bill LaBorde may be filled in the next week or two. The City Council’s appointments committee will probably present its recommendation to the council Tuesday.

A pair of articles on our July 22 Sunday Insight cover concerned Sound Transit's efforts to choose a route through downtown Tacoma for its Sounder trains. A new timeline has now been announced for making the decision for the so-called D-to-M street route.

The Tacoma Planning Commission will hear a briefing on a feasibility study Aug. 15. The Sound Transit board will be briefed Aug. 23 and will choose its preferred alternative then. After environmental reviews are conducted, a community open house will be held in Tacoma in the fall. Not long after that, board is scheduled to make a final decision.

Two alternatives are under study. Both would cross over Pacific Avenue and travel up or near South Tacoma Way toward South M Street to meet existing tracks to Lakewood. Pacific Avenue would be "depressed" to pass under the grade-level rail crossing.

Readers with questions can call Roger Iwata of Sound Transit at 206-689-4904.

Saturday:

Endorsements for Metro Parks in Tacoma and the Clover Park School Board.

Sunday:

The Minneapolis bridge collapse is a national wakeup call about the deteriorating state of much of the nation’s highway infrastructure. We have plenty of bridges to worry about right here in the Puget Sound region.

Endorsement in the only Puyallup City Council race on the Aug. 21 primary ballot.

Recap of primary endorsements to date.

Monday:

It’s only fair that Tacoma city officials give property owners in the St. Helens district another chance to vote on a $12 million LID project that would help create an “urban village” feel. But it means rejection by even more property owners is likely, in which case the council will be loath to override their wishes like it did the first time around. So a golden opportunity goes down the drain.

About our editorials:
If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to david.seago@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.

Kevin Phelps lived in Seattle before he moved to Tacoma to run the Landmark Conventer Center and got elected to the Tacoma City Council. But he isn't buying the gripes from Seattle port officials about the Port of Tacoma "stealing" NYK Line.

Phelps fired off a letter to the Seattle P-I contending the reason the Port of Tacoma's success is that it focuses almost exclusively on international shipping. Seattle port officials, by contrast, "seem more content to focus on development projects such as a waterfront museum, a conference center, marinas, passenger ship terminals and entrepreneurial centers."

Phelps, who stepped down in 2005 just months before the end of his second term on the City Council, is currently between jobs. Earlier this week he quit as Landmark's general manager after selling his ownership stake to his partner.

Former Tacoma mayor and city councilman Harold Moss says the story that he was recruited by labor to take on City Council incumbent Spiro Manthou is bogus.

But if it weren’t for City Councilman Tom Stenger and a character named Robert “The Traveler” Hill, Moss might not have made it to the ballot at all.

Since I was impertinent enough to brace Moss directly about the "word on the street," I’m going to let Moss tell his story in full. But the last paragraph of his long email account is the best part.

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It was purely coincidence that we had back-to-back ed board meetings today with the Port of Tacoma's hot new "date" and a suitor the port has repeatedly rejected.

First, Port Director Tim Farrell dropped by to introduce Peter Keller, president of NYK Line, which last week inked a deal with the port for a $300 million new terminal on the Blair Waterway.

Then two vice presidents from SSA Marine came by tell us about their company and plans for a $411 million new terminal it plans to build in partnership with the Puyallup Tribe. That terminal, at 198 acres the port's largest, will be next door to NYK on the east side of the Blair.

I'll share my impressions from the two visits in a column Sunday. But the bottom line is we're seeing a fascinating turn in Port of Tacoma history: The port is beautifully poised for a new era of growth, but now it has a competitor on its doorstep. SSA Marine and the tribe want a fair shot at a piece of the action; they're nervous about whether they'll get it.

Washington's death penalty is starting to resemble a Cold War nuclear arsenal: It works by not working.

Pierce County Prosecutor Gerry Horne has complained in the past that condemned murderers basically never get executed in this state unless they insist on it. But he recently found that the death penalty came in quite handy when he promised Terapon Dang Adhahn he wouldn't seek it if Adhahn told him where he left Zina Linnik. Gene Johnson of the Associated Press reported a few days ago that this may reflect an "evolving strategy' on the part of prosecutors of employing the state's capital punishment law as a bargaining chip.

Hence the parallel with an H-bomb. You can't use it in reality; you use it only hypothetically, solely to intimidate. It's a big gun in your holster – just don't try pulling it out. And you might as well bargain it away if you can get something for it.

This is something they never taught you in music appreciation class: Mozart as a crimestopper.

As we recently reported, Pierce Transit is installing a speaker system at its Tacoma Mall Transit Center from which it will play – 24/7 – King FM 98.1 "the classical station." The hope is that gang members, hoodlums and other delinquents will stop haunting the place. It's the same theory behind those ultrasonic devices that supposedly drive insects from your house: The pain in their ears from not-rock, not-hip hop music will be too great for them to endure.

It's worked elsewhere. The London subways tried the same tactic and saw a 33 percent drop in obnoxious behavior by youths.

``The music has reduced the number of youngsters hanging round the stations probably because it is `uncool' for them to be around this kind of music,'' said one subway official.

Nelson Eddy might work even better.

It's not high quality, but to see actual video of a portion of the Minneapolis bridge collapsing, click here.

The AP photo below is NOT taken from the video.

If state schools chief Terry Bergeson seeks a fourth term in 2008, she’ll be in for another rematch against an old foe, Judith Billings.

Billings has already filed to run for superintendent of public instruction next year. If Bergeson runs, it will be the third time the two have opposed each other for the SPI job.

Billings defeated Bergeson in 1992 but didn’t seek re-election after announcing in 1996 that she had contracted AIDS during fertility treatments. (New York Times story.) Bergeson won the open seat in 1996, was re-elected in 2000 and won a third term in 2004 – against Billings.

Although both were former presidents of the Washington Education Association, the teachers union soured on Bergeson and backed Billings in 2004.

With all the grief Bergeson has endured over the controversal WASL exam, it wouldn’t be surprising if she chose to pack it in next year. Bergeson led development of the WASL and suffered a black eye when the math section proved to be unsuitable as a graduation requirement.

Both Billings and Bergeson have Pierce County roots. Bergeson was a counselor at Tacoma’s Lincoln High School. Billings was a principal at Puyallup’s Walker alternative high school. Billings gave her residence as Kent in her PDC filing.

I'm looking at the first campaign mailing I've seen from Harold Moss, the former Tacoma mayor and councilman who wants to return to the City Council this fall. It repeats a campaign theme Moss is likely to use against incumbent Spiro Manthou.

Manthou, a first-termer, seldom speaks up at council sessions. Moss, whose last public office was Pierce County councilman in 2004, portrays this as a liability. From the mailer:

From my experience, if a council member is seldom engaged in the discussion of issues before the council, that member is soon taken for granted or is ignored. The council, among its other duties, sets the policies that give directiion to the city manager on how they want him/her to conduct the affairs of city government. The council meeting is the forum in which ideas and directions are finalized. District 1 needs a strong, clear voice on the council to ensure that this district is not taken for granted and is a leader in Tacoma. I want to be that voice.

Not exactly below the belt, but a discernable poke nonetheless. Moss and Manthou are the only two candidates in the District 1 race, so it will decided in November.

Here's how Manthou was quoted in our news story when Moss, 77, first announced:

Manthou admitted he’s not the most vocal council member, but he said that was a good thing. “I’m not out there to blow smoke just because someone wants to hear me talk.” Manthou said he was proud of the City Council’s accomplishments over the last four years. He noted the city’s cleanup of homeless camp sites, a crackdown on nuisance property, an improved budget outlook and the hiring of City Manager Eric Anderson.

“We took back-door meetings out of politics,” Manthou said. Voters will have a choice, Manthou said. “Do you want to continue to grow, or go back to the past?”

Suggested rejoinder for Manthou: "Will Baker was talking so much I couldn't get a word in!"

Or, "Do you want a councilman who carries Geritol in his coat pocket?"

Former Tacoma mayor and Pierce County executive Doug Sutherland (pictured) is already running for a third term as state lands commissioner. His 2008 re-election bid will be tougher than his last one.

Peter Goldmark, one of the state’s most prominent environmentalists, has filed as a candidate. Goldmark, who owns a 7,000-acre ranch in the Okanogan, is a WSU regent and Okanogan School Board member as well as a geneticist who runs his own research lab.

State Sen. Erik Poulsen, D-West Seattle and King County Councilman Dow Constantine are also considering the race but have not filed.

Republican Sutherland is taking no chances. He’s already sending out fundraising mailers warning that “extremists are gearing up . . . We need your help today!” He claims foes seeking “a radical change in direction” and says “out-of-state groups who haven’t been at the table for the last six years” will be “dumping hundreds of thousands of dollars into this race.”

Goldmark, for his part, told the Seattle P-I:

"Doug Sutherland does not serve the public interests, he serves the interests of the timber industry. Our forests are being purchased by Wall Street companies, they are being taken over large sums of out-of-state corporate money that are seeking to do two things with our forests.

"First of all, convert them from forests to housing developments, and secondly to log the forests much more intensively and get a much higher profit margin than they have before.” (Article here.)

Sutherland defeated former governor Mike Lowry in 2000, then state Rep. Mike Cooper in 2004; Cooper ran a late and poorly funded campaign. Although Sutherland claims a "balanced" agenda, most of his support came from timber and business interests.

Rob McNair-Huff, community relations manager for the City of Tacoma and a frequent press contact for us, is an avid birder in his other life. A former president of the Tahoma Audubon Society, he sends this word today:

Wanted to let you know about some sad happenings in the world of downtown avian news today. This morning I received a phone call from a Tahoma Audubon member that a Peregrine Falcon was found dead in the middle of the roadway on the Murray Morgan Bridge downtown.

The Audubon member, our former Education Coordinator Katrina Weihs, stopped and moved the bird to the side of the road, but she wanted to make sure that someone knew about it. Shortly after getting the news, I called my wife at Labor Ready and she touched base with former Tahoma Audubon president Molly Hukari, who is licensed to deal with dead birds and an expert at preserving birds for nature education uses. The bird has been picked up and removed from the bridge, and it will be salvaged if it isn't too damaged.

Meanwhile, one of the adult Peregrine Falcons that nested this year on the Murray Morgan Bridge has been seen circling the bridge in search of what we assume is one of its young nestlings from this year.

It is sad to see that one of this year's nestlings has died, but young raptors often have high mortality rates, as I am sure you already know. Nature is everywhere.

Any T'Birds out there?

Mount Tahoma grads better hurry if they want to catch a last glimpse of their old school.

On my way to and from work, I regularly drive by both the new Mount Tahoma and the 1963-vintage school – which has been home to Stadium and Lincoln students the last couple of years while those schools were being renovated. Demolition is proceeding apace, with much of the site already cleared.

I didn't go to Mount Tahoma, but it's still kind of sad to see a school with so much tradition bite the dust.

UPDATE: I got this email from Randy Lewis, a '71 grad and the City of Tacoma's government relations guy. I think he'd be there swinging a sledge hammer if given half the chance.

Sad to see it go? Not! I am surprised it wasn’t closed long before this. I graduated in 71, when the place had been open less than 10 years and it was already a pit.

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Forget the talk of a special session to rush out new sex offender legislation. Stuff like this shouldn’t be done in the heat of the moment created by the Zina Linnik killing. The governor is right: let a task force examine the issue of tracking sex offenders in the community and take up any recommendations during the next regular session.

Update: The Tacoma School Board endorsement orginally scheduled for Thursday has been postponed.

About our editorials:
If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to david.seago@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.