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Wednesday, October 31st, 2007
Posted by Patrick O'Callahan @ 05:53:10 pm
Here's a Halloween tour of the Murray Morgan Bridge. You'll see why state engineers closed it to traffic last week – probably for good.
A lift span – we hope so, anyway.  Looks like the innards of a shark. It's really the innards of a bridge column.  Rusted through. But it is holding up the bridge (for now).  Note the rusted out rivet head. There are a lot of them elsewhere. All photos courtesy of the state Department of Transportation, which was supposed to maintain this bridge.
Categories: Taking notice
• 1 comment
Posted by David Seago @ 04:11:46 pm
If you like your news raw.....The feds came out today with a new plan to protect endangered salmon on the Columbia-Snake River system, hoping to pass muster with a federal judge in Portland who rejected a previous plan. Is the plan an improvement or not? Depends on who you ask. Environmental groups and fishing interests quickly pronounced the plan no better that the earlier one. They still advocate removing four federally-owned hydro dams on the Snake River. An alliance of utilities, ports, farmers and business groups says the new proposal is a big improvement and should satsify the judge. Here is the raw, unfiltered, immediate reaction from both camps. Just read on.
Categories: Taking notice
• 1 comment
Posted by Cheryl Tucker @ 03:18:59 pm
In the wake of a tawdry sex scandal involving an alleged gay male prostitute, the state House of Representatives didn't waste any time purging Rep. Richard Curtis, R-La Center, from its ranks. News of Curtis' resignation came over the AP wire at 1:52 p.m. Within an hour, his bio was already off the House's online roster. A note on the site read: "This Representative's page is no longer available. The Representative you are looking for is no longer a member of the Legislature and the page has been removed accordingly." However, whoever was responsible for the purge forgot about the Web site's photo page. Curtis' head shot was still there the last time I checked. UPDATE: The photo's still on the site as of 11:35 a.m. Thursday. And I've learned a new term, thanks to a blogger on a Spokesman Review site: "prostidude."
Categories: Taking notice
• 1 comment
Posted by David Seago @ 01:40:37 pm
The chances of restoring or rehabbing the Murray Morgan Bridge in its historic form are receding toward nil, although the city is hiring a consulting firm to make another assessment. All we know at this point is that DOT Director Paula Hammond seems far more interested in resolving the issue than her predecessor, and the city needs the transportation link that was provided by the old bridge. Not replacing the bridge should be off the table. State should establish licensing requirements for house inspectors. Right now, there is no guarantee these guys have any idea what they are doing, and it’s easy for home buyers to end up as victims. About our editorials:
Categories: What's coming
Posted by Patrick O'Callahan @ 11:08:38 am
Before it connected to Sea-Tac Airport, Sound Transit's light rail project used to be ridiculed as the "Train to Nowhere." Now – according to Seattle Times editorialist Bruce Ramsey – it's the "Train to Fife." Maybe his theory is that Fife sounds like a more ridiculous destination than "Nowhere." An excerpt from Ramsey's rail-bashing column in today's Times:
Some opponents of Proposition 1, like Ramsey and King County Executive Ron Sims, have decided it would just cost too much to extend Seattle's light rail line down to low-rent Pierce County. But at least Sims acknowledges that Tacoma – not Fife's car dealerships – would be the terminus of the line. As a destination and population center, Tacoma sounds just a little more credible, don't you think? Maybe that's why Ramsey – no slouch at framing issues – mentions Tacoma nowhere in his column.
Categories: Taking notice
Tuesday, October 30th, 2007
Posted by Patrick O'Callahan @ 05:42:17 pm
If Gary Coy, the owner of Sperry Ocean Dock, succeeds in building a berth for a couple more huge, gray ships near Schuster Parkway, it won't be without a fight. No one who has ever driven Schuster can possibly have missed the two 600-foot military transport vessels – both of them hulking and ugly as sin – that are parked more or less permanently at the dock. Coy wants to do an expansion that would bring in another one or two. Coy came by last week (see Dave Seago's post) to explain and defend. Today the opposition dropped in. This high-powered group included Brown & Haley CEO Pierson Clair, former PLU President Eugene Wiegman and five others – all of them residents of the neighborhood just upland of the dock. Short take: They don't like the oceangoing monsters that are already there, and certainly don't want any more. David Rietmann, CFO of U.S. Oil & Refining, went into the chemistry of the high-sulfur "hydrocarbon particulates" the ships' engines occasionally dump on his property: "That is acid rain in its most extreme form." An old Merchant Marine officer himself, Rietmann has no objection to the vessels per se. "These ships are just doing what ships do. The issue is just proximity to a neighborhood." The group suggested they belonged in an industrial, not a residential, area. When Coy was in, I asked him: "Couldn't you do submarines instead?"
Categories: Taking notice
• 3 comments
Posted by David Seago @ 05:34:35 pm
Terry Conner, former Tahoma Audubon Society president, brought down the house at the group's annual breakfast this morning with a slip of the tongue. Extolling the virtues of birds, Conner noted that arctic terns "circumcise the globe." After the laughter settled, the group presented awards to: State Rep. Pat Lantz, D-Gig Harbor, for work on geoduck legisation.
Categories: Taking notice
Posted by David Seago @ 05:24:06 pm
The Tahoma Audubon's Early Bird Gets the Worm breakfast fundraiser this morning nearly drew a quorum of the Pierce County Council. Council members Shawn Bunney, Dick Muri, Calvin Goings and Terry Lee were on hand. I didn't spot any others, so it apparently wasn't an illegal meeting. The environmental vote apparently counts for something around here. I don't think the electeds came for the packets of bird seed and candy worms that graced the tables. Update: Oops. Four members do count as a County Council quorum. I guess if the members all sat at separate tables they're off the hook. I hope. (Ace TNT columnist Peter Callaghan further sets me straight about this; click "read more" to see his note). Bunney informed me that the council will give the Pierce County Alliance a full hearing on its controversial Prometa drug treatment progam at 2:30 p.m. on Nov. 14. Last week we citicized the council for yanking funding for the program without giving the Alliance a chance to defend it. (Editorial). We expect to publish an oped piece from the alliance on Sunday. Reporters in the newsroom are taking a deeper look at the program's disputed success rate but it won't appear right away. In other council news, Councilman Calvin Goings (D-Puyallup) showered praise on fellow Councilman Dick Muri, R-Steilacoom. Muri's strong stand on a transfer of development rights (TDR) proposal resulted, Goings said, in 5-0 committee approval Monday. Backers of the proposal, which would allow developers to buy development rights from farmland owners in return for greater project density elsewhere, told me Councilman Roger Bush groused about it but ended up voting for it. The vote was a setback for the Master Builders Association of Pierce County, which recently began lobbying for a voluntary approach. Backers are optimistic but wary of potential weakening amendments when the measure hits the full council.
Categories: Taking notice
Posted by David Seago @ 05:50:00 am
What you're about to read here is worth what you paid to read it. It's only a guess. But we think we figured out the odd letter to the editor in today's print edition from Robert Hill, the fella whose referendum-filing spree last spring is the reason for Proposed County Charter Amendment No. 8 on the Pierce County ballot. (We endorsed it.) Even though the amendment is aimed at serial filers like Hill – who filed 14 referenda – he claims to be in favor of it. In fact, he says he's the "official spokesperson" for the amendment. In fact, the amendment was initiated by County Councilman Dick Muri, who thought Hill was wasting taxpayer money spent processing frivolous referendum filings. What Hill is really after, we suspect, is space in the county voters pamphlet. If he gets to be the "official spokesman" for or against any ballot measure, he gets to provide the statement for or against the measure. And Mr. Hill has lots of, shall we say, odd ideas he would like to publicize. We sent Hill an email asking if he really meant to say he was for Amendment No. 8. He replied with a long complaint about how the county auditor rejected the copy he wanted to place in the voter guide. Hence our theory. Incidentally, Hill, who accomplished the feat of finishing behind Will Baker in the August primary race against Tacoma City Councilwoman Julie Anderson, indicated he wil be a candidate for the Legislature next year. Looks like another try for space in the voter guide.
Categories: Taking notice
Posted by Cheryl Tucker @ 05:11:14 am
There’s been some hoopla over a letter sent to Lakewood voters about how Mayor Claudia Thomas should be bounced in favor of her younger opponent (see our editorial today). It was sent by three Lakewood CARES council members, John Arbeeny, Pad Finnigan and Ron Cronk. I thought the whole age issue was kind of funny, given something I know about Herroner: She can really cut a rug (for younger readers, that means she's got moves). I attended an event earlier this year commemorating the 50th anniversary of Alpha Kappa Alpha in the South Sound area. Thomas, a member of AKA, the oldest national sorority geared to black college graduates, helped put on the event. When the music began, Thomas was one of the first to hit the dance floor. And I have to say, she can get down. Literally. She must have the knees of someone half her age. She may be 76, but I hope I have her energy (and knees) when I get there. In case you live outside Lakewood and didn't see a copy of the letter in question, here it is: Monday, October 29th, 2007
Posted by Patrick O'Callahan @ 06:15:38 pm
We noted earlier that $300,000 a year has been accumulating in a special Pierce County historic preservation fund since 2005 – and that people are bound to have conflicting plans for spending that kind of money. Sharon Winters, president of Historic Tacoma, is getting nervous. She notes that the committee charged with figuring out how to allocate the county's money was given a strangely narrow mandate – by the Pierce County Council – to "examine the preservation of historic records and documents, and architectural renderings." Winters wants to see a good share of that money spent preserving historically significant buildings and the like, as the Legislature permitted, not devoted solely to architectural renderings and the like. "I'm puzzled as to why the committee was named 'historical documents' rather than acknowledging the broader language cited in the enabling legislation," she emailed, "It implies that there was already a decision to direct the funding exclusively to document preservation." It's hard to imagine that the council would earmark all this money to saving paperwork. It's also hard to imagine that somebody in county government won't come up with a scheme to divert the money to some program only tenuously connected to saving the county's heritage. The county's vigilant historic preservationists will presumably keep a hawk's eye on what this fund actually winds up funding. UPDATE County Councilman Tim Farrell – who runs the above committee – dropped in Tuesday with a message: No way, no how is he going to let the money go solely to preserving paperwork. He brought in the Oct. 10 committee minutes to prove it; the minutes do make it clear they are talking about "bricks-and-mortar" as well as document preservation. Farrell says he's a hard-core preservationist himself.
Categories: Editorial cartoons
• 2 comments
Posted by David Seago @ 05:42:16 pm
A couple key Pierce County land-use issues are close to being decided by the County Council: the fate of a proposed transfer of development rights program, and the Alderton-McMillin community plan. Lots of behind-the-scenes dickering the past few weeks. Might pop up at the council level this week or next. We have our fingers crossed. In August, we took a stiff editorial shot at Republicans on the council's community development committee for amending the Alderton-McMillin community plan. The plan covers the fertile valley between Sumner and Orting; the amendments would have largely gutted the existing zoning that protects the best farmland in the county. After County Exec John Ladenburg threatened a veto, Councilman Terry Lee (R-Gig Harbor) withdrew his support, and the council sent the plan back to committee. I'm told that county officials have been negotiating a possible compromise with Invesco, the big Sumner-based development company that backed the amendments. A deal might allow Invesco to develop property just south of Highway 410, the so-called Orton Farms site, if Invesco purchases development rights or actual farmland elsewhere in the valley for preservation. Transfer of development rights, or TDRs, allows developers to purchase development rights on ag and forest lands in return for more density inside urban growth areas. The Community Development Committee approved a TDR plan earlier this month and it looked like smooth sailing. (Read our editorial here.) But the Master Builders of Pierce County dropped its previously neutral position and now wants to make the plan voluntary. TDR backers say that would make the program ineffective. I'm told a couple Republican council members who previously backed the proposal are now waffling. Backstage talks on this one, too. I wish this stuff would get done in the open. Too often we find out about these land-use deals too late to give them the scrutiny they deserve.
Categories: Taking notice
Posted by Patrick O'Callahan @ 05:33:30 pm
At least this educator is kissing the staff, not the students.
Categories: Taking notice
Posted by Patrick O'Callahan @ 05:10:59 pm
Driving down Sprague Street after dark last week, my heart was warmed by that rarest of sights: a Tacoma police officer actually lurking on on a side road looking for traffic violations. I've been driving through Tacoma for more years than I'd care to admit, and I think I can count on both hands (OK, maybe a toe or two) the times I've seen a cop on traffic patrol. I thought: They're finally going after those idiot berserkers who run red lights and kill people on occasion. Wishful thinking. As it turns out, the Tacoma Police Department and 49 other law enforcement agencies are currently doing a seatbelt emphasis patrol, passing out $124 tickets to people who've haven't clicked it. Question: Why seatbelts? Drivers who think belts cramp their style threaten only themselves; they're candidates for the Darwin Award. Drivers who tailgate, tempt fate at traffic signals and drag race on city streets threaten the lives of others. In Tacoma, which is so rife with more serious road violations, I'd vote for prosecuting the unbelted under the law of natural selection.
Categories: Taking notice
Posted by David Seago @ 03:35:54 pm
If you've already got your mind set to vote against insurance companies and for Referendum 67, you'll get a chuckle out of this online video ad. If you work for an insurer, it will make you cringe. Nothing too subtle about the tactics of Fuse, a new online advocacy organization launched last month to back "progressive" causes in Washington. Executive Director Aaron Ostrom used to hold the same position with Futurewise, the group Formerly Known As 1000 Friends of Washington. I didn't discover Fuse until today, but Seattle Times political blogger David Postman had this item last summer, asking an appropriate question: Does Seattle really need another liberal activist group?
Categories: Taking notice
Posted by David Seago @ 10:07:15 am
Dino Rossi ends the non-candidate pretense and makes his 2008 rematch with the governor official. He’ll be fighting uphill this time, facing an incumbent who benefits from a strong state economy as well. But Rossi is the best candidate the GOP has, and he’ll be a worthy opponent. Three Lakewood City Council members aligned with Lakewood CARES were out of line in suggesting rather baldly in an open letter that Mayor Claudia Thomas is too old to serve. If voters compare the qualifications of Thomas and her challenger, Lakewood CARES-backed Lisa Ikeda, they’ll be wise to choose age, experience and wisdom over (relative) youth and a lack of qualifications. About our editorials:
Categories: What's coming
Sunday, October 28th, 2007
Posted by David Seago @ 06:49:50 am
Don't look at us. We don't have the answer, either. We're not happy about the state's closure order, like most fans of the historic bridge. But we're holding off editorial comment for now. We were expecting to meet with Mayor Bill Baarsma and City Manager Eric Anderson last week to discuss the situation, but they found they couldn't meet with us until Wednesday. We'd like to hear what they have to say before we tackle the topic. Did get this note from Baarsma:
I have a working theory that one factor at work was the city's reluctance in the Corpuz era ago to take responsibility for maintaining the bridge even if it was repaired or replaced. Plus the fear of seting off a war between preservationists and advocates of a new bridge. In any case, now it could be too costly to repair and too costly to remove. We'll be lucky if we can make a planter out of it. That reminds me: Don Meyer, executive director of the Foss Waterway Development Authority, has a vision of constructing a pedestrian overpass linking the area near the Dock Building and the Foss Waterway Seaport to the bluff above. That's a long way off, if ever. But he's right in that the more pedestrian connections there are between downtown and the Foss waterfront, the better.
Posted by Patrick O'Callahan @ 06:37:16 am
Two articles of faith among many anti-road greenies: 1. We can't build ourselves out of congestion. 2. Highways do nothing but produce sprawl. For some, that's the "case" against Proposition 1, because it would expand and improve highways, not just mass transit. (Forget for the moment that many of the measure's road improvements are HOV lanes – transit projects, in effect.) Here's our latest editorial touting Prop 1. There's truth in both the congestion and sprawl mantras, depending on what project you're talking about. But I personally have seen one highway, Interstate 5, build a big swath of the Puget Sound region out of Old 99's congestion and keep it that way for many years. And journalist David Brewster – a Seattleite, no less! – this week ventured the unorthodox opinion that failing to improve urban highways can produce sprawl. Here's an excerpt from a defense of Prop 1 he posted in his online newspaper, Crosscut:
Categories: Taking notice
• 1 comment
Saturday, October 27th, 2007
Posted by Cheryl Tucker @ 06:00:00 am
With the Nov. 6 election fast approaching, we’re getting a lot of election-related letters. When letters tend to fall heavily on one side of an issue (especially letters that aren’t generated by organized campaigns), it generally indicates how the election will go. If I had to make a prediction based on our letters, I’d say that Referendum 67 – the one that allows triple damages against insurers who unfairly deny claims – is the surest thing on the ballot. We have received many letters from people citing their horror stories in dealing with insurance companies. They write about paying premiums for years, and then when they make a claim, they are denied or lowballed. Often their only recourse is to go to court. Floyd and Kathleen Kuzmick of Gig Harbor had the best story: They got a letter from the insurance agent who sold them their homeowner’s policy asking them to reject R-67. His company is the one they had to sue to get compensation for their severely water-damaged home. This is a company they had paid premiums to for 15 years without making a prior claim. They write:
Needless to say, they plan to vote for R-67. Friday, October 26th, 2007
Posted by Patrick O'Callahan @ 10:20:43 am
In 2002, Tim Eyman attempted to repeal Sound Transit's regional car tab tax with a statewide initiative, I-776. I asked him this morning if he had any thought of trying to undo Prop 1 (the regional transportation package) should the voters approve it Nov. 6. Short answer: Probably not. "It's going to go down, so we don't have to worry about it. In the one in a million chance that voters vote for it, the sales tax is not anything we've gotten hot and bothered about, but the car tab is something we've always felt very passionate about," he said. He and his crew went after Sound Transit in 2002, he said, because the agency hadn't delivered what the voters approved in 1996. But Prop 1's pros and cons have gotten plenty of publicity this year. "Our attitude is if the voters vote for a tax increase, the voters beware."
Categories: Taking notice
Posted by David Seago @ 09:12:09 am
I know what Harold Moss, former member of the Tacoma and Pierce County councils, was doing Thursday afternoon. A recorded phone message was evidence:
As Harold well knows, our ed board endorsed his opponent, incumbent Tacoma City Councilman Spiro Manthou. But I don't think Harold's call was silly. Points for calling in person instead of using robo-caller. And I'm sorry my wife, Anne, didn't get to talk to Harold. He's got her vote.
Categories: Taking notice
• 3 comments
Posted by Patrick O'Callahan @ 07:00:26 am
Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg also got a jab from us in today's editorial for owning stock in Hythiam, the company that licenses Prometa. He sent us this email Thursday explaining his position:
Categories: Taking notice, Editorial outtakes
Posted by Patrick O'Callahan @ 06:51:07 am
You'll note that this blog has been devoting a lot of real estate lately to Prometa, the Pierce County Alliance and the Pierce County Council. We jabbed councilmembers Shawn Bunney and Dick Muri in an editorial today for using a quick-and-dirty probe to jam through a cutoff of funding for the Alliance's experiment with Prometa. Here's their side of the story: Bunney: "There were some pretty serious contentions coming off the audit. We can virtually immediately release those funds if they can show us we're wrong. ... I don't like the idea that we are marketing a private company using the image of Pierce County. This in my opinion is going to (make us) a laughingstock for falling for a scam artist." Muri: "We should not have given them the money in the first place. It's a theory with no scientific background and basis; it has all the markings of snake oil ... Thursday, October 25th, 2007
Posted by David Seago @ 06:27:32 pm
Friend of the Port Ronnie Bush came back from today's Tacoma Port Commission study session buoyant about the prospects for getting commission meetings on the air or the Internet. The Friends of the Port group she and former port employe Dick Dorsett founded this year recently asked the port commission to either broadcast its meetings on public television or at least use streaming video to make them available online. Port Communications Director Rod Koon, Bush reported, gave the commissioners a postive report on the potential for online video.
Categories: Taking notice, Editorial outtakes
Posted by David Seago @ 03:15:51 pm
Officials of a nonprofit drug-treatment program whose funding was yanked by the Pierce County Council on Tuesday met with the ed board this morning. (Wednesday's news story here; Thursday's here.) Bottom line: They criticized Republican council members Shawn Bunney and Dick Muri for "orchestrating" a critical audit report and "blindsiding" the alliance without giving the alliance a fair hearing. They defended the program, said the new drug shows great promise, and said they "would do it again" without reservation. They contended that the "auditors" who prepared the critical report were not qualified and did not give them the opportunity to respond to negative findings that is customarily part of audit procedures. Jack Hill, former head of the county's Department of Assigned Counsel and president of the alliance board when the program was launched, staunchly defended the program. The ed board and senior news editors questioned the officials about the executive director's purchase of stock in the company licensing Prometa, the drug the alliance is pilot-testing in treatment for meth and cocaine addiction. Our first editorial on this issue will appear Friday. We think people should reserve judgment about the Prometa trial for now. More questions need answers. Our news reporters – remember, the newsroom and the ed board operate independently – are still digging into the story. We do think the council should have acted with more deliberation.
Posted by David Seago @ 02:16:51 pm
There are still a lot of questions surrounding the Pierce County Alliance drug-treatment organization and its Prometus drug-treatment program, but one thing we’re sure of is that the County Council didn’t give Alliance officials a fair chance to tell their side of the story before yanking county funding. Our endorsements in the Federal Way School Board race. This election is a chance for voters to steer the board away from its tendency to get distracted by minor issues like flip-flops. About our editorials:
Categories: What's coming
Wednesday, October 24th, 2007
Posted by Patrick O'Callahan @ 06:02:44 pm
Exciting times in the Pierce County Council chambers this afternoon. The county's pit-bull performance auditors had just released a report raising serious questions about the Pierce County Alliance's experimental Prometa addiction-treatment drug regimen (which is "unproven" or "promising" – take your pick). Wielding the report like a light saber, Councilman Shawn Bunney – a longtime Prometa skeptic – had just succeeded in pulling funding in funding for the pilot project out of the county's budget. The News Tribune's Alex Otto had just reported the above – and the fact that the Alliance's executive director, Terree Schmidt-Whelan, owned shares in Hythiam, the company that licenses Prometa. As did her predecessor, state Rep. Dennis Flannigan. As did (for a while) Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg. All three had advocated public funding for Prometa treatment. You've got the makings of an explosive story here, and it showed when the subject came up at the council's performance audit committee meeting. Committee Chairman Dick Muri, another skeptic, called Prometa "a hypothesis that came out of nowhere."
Categories: Taking notice
• 2 comments
Posted by David Seago @ 03:43:03 pm
We're itching to comment on the concerns surrounding the Prometa drug-treatment program that was being pilot-tested by the Pierce County Allliance, with state and county funding. For the program's director and County Executive John Ladenburg to be owning shares in the company making Prometa looks to us like a serious breach of ethics. However, additional reporting is being done today and we expect a fuller picture to emerge in Thursday's news coverage. Patrick O'Callahan is attending an an audit committee meeting on the matter today. We'll probably opine on Friday. So for Thursday, we'll lead with our endorsement in a hotly contested Puyallup School Board race and publish our annual call for volunteer reading tutors in Tacoma elementary schools. About our editorials:
Categories: What's coming
Posted by David Seago @ 08:50:27 am
Ted Pease, "professor of journalism and interesting stuff" at Utah State University, has a gem in today's edition of his email feature, "Today's Word on Journalism." Deviant punctuation: This makes me feel guilty, because I'm a fan of semi-colons. They are a great substitute for the overused "and" construction that creates compound sentences that should really be separated by a semi-colon – or, as Vonnegut would prefer, a period. (Yes, I went to college). If you want to get on Ted's list, email him at ted.pease@gmail.com
Categories: How we work
• 3 comments
Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007
Posted by David Seago @ 06:00:24 pm
If you’re familiar with the left-leaning The Nation magazine, you probably don’t buy it for the sports coverage. That’s why I was bemused to get a notice today peddling a column on the World Series by one of the magazine’s writers. I wasn’t aware that the Colorado Rockies were considered “God’s team.” I totally missed the flap that resulted last year when the team announced it was looking for players with “character” – meaning that it preferred Bible-believing Christians. Or as The Nation writer David Zirin, put it, players “who have chosen Jesus as their personal Lord and manager.” He dubbed the Rockies “the most sanctimonious team in the majors.” If you ask me, Zirin and The Nation are indulging in some gratuitous faith-bashing here. Check it out here and tell me what you think. Does this mean liberals have to root for the Red Sox? Does Limbaugh have money down on the Rockies? Gimme a break.
Categories: Taking notice
• 5 comments
Posted by David Seago @ 02:56:45 pm
 Gary Coy, the owner of Sperry Ocean Dock, visited the ed board today to explain his controversial to proposal clean up the old Schuster Parkway dock near Tacoma's Old Town and add a second berth for one or two more big ships. (News story). He started off by showing us this image of his original plan for the dock – a 750-foot long building and berth that was to house an equipment-making operation for AT&T. I had forgotten about that: His plan sparked a big civic battle and opposition by city officials. In 1990 Coy won a shorelines permit for the project thanks to a 5-0 ruling by the state Shorelines Hearings Board. But AT&T lost interest and the project died. Coy's point was that he had been legally permitted to build a 750-foot-long structure that would have obstructed water views much more than his current proposal. The new plan calls for a $3 million-plus environmental cleanup of the shoreline and the addition of a second, 600-foot-long berth. It would leave a 100-foot view corridor between the ships moored at the existing berth and the new one. I won't go into all of Coy's argument here, but he emphasizes the environmental benefits of removing nearly 1,600 creosote-soaked pilings and replacing them with 231 concrete pilings. State and federal regulatory agencies like the project because it will reduce contamination and improve salmon habitat, Coy says. Disclaimer: Describing Coy's views here doesn't mean the ed board will support his project. That remains to be seen.
Categories: Who's visiting
• 3 comments
Posted by David Seago @ 11:21:59 am
We endorse SJR 8212, the proposed state constitutional amendment that would allow prison industry programs to operate at state penal institutions. They are an important part of rehabilitation efforts, and will be structured so that they do not compete unfairly with private industry. For example, inmates must be paid wages comparable to private sector, but any restitution, child support and other obligations they have are deducted from those wages. The amendment is necessary due to a state Supreme Court decision that said previous programs represented unfair competition. Our endorsements in Bethel School Board races. About our editorials:
Categories: What's coming
Posted by David Seago @ 05:00:06 am
Not to be outdone by soon-to-be official rematch opponent Dino Rossi, Gov. Chris Gregoire will hit Tacoma Nov. 5 on her own "listening tour" of the state. She'll hold a Town Hall meeting at 7 p.m. in the Stadium High School cafeteria. Her office is taking RSVPs if you want to be sure of a seat. You can do that online here. Or call Ian Morrison at 360.902.4111. Walkups are OK, but once the cafeteria's full, that's it. Click here for directions and parking. The email notice says:
Is the governor campaigning? Of course not. She's being responsive. Was Rossi's "listening tour" as president of the Forward Washington Foundation really campaigning? Of course not. He was just gathering ideas. To quote the late, great Vonnegut, "So it goes."
Categories: Taking notice
Monday, October 22nd, 2007
Posted by Cheryl Tucker @ 10:00:00 pm
This editorial will appear in Tuesday's print edition. Johnson and Petrich for port commission Port of Tacoma Commissioner Jack Fabulich’s retirement after 30 years leaves a big hole to fill in the Nov. 6 election. Fabulich has seen the port evolve from a sleepy backwater to a major presence in West Coast shipping. And the port’s best days are still ahead, if the port continues to benefit from favorable economic trends and from strong leadership from elected commissioners and executive staff. Port commission candidate Don Johnson is a perfect fit to replace Fabulich, the former Parker Paint president who is currently the only commissioner with significant experience as a corporate executive.
Categories: What's coming
Posted by Patrick O'Callahan @ 05:30:49 pm
Ann Daley, the executive director of the state Higher Education Coordinating Board, was in today with some dismal statistics. First, leakage from what's known as the "pipeline": Out of about 95,000 ninth graders in the state, about 83,000 make it to the 12th grade. Of those, about 71,000 actually graduate from high school. Of those, about 38,000 get to college – either a 2-year or 4-year program. Of those, less than 19,000 actually get their degrees. Washingtonians, says Daley, rank 36th in the nation in earning bachelor's degrees and 38th in earning science and engineering degrees. (This isn't because we can't do homework; it's because there aren't enough college seats for our would-be students.) Yet – get this – we're No. 1 in the nation in hiring engineers and No. 6 in hiring computer science people. That means: a) We're giving many of our best jobs to other people from other states because we're undereducating our own children. b) We're exporting many of our brightest students to states where there are seats for them – and many of them never come back. And, c) many parents must pay private or out-of-state tuition because we're "saving" money by providing less college opportunity to Washingtonians. A shame all around, I'd say.
Posted by Cheryl Tucker @ 05:08:24 pm
Here’s a curious reason to vote for a candidate: Because she’s younger. At least that’s the insinuation in a letter sent to Lakewood voters signed by Lakewood City Councilmen John Arbeeny, Ron Cronk and Pad Finnigan. It supports fellow Lakewood Cares member Lisa Ikeda over Mayor Claudia Thomas for Position 6. Their letter reads, in part:
What the three signees don’t mention is their own role in the ripeness of the council. Let’s just be nice and say that they aren’t exactly spring chickens either. Although Arbeeny is retiring from the council, the other two better hope that age isn’t an issue if they seek re-election. Curiously, the three also endorse another Lakewood Cares candidate, J. Paul Wagemann – even though he’s obviously quite a bit older than the Position 7 incumbent, Walter Neary. Age apparently isn’t an issue for them in that race. The letter very well could backfire in Lakewood, where the electorate tends to be older and retired. At least one can hope that voters reject this really low blow against the much-respected Thomas, the state's first black female mayor.
Categories: Taking notice
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Posted by David Seago @ 02:19:38 pm
Breaking news from the AP at 3:45 p.m.
Previous clues below: Peter Callaghan notes in the Political Buzz blog the rampant speculation that Dino Rossi will stun the state this week with the shocking news that, yes, he IS going to run for governor in 2008! Another sign – well, maybe two signs – that Rossi is about to “come out” soon are: (1) He’s speaking Wednesday to the Seattle Rotary Club, one of the state’s premier public forums, on “State Government’s Role in Creating Economic Growth” and (2) Rossi’s stepping down as president of the Forward Washington Foundation, which provided a legally non-partisan platform non-candidate Rossi used to criss-cross the state making public appearances. Former Senate Majority Leader Dan McDonald, a Bellevue Republican, will succeed Rossi at Forward Washington. In case you forgot, former Republican legislator Rossi just narrowly lost in 2004 to Chris Gregoire in the closest gubernatorial race in state history.
Categories: Taking notice
Posted by David Seago @ 01:58:52 pm
Pierce County’s laws against vicious dogs are all but toothless, as The News Tribune’s Saturday reporting on dangerous dogs demonstrates. The county should adopt the same legal tools against problem dog owners that Tacoma is considering. We endorse retiring Simpson Tacoma Kraft Co. executive Don Johnson and incumbent Clare Petrich for seats on the Tacoma Port Commission. About our editorials:
Categories: What's coming
Posted by David Seago @ 01:11:08 pm
If you don't like President Bush or the Republican Party, be sure to vote for Referendum 67. That was the message in a pro-Referendum 67 mailer that arrived at my home Saturday. Injection of such a partisan note in a fight over a statewide ballot measure surprised me. But then, Republicans have long accused trial lawyers of being a wholly owned subsidiary of the Democratic Party. This mailer may prove their point. It features a photo of George W. Bush standing next to piles of cash superimposed over the outline of the U.S. The text says:
On the reverse side:
The referendum represents the insurance industry's challenge to a new law passed by the Democratic-controlled Legislature. The law allows judges to awared triple damages in in lawsuits in which insurers are found to have unfairly denied claims. (Reject67 site here). Trial lawyers, of course, are major backers of the law, but they're being heavily outspent by insurers in the campaign fight. Given Washington's "blue state" status and the 2005 defeat of an initiative capping medical-malpractice damages – another measure backed by insurers as well as doctors – it makes sense for the pro camp to play the partisan card. But it isn't pretty. Remember, voting "yes" on Referendum is a vote for the new law. A "no" vote is a vote for repealing it. As TNT columnist Peter Callaghan put it Sunday, which side do you distrust less? See our editorial on Referendum 67 here.
Categories: Taking notice
Posted by David Seago @ 12:22:14 pm
A lot of campaign mailers were strategically timed to arrive along with the mail ballots Saturday. One from Elly Claus-McGahan caught my eye. The former UPS math professor is challenging 18-year incumbent Debbie Winskill for a Tacoma School Board seat; so far she has run a much more visible campaign. Claus-McGahan also touted some significant endorsements. Backers included the Central Labor Council, Metro Parks commissioner Ryan Mello, state Rep. Dennis Flannigan, Tacoma City Councilwoman Julie Anderson and black community leaders Tom Hilyard, Tom Dixon and Bil Moss. Haven't seen any mailings or endorsement proclamations from the Winskill camp yet.
Categories: Taking notice
Posted by David Seago @ 12:08:28 pm
For readers who follow school-reform efforts in Washington and elsewhere, a new blog created by the Partnership for Learning is worth checking out. (Find the blog here) The latest post today, for example, links to a story about New York City Mayor Bloomberg's proposal to provide bonuses to teachers who succeed in raising test scores in high-poverty schools. Bloomberg hopes to get around union opposition by basing the bonuses on each school's performance rather than the results in individual classrooms. Each school's teachers would divvy up the bonus. The Partnership is an offshoot of the Washington Roundtable, a group that represents the state's larger businesses and has strongly backed the standards-based reforms, including the WASL, that the Legislature launched more than a decade ago.
Categories: Taking notice
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