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Wednesday, April 30th, 2008
Posted by Patrick O'Callahan @ 05:38:47 pm
My goodness. We thought there were only three ways to fix the quake-damaged Alaskan Way Viaduct: rebuild it as an elevated highway, replace it with a conventional trench-and-cover tunnel, or replace it with a surface boulevard. Make that three-and-a-half: For a while, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels was pushing a skinnier trenched tunnel. But the state Department of Transportation didn't like the looks of his Tunnel Lite. Seattleites, Gov. Gregoire, King County Executive Ron Sims and others fought each other to near-exhaustion over those options. Now – after all the shin-kicking – the DOT has just spread out a menu of 10 options. These include a bridge over Elliott Bay, a retrofit of the existing viaduct, alternative surface routes and three different species of tunnel – including one created by a Dune-sandworm-style boring machine. Question: It's been more than seven years since the Nisqually earthquake left the viaduct looking as doomed as New Orleans' pre-Katrina levees. Several of these new alternatives actually look promising. Why on earth has it taken the state so long to put them on the table? Cheap shot: Of course, the DOT may have worried that the perpetually conflicted, process-ridden city of Seattle might have succumbed to complete paralysis had it faced 10 entrees instead of three.
Categories: Taking notice
• 1 comment
Posted by David Seago @ 12:05:37 pm
We don’t have much quarrel with the U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding Indiana’s voter ID law, although the majority opinion acknowledged that Republican backers of such measures have not demonstrated there is an actual problem of voters trying to cast ballots using false identities. Washington has looser voter ID requirements, and they appear to be sufficient — as long as election officials do their jobs competently and carefully. A new Census report showing a $1 billion active-duty military payroll in Pierce County actually understands the economic impact of McChord and Fort Lewis. It doesn’t include the 11,000 civilian workers who work for the military here. Pierce County is fortunate that the long-term future of the now-combined bases appears relatively secure. About our editorials:
Categories: What's coming
Posted by David Seago @ 11:09:20 am
A reader comments:
My response:
Categories: Taking notice
Posted by David Seago @ 05:21:28 am
The Legislature voted to allow it, but would publicly funded political campaigns work in Pierce County? Would citizens go for it? A panel of speakers will explore the topic at a public forum Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Saturday at Tahoma Unitarian Universalist Church, 1115 S. 56th St. Panelists include Tacoma City Councilwoman Marilyn Strickand, Seattle City Councilman Nick Licata, Craig Salins, director for Washngton Public Campaigns, and Julio Quan, former director of Tacoma's Centro Latino. The event is sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Tacoma-Pierce County, Washington Public Campaigns, the Pierce County chapter of America in Solidarity and the Tahoma Unitarian congregation.
Categories: Taking notice
Tuesday, April 29th, 2008
Posted by Patrick O'Callahan @ 06:46:58 pm
The election-day nightmare of Republicans is voting fraud, traditionally the specialty of Democratic machines. The election-day nightmare of Democrats is vote-suppression, the specialty of shifty conservatives who worry about the rabble's political inclinations. The masters of suppression were the old-time Southern Democrats who devised poll taxes, literacy tests, lynching and various other tactics to keep blacks from voting. No – take that back. The masters were the founding fathers, who restricted the franchise to white, male property owners. That's the political context of the U.S. Supreme Court's decision Monday to uphold Indiana's voter-ID law. Indiana's Republican Legislature in 2005 required voters to produce government-issued, photo IDs when they showed up at the polls. Democrats challenged the law, fearing it would discourage voting by marginalized citizens with no picture ID. John Paul Stevens, arguably the court's most liberal member, wrote the main opinion upholding the law. The Democrats had pointed out that the Republicans could point to no actual fraud that justified the ID requirement. Perhaps, said Stevens, but neither had the Dems been able to point to any actual suppression that justified overturning it. Disputes over who gets to vote and who doesn't should be of keen interest to Washingtonians, in light of the incredibly narrow gubernatorial election we saw in 2004. Gregoire, on the second recount, won by 129 votes out of more than 2.8 million cast – one of the closest elections, in percentage terms, in history. (Gregoire, by the way, says she's still asked about that infinitesimal margin wherever she goes in the world.) So are we a fraud state or a suppression state? As with Indiana, there's not much evidence of one or the other here, but fraud and allegations of fraud have certainly been more in the news. With motor-voter registration, mail balloting and other super-easy-to-vote policies on the books, most of the complaints have been coming from Republicans – especially since those bundles of ballots kept mysteriously materializing in King County after the election four years ago.
Categories: Taking notice
• 1 comment
Posted by David Seago @ 06:22:55 pm
Scott Winship, the kind of community volunteer who surely deserves the “servant leader,” has added another title to his long list of civic contributions: He’ll be the 2008 board president for United Way of Pierce County. Winship, currently an attorney for Vandeberg, Johnson & Gandara, has alternated between banking and the law for more than 20 years. He was president and CEO of North Pacific Bank when it was sold in 1998 and helped found Northwest Commercial Bank in Lakewood. On the community service side, Winship has been board chair for both MultiCare Health Foundation and the Nonprofit Center and president and a board member for the Municipal League of Tacoma-Pierce County. He’s also a member of the board for Tacoma Rotary #8. On the side, he helps his wife Karla raise a couple of teenage sons. I got to know Winship when we both participated in a year-long American Leadership Forum class with other Pierce County members. I’ve met a lot of politicians and community leaders, but few “give back” as much as Scott.
Categories: Taking notice
Posted by David Seago @ 10:37:19 am
Pierce County labor and antiwar activists expect dockworkers to shut down all West Coast ports for an eight-hour shift on May to protest the war in Iraq and support worker rights. Activist websites talk as though the action by the International Longshore & Warehouse Union is a done deal, but there's nothing on the ILWU's own website today confirming strike plans. No independent local confirmation yet. The newsroom is chasing it down. This email is going around in Pierce County labor circles:
Update: Note from reader....
Categories: Taking notice
• 2 comments
Posted by David Seago @ 09:54:40 am
Rev. Jeremiah Wright is doing his best to wreck Barack Obama’s presidential bid. Obama needs to have a Sister Souljah moment regarding the pastor. Auburn School Board shouldn’t even have considered creating a special advisory committee that would meet privately to interview and evaluate superintendent candidates. A meeting like that can’t be an executive session. About our editorials:
Categories: What's coming
Posted by David Seago @ 05:58:23 am
In some of Washington's rural areas, teachers and administrators are among the best-paid workers in the community. Their jobs are usually recession-proof, unlike those of most of their neighbors. In an unusual acknowledgment of hard economic times in Clallam County, 21 school principals, assistant principals and district level administrators in the Port Angeles School District have volunteer to forego their 2.4 percent "step increases" next year. (News story). The move would save the district around $33,000, but the school board needs to make about $500,000 in cuts to next year's budget. The district is hurting from steep enrollment declines and "unfunded mandates" from the state. In recent years it has closed and consolidated schools to cut costs. The school board hasn't yet considered the offer. Like teachers, the administrators would still get pay increases approved by the Legislature. A telling statistic: The Port Angeles district has lost 750 students since 1970, reflecting the steady decline of a timber-based economy. The district expects to lose 100 students next year and another 100 more the following year. A grim picture.
Categories: Taking notice
Monday, April 28th, 2008
Posted by Cheryl Tucker @ 06:32:06 pm
You knew it was going to be a different sort of author's talk when the speaker walked to the podium in full kilt, preceded by several minutes of bagpipe music.  Scottish author Alexander McCall Smith gave one of the funniest, smartest, warmest talks I've ever heard Saturday at Pacific Lutheran University. And as far as I can tell, he spoke for 40 minutes without notes before answering a good many questions from the audience. Pierce County Library estimates about 1,600 people attended. Smith stayed for about two hours after the talk and signed books for an estimated 400 people. Smith was at PLU as part of Pierce County Reads, the program (co-sponsored by The News Tribune) in which everyone is encouraged to read a particular book and discuss it. The first library selection was Smith's "The Ladies No. 1 Detective Agency," the book that begins a series about Botswana detective Precious Ramotswe and the interesting people in her life. I've read the first eight books in the charming series and can't wait to start the ninth, "The Miracle at Speedy Motors." (Speedy Motors is the garage run by Ma Ramotswe's husband, Mr. J.L.B. Maketoni.) I can't begin to capture the flavor of Smith's talk – which focused on the "small things" in life that give it meaning and flavor. He told delightful anecdotes, and revealed that his proudest achievement isn't becoming a lawyer, teaching at Edinburgh University or writing scores of books (he has several different series going), but co-founding The Really Terrible Orchestra in Edinburgh, Scotland. He continues to play bassoon in the orchestra, or at least the lower notes. To hear a podcast interview with Smith, check out the Pierce County Library site here. If you attended the event and have a favorite anecdote to share, feel free to leave a comment.
Categories: Who's visiting, Taking notice
Posted by David Seago @ 06:31:18 pm
Whoo, that's a nasty cut Washington state Democratic Party chairman Dwight Pelz took at John McCain today. "Job-Slayer John McCain," a party press release dubbed the Republican, who brings his campaign to Washington next month. Here's the logic. McCain hates Boeing, loves Airbus. If Boeing loses its appeal and Airbus and Northrup Grumman get the big Air Force tanker contract, we can thank McCain for "outsourcing 9,000 Washington jobs to France." McCain's a Republican. So are Dino Rossi and Rob McKenna, running for governor and attorney general, respectively. So Rossi and McKenna are guilty – by association – of killing Washington jobs, too – unless they disavow the GOP's presidential candidate. Fat chance. But it was an entertaining piece of partisan malarkey.
Categories: Taking notice
Posted by Patrick O'Callahan @ 05:41:41 pm
For more proof that wishes are not horses, read Vision 2040. This is the grand plan for the region's future just approved by the conglomerate of local governments known as the Puget Sound Regional Council. In a recent Crosscut posting, former Transportation Secretary Doug MacDonald pitilessly dissects the document's blueprint for regional population growth. His critique is well worth reading in its entirety, but here are a few highlights: Vision 2040 anticipates 1.7 million new people living in King, Pierce, Snohomish and Kitsap County by 2040. About a third of them are supposed to move to the "metropolitan" cities: Seattle, Tacoma, everett, Bremerton and Bellevue. Another 21 percent are supposed to move to such "core" cities as Lakewood, Puyallup, Auburn, Federal Way and the like. The idea is to channel the growth to logical places with existing roads, sewers, etc., and keep subdivisions from overrunning the countryside. It's not working, MacDonald points out. Seven years into the plan's 40-year horizon, only 13 percent of the growth – not 32 percent – has happened in the metropolitan cities. Another 13 percent has happened in the secondary core cities – not 21 percent. Most of the newcomers have materialized right where the planners don't want them to be: small cities and towns, and rural areas. In these seven years, Bonney Lake grew by 40 percent, Arlington by 33 percent, Mill Creek by 26 percent. And so on. Growth control? What growth control?
Categories: Taking notice
• 2 comments
Posted by David Seago @ 02:44:44 pm
Matt Rosenberg, who writes a knowledgable transportation blog for the Cascadia Center, offers a cleverly succinct analogy for congestion pricing:
The Cascadia Center, a unit of the Seattle-based Discovery Institute, promotes alternative solutions to transportation and development problems. The Center is a big fan of congestion pricing, which will get its first real-world test in Washington beginning Saturday. That's when the state DOT opens its first HOT lane on nine miles of SR 167 from Auburn to Renton. Tolls will range from 50 cents to $9, depending on the time of day. If the four-year experiment goes well, the state may expand it to to other highways in the region, including interstates 90 and 405. Rosenberg offers other updates on tolling issues in today's post. Did you know there's a scholarly journal calling Tolling? I think there's one on Rosenberg's bedside table.
Categories: Taking notice
Posted by David Seago @ 12:31:18 pm
Along with daffodils and tulips, I spotted a couple blue Shawn Bunney campaign signs sprouting at a busy intersection in Tacoma's North End, deep in the heart of the reliably Democratic 27th legislative district. Bunney is the lone Republican contender for Pierce County executive in November's ranked-choice voting election. In any other year, Bunney would be off to an early start in the sign campaign. Filing week is the first week of June. Remember the days when candidates traditionally waited until filing week or just before to put up signs? Court decisions, one of them in a Tacoma case, have busted legal bans on too-early campaign signs. And Democratic Pierce County Councilman Calvin Goings set the all-time record for going early on the sign front when he or his supporters put up some early last fall. This year's primary election is Aug. 19, and it's a legislative year, so expect yard signs to mushroom all over pretty soon. Call 'em litter on a stick if you like, but they're part of the price we pay for democracy.
Categories: Taking notice
• 2 comments
Posted by David Seago @ 12:16:47 pm
Washington's U.S. Sen. Patty Murray does a pretty good job of sticking up for ordinary folks as much as she can, befitting her political roots as "a mom in tennis shoes." She'll be taking on the oil companies in a speech on the Senate floor Wednesday morning. A weekly schedule from her office says she will . . .
No word what legislative action, if any, she will propose. I think it makes sense to reduce some of the long-standing and no longer justifiable federal tax breaks the oil companies have enjoyed. But targeted profits directly is a trickier proposition. As the Wall Street Journal noted in a recent editorial (that I can't find right now),
Categories: Taking notice
Sunday, April 27th, 2008
Posted by David Seago @ 05:40:51 am
No surprise that a Weyerhaeuser spokesperson responded to our previous blog item about the big tax break it seeks in the farm bill now pending in Congress.
One of the arguments for the tax revision is that it will help companies like Weyerhaeuser stave off pressure to sell close-in timberlands for development instead of managing them for long-term forestry. Mindful of our disappearing forests in Washington, I can see that. But I'd like to know what the federal revenue loss would be. Unfortunately, the farm bill is by and large a turkey – bloated and packed with crop subsidies that are no longer justified. Here's a Weyerhaeuser fact sheet on the TREE provision.
Categories: Taking notice
Saturday, April 26th, 2008
Posted by Kim Bradford @ 06:25:21 am
"Dirty Jobs" host Mike Rowe (whose foray into geoduck farming produced the groaner "Is that a geoduck in your pocket or are you just glad sashimi?") has nothing on the poor soul who will have to sort through the muck in an escalating fight over the giant clams. Taylor Shellfish, as expected, last week petitioned both the Shorelines Hearings Board and Thurston County Superior Court to review a Pierce County hearing examiner's decision that jeopardizes the company's ability to harvest millions of dollars of geoducks planted along the shoreline in Case Inlet. (Here's our editorial on the issue, and a good overview from NPR.) Pierce County is also asking the hearing examiner to reconsider his ruling on several issues, the most significant being the shoreline designation at Taylor's farm. The hearing examiner said the site is located partially in a "conservancy" shoreline and partially in a "natural" shoreline; the county claims the whole thing is "natural." It's a pivotal issue. New regulations passed by the Pierce County Council last year might outlaw future aquaculture at Taylor's current site if, as the county alleges, the shoreline is designated entirely "natural." Friday, April 25th, 2008
Posted by David Seago @ 11:45:38 am
Saturday: Contributions from Boeing and its workers to United Way drives in the Puget Sound region have topped the $500 million mark. That generosity deserves recognition. Sunday: U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks is not taking a back seat to Sen. Patty Murray in fighting the Air Force tanker contract award that went to an Airbus consortium instead of Boeing. Declaring he has “lost all faith” in the Air Force, Dicks says he’ll try to block funding for the contract. Startling words from such a defense hawk. But Dicks, Murray and company have to make a truly compelling case that the Air Force blew it before persuading Congress to overturn a major procurement decision. The Tacoma School Board opted for a known quantity in sticking with interim Superintendent Art Jarvis for the permanent job. Jarvis has restored stability to the district, but that is not what the district needs going forward. It needs a serious push for measurable progress on student achievement and the dropout rate. The board should set high expectations for Jarvis and hold him accountable. Monday: The rise of commercial and residential development near Sound Transit’s light rail corridor in Seattle’s Rainier Valley demonstrates the potential for future light expansion to promote higher-density urban development throughout the region. About our editorials:
Categories: What's coming, Taking notice
Posted by Kim Bradford @ 11:37:17 am
More trouble for the Metro Parks board today. We're hearing that the Community Council of Tacoma last night voted to tell the park district board that the council is "losing confidence in your ability to manage and represent the best interests of the citizens of the district." The council is made up of three representatives from each of the eight Neighborhood Councils. Neighborhood activists are upset with Metro Parks over, among other things, a revenue task force report that suggested new ways to make money off public parks. We said last week that the board needs to do more to build public trust.
Categories: Taking notice
Posted by Cheryl Tucker @ 10:44:11 am
This e-mail is going around among McCain supporters (thanks, Dad!).
Now, I drive with my headlights on all the time. Does that mean I support Ralph Nader?
Categories: Taking notice
• 3 comments
Posted by David Seago @ 05:59:24 am
Who knew that Montana's U.S. Sen. Max Baucus was such a friend of the Weyerhaeuser Co. and other U.S. forest-products companies? And that they were such good friends of his? Although Weyerhaeuser owns no timber in Montana, Democrat Baucus is leading the fight to win a $100 million tax break for the Federal Way-based company. Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Baucus wants it added to the giant farm bill Congress is struggling to pass. Baucus' provision wold effectively lower Weyerhaeuser's top income tax rate to 15 percent from 35 percent, according to a Wall Street Journal report. A Weyerhaeuser spokesman and Baucus' office say the tax break is needed to keep the U.S. forest-products industry "globally competitive." I make no judgment about the merits of the proposed tax break. But the Center for Responsive Politics reports that Baucus has received $82,450 in contributions – more than any other candidate for federal office – from individuals and groups with ties to the forest products industry. This article from The New York Times outlines what a bloated travesty the farm bill has become. Among other excesses, it includes nearly $500 million in tax breaks for the thoroughbred horse racing industry. The president has threatened to veto it. We're with him on this one.
Categories: Taking notice
Thursday, April 24th, 2008
Posted by David Seago @ 03:38:13 pm
If I had a Stanford alumni ring, I’d throw it into the bay.  I just learned that Stanford and Cal were considered for the official archives of the Grateful Dead but lost out to UC Santa Cruz. (UCSC crows in a news release here). As far as I am concerned, Stanford’s reputation as a citadel of learning and culture is in the toilet. Henceforth, my alumni contributions are truckin’ on to some other school. Anonymous and ashamed member of Stanford Class of ‘71 (If you don't know that's Jerry Garcia pictured here, you just wasted your time on this item. On the other hand, they say that if you can remember the Sixties, you weren't there.)
Categories: Taking notice
• 10 comments
Posted by Kim Bradford @ 03:33:53 pm
Here's what we have planned for tomorrow: Washington lawmakers should fix a law that makes it harder for Simpson to market renewable power from a new plant. Brown & Haley is helping meet the demand for premium chocolate with its yummy new Roca Buttercrunch Thins. About our editorials:
Categories: What's coming
Posted by Kim Bradford @ 02:51:18 pm
They can dynamite cultural relics and destroy girls schools. But when the Taliban starts knocking out cell phone towers, they apparently have gone too far.
Categories: Taking notice
Posted by Patrick O'Callahan @ 02:01:00 pm
Another reason we love living in the USA.
Categories: Taking notice
Posted by Patrick O'Callahan @ 01:18:04 pm
Want more evidence that this is the silly season? I just got this e-mail from a regular conservative correspondent who's always good for punchy commentary. Said correspondent cites a Crosscut report that gubernatorial rivals Dino Rossi and Chris Gregoire have taken their campaigns hybrid:
Rossi's Escape: 28 mpg. Gregoire's Tahoe: 21 mpg. Could the choice in November be any more clear?
Categories: Taking notice
Posted by Cheryl Tucker @ 10:57:01 am
Each Wednesday from 10 to 11 a.m., columnist Leonard Pitts Jr. answers readers’ questions in an online chat on www.miamiherald.com. Below are excerpts from this week’s chat. To read the entire Q&A, click here. Q: What is the hardest story that you had to write? Q: At what point would you draw the line between government responsibility to its citizens and citizens to help themselves? If given the chance I would ask the presidential candidates the same thing.
Categories: Taking notice
Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008
Posted by David Seago @ 11:47:26 am
A long-awaited arbitrator’s decision on a city contract with police union is a mixed bag. The city is going to have to give police retroactively much bigger wage increases than other city employees got, cutting the amount of money the city can spend to hire more officers. But at least the list of cities used for establishing “comparables” will be realistically based on other Washington cities instead of California, where costs of living are much higher. Going forward, police can’t expect to see pay increases as generous as they’ve had in the past. Federal Way city officials were prudent to end the city's trial of the controversial Prometa protocol for treating drug addiction. The money state lawmakers budgeted to pay for a scientific UW study of Pierce County's Prometa experiment will give policymakers a better idea of its worth.
Categories: What's coming
Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008
Posted by David Seago @ 09:09:13 pm
Here's our editoral take on today's Democratic presidential primary in Pennsylvania. Dems’ headache worsens Hillary Clinton defeated Barack Obama by a 10-point margin. But that didn’t immediately translate as the kind of commanding win Clinton needed to rejuvenate her flagging campaign. At the same time, Obama’s unimpressive showing meant he wasn’t able to land the knockout punch he needed to put Clinton down for good. So the fight goes on, leaving Republican standard bearer McCain free to court donors and voters and prepare for the fall campaign in relatively stress-free mode. Better yet from McCain’s perspective, Clinton and Obama have to reload for more battles down the road, girding for yet one more round of “crucial” primaries on May 6 in North Carolina and Indiana. Clinton and Obama have done a marvelous job of carving up each other, revealing lines of attack that will be useful to Republicans this fall. Clinton has hurt herself with tall tales of bravery on the tarmac in Kosovo; Obama had to waste of lot of energy fighting charges of elitism after his controversial remarks about “bitter” voters. And the harder Clinton hits Obama with negative TV ads and personal jabs, the more she raises her own negatives in national polls. Obama still holds a commanding lead in the delegate count and in popular votes. He enjoys a huge money advantage, with $40 million in his campaign coffers at the end of March, compared to Clinton’s $8 million. In Pennsylvania, the onus was on Clinton. In Indiana, the burden will be Obama’s. Expected to win in North Carolina, he has to show he can do well in another state whose demographics are much like Pennsylvania’s. One guess is as good as another, but the outcome on May 6 may leave the protracted Democratic slugfest just about where it is now – Obama winning by the numbers, but not with the kind of momentum that makes a candidate look like a winner.
Categories: What's coming, Taking notice
Posted by Patrick O'Callahan @ 05:43:10 pm
Returns from the Pennsylvania primary haven't started trickling in yet, so us wonkish types have to get our political fix by poring over exit polls that will be obsolete in another hour. One thing that fascinates me – a pattern that's been seen before, but seems especially pronounced in Pennsylvania – is Hillary Clinton's appeal to traditionalists of one kind or another. On the issues, you could hardly fit a razor between Clinton and Obama. They argue over who would pull troops out of Iraq most quickly, who would provide the most universal health coverage, who hates George Bush's policies the most, etc. They don't argue over whether to pull troops out of Iraq, provide universal health, etc. Yet Clinton has a clear lead over Obama among gun-owners, Catholics, weekly churchgoers and the elderly. A lot of the working-class voters going for her are presumably the socially conservative "Reagan Democrats." Didn't Hillary used to be the bete noire of some of these people? Also interesting are the responses that suggest that Democrats who consider gender important are tilting toward Clinton, while those who consider race important are tilting away from Obama. As other observers have noted, Obama seems to have an "Archie Bunker problem." Let's be clear here: Most of Pennsylvania's traditionalists are not bigoted. But the Archie Bunkers out there appear to dislike the prospect of a woman in the White House less than they dislike the prospect of a black man in the White House.
Categories: Taking notice
Posted by David Seago @ 04:00:57 pm
We'll know in a few hours how the Pennsylvania presidential primary turned out, and we'll do a quick turnaround editorial for the morning's paper. (We'll post it in the blog tonight.) But here, courtesy of the Wall Street Journal, is a glimpse of the intensity of the TV ad campaigns Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama waged in Pennsylvania in recent days:
The conventional wisdom is that Clinton will win Pennsylvania, but she needs a convincing win to stay alive. But Democratic consultant Tad Devine, a veteran of six Democratic presidential nominating battles, predicts a win for Obama. See his reasoning here.
Categories: Taking notice
Posted by Kim Bradford @ 02:09:25 pm
Our newspaper counterparts in Mobile, Ala., have gotten a taste of U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks' aggressive style. In an editorial Tuesday, the Press-Register said Dicks' comments about the decision to award the Air Force tanker contract to Northrop Grumman-EADS were over the top. Alabama, it must be remembered, is in line for 1,500 aerospace jobs should the Northrop-Grumman-EADS contract survive challenges from Boeing and Congress.
Just in case you didn't get that last dig, Price is the WSU football coach who won a dream job coaching Alabama, only to lose it within weeks after he was caught having fun with a stripper in Florida. But our Alabama friends probably didn't know that Dicks, in fact, is a former UW linebacker who truly bleeds purple and gold. They should have tried a zinger instead about the Husky gridders' string of losing seasons.
Categories: Taking notice
Posted by Kim Bradford @ 12:28:08 pm
Metro Parks board members Ryan Mello and Victoria Woodards felt they didn't get a fair shake in our editorial last week about faltering public faith in parks district leadership. They plan to submit a guest column this week, but here's an early look at their take:
Categories: Editorial outtakes
• 1 comment
Posted by David Seago @ 12:23:45 pm
The leadership of Tacoma’s black community, which staged a rally Monday to back superintendent candidate Alan Ingram of Oklahoma City, is clearly pressuring the school board to hire a black candidate. A good case can be made that Ingram is the better choice strictly on the terms of his experience and background, but the rally does inject an unmistakable element of identity politics into the situation. The board’s job is to pick the best candidate available regardless of race. Will the outcome in Pennsylvania’s Democratic primary keep Hillary Clinton’s fading chances alive — or put an end to the Democrats’ fractious and damaging nomination battle? (We’ll post this editorial online late this evening.) About our editorials:
Categories: What's coming
• 2 comments
Monday, April 21st, 2008
Posted by David Seago @ 06:10:22 pm
Pierce County budget director Pat Kenney released on Friday a four-page "white paper" on the county's ever-worsening budget woes. It should have been called a "red paper" -- red for alarming, or for red ink. Kenney called it the county's worst financial crisis in 25 years. In the simplest terms, here's how bad it is: The county budgeted for a 7 percent increase in general fund revenues in 2008. Kenney says the actual increase could turn out to be zero. The county has a $320 million GF budget this year. The County Council made up $4 million of the deficit last month by dipping into reserves and other one-time revenues. But now the county has to cut progams and staff by 1.5 percent this year and 3 percent next year. Department proposals for budget cuts are due to County Executive John Ladenburg next week. Some esssential services - like law enforcement - could be cut less, others more, Kenney said. Kenney warned that this depleted condition is likely to be the "new normal" for a long time.
Read on for the full text of Kenney's memo:
Categories: Taking notice
• 6 comments
Posted by David Seago @ 04:13:44 pm
Sound Transit has to decide by mid-July whether a scaled-down Phase II expansion proposal to voters in November, or wait until 2009. No doubt where the environmental community stands. A coalition of green groups called an Earth Day press conference Tuesday to urge a vote this fall. Representatives of Environment Washington, the Sierra Club, Futurewise, Fuse Washington and Transportation Choices want an all-transit proposal, as opposed to a massive roads-and-transit package that cratered at the polls last fall. Among the supporting groups listed in the announcement are Tahoma Audubon Society (of Pierce County) and Tacoma Streetcar. (Editorial comment: Audubon we understand. Why Tacoma's streetcar advocates think why a regional transit system should pay help pay for local-service streetcars eludes us.) From the announcement:
Categories: Taking notice
• 1 comment
Posted by Cheryl Tucker @ 11:38:15 am
Valoria Loveland, director of the state Department of Agriculture, has announced she will retire as of May 5.  Loveland, a former state senator from the Tri-Cities, has headed up the agriculture department since June 2002. When I mentioned the news to my colleagues, Pat O'Callahan and Kim Bradford, I pronounced Loveland's first name the way it looks like it should be pronounced. They both quickly corrected me, saying her name is pronounced "Valora," with a silent "i." They should know: Both are former Tri-City Herald reporters.
Categories: Taking notice
Posted by David Seago @ 11:32:28 am
David Koenig of Federal Way clearly has a grudge against the police. He and his lawyer are making good money by requesting public records from police departments and suing cities and collecting penalties when they fail to respond properly. Yes, he’s a royal pain, but all cities and counties have to do is simply make it a point to understand the law and comply — every time. Plus a pat on the back for the City of Tacoma and Pierce County for scoring well on a state audit of compliance with open records law. Safe Streets is launching a timely campaign to fight graffitti – but volunteers are needed to make it effective. About our editorials:
Categories: What's coming
• 1 comment
Sunday, April 20th, 2008
Posted by Patrick O'Callahan @ 07:02:44 am
Bitter, bitter, bitter. First Barack Obama said small-town Americans were so bitter about losing their jobs that they wound up clinging to guns and religion. (Such pathetic losers!) Then some of those small-town Americans got bitter that Obama thought they were bitter. Hillary Clinton remains bitter that so many Democrats still don't understand that she's entitled to the nomination. And Democrats have to be bitter that Clinton and Obama are locked in a cage fight while Republicans sit back and enjoy the spectacle. Now commentators are bitter that ABC's anchors trivialized last Wednesday's debate – and again brought up the "bitter" issue. A few excerpts from other editorialists: The Sacramento Bee:
Categories: Taking notice
• 3 comments
Saturday, April 19th, 2008
Posted by Cheryl Tucker @ 05:59:08 am
I was searching the Internet this week for editorials about an interesting case before the U.S. Supreme Court – Kennedy v. Louisiana – which deals with the constitutionality of imposing the death penalty for the rape of a child. I came across a USA Today article that mentioned nine states had signed on to an amicus curiae brief in support of Louisiana's death penalty for child rape. Imagine my surprise when I saw that Washington was one of those states. The other states that signed on are Texas, Alabama, Colorado, Idaho, Mississippi, Missouri, Oklahoma and South Carolina. Along with Louisiana, these are not the kind of blue-state company Washington usually keeps. And this state's death penalty only applies to the "worst of the worst" – aggravated first-degree murder. So why did Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna sign on to the brief? |
