The following editorial appears Monday in the print edition.

Justice Sanders’ outburst was hardly judicious
Yelling ‘Tyrant’ at the short-timer attorney general isn’t the best way to express a difference of opinion.

State Supreme Court Justice Richard Sanders may not have violated any judicial canons when he yelled “Tyrant! You are a tyrant!” at the U.S. attorney general during a speech last week in Washington D.C.

But he sure violated the rules of common sense and courtesy.
Sanders’ voice is clearly caught on tape, as is Attorney General Michael Mukasey’s startled expression. Mukasey later fainted – it’s not believed to be related to Sanders’ outburst – but he has since recovered.

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in Sunday's print edition.

News from Mumbai was an unwelcome guest at many a family’s Thanksgiving last week, a disturbing demonstration of terrorism’s continued threat.

A series of coordinated attacks on India’s financial capital had left 143 dead as of this writing. India is no stranger to terrorist bombings, but the scale and organization of last week’s attacks distinguishes them.

The terrorists apparently were prepared for a standoff. On Friday, two days after gunmen struck luxury hotels, a train station and other spots frequented by tourists and foreigners, Indian commandos were still struggling to end the siege.

=> Read more!

McClatchy Newspapers has a story about how merchandise with a Barack Obama tie-in is selling like hot cakes.

A quick Google search turns up an interesting Web site that chronicles the "35 Wackiest Weirdest Barack Obama Merchandise You Can Actually Buy."

Items include a lifesize cardboard cutout, an Obama action figure, Barack bobblehead (hmmmm, I know someone in the newsroom who would love one of these) and a birthday card that has Obama saying, "Can you have the greatest birthday ever? Yes! You can!"

The goofiest has to be the glow-in-the dark Obama refrigerator magnet. But as an unrepentent Trekker, my favorite is a T-shirt that depicts Obama as Mr. Spock. I have to admit, Obama's ears do have a Vulcan quality to them.

Sunday: News from Mumbai was an unwelcome guest at many a family's Thanksgiving last week, a terrifying reminder of terrorism's virulent and continued threat.

Monday: There he goes again: Justice Richard Sanders doesn’t know when to bite his tongue.

If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to kim.bradford@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.

My colleague, Kim Bradford, and I worked up pro-con editorials running today on whether a new Tacoma middle school on the East Side should be named after Barack Obama. (I argue yes, she argues no.)

In checking with education reporter Kris Sherman, we learned that only two Tacoma schools are named for people of color. Do you know who they are? See below for the answer.

Another African-American candidate officials might want to consider is ragtime great Joe Jordan (pictured). I know that his name is on the Lincoln High School arts center (along with that of Lincoln alum and trumpet virtuoso Ray Cummings). But he'd be a good candidate for greater recognition. He collaborated with W.C. Handy, led military bands during World War II and was a successful Tacoma businessman. Read more about him here.

So which two Tacoma schools are named for people of color?
See below.

=> Read more!

This pro-con, by editorial writers Cheryl Tucker and Kim Bradford, will appear in Friday's print edition.

Should Tacoma school be named for Obama?

YES: The Tacoma School District could mark a historic first and inspire students
to reach for the stars.

Tacoma School Board member Kurt Miller has a great idea: Put President-elect Barack Obama’s name on a middle school under construction on the city’s East Side.

The district’s naming policy would have to be modified. Current rules require a person to be dead at least two years or to have a served a presidential term before a school is named after him or her. There’s a good reason for that policy: A living person or untried president could do something in the future to cast a shadow on the school.

But the historic nature of Obama’s election warrants rethinking the policy – or at least making an exception. There is precedent: Henry Foss was still living when Foss High School was named for him. And the district could always rename the school in the unlikely event that Obama messes up royally.

=> Read more!

We here at the TNT Opinion Desk give thanks for:

• Readers who don't go ballistic when they read opinions that differ from theirs.

• Thoughtful debate in the comments on our blog postings and editorials.

• Letter writers who keep it short, civil and timely.

• People who are passionate about their community and spend countless hours trying to improve it.

• Sunshine laws.

• Elected officials who give us so much editorial fodder to work with.

• Callers who phone to complain that we're too conservative minutes after another caller chewed us out for being too liberal.

• Free speech, which makes it all possible.

Have a wonderful holiday, everyone. See you back here Friday.

This editorial will appear in Thursday's print edition.

Thanksgiving is an ideal day to celebrate human generosity. Our communities need a holiday-sized helping of it now.

Economists have recently confirmed that the United States is officially in recession. Some point to early indicators of a particularly severe recession.

But South Sound nonprofits have been seeing the indicators for months. United Way of Pierce County, for example, maintains a hotline number – 211 – to connect people who urgent needs to agencies that can help them.

The line got 6,400 calls last month, an increase of 20 percent over the previous year. In July, the average caller had 1.5 “needs” – requests for shelter, food, utility assistance, etc. In August, the average hit 3.2, reflecting a surge in distress.

Basic sustenance is in shorter supply. The FISH Food Banks of Pierce County handled 31 percent more requests for food through September compared to 2007 – and was simultaneously hit with a 26 percent increase in the price of food.

The Emergency Food Network, which supplies most of the county’s food banks, routinely receives large quantities of goods from supermarkets and other stores. But retailers are feeling the squeeze, too, and some can’t give as much; one major donor has had to cut back from 80,000 pounds to 20,000 pounds a week. The network recently had to spend $30,000 to make up for the decline in donations.

That sums up the perverse cruelty of an economic downtown. When hard times come, more people are in need, and their needs are greater. But those same hard times make it harder for donors to give.

=> Read more!

Here's what you'll see on the editorial page over the next two days.

Thursday:
Thanksgiving is an ideal day to celebrate human generosity. Our communities need a holiday-sized helping of it now.

Friday:
Should the Tacoma School Board name the new middle school on the East Side for Barack Obama? Two editorial writers square off.

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.

This editorial will appear in tomorrow's printed edition.

The clamshell backlash finally nears victory
Whose bright idea was it to encase consumer goods
in impregnable plastic oysters?

Somehow, the logic of American retailing demanded 10 years ago that many consumer products be sealed in impregnable plastic armor.

Result: the “clamshell” or “oyster” packages that protect everything from computer mice to MP3 players from the people who bought them.

Typically made of nonrecyclable PVC and welded with epoxy, these transparent packages are simply impossible to open with bare hands. Probably no creature on earth – shark, crocodile, snapping turtle – could rip through the things.

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in Wednesday's print edition:

State finances are tight, but skipping the next round of performance audits is not the way to cut costs.

Just about everything in state government is sporting a bull’s eye these days as the governor and state lawmakers come to terms with a $5 billion – and growing – budget shortfall.

Nevertheless, it is surprising to see one item among those nominated for the chopping block: the performance audits authorized by Initiative 900.

Perhaps that’s a sign of just how desperate the state’s predicament is. We can see no other reason for suggesting the state auditor stop doing the reviews that help build cost-effective state programs.

=> Read more!

Washington Supreme Court Justice Richard Sanders is known for speaking his mind and defending his right to do so. But it seems the Tacoma native will neither deny nor admit allegations that he was heckling Attorney General Michael Mukasey at last week's Federalist Society dinner before Mukasey collapsed.

The Wall Street Journal has the story here. Adam Wilson from our sister paper in Olympia followed up with the justice, who had this to say when asked if he was the heckler:

"As to that, I don't have any comment. But I wasn't there when he collapsed. I heard it on television the next morning, I was very sorry to hear it."

Hmmm. That doesn't sound like Sanders we know. For better or worse, he's an unapologetic guy. Here's what he told The News Tribune in 1996 about facing charges of unethical conduct stemming from a one-minute speech he made at an anti-abortion rally.

"The government is putting me on trial because I gave a speech, and that offends my notion of a free society. I stand on my right to speak, and I stand on the truth of what I actually said."

Either Sanders is the heckler, or he is trying to protect the person who was – that second unidentified person that WSJ writer James Taranto mentions in his post.

UPDATE: It's the former. I don't know why he didn't just fess up from the beginning instead of turning this into a whodunit.

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — State Supreme Court Justice Richard Sanders says he was speaking his conscience when he stood up and yelled “tyrant!” at U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey last week.

Brian Sonntag's performance audits have hit the state's "do not buy" list. The solution isn't to cut the audits, but to ensure agencies heed the money-saving recommendations.

Somehow, the logic of American retailing demanded 10 years ago that many consumer products be sealed in impregnable plastic armor. The good news is, the anti-clamshell movement has been making gains. (This was held yesterday to make room for today’s editorial on economic plans.)

If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to kim.bradford@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.

I've enjoyed the plummeting gas prices as much as the next person. I did a lot of driving on a recent vacation in Florida, and it was nice not to spend a lot of money filling up the rental.

But now the price has fallen so far so fast that it's kind of scary. When I drove to work Monday, the price per gallon at the Arco station was $1.86. Nine hours later it had dropped a full 10 cents per gallon, to $1.76.

I'm not complaining, just confused. The price never rose quite that fast. Anybody have an explanation?

UPDATE: Oil prices continued to fall in trading today, and gas prices have fallen to their lowest price since 2004. Here's the latest:

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in Tuesday's printed edition.

Current, future presidents making some good moves
President Bush and President-elect Obama are taking actions
that have already had a soothing effect on Wall Street.

There never really is a good time to have the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

There is, however, a really bad time for it.

That would be in the waning weeks of a lame-duck president’s term while the nation is waging not one but two foreign wars.

The outgoing president could be detached and distracted, reluctant to take forceful action that his successor would have to live with. The president-elect could be bogged down in transition details and hesitant to seem like he’s pre-empting his predecessor who is, after all, still president.

Fortunately, not too much of that seems to be going on.

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in Tuesday's print edition.

With $2 million of state funds linked to allegations by the nonprofit’s former director, the public is due some answers.

Centro Latino officials, hit with a lawsuit alleging improper conduct, aren’t talking. They should rethink that decision.

The agency’s former executive director, Joy Gomez-Gonzalez, isn’t just casting doubt on the integrity of a social service organization that serves a growing population.

Her charges prompt valid concern about how the Tacoma-based agency is using public funds.

=> Read more!

The public deserves to know what’s behind the Centro Latino board’s fight with its ex-director. That’s $2 million of public money at issue.

Somehow, the logic of American retailing demanded 10 years ago that many consumer products be sealed in impregnable plastic armor. The good news is, the anti-clamshell movement has been making gains.

UPDATE: We're holding that second editorial until Wednesday. Instead, we'll have an editorial about the latest moves by President Bush and President-elect Obama to address the economic crisis.

If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to kim.bradford@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.

This editorial will appear in tomorrow's printed edition.

Equity for city workers might be the ideal, but these are not ideal times. Taxpayers will need more to sell them on the plan.

The City of Tacoma’s effort to rejigger its pay scales is cursed by bad timing.

When city officials began the process to align pay and benefits with other private and public employers three years ago, they couldn’t have possibly guessed what would await them in November 2008.

Yet here we are, with the country’s economy on its knees, the state facing its biggest shortfall ever and Tacoma getting ready to dole out pay raises of up to 15 percent for nonunion employees. The juxtaposition doesn’t do much for folks convinced their city government is hopelessly out of touch.

Many Washington workers will be asked to make do with no increase in pay this year – that is, if they are able to hang on to their jobs. Then there are the many Tacoma residents living below the poverty line or within spitting distance of it, for whom city salaries seem like princely sums in any economy.

=> Read more!

The following editorial will appear in tomorrow's print edition.

After more than two weeks of uncertainty, Pierce County finally has a new executive, Pat McCarthy. And a new assessor-treasurer, Dale Washam.

We welcome McCarthy. We’re worried about Washam.

McCarthy faces a huge job. To some extent, its size
was defined by the executive she will replace, John Ladenburg.

Ladenburg has distinguished himself by treating Pierce County’s government as a part of a much larger whole. He has focused on the broad interests of the citizenry rather than just the internal workings of that government.

His big-picture approach led him, for example, to seek a leadership role in shaping improvements to Puget Sound’s network of roads and mass transit.

Ladenburg understood that Pierce County’s commuters and employers needed improvements to clogged roads as well as transit alternatives. He kept the ideas and initiatives coming, and ultimately made a difference.

=> Read more!

Here's a case for more voter education, including self-education: 52,000 citizens in Pierce County cast ballots for a candidate with a string of arrests and serious psychiatric problems.

For county sheriff.

Sunday: After more than two weeks of uncertainty, Pierce County finally has a new executive, Pat McCarthy. And a new assessor-treasurer, Dale Washam.
We welcome McCarthy. We’re worried about Washam.

Monday: There is value – to the city and to taxpayers – in benchmarking city compensation since it moves Tacoma toward basing pay on performance. But the effort is plagued by bad timing and unanswered questions.

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.

The following editorial will appear in tomorrow's print edition:

The more the Big Three automakers plead for a federal bailout, the less convincing they get.

Their executives keep saying that the problem is the world, not them. And that the world depends on them. General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner told the U.S. Senate Tuesday that only a $25 billion rescue package would "save the U.S. economy from a catastrophic collapse."

That increasingly looks like a risk worth taking.

So far, the arguments against the bailout have been prevailing in Congress. That's because they're persuasive:

=> Read more!

Just say no to the Big Three bailout. Chapter 11 wouldn't necessarily be the end of the world for automakers, and Americans who make far less than autoworkers shouldn't be asked to subsidize labor's royal class.

Criticism of Pierce County's vote-counting process may be overblown, but every step should be taken to ensure confidence.

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.

As I go through the opinion wire, I find lots of columnists giving advice to the Republican Party in the wake of its big losses in the 2006 and 2008 elections. Do more of the same, some argue; the only reason the GOP lost was because of President Bush's unpopularity and the bad economy. Others advise moving toward the center; the base (code for the religious right) doesn't have anywhere else to go anyway.

Conservative columnist Morton Kondracke, a regular on Fox News, has advice I haven't seen anywhere else: Fire Rush Limbaugh.

Kondracke writes:

In recent years, Republicans have let right-wing talk-show hosts whip the GOP base into frenzies — over immigration, brain-damage victim Terry Schiavo and same-sex marriage — that have branded the party as troglodyte.

The result is that the demographic groups representing the future of American politics shifted decisively to the Democratic Party in 2008 — Latinos, young people, the well-educated, moderates, working women, first-time voters, suburbanites and “seculars.”

Here's the entire column.

=> Read more!

Anybody still want to argue that pit bulls are just like any other dog?

A sheriff’s deputy killed a 90-pound pit bull that attacked a 7-year-old girl on a tire swing in Happy Valley.

The Clackamas County sheriff’s office says the girl, Jayda Kempas, was bitten severely on the leg Wednesday and would undergo surgery.

Deputy Greg Martin says that if the girl’s father, National Guard Staff Sgt. Steven Hehr, had not wrestled the dog away, she likely would have died. Hehr’s shoulder was dislocated, and he was bitten.

While Hehr held it down, a bystander beat the dog with an aluminum baseball bat until he was exhausted, and then the dog’s owner took up the bat. But the dog could not be subdued.

Finally, Martin arrived and shot it.
The carcass will be tested for rabies.

Let's hope $1.99/gallon gas doesn't preempt progress toward the future envisioned by the Northwest Power and Conservation Council, which is assessing the potential effects of hybrid electric vehicles on the Northwest electricity supply. It says the cars could help ensure power reliability during high-demand periods.

From the council's press release:

Michael Kinter-Meyer, a scientist at the Battelle Pacific Northwest Laboratory in Richland, Washington.... said Battelle’s research suggests that between 43 and 73 percent of all the cars and light trucks in the nation today could be replaced by plug-in hybrid electric vehicles without adding new power plants or transmission lines, depending on the time of day that the vehicles would be charged.

If this were to happen, America’s net oil imports would be reduced by 52 percent, the nation’s total emissions of carbon dioxide would be reduced by 27 percent, and the batteries in all of those vehicles would provide an important source of storage capacity that could enhance power-system stability, he said.

This editorial appeared in today's print edition.

A shocking new economic forecast sounds a warning for the state’s colleges and universities.

In Washington, the sky might not be falling, but the downpour has officially begun.

On Wednesday, the state’s chief economist delivered a bombshell: The state’s projected budget shortfall has grown from a whooping $3.2 billion to a stunning $5.1 billion.

The bottom has fallen out of revenue collections so fast that the state faces an actual deficit of roughly $500 million in the current budget.

This is more than a rainy day; it’s a monsoon. Covering the gap will be the biggest challenge to face state budget writers in years.

=> Read more!

While doing research for my Thursday editorial on the "Twilight" phenomenon, I discovered that the movie has a very strong local connection: The main villain, a vampire named James, is played by Tacoma native Cam Gigandet. He attended Auburn High School and his family lives at Lake Tapps.

The Associated Press photo shows him at the Monday premiere of the movie in Los Angeles.

Here's the editorial:

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in tomorrow's print edition.

Iraqi officials reportedly drove a hard bargain on the U.S. withdrawal they've just negotiated with American diplomats.

To which we say: Let them take advantage of us as much as they want, if it gets our troops out of Iraq more quickly.

The proposed new security pact – which was approved Sunday by the Iraqi cabinet – calls for a complete pullout of American forces by the end of 2011.

The combat drawdown would happen much faster. Some restrictions on U.S. military operations would take effect Jan. 1, and American troops would be withdrawn from Iraqi cities by June 30. U.S. casualties, which have already dropped dramatically in recent months, would be brought down further when Americans are no longer entangled in urban warfare.

Can the Iraqi military assume control of the deadly streets of Baghdad and Mosul so quickly? Iraqi leaders think so, and that's what matters. It is, after all, their country.

=> Read more!

Iraqi officials reportedly drove a hard bargain on the U.S. withdrawal they've just negotiated with American diplomats. To which we say: Let them take advantage of us as much as they want, if it gets our troops out of Iraq more quickly.

Superior Court judges seem to be sustaining their progress toward reducing an inefficient and unjust backlog of felony cases.

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.

And who doesn't have an organ or two that needs replacing?

By MARIA CHENG
AP Medical Writer

LONDON (AP) — Doctors have given a woman a new windpipe with tissue grown from her own stem cells, eliminating the need for anti-rejection drugs.

“This technique has great promise,” said Dr. Eric Genden, who did a similar transplant in 2005 at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. That operation used both donor and recipient tissue. Only a handful of windpipe, or trachea, transplants have ever been done.

If successful, the procedure could become a new standard of treatment, said Genden, who was not involved in the research.

The results were published online Wednesday in the medical journal, The Lancet.

The transplant was given to Claudia Castillo, a 30-year-old Colombian mother of two living in Barcelona, suffered from tuberculosis for years.

=> Read more!

In honor of the 30th anniversary of Jonestown:

By Michael Shermer
Special to the Los Angeles Times

Thirty years ago in the jungles of Guyana, Jim Jones, leader of the Peoples Temple cult, ordered the mass suicide or murder of more than 900 of his own followers by inducing them to imbibe cyanide-laced punch or by lethal injection. He had controlled nearly all information coming into the group and warned them daily that “they” (the government, imperialists, greedy capitalists, etc.) were the enemy.

So when Rep. Leo Ryan and his investigative team showed up in Guyana, Jones’ followers were primed to believe that “they” were coming to destroy them and had to be stopped. After the congressman and others in his party were killed, Jones told cult members that “they” would now really come down on them, and their only choice was to move on to the next stage of life.

Although some members tried to escape (and were shot), and some members were forced to drink the poison, most got caught up in the contagion of the moment and voluntarily took their own lives and those of their children. You can hear it in the screams and voices of their final moments, captured on tape, as Jones eggs them on:

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in tomorrow's print edition.

One way or another, Puyallup City Council members should settle their grudge match before it lands the city in court.

Of all the things the City of Puyallup should be spending its legal budget on, a City Council squabble over a footnote is least among them.

Councilman John Knutsen is threatening to go to court unless the council removes a note appended to the July 15 meeting minutes.

The offending footnote says Knutsen was wrong when he suggested Mayor Don Malloy didn’t have the legal authority to remove an item from the council meeting agenda.

Malloy had asked the city attorney to research the issue, and it’s her legal finding that is referenced in the footnote. Knutsen says the after-the-fact addition to the minutes violates his “God-given right to have an opinion.”

Hardly. If the note impinges on anything, it’s Knutsen’s self-righteous indignation. The footnote ensures that his assertion doesn’t go unchallenged in the council’s official record.

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in tomorrow's print edition.

Lots of people were watching Pierce County’s experiment with ranked-choice voting two weeks ago. Some weren’t crazy about what they saw.

RCV has produced a backlash – though it’s impossible to tell how big or small it might be. Its complex new ballot allowed voters to rank three candidates, in order of preference, for each county office. A common reaction was, “Who approved this thing?”

Well, the voters did – twice, in 2006 and 2007. That double approval argues for much deliberation before deciding whether to abandon the experiment.

RCV does need reviewing by the Pierce County Council. The system scraped the shoals on its maiden voyage this month.

=> Read more!

1. At least some voters are still confused and suspicious about ranked choice voting. Dale Washam’s way-too-near election as Pierce County assessor-treasurer makes a good argument for an early-warning primary. These are not reasons to scrap RCV without further ado; they are reasons to launch a review, after things calm down. The review should consider whether RCV deserves another run in two years or whether its fate should be decided by the electorate sooner than that.

2. Of all the things the City of Puyallup should be spending its legal budget on, a City Council squabble over a footnote is least among them.

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.

Gerald Arpino died Oct. 29. He was 85.

The news of the great ballet choreographer's passing made headlines in major newspapers around the world. It didn't make The News Tribune, which is too bad.

For four summers in the late Sixties, Arpino and Robert Joffrey, co-founders of the Joffrey Ballet, made Tacoma a pivotal place in the history of American dance.

No one who saw the Joffrey introduce "Astarte," "Clowns" and other innovative works during its summer residencies at Pacific Lutheran University will ever forget the experience.

I was there, as awed and thrilled as everyone else who filled PLU's Eastvold Auditorium.

Joffrey's "Astarte" was a startling, provocative multi-media ballet. Arpino's "Clowns" was a powerful anti-war piece with rock music and multitudes of inflatable sculptures that rose and fell and enveloped the dancers.

I have no doubt that the Joffrey's workshops, rehearsals and performances at PLU from 1967 to to 1970 collectively rank as one the greatest arts events in Tacoma's history.

We were so lucky to see it. Nothing remotely like it has happened here since.

The Joffrey went on to greater fame but suffered financial reversals. Joffrey died in 1988. Arpino took over as artistic director and brought the company back to fiscal stability. Today the thriving and acclaimed Joffrey has permanent homes in Chicago and New York.

Upon Arpino's death, a Chicago newspaper called him "one of the last remaining giants of the mid-20th century movement that revolutionized dance and transformed it into an American art."

Those of us who saw the Joffrey at PLU in those early days were awesomely privileged. We saw artistic history in the making.

That's why it's worth taking a moment to mourn Arpino's passing -- and to give thanks for the wonder and joy he brought to the stage here in our own little backyard.

----------

See related stories about Arpino in The New York Times and the Chicago Tribune.

And here's a review of a revival of "Clowns" in New York.

If you're not a devotee of the Sunday New York Times crossword puzzle, just move on right now.

But if you're among the legions whose Sunday morning pleasures include tackling the Times' clever, pun-filled puzzle, you'll understand why we got such a kick from tonight's episode of "The Simpsons."

Little Lisa turns out to be a talented cruciverbalist. And a puzzle she completes at episode's end is the actual puzzle that appeared in today's Times.

That set off a scramble in our household.

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in the Monday print edition.

Democrats should not abuse their power to punish nasty campaigning. That job is voters’, and they have spoken.

Four years ago, some state Democrats, fresh from a bruising election that put them to power, went to Olympia bent on payback.

Their target was that master of nasty political hardball, the Building Industry Association of Washington.

Get ready for a case of deja vu – only this time revenge might masquerade as Main Street business assistance.

This year’s charge is apparently being lead by the liberal advocacy group, Fuse. It wants the Legislature to kneecap the BIAW by cutting off a major source of political cash.

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in tomorrow's print edition.

Justice has finally caught up with Semaj Booker, who gained national fame after stealing a car, leading police on a high speed chase and stealing a flight to Texas – all at age 9.

Fed up with Booker’s subsequent misbehavior, Pierce County Superior Court Judge Frank Cuthbertson last week revoked the boy’s deferred convictions and left him with two felonies on his record.

That’s a good thing. Booker – now 11 – had flouted the law too many times with too few consequences.

But it’s also a good thing that those are juvenile felonies and that Booker, an obviously smart kid, is still being treated as capable of rehabilitation.

Infamous as he has become, Booker is only a single offender among a crowd of mostly faceless juvenile criminals. Like Booker, virtually all of them are going to wind up back in their communities. It is a tragedy when any juvenile winds up being prosecuted as an adult and consigned to prisons that serve as schools for hardened criminals.

=> Read more!

I noted here earlier this month that the Wall Street Journal's conservative editorial page had fingered Seattle congressman-for-life Jim McDermott as a Democrat to worry about in the next Congress.

Today, the Journal took another editorial poke at McDermott on the same issue: his somewhat coy interest in "nationalizing private retirement accounts."

McDermott and fellow congressman George Miller of California, the Journal editorial warns, are all set to "test Peronist ideas in America."

In other words, they seem interested in trying to "nationalize" private retirement accounts -- 401(k) savings accounts -- as Argentina is planning to do.

At issue are proposals that would end the tax deduction for contributions to 401(k) retirement accounts and turn their management over to the government.

The Journal is predisposed to favor individual control over retirement savings as a matter of ideological principle. The private financial sector, of which the Journal is also rather fond, coincidentally benefits handsomely from managing such accounts.

=> Read more!

High point of my day:

Krist Novoselic, Nirvana's bass guitarist (currently playing with Flipper), came by to talk about voting systems.

Afterwards, he got to talking about how he was toying around with Guitar Hero at a store display.

"I couldn't keep up," he said. A young wannabe was trying his hand at the game, too. "This kid smoked me," Novoselic said.

"And it was a Nirvana song."

This editorial will appear in tomorrow's print edition.

The recent plunge in gas prices has the feeling of a return to normalcy. It’s anything but.

Prices have actually cracked the $2-a-gallon mark at a few South Sound gas stations; they’re well below that in some parts of the Midwest. Spotting a “1” in first place on the big placards – as in “Regular: $1.99” – feels like a trip down memory road. All’s right with the world again, if only at the pump.

The price drop may be unprecedented. Just a few months ago, a gallon went for well over $4 – roughly twice as much as today’s cost.

It’s having three spectacularly good effects.

=> Read more!

It's come to this: a class in how to turn your television on and change the channels.

Click! Cable TV offers free Cable 101 class: How to Use Your Remote Control and Digital Receiver

If your coffee table is overflowing with various remote controls and you’re still wondering what the menu button really does, join the experts from Click! Cable TV Monday, Nov. 17 at the Tacoma Public Utilities Auditorium for a class in their quarterly Cable 101 series. Find out “How to Use Your Remote Control and Digital Receiver” offered at 3 and 7 p.m.

Click! offers a personal touch for those needing support in a high-tech world. As “your local choice,” Click! welcomes customers and others interested in learning more about remote control functionality, digital receivers, the upcoming digital transition and high-definition programming.

Seating is limited, so call (253) 502-8900 to reserve your spot.

This week's news that a disgraced Washington State University provost finagled a teaching position for the grand salary of $245,000 – almost $200,000 more than other liberal arts profs – raised some eyebrows around here.

But over at The Tri-City Herald, they're mad as hell. Here's today's editorial.

After all the hoopla over WSU Tri-Cities in recent years, you would never have expected its parent university to use it as a dumping ground for its Pullman problems.

But that’s sure what it looks like after the recent announcement that former Washington State University provost Steven Hoch will be moving to town to teach at the Richland campus.

You may remember Hoch. He’s the guy who was already raising eyebrows with the administration before he’d even moved to Pullman from the University of Kentucky, where he was dean of the College of Arts & Sciences.

His stint as provost had the life span of a Las Vegas wedding and even less decorum.

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in tomorrow's edition.

A state panel has renewed the call for the Legislature to reverse judicial erosion of the public’s right to know.

Listen up, lawmakers: The Sunshine Committee you created to review hundreds of public disclosure exceptions has some good advice.

On Wednesday, the committee endorsed closing the loopholes the state Supreme Court has created in recent years that allow government to evade public scrutiny by lawyering up.

The recommendation, passed by a 7-3 majority that included House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler, essentially advocates enforcing the public disclosure law as it is written.

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in tomorrow's print edition.

Next up for U.S. taxpayers: a plan to bail out General Motors.

The giant automaker is stumbling toward Chapter 11. Without help, it may run out of cash by the end of the year. Bankruptcy, its officers say, is not an option. They say customers won’t buy cars from a company that looks like it’s gone bust.

It’s not just GM. Ford and Chrysler are on the same path.

As with Fannie Mae, AIG and all the rest, the logic of federal intervention is that this one’s too big to let fail. Failure could indeed be catastrophic. Auto manufacturing is America’s biggest industry. If the Big Three went completely bust, more than 2 million Americans – many of them working for suppliers – could lose their jobs.

=> Read more!

We've seen considerable backlash against Pierce County's new ranked-choice voting system. Here's a defense from Krist Novoselic (he's a serious political commentator, but it's obligatory to point out that he used to be Nirvana's bassist):

Hello Patrick,

At first, I want to speak about elections in general:

Some people are happy with election rules because they or their candidates won. Others are unhappy with rules for the opposite reason - they lost.

Sometimes, elections produce very competent people who promote policies that one could strongly disagree with. Then the second guessing of the system starts: If only more people had turned out ... If only a candidate could have raised more money after finishing second in the primary ... If only more people had paid attention to the race?

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in Wednesday's print edition

Time – and money – was a wastin' as the parks district struggled to please its many masters.

Kandle Park, it is.

Three years after voters handed Metro Parks $6 million to build a new pool, parks commissioners have taken their first major step toward getting it done.

In selecting Kandle Park, board members gave up the dream of a perfect solution and settled for a pragmatic one. The parks district is better for it.

Metro Parks can't please everyone. What many want – replacement of the Titlow Park pool at its current site – is simply not feasible, given financial and regulatory restraints. New environmental standards protecting shorelines and wetlands would make rebuilding there an expensive – if not irresponsible – proposition.

At the same time, building another Olympic-size, 50-meter pool would certainly suit competitive swimmers but give short shrift to the bigger number of parks district residents who just want a place to have fun and cool off.

For perhaps too long, Metro Parks commissioners held fast to the idea that they could serve both groups. They promised a two-pool complex, betting on their ability to raise outside funds. Meanwhile, the $6 million they already had in the bank was losing spending power.

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in tomorrow's print edition.

Bad mortgages lie at rotten heart of the world financial crisis. Turn enough bad ones into good ones, and you may have a fraction of a remedy.

That alchemy is desperately needed. Thus the brace of recent initiatives designed to let America’s most threatened homeowners restructure their loans before their homes slip into foreclosure. The Bush administration Tuesday announced the broadest effort so far – a welcome push to ramp up previous efforts to help borrowers keep their property.

Under the new plan, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would move to help struggling homeowners bring their payments down to 38 percent of their incomes. Terms would be extended and interest rates brought down as necessary.

Experience has shown that borrowers can swing mortgages under that ceiling. That’s precisely the kind of guideline that lenders and borrowers cast aside in recent years during the reckless buying frenzy that set up this year’s catastrophic subprime bust.

=> Read more!

Rush Limbaugh nails the source of the recession:

"The Obama recession is in full swing, ladies and gentlemen ... Stocks are dying, which is a precursor of things to come. This is an Obama recession. Might turn into a depression."

The Wall Street Journal hasn't been a cheerful read lately.

Here's what's on page 1 of its Marketplace section:

• Circuit City filing for bankruptcy.

• General Motors stock falling to its lowest level since 1946.

• Nortel Networks posting a $3.41 billion quarterly loss and planning 1,300 more layoffs.

• DHL shutting down its operations in America and planning 9,500 layoffs.

• Marketing experts wondering who's going to buy those $3 million Super Bowl ads this year.

And that was just the cover of the section. I was almost afraid to look inside.

1. The broad mortgage relief initiatives announced by federal officials today are necessary to stanch the home-loan defaults and pull the nation’s housing values out of their nosedive.

2. Building a pool at Kandle Park is not the perfect solution sought by the Metro Parks board and Titlow Pool fans, but it is the most responsible option.

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.

Kind of puts our quarrels into perspective:

By Jeffrey Fleishman
Los Angeles Times

CAIRO, Egypt — Desert winds blow, sands shift, archaeologists dig, and one day you find a pyramid. Egyptian authorities announced Tuesday that they discovered what’s left of the base of a pyramid estimated to be 4,300 years old near Saqqara.

The site has been under excavation for 20 years and is believed to have belonged to Queen Sesheshet, the mother of King Teti, who ruled the Sixth Dynasty around 2291 B.C.

“It’s common for us to find a tomb or a statue, but to find a pyramid, that is rare,” Zahi Hawass, secretary-general of Egypt’s Supreme Council on Antiquities, told reporters. “There are probably many more discoveries to be made around this site.”
Archaeologists have yet to enter the pyramid’s tomb.

About 12 miles south of Cairo, Saqqara was a necropolis for rulers of ancient Egypt.

=> Read more!

The state Democrats are getting lots of advice about what went wrong in their attempt to defeat Dave Reichert 8th Congressional District. Here's my two cents:

Darcy Burner is smart and personable, but she was hard for some of us to take seriously as a candidate for Congress.

When our editorial board evaluates political candidates, one of the first things we look at is their record of public service. With Burner, you have to go way back to her high school days to find her doing something – the Civil Air Patrol – that didn't involve advancing her own career and interests.

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in tomorrow's print edition.

At Craigslist, the Wild West days of anonymous sex trafficking are coming to an end.

The company, to its credit, has signed a voluntary agreement with 40 states – including Washington – that will make it easy for police to track the pimps, prostitutes and johns who’ve flocked to the Web advertising service in recent years.

It’s voluntary, because courts have held that Craigslist is comparable to a telephone company – a neutral conduit of information that can’t be held responsible for the content posted on its sites.

But the company is stepping up to the problem of sex trafficking. Under its agreement with the states, anyone advertising in Craigslist’s “erotic services” section will have to provide a working phone number and pay a fee using a traceable credit card number. Police will be able to easily subpoena the information.

A paradox here is that Craigslist has made both prostitution and police sting operations more efficient.

=> Read more!

A column by Courtland Milloy of the Washington Post brought back a sad memory for me. He writes that the newspaper in his Louisiana community didn't publish photos of black people back in the 1950s.

I worked at a newspaper in Southeast Virginia in the mid-1970s, and I remember how a young news editor almost got fired for running a photo of a black woman on the front page. The photo went with a story about the exoneration of a black woman for killing a white man she said was attacking her. It was a huge news story in that community, and it would have seemed strange not to run a photo with it.

Apparently the editor wasn't aware that there was an unspoken policy of not running photos of black people on the front page. When the publisher demanded that she be fired, the managing editor said he'd quit, too, if that happened. The publisher backed down.

I was proud of the ME for standing up for his staff, and as I recall, the no-black-faces policy went away after that. It's hard now to believe that people thought that way as late as the mid-'70s.

Here's Milloy's column:

The Faces of Change, on the Front Page
By Courtland Milloy
The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — When I was growing up in Shreveport, La., during the 1950s, the white-owned morning newspaper did not publish photographs of black people. We were invisible. You might have heard about Martin Luther King Jr., but if all you read was the local rag, you’d think he was just a faceless, communist “Negro.”

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in Sunday's print edition.

Solution: Get the ballots in by election day

In most states, voters can get a pretty good idea of who won and who lost before bedtime on election night.

Too often, that’s not the case in Washington. When margins are close, and bushels of new ballots keep swamping elections workers for days after the polls close, it can take weeks to figure out how important races turned out.

Exhibit A was the interminable mystery that hung over the 2004 governors race, when Chris Gregoire and Dino Rossi were headed for a photo finish that could have been decided one way or the other by any given new batch of ballots.

Exhibit B was the 2000 senatorial race between Slade Gorton and Maria Cantwell, when it took the entire month of November to identify the winner.

=> Read more!

A friend who works at the University of Puget Sound drew my attention to a video shot there on election day. It captures the spontaneous joy of UPS students when the networks declared that Barack Obama had won.

The students broke out into an impromptu rendition of "The Star Spangled Banner." The singing and video quality aren't great, but the sentiment certainly is.

Here's the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pC_CcdiXN5Y&feature=related

Just found this on the wire:

By WILLIAM J. KOLE
Associated Press Writer
First there was “Obamamania,” punctured in places by naysayers crying “Nobama!”

Now, as President-elect Barack Obama prepares for the White House, his message of change, resounding both at home and abroad, seems to have unleashed a barrage of Barackisms. Or maybe they should be called Obamanyms.
Here’s a glossary, culled from Web sites, news reports and the blogosphere:

OBAMAPHORIA: The postelection rapture that swept over Obama’s supporters worldwide.

OBAMANATION: A twist on “abomination,” expressed by evangelicals and other conservatives who oppose Obama’s stance on abortion, gay marriage and other social issues.

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in tomorrow's print edition.

For most voters, race wasn’t the point of Tuesday’s election, nor was Barack Obama’s ethnicity in itself a qualification for the presidency.

Still, it’s impossible not to be moved by the way black Americans have greeted his election.

Throughout the country, African Americans have celebrated in streets, homes and churches with pure and open joy. Many of them say the United States looks a lot different to them now than it did just last Monday.

Said one man in Philadelphia, “Our parents left this planet thinking that we would never, ever see this day, when an African American could be elected by all the people to the highest seat in the land.” As he spoke to the Associated Press reporter, his wife wept.

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in Friday's published edition.

Random thoughts
on ballot measure results

•Initiative 1000
The “Death with Dignity” measure modeled on Oregon’s decade-old law passed easily. That’s really not a big surprise; Washington voters have a libertarian streak that tends to favor individual rights – the same attitude that has rejected anti-abortion measures in the past.

The majority might not choose to use physician-assisted aid in dying themselves, but they don’t see why others should be denied the right to end their own lives a little earlier if they are terminally ill.

More was spent on this initiative than on any other ballot measure: $4.9 million by supporters and $1.6 million by opponents. The best arguments for the initiative were made by two former governors of Oregon, who claimed that its assisted suicide law had not been abused.

=> Read more!

God-darn America!

It's an honor, sort of.

Jim McDermott, Seattle's congressman for life, was named by the Wall Street Journal's editorial page as one of eight congressional Democrats who could get the new Democratic president in trouble.

The Journal editorial today singled out McDermott for dishonorable mention because he is supposedly interested in legislation that would effectively nationalize pensions.

McDermott heads the House Ways and Means subcommittee that would initiate any such legislation.

Other Democratic bogeymen named by the Journal as "Great Society liberals" and "old men in a hurry" include Sen. Chuck Schumer and Reps. Barney Frank, David Obey, George Miller, John Conyers, Pete Stark and Henry Waxman.

From editor emeritus Dave Seago, on the road on the East Coast.

I've long had a jaundiced view of Leo Hindery Jr., the Bellarmine Prep grad who became a big cheese in the go-go telecom industry of the '90s.

But that may change, now that Hindery - perhaps as atonement - is taking a lead role in speaking out against excessive executive compensation.

Many Tacomans will remember when Hindery, as head of AT&T's broadband division, returned to fight Tacoma Power's plans to build a fiber-optic network and launch its own cable TV service.

Hindery's bid failed, in large part because TCI, the monopoly cable company Hindery had headed, was widely despised in Tacoma for its poor service. At the time, AT&T had recently acquired TCI and wanted to keep its monopoly markets intact.

Later, we learned that Hindery had embellished part of his life story. He also got caught up in an accounting scandal as head of the high-flying Global Crossing telecom, which emerged from bankruptcy in 2003.

During the good times, however, Hindery donated $1 million to Bellarmine for minority scholarships.

Hindery is in the news again this week as author of a Business Week article (republished at msnbc.com) calling excessive executive pay "almost obscene" and a "cancer" on the U.S. economy. The New York Times took note of his article today.

Hindery writes:

=> Read more!

This editorial appeared in today's print edition.

No recounts.

That’s a blessed result of Gov. Chris Gregoire’s surprisingly comfortable success in her rematch with Republican challenger, Dino Rossi.

Fervent Republicans have never abandoned the belief that Rossi was robbed of a rightful victory in 2004, just as many Democrats believe Al Gore was robbed in Florida in 2000. Gregoire’s re-election should lay to rest all doubt about her legitimacy, even among Republican diehards.

Clearly, most Washingtonians took a good look at her performance over the last four years and liked what they saw.

Looking forward, Gregoire’s biggest challenges are going to come from within her own party. The Legislature is virtually owned by the Democrats right now, and Democratic constituencies – the Washington Education Association, for example – tend to want a bigger piece of the state general fund.

Add the looming $3 billion-plus deficit to the picture, and you’ve got the makings of a ruthless tug-of-war over the state budget.

During an economic downturn, tax increases can only be a last, desperate resort. You cannot tax an economy out of slump; you can tax an economy deeper into one.

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in tomorrow's print edition.

There was a miracle in Tuesday’s election returns: the spectacular victory of Sound Transit’s Proposition 1.

That victory was all the more sweet combined with the equally spectacular defeat of Initiative 985.

Those two results suggest that Washingtonians have a sophisticated and farsighted understanding of the state’s transportation problems, especially in the Puget Sound region.

I-985 – a so-called congestion reduction measure – had led in the polls until a few weeks before the election. Cobbled together in Tim Eyman’s initiative shop, it was tarted up with a bundle of pseudo-solutions engineered to knit together various aggrieved groups.

=> Read more!

1. It took a thoughtful electorate to approve mass transit expansion in the Puget Sound region and defeat Initiative 985 statewide by similarly massive margins.

2. Now that she's been re-elected, Gov. Chris Gregoire faces a potentially bruising budget battle in the Democratic Legislature – a battle in which the most vulnerable Washingtonians will need protection.

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.

More from editor emeritus Dave Seago, on the road in New England.

Today your correspondent reports from Stow, Mass., where he's visiting relatives.

One sign of the magnitude of this election: Nearly all copies of The New York Times available in the vicinity were gone by 8 a.m.

I had to scour several nearby communities before I could find a shop that still had one. At one store, I found several copies with the front sections missing.

People obviously consider the Times' front-page announcement - a one-word headline, "Obama" - a historic keepsake.

A couple hours later, my daughter working in Australia e-mailed me and asked me to save a copy of the Times for her.

We all know history when we see it. My biggest disappointment on this occasion is that some disgruntled McCain supporters still persist in complaining that Obama's win means "socialism" for America.

They've got to know that's campaign nonsense. What exactly is it that the Bush administration and Congress have been practicing lately in the Wall Street bailouts?

I didn't vote yesterday. I'm ashamed of that. I will kick myself over it the rest of my life.

But while I didn't have excuses, I did have reasons – and some of Pierce County's traditional go-to-the-polls voters may muster a bit of sympathy for me.

My dereliction was my own fault: I lost my ballot. I moved over the weekend, and it vanished – along with my socks and my wallet – somewhere amid the piles of boxes and sacks that wound up strewn all over the new place.

I ransacked the house looking for that precious envelope. Heaven knows what happened to it; I'm sure it will turn up in two weeks in some spot that should have been obvious.

In retrospect, I should have had the sense to fill the ballot out and mail it before I plunged into the chaos of moving. But I hate to vote early. Often, candidates show their true colors in the closing days of a race by launching vicious "late hits" on their opponents. I don't vote for people who spring lies on the electorate when it's too late to rebut them, so I generally hold off until election day or the day before.

I have only my own stupidity to blame, but that's what happened to my ballot.

So I decided to go to the auditor's office Tuesday morning and get a replacement ballot.

When I walked into the county "elections center," I discovered a stunningly long line that wasn't perceptibly moving. The queue was backed up behind a counter at which – at least then – only a single harried election worker was doing her best to handle everyone's ballot business.

=> Read more!

If John McCain was hoping to pick up a lot of women's votes with his selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate, he struck out. Women went for Barack Obama over McCain 56 percent to 43 percent, according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University.

Male voters split almost evenly: 49 percent for Obama, 48 percent for McCain.

The gender gap – defined as the difference in the proportions of men and women voting for the winning candidate – was 7 percent this year, the same as it was in the 2004 presidential election. The gap has been as high as 11 percent in 1996 (Bill Clinton vs. Bob Dole) and as low as 4 percent in 1992 (Clinton vs. George H.W. Bush and Ross Perot).

Here's the entire press release from the CAWP:

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in Wednesday's print edition.

The audacious election of Barack Obama
The president-elect faces immense challenges – including a Congress tempted to overreach.

There’s little in the world more majestic than seeing this great democracy take executive power from one party and hand it to another without bloodshed or tanks in the streets.

The founders built peaceful revolutions into America’s constitutional order, and such a revolution has just bestowed the mantle of the presidency on Barack Obama.

American voters on Tuesday also left Democrats poised to dominate Congress. Obama today can claim a mandate to take the nation on a new course.

What course? The answer will be clear to the partisan Democrats who see Tuesday’s returns as the electorate’s endorsement of the full sweep of their policy goals.

It is all too easy to imagine House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid pulling out the wish lists of the Democratic Party’s various constituencies. Protectionist trade restrictions, for example, or a reckless withdrawal from Iraq that forfeits the hard-won gains in that country.

That way lies hubris.

Tuesday’s election was not a wholehearted embrace of the liberal Democratic agenda; it was a repudiation of the Bush administration – which is not the same thing.

=> Read more!

I post here at the risk of reminding my colleagues that I am vacationing in Hawaii while they're slaving away...

David Gergen just noted on CNN that it would be particularly fitting if Hawaii put Obama over the 270 votes electoral votes needed to take the White House. I'm sure the state will go for its hometown boy when polls close in a few minutes here, but judging by the radio ads and yard signs around here, the presidential race is down-ballot for a lot of voters here.

Voters on the Big Island seem far more interested in the race between Billy Kenoi and Angel Pilago for mayor (my favorite campaign slogan: "One candidate is an Angel and the other is not") and a proposition to decriminalize marijuana.

Just goes to show... the politics that really matter to folks are the politics that are closest to home.

From an e-mail sent by editor emeritus Dave Seago:

Your correspondent happens to be observing Election Day New England-style in Rindge, N.H., today. Here, as in Massachusetts and Connecticut, schools close for the day to accommodate their use as polling places.

The main difference I found here in Rindge, about 70 miles northwest of Boston, was the politicking allowed outside the polling place.

=> Read more!

Either way, two Tacoma wine bars have something for you tonight.

If your candidate fared well today, CORK! is pouring El Presidente malbec and The Victor shiraz. For those who need consolation, it has SUXX shiraz. The wine bar is at 3012 S. Sixth Ave. (between Alder and Oakes).

Over at Pour at 4 (3814 N. 26th in the Proctor District), host Mark Merrill will offer $2 glasses of French champagne so guests can either toast the winners or drown their sorrows.

I've been a permanent absentee voter for many years, but when I voted in person it was at Hudtloff Junior High School in Lakewood. I stopped in at my old precinct this morning on the way to work to see how things were going.

The small parking lot was full at 8:25 a.m. I decided to talk to the first people who came out the door – not a very scientific sampling, I know, but I had to get to work after all.

First out were mother-daughter Joyce and Aimee Marubayashi. They both voted for the same candidate: Barack Obama.

For Aimee, a 22-year-old senior at Pacific Lutheran University, the main reason was the war. "I think he'll bring the troops home," she said. "He's going to change what Bush did." She also thinks Obama "cares more about education than McCain."

For Joyce, the war used to be the top issue. Now it's the economy. She said they were told that Aimee's student loan would be cancelled, so they had to go to another bank.

Inside, about 25 people were in line waiting to vote. It would be hard to imagine a more diverse group: older retirees, a lot of young people, a soldier and people of many races. A 30ish white man in suit and tie was chatting amiably with an older black man in a flashy nylon jacket.

Poll worker Sandra Anderson says that about 100 people were waiting for the doors to open at 7 a.m. in a precinct that is heavily absentee. Turnout at the polling place so far is running "much higher" than for the 2004 presidential election, she said.

This editorial will appear in tomorrow's print edition.

Almost always, the slimiest campaign ads are excreted by organizations – sometimes mysterious ones – that operate at a convenient distance from the candidates they benefit.

Take, for instance, a recent flyer disseminated by the Voter Education Committee, an outfit funded by firefighters and unions. It features a pile of $100 bills and reads, “Don’t let Pat McCarthy (D) and her friends at the BIAW buy this election!”

What does Pat McCarthy, a Democratic candidate for Pierce County executive, have to do with the Building Industry Association of Washington, an aggressively pro-Republican organization? Nothing. They aren’t political allies or contributors of hers, let alone “friends.”

The unions support McCarthy’s Democratic rival, Calvin Goings. They can spread this falsehood at arm’s length, because they operate independently.

Similarly, but more covertly, voters in the 2nd Legislative District have been treated to a brochure that blames Sen. Marilyn Rasmussen of Eatonville personally for “tens of billions of dollars in higher taxes.”

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in Tuesday's print edition.

Most Washington voters have it good and easy
For many voters in other states, an array of hurdles must be overcome in order to exercise their precious right.

The images are jaw-dropping: Long lines of people waiting to vote snake out of polling places, into parking lots and down the street.

They’re young and old, black and white. Some of them have waited hours – up to eight in some cases, even in the cold and rain – to vote. To say they are motivated is an understatement.

Americans have been guilty of being lackadaisical voters and taking their ballot box privileges for granted. That doesn’t appear to be happening this year. We’re turning out – with a vengeance.

=> Read more!

1. Political groups that pay for slander own the slander. So do candidates who don't disavow it.

2. Washingtonians are fortunate in avoiding the ordeals voters in some other states have to face to cast their ballots.

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.

You've heard about "the Bradley Effect" – which seems to have become an accepted aspect of election prognostication. Pundits look at polls showing Barack Obama ahead of John McCain and opine that they're probably closer than they appear due to the Bradley Effect: white people saying they'd vote for a black man but then don't.

The phenomenon traces back to the 1982 California gubernatorial race between Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley and Republican candidate George Deukmejian. Pre-election polls showed Bradley with a good lead, but he narrowly lost. The thinking was that many white voters weren't truthful with pollsters because they didn't want to appear prejudiced.

Now comes a Washington Post article by Ken Khachigian, who was a senior strategist and day-to-day tactician in Deukmejian’s campaign. He calls the Bradley effect "an urban myth."

Here's why:

=> Read more!

Perhaps the prospect of being able to hear the audio of, say, a 2007 legislative hearing on geoduck farming regulations does not thrill you.

But that's not the point. It's important to keep good permanent records of government at work, and that's why Secretary of State Sam Reed deserves a little credit for his latest announcement.

OLYMPIA – The Washington Office of Secretary of State’s Digital Archives, in a partnership with Microsoft Research, today announced it is hosting a new speech-search technology that will dramatically change how Washingtonians are able to access important public recordings.

The Washington Digital Archives is the first government program in the country to offer Microsoft Research’s Audio Search technology, which takes record keeping to the next level: it doesn’t just preserve audio recordings – it gives people an innovative way to search through them.

Read on for the rest of the press release. Thanks to ever-observant Jason Mercier, the Washington Policy Center's point person on state and local government reform, for alerting us to this one.

=> Read more!

Say what you will about The New York Times, but it sure does endorsements up right. (Before you all fill up my in box, I said "does," not "decides.")

The paper has a very cool interactive graphic on its site that traces its presidential endorsements back to 1860.

You can see how many times the paper's endorsement paralleled what happened at the polls. You can read what editorial writers had to say about Lincoln (apparently his profession as a rail splitter was evidence of his fitness for the job). You can verify that the Times hasn't endorsed a Republican for president since 1956.

One thing that jumped out at me is how big a role a candidate's temperament plays in winning the New York Times endorsement (or justifying it, if that's your bent). Makes sense – what good are heaps of experience without the right reflexes?