This blog is designed to give readers a glimpse of our editorial-page operation and how we make our decisions. We’ll let you know who we’re meeting with, what they’re telling us, what events and issues we’re looking at. We’ll also pass on information and observations that may not make our print editions. In addition to the editorial board members who post on this blog, the board includes Publisher David Zeeck, Executive Editor Karen Peterson and Managing Editor Dale Phelps.
Editorial board bloggers
Editorial page editor Patrick O’Callahan oversees the online and printed opinion sections of The News Tribune. He came to The News Tribune in 1987 and has worked at Washington newspapers since 1979. E-mail him at patrick.ocallahan@thenewstribune.com
Editorial writer Cheryl Tucker, in addition to writing commentary, manages the daily production of the editorial and op-ed pages and edits letters to the editor. She began her journalism career in 1974 at a Virginia newspaper and came to The News Tribune in 1978. E-mail her at cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com.
Editorial writer Kim Bradford manages the online opinion section of The News Tribune and writes commentary. She joined The News Tribune in 2005 after working 11 years at newspapers in Washington and Maryland. E-mail her at kim.bradford@thenewstribune.com.
Guest bloggers
Editor emeritus David Seago retired from The News Tribune in 2008 after 41 years at The News Tribune. E-mail him at sds99@harbornet.com.
Richard Davis’ column on state politics frequently runs in the print edition of The News Tribune. He was president of the Washington Research Council, a statewide think tank, from 1986 through 2006. Currently, as a principal with The Simeon Partnership, Inc. he coordinates the activities of the Washington Alliance for a Competitive Economy, a business coalition founded by the Research Council, the Association of Washington Business and the Washington Roundtable.
Karen Irwin of University Place, a mother of four, has been a frequent contributor to The News Tribune's print editions. She has also written for Seattle's Child, Puget Sound Parent, the Tacoma Weekly, the Fayetteville Observer Times and the political blog Right Meets Left. She graduated from California Lutheran University with a degree in English literature and is currently working toward a history degree.
Michael Allen, professor of history at the University of Washington Tacoma, was born and raised in Ellensburg. He served with the U.S. Marines in Vietnam from 1969-70. He has written five books, including the prize-winning "Patriot's History of the United States: From Columbus' Great Discovery to the War on Terror," "Rodeo Cowboys in the North American Imagination" and "Western Rivermen, 1763-1861: Ohio and Mississippi Boatmen and the Myth of the Alligator Horse." Allen lives in Tacoma and Ellensburg and has three children.
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Here's a sideways view from inside The Tribune Co., which has filed for bankruptcy. (Joel Stein is a Los Angeles Times columnist).
Get What You Pay For
By Joel SteinThis column may not meet the high levels of quality to which I have made you accustomed. That’s because I haven’t been getting paid.
News accounts of Tribune Co.’s bankruptcy filing detailed the $1 billion owed to JPMorgan Chase and $737.5 million to Deutsche Bank, but the vast sums owed to Steinacopia Inc. were left out. These sums are so vast that my editors don’t want me to mention just how much, for fear of making the other columnists jealous. I deeply suspect those other columnists are me.
But the vast amount — let’s just say there are four figures — was payment for my last two columns, for which the Los Angeles Times had not yet sent me a check before entering Chapter 11. Apparently, those weren’t columns; those were blogs.
But Steinacopia, as anyone who reads Companies With One Employee Created Solely for Tax Purposes Quarterly knows, can play rough right back. I called my accountant, Marty Fox, at Bernstein, Fox, Whitman, Goldman & Blaumbatt LLP, to ask how I can get in line ahead of JPMorgan Chase.
The spin war over ranked choice voting takes another turn: One of RCV's chief supporters is challenging a survey that turned up unhappiness with the system among Pierce County voters.
See David Wickert's post in the Political Buzz blog for the details. The short take is that UPS Prof. Richard Anderson-Connolly argues that the survey – done by Auditor Pat McCarthy – produced "poor quality" data because most voters didn't respond to her questionnaire.
They may have not cared enough, they may have been put off by McCarthy's involvement, they may not have had enough time, whatever. But the response rate was 27 percent, of whom approximately 63 percent opposed RCV.
Anderson-Connelly is right in arguing that it wasn't a scientific survey. He's wrong in saying that the survey doesn't "legitimately deserve analysis and reporting" (an odd claim to pop up in the middle of his own analysis).
Scientific or not, the survey reflected the views of 90,738 voters, a figure – to put it in perspective – about two-thirds the size of the U.S. force in Iraq. That may be an irrelevant comparison, but it suggests that Anderson-Connolly doth protest too much about the small size of the sample.
