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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This editorial will appear in Friday's print edition.
Gov. Chris Gregoire proves state lawmakers can close the $5.7 billion budget gap without raising taxes, painful as it might be.
For a glimpse at how painful mending a $5.7 billion hole in the state budget will be, read on.
College students would see their tuition spike while class sizes grow and offerings shrink.
The working poor would either be dropped from the state-subsidized health plan or receive rationed care.
Disabled people and addicts who can’t work would be cut off from state assistance and treatment.
Lucky state workers would get no pay raises; 2,600 unfortunate ones get pink slips.
Thirteen state parks would close, never to reopen.
Yeow.
This editorial will appear in Friday's print edition.
Lakewood right to fund Early Learning Consortium
It’s unfortunate that the city couldn’t fund all the programs that sought money, but kids and basic needs are good priorities.
Some noses are out of joint in Lakewood because the City Council didn’t go along with the funding recommendations of its human services citizen advisory board. But the key word in that sentence is “advisory.”
The elected council members are under no obligation to go along with any recommendation made by the citizens appointed to the board. Even so, the council did agree to most of the board’s preferences down to the penny. But where it deviated, it did so in a big way, and that’s generated no little criticism.
I thought it would be a long, long time before I saw another election as statistically close as the Chris Gregoire-Dino Rossi cliffhanger in 2004. I was wrong.
Gregoire beat Rossi four years ago by 133 votes out of a total of 2.8 million. Minnesota Sen. Norm Coleman has now seen his microscopic lead over Democratic challenger Al Franken shrink to two votes (see below) out of 2.9 million cast.
So the current gap between Coleman and Franken is less than a millionth of the total. Franken looks likely to win, given the trends in the recount.
Gregoire says that, to this day, people in faraway lands ask her about that 133-vote victory. What do you bet Minnesota's next senator is going to be nicknamed "Landslide Al"?
Brace yourself for the onslaught of a new wonkword: "shovel ready."
With the incoming Barack Obama administration preparing to spend hundreds of billions of dollars on infrastructure projects, states – including Washington – are jostling for a place in line. Obama says any potential project must be "shovel ready" – in other words, ready to employ people almost immediately.
Gov. Chris Gregoire, who's counting on quite a bit of largess from the Obama administration, told us today that shovel-worthy means a project must be launchable within 90 to 120 days, with "all permits, everything, done."
This sudden opportunity is catching Washington with its pants down on its two biggest megaprojects: the multi-billion-dollar replacements for the Alaskan Way Viaduct in Seattle and the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge over Lake Washington.
The state House Republican Caucus just released a list of its "leading Republicans (ranking)" on the House standing committees for the 2009-2010 sessions.
Among the locals on the list are Skip Priest (Education and Education Appropriations), Jim McCune (General Government Appropriations), newcomer Bruce Dammeier (Human Services), newcomer Jan Angel (Local Government & Housing) and Dan Roach (Transportation).
I noticed one notable name missing: Rep. Tom Campbell of Roy. After all, he's the chairman of the Environmental Health Committee. Doesn't that make him its "leading" Republican?
Instead, the list names Rep. Matt Shea, a spanking-new legislator from Spokane Valley as the leading Republican.
Curious about that, I asked Lisa Fenton, the caucus' communications director, why being chairman doesn't qualify Campbell as being the "leading" Republican on the committee.
Here's her reply:
Rep. Campbell was appointed to serve as the chairman of the committee by Speaker Chopp. Rep. Shea has been appointed to serve as the lead for the Republican caucus by our leadership. While it is true that Rep. Campbell is technically a Republican, he serves more as an independent member of the Legislature. He doesn’t caucus with either the Democrats or Republicans.
This photo and note just came in from editor emeritus Dave Seago:
The bus became stuck about 2 p.m. on North 34th Street just west of Stevens on its way to Point Defiance. Neighbors have been coming out to offer the bus driver coffee. He's fine, he says.
It's a nice day to be retired.
Dave
Gov. Chris Gregoire proves state lawmakers can close the $5.7 billion budget gap without raising taxes, painful as it might be.
Some noses are out of joint in Lakewood because the City Council significantly deviated from the funding recommendations of its human services citizen advisory board. But the key word in that sentence is "advisory."
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.
In today's editorial, Patrick O'Callahan parodies the famous 1897 editorial, "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus," substituting GM CEO Richard Wagoner for 8-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon.
According to the Newseum Web site:
Eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York's Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history's most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole in dozens of languages in books, movies, and other editorials, and on posters and stamps.
Here's the original editorial:
Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus
"DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old.
"Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus.
"Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.'
"Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus?
"VIRGINIA O'HANLON.
"115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET."
VIRGINIA, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except [what] they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men's or children's, are little. In this great universe of ours man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect, as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.
