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 Wednesday's print edition.
If a Goodwill worker’s death ends up eroding support for disabled and disadvantaged workers, it would be a double tragedy.
By all accounts, Nick Miller loved working at Tacoma Goodwill Industries. He reveled in the routine, the chance to make friends and the independence.
Miller’s on-the-job death last year was a tragedy. To the extent that it was preventable, regulators are right to hold Goodwill accountable. Other workers’ lives may depend on it.
But if Miller’s death ends up discouraging employers from hiring disabled workers and possibly even the community from supporting Goodwill, that too would be a shame.
Last week, the governor released a budget that, among other things, didn't fund her negotiated contract with state employees. Today, the union sued for the money. The News Tribune's Joe Turner has complete information, including great links, at the paper's Political Buzz site.
Here's the background.
As the economy slid further into recession, the governor's office negotiated a new contract with state unions. Deals were struck before October 1, providing 2 percent pay hikes and continuing generous health care benefits. (There's more. Details here, but the details don't matter all that much right now.)
In November, the state forecast council slashed estimated revenues for the coming biennium by $1.9 billion. That changed things. Here's what her budget director, Victor Moore, wrote Gregoire.
Given the projected deficit of $5.7 billion, funding the increases for compensation and fringe benefits provisions contained in the collective bargaining agreements and arbitration awards at the expense of other vital governmental services is not feasible financially for the state.
Which means that the state can't afford the negotiated increases without unacceptable cuts to more important things. If the deal isn't "financially feasible," the governor's not bound by it.
Nick Miller's on-the-job death last year was a tragedy. To the extent that it was preventable, regulators are right to hold Tacoma Goodwill accountable. But if his fatal accident ends up discouraging employers from hiring disabled workers and possibly even the community from supporting Goodwill, that too would be a shame.
We're also adding our "ditto" to an editorial from the Olympian suggesting that the Port of Tacoma give conservationist more time to put together a deal to buy the Maytown property in southern Thurston County.
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.
Today Wall Street Journal columnist Gerald F. Seid writes, “The U.S. financial system is seen as having failed.” He writes China’s “managed mercantilism” will be more of a model to developing countries than ours and that America’s place as the iconic shining city on a hill has been usurped.
Words for reflection indeed.
For the past few years I have written on a political blog called “ Right meets Left,” where discussions often centered on dangers (real or perceived- depending upon perspective) that threaten the American way of life. Marriage, traditional forms of parenting, common courtesy and decency, even Christmas all seemed to be eroding fast by "an anything goes liberal left wing agenda," or so it was told by those on the Right.
As the appointed Left side of the blog, I often found myself fending off this cataclysmic thinking
The cartoon is by John Sherffius of the Boulder (Colo.) Camera.
