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 Sunday's edition.
Delayed to death – what an apt phrase to describe what could be in store for Pierce County transportation projects.
As The News Tribune’s statehouse reporter Joe Turner explained in Friday’s edition, Gov. Chris Gregoire’s transportation plan sacrifices projects here and elsewhere to help ensure that Seattle’s megaprojects stay on track.
The cannibalization is an attempt to cover a $5 billion gap between what state officials promised voters and what they expect to reap from gas tax hikes passed in 2003 and 2005. High gas prices and the ailing economy have hurt gas tax collections at the same time project costs have soared.
Gregoire’s plan doesn’t drop projects – at least not on paper. But it does push their start dates out so far that they wouldn’t get built without a new source of money.
I personally know only two non-politicians heading for the other Washington this weekend to attend the Obama inauguration.
One is Amelia, a neighbor and dependable catsitter who is making the trip with fellow students from Mason Middle School in Tacoma. Lucky kid.
The other is Michael Stoddard, a City of Tacoma mapping specialist I am working with on a highly classified project having to do with commuting to work by bicycle.
He will get no work done next week, Stoddard told me, because he's got tickets for Big Event itself -- the swearing-in -- as well as one of the official inauguration balls.
Here's Stoddard's account of how he earned the privilege:
This op-ed by musician/composer/producer Quincy Jones moved on the wire late Friday. We won't be able to use it in the print edition prior to the inauguration Tuesday. But given the local connection – Jones talks about growing up in Seattle – I thought our online readers might be interested in it.
Obama offers a sense of hope for the country
By Quincy Jones
Like many Americans and citizens of the world, on the morning of Nov. 5, 2008, I awoke with a renewed sense of purpose. The night before I had seen an event I could never have imagined, the election of an African-American as president of the United States of America. It’s true — if you live long enough, anything is possible.
As I sat with family and friends watching the election results, I resigned myself to tempering my emotions. Like all of Barack Obama’s supporters, I was encouraged by the strength, poise and deftness with which he ran his campaign. I knew that he was the best person for the job. But as a black man in America, I knew from experience not to let what I wanted to happen stray too far from the reality of what I knew could happen.
Indulge an old English major here as I watch in real time Barrack Obama’s historic train ride to the nations capitol. I can’t help but think of another famous ceremonial train ride, a ride so remarkable it prompted America’s most celebrated poet, Walt Whitman, to write words that would stir a nation for generations.
“O Captain! My Captain! Our fearful trip is done…” http://www.bartleby.com/142/193.html
The train carrying Lincoln’s body left Washington D.C. on April 21, 1865 and traveled 1,654 miles to his home and final resting place in Illinois. Much of the nation lined up along the tracks and mourned the funeral procession. Walt Whitman was in the crowd.
We know that Lincoln had a grand vision for our nation, one given to him by our Founders and one he kept sacrosanct through enormous trials, but Whitman, a great admirer of Lincoln, often said that our sixteenth president had good “horse-sense,” and that it took both the strength of Lincoln’s ideals and the strength of his practicality to keep our war torn nation in one piece.
When Lincoln was shot on April 14,1865 the nation was pre-maturely forced to say good-bye. Today, a ceremonial train comes back.
