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 Tuesday's print edition.
Forgoing repayment of a housing stimulus is a smart idea, but lawmakers should not extend the incentive to all buyers.
If Congress looks like it’s flailing for an answer to the country’s economic woes, that’s because it is. Little that it’s tried so far has hit the mark.
The housing stimulus lawmakers passed last July certainly hasn’t done much to goose the market. House sales In King, Snohomish, Pierce and Kitsap counties were down – again – last month, to their lowest point in at least nine years.
Lawmakers had hoped to encourage more first-time buyers to take advantage of the housing slump by offering them a $7,500 tax credit. But this is no ordinary tax credit. Buyers have to pay back the money in full.
Consider the first-time homebuyer tax credit more of a no-interest loan – still a good deal, but perhaps not convincing enough for potential buyers already worried about taking on even a mortgage in this shaky economy.
You don't have to be in D.C. right now to wallow in Obaminable commercialism.
I found Obama cookies on sale at the Metropolitan Market in Tacoma's Proctor District. They were going for $5.99 for a package of four. No peanuts or tree nuts included, the label says.
These were made by Little Rae's Bakery of Seattle. All profits go to the Dino Rossi 2012 gubernatorial campaign fund. Not.
The Metro Market folks were also cashing in on Obamanation fever by promoting Graham Beck Brut champagne. According to Metro, the Obamas tried this champagne and liked it so much they ordered six bottles of it to share on election night.
That appears to be true. The Graham Beck winery, a South African outfit, brags about it on its website.
And some restaurants and bars hosting inauguration parties, like this Seattle joint, are offering mimosas made with the Beck non-vintage brut.
The Obama's may have another reason for favoring the Beck bubbly. Beck also says this was the wine of choice for Nelson Mandela's inauguration as the first democratically elected president of South Africa.
We bought a bottle, of course. At $16, we could afford a chance to if this champagne is truly presidential caliber. If I had to guess, though, the inaugural balls Tuesday night will be serving made-in-the-U.S. bubbles.
Kathleen Olson, the executive director of the Humane Society for Tacoma and Pierce County, recently finished compiling the organization's 2008 stats and couldn't wait to share the great news.
The Tacoma shelter – for the first time in recent memory – didn't have to euthanize a single healthy, adoptable dog in 2008. That's down from 37 dogs that died in 2007 at the shelter for nothing more than want of a good home.
That's a big milestone for an organization that wasn't sure it could end euthansias so soon. Last year, the Humane Society backed off of an earlier pledge to become a no-kill shelter by December 2008.
