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 print edition.
President Barack Obama didn’t waste any time last week putting federal agencies on notice that openness is the new order of the day.
“Starting today, every agency and department should know that this administration stands on the side, not of those who seek to withhold information, but those who seek to make it known,” he said Wednesday.
Democrats in Olympia would do well to take a cue from their guy in the White House. As a new era of transparency dawns in D.C., there are moves afoot in this Washington to draw the curtains tighter.
It’s a rough time to be a Republican, but even losers have some small pleasures in life. Now that Barack O’Bama has been inaugurated, Republicans finally have some peace and quiet. After eight years, the Democrats have begun to quit whining about George W. Bush.
My own personal favorite shabby insult was the ubiquitous “Bush is the worst President in American history!”
The Worst? I can think of more than a dozen pretty bad Presidents off the top of my head:
A Vanderbilt University professor thinks so – and says he has the data to prove it.
Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management professor Ray Friedman says the campaign and
election of Barack Obama have had a positive impact on black students' test-taking ability. He's calling it the "Obama Effect."
Friedman found that a test administered at key points in Obama's rise to the presidency – such as after his nomination acceptance speech and his win in November – showed that the difference between the test scores of black and white students was "statistically insignificant."
Friedman suggests that much of the racial performance gap can be linked to black students' perception of negative stereotypes about their race. They see Obama's ascent to the presidency as a stark refutation of those stereotypes.
He said:
"Obama as a role model did not have an immediate impact on black Americans’ concerns about such stereotypes. However, our findings give us reason to believe that the influence of extraordinarily successful role models like Obama will help to drive improved performance and, over the longer term, to dispel negative stereotypes about African Americans, bringing us closer to a 'post-racial’ world.”
Here's an article about Friedman's study.
