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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Watching the global economic climate we had to know it was coming.
Today Russell Investments announced it will cut twenty percent of its workforce in the coming year. Obviously as the city’s largest employer this is going to hurt. Those being let go will feel the brunt of it, but we as a community will suffer, too.
Having Russell in Tacoma is a source of pride, and when in better times their growth caused them to look for a larger home, the city took a collective breath and held it.
Gov. Chris Gregoire wants the Legislature to write a blank check for a multibillion-dollar tunnel through downtown Seattle. Washington’s lawmakers should refuse to sign it.
The tunnel – a proposed replacement for the Alaskan Way viaduct – is a reasonable idea. It wouldn’t merely replace the viaduct, as a new elevated highway would have done, it would also eliminate a huge concrete barricade between downtown Seattle and its waterfront. It promises huge benefits for that city.
The problem: After pledging that Washington taxpayers will pay no more than $2.8 billion for the project, Department of Transportation officials now say the state will assume financial liability for any cost overruns.
That ought to be a show-stopper. A new elevated highway would serve the essential purpose of the project: letting motorists drive through downtown Seattle safely and efficiently. The additional cost of a tunnel serves other purposes – legitimate, but chiefly of benefit to Seattle and King County. State taxpayers should not be left on the hook for any and all overruns on the tunnel’s construction.
This editorial will appear in Wednesday's print edition.
Does the state control booze sales to promote temperance or make money? Washington can’t have it both ways.
Gov. Chris Gregoire is hoping a bender or two will help bail the state out of its budget bind.
Her proposed spending plan assumes that state liquor sales – one of the few sectors of the economy doing well, for some reason – will help cover the $6 billion budget shortfall. Gregoire is asking the Liquor Control Board to boost revenue by $21 million over the next two years.
The focus is on opening new liquor stores – “in order to meet the ongoing demands of an increasing population of individuals who are 21 years of age or older” – and expanding hours. But also in the mix are gimmicks such as offering gift cards and letting liquor stores sell stuff like corkscrews and ice.
It doesn’t get much more desperate than trying to drown the state’s fiscal crisis in booze. But these are desperate times.
Pulitzer Prize-winning author John Updike died today at age 76. He's best known for his books featuring the famous character of Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom.
I'm ashamed to say that the only book of his that I've read is "The Witches of Eastwick" and that's because I'd seen the movie, starring Jack Nicholson, Cher and Susan Sarandon. (The book is much better.)
When I looked Updike up on the Web, I found that he has quite a hefty entry on the Brainy Quote site.
Here are a few about writing:
When I write, I aim in my mind not toward New York but toward a vague spot a little to the east of Kansas.
Writers may be disreputable, incorrigible, early to decay or late to bloom but they dare to go it alone.
Writing criticism is to writing fiction and poetry as hugging the shore is to sailing in the open sea.
Here's a Los Angeles Times article about him:
The state got into the liquor business to control sales. Now it's looking at it as a profit center. If the original rationale is gone, why not privatize the whole enterprise?
It's confirmed: State taxpayers will be on the hook for Alaskan Way tunnel overruns. We have Paula Hammond's word that there will be no overruns. Let's stop this in the Legislature.
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.
