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.
Follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/tntopinion.
- All
- Editorial cartoons (285)
- Editorial outtakes (325)
- Election (121)
- How we work (191)
- Taking notice (1871)
- What's coming (989)
- Who's visiting (124)
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| << < | Current | > >> | ||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | ||||
| 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 |
| 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 |
| 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 |
| 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 |
- August 2009 (86)
- July 2009 (91)
- June 2009 (94)
- May 2009 (80)
- April 2009 (91)
- March 2009 (99)
- February 2009 (90)
- January 2009 (125)
- December 2008 (111)
- November 2008 (89)
- October 2008 (111)
- September 2008 (87)
- More...
XML Feeds- CustomScoop
- Guest Users: 401
Sunday: America's children and unborn grandchildren are on a spending spree. Since we're the ones doing the actually buying – in a stimulus package that will be billed to their credit cards – we owe it to them to shop judiciously.
Monday: It's easy to see why some Lakewood city officials are upset about a $90 million shopping and restaurant center planned for Fort Lewis. The development is simply beyond what is needed – even with the projected increase in personnel expected in coming years.
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.
State Rep. Dave Upthegrove took exception with our editorial this morning calling his bill to prohibit the UW from giving special exceptions to athletes during enrollment cutbacks a "revenge of the nerds" moment.
Let the record reflect that Upthegrove himself was a student athlete. And that college film class in which he was forced to make do with outdated equipment? Just an elective.
He also took issue with our description of his bill. He's concerned that we made it sound like his legislation would apply retroactively to the students granted admission to UW's spring quarter. It would not. We were using this year’s students as a case study for what might be the consequences of such a bill.
On 1/30/09 1:15 AM, "Upthegrove, Rep. Dave" wrote:
Hi Kim,
I appreciate your interest in my legislation, and am excited to see a public debate.
I know your editorial has been published, so my communication is too late, but I wanted to let you know a couple quick things about me and my motivations for the legislation. I was a two-sport varsity letterman in High School and still play in an organized weekly basketball league, and am a sports fan. I took a film class in school to fulfill some elective requirement, and used video equipment as one of several examples when pressed by the Seattle Times reporter.
In the early 1970s, a University of Montana group called the “Radical Student Coalition” was mighty proud of the fact it orchestrated student defunding the Montana Grizzly football team. “Heavy” and “Far out!” “Off the Pig(skin)!” “No more dollars for gratuitous acts of violence in Vietnam-era Missoula!”
Of course, Montana Grizzly football continued; the UM administration continued to fund the program, and a saner generation soon restored student funding. The Montana Griz became a NCAA 1-A powerhouse, with huge alumni support.
But kneejerk liberal anti-Footballism did not die out. My favorite liberal folktale is that, on Superbowl Sunday, acts of domestic violence against women increase exponentially. This fabrication still shows up as "fact" in leftist blogs and rants. Maybe they even teach about it in Evergreen State College Women’s Studies courses.
“Soccer good, football bad.”
Now it appears the Radical Student Coalition has grown up, and some of them are running Western Washington University! Good grief. Cut the WWU Viking football program? A century-long WWU tradition? Say it ain’t so!
