This editorial will appear in tomorrow's print edition:

Here we go again.

Fifteen years after Bill Clinton’s health care reforms sank in a sea of bickering Democratic lawmakers, President Barack Obama is making another run at the monumental problems of the American health care system.

Obama has some advantages. Unlike Clinton, he was elected by a majority vote, and he’s got lots of political capital to spend. Also, conditions are riper.

Last time around, the wind in the sails of health care reform came from a recession that had millions of Americans fearful of losing their jobs – and their insurance. Public interest dropped once the economy revived.

This time around, the job losses are worse, public anxiety is higher and the country seems to have reached broad agreement that all Americans ought to have health coverage.

Now as then, though, the devil’s in the details. Clinton dumped more than 1,000 pages worth of details on Congress in a massive reform bill; critics were already picking it apart before it saw the light of day.

=> Read more!

The upper fold of the newspapers yesterday boomed "Iraq Troop Withdrawal," or more evocatively, "Pullout From Iraq." But I suspect some (not all) in the press corps were less than ebullient about President Obama's speech to the Camp Lejeune Marines.

A few sentences beyond the headlines we learned this was to be an 18-month scaled withdrawal – not the "immediate withdrawal" promised in Campaign '08. Moreover, we learned that while combat troops will leave, 35,000-50,000 support troops (approximately the same number now stationed in Korea and West Germany) will remain in Iraq until at least 2011. And we learned that while studying this question Obama had consulted, and earned the support of, Republican Senator John McCain.

Strikingly, there are expressions of President Obama's pride that our troops "have succeeded beyond any expectations," led by "two of our finest generals." "You got the job done," he told the Marines. Put another way: "Mission Accomplished."

The Marines roared their approval of their (newly born) Commander in Chief. Aye, aye sir! Now President Obama, lead us to a similar victory in Afghanistan. We can do it!

I didn't have the space over the weekend to run this Kathleen Parker column, but I think it's worth getting in for our online readers.

In it, Parker counters the impression that Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal made in his response to President Obama's speech Tuesday. Jindal was royally panned, even by many conservatives.

Here's Parker's take on the "real" Bobby Jindal.

I liked the old Bobby Jindal better — the one whose brain moves so fast, he’s already indexing questions his interviewers haven’t thought of yet.

What did they do with him?

The Jindal who responded to Barack Obama’s address to Congress was less the brilliant statesman than a terribly mixed metaphor — equal parts Mister Rogers, Bobby Brady and Kenneth the Page.

I know Bobby Jindal, and that guy wasn’t Bobby Jindal.
The real Jindal is the intellectual equivalent of a nuclear power plant. The real Jindal has actually read the stimulus bill and can recite its contents. The real Jindal is the sort of politician who promises ethics and education reform, and actually delivers.

=> Read more!

We just received a letter to the editor from the Tacoma Branch of the NAACP expressing opposition to the March 10 Tacoma school bond measure.

According to the letter from branch president Gregory Christopher:

I am writing divulging the Tacoma Branch NAACP opposition to the Tacoma School #10 Proposition No. 1. This proposition calling for $300 million in general obligation bonds will soon come to a vote in the Tacoma area. For the past 25 years, we in the NAACP Tacoma Branch have been working through various committees and have been challenged by each one in an effort to improve what takes place inside the school house.

The quality of education by all accounts has declined over the years, and we believe this is where our investment now needs to focus.

=> Read more!

I am reading an article by Richard Florida in The Atlantic that suggests that the financial crash will not only alter economic policy, the business landscape and personal finances, but also where people live.

Florida is the guru of the "creative class" theory of economic development. He preaches that the world's smartest, most talented young professionals gravitate to cities that cater to them. He came to Tacoma in 2006 to help the city work on initiatives to enhance Tacoma's creative appeal.

In his piece for The Atlantic, Florida opines that the financial meltdown will have disparate geographic effects. "Some cities and regions will eventually spring back stronger than before. Others may never come back at all."

What caught my eye was his suggestion that New York, a global financial center, isn't likely to be as affected as lesser financial outposts like Des Moines, Iowa, that depend even more heavily on financial jobs. (In Des Moines, they make up 18 percent of the total employment.)

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in tomorrow's print edition.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates was right to allow photography of coffins of war dead – on condition that loved ones agree.

Exploitation or honor? The U.S. policy of barring photographs of the coffins of war dead has been construed both ways.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates got it right Thursday, we believe, when he relaxed that policy to allow photographic coverage of the arrival of the flag-draped coffins – but only with the approval of the families involved.

The ban on public photography was imposed in 1991. Since the Iraq war began in 2003, it has been vehemently criticized and defended.

Critics – many of them opponents of the war – said the Bush administration was using the ban to prevent Americans from seeing frequent scenes of coffins coming home from Iraq through Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.

Defenders argued that the critics were bent on politically exploiting those scenes as antiwar propaganda.

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in Friday's print edition.

Stemming illegal immigration will take a comprehensive approach – and that includes crackdowns on employers and employees alike.

A work-site raid at a Bellingham plant this week could be a boon to the cause of immigration reform.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials raided Yamato Engine Specialists Ltd. on Tuesday, arresting 28 workers and sending most of them to Tacoma’s immigration detention center to await deportation.

But it’s the field agents, not the illegal workers, who are coming under the greatest scrutiny.

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in Thursday's print edition.

Metro Parks commissioners better be prepared to deliver since they are keeping hope alive for Titlow Pool fans.

Titlow Pool will live to be fought over another day.

That was the word from Metro Parks commissioners this week as they announced a compromise aimed at ending the long-running feud over the West End pool’s fate.
The deal goes like this: The parks district gives Titlow a reprieve, advocates of a play pool the green light and swim teams a bone.

The strategy is at once a welcome end to the parks board’s dithering over how to spend money from a 2005 bond measure and an ominous sign that more dithering over Titlow’s fate could lie ahead.

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in Thursday's print edition.

Firm deadline a good idea for Lakewood initiatives
The City Council and the Pierce County auditor have strict deadlines; initiative supporters should, too.

Lakewood has already seen what happens by not having firm deadlines for turning in initiative petitions: Its very first experience with a citizens initiative was a huge, last-minute pain in the neck.

=> Read more!

The fact-checking didn't end with the campaigns. FactCheck.org is still on the case, offering this critique of President Obama's SOTU-like speech:

He said "we import more oil today than ever before." That's untrue. Imports peaked in 2005 and are substantially lower today.

He claimed his mortgage aid plan would help "responsible" buyers but not those who borrowed beyond their means. But even prominent defenders of the program including Fed Chairman Bernanke and FDIC chief Bair concede foolish borrowers will be aided, too.

He said the high cost of health care "causes a bankruptcy in America every 30 seconds." That's at least double the true figure.

He flubbed two facts about American history. The U.S. did not invent the automobile, and the transcontinental railroad was not completed until years after the Civil War, not during it.

He claimed that his stimulus plan "prevented the layoffs" of 57 police officers in Minneapolis. In fact, it's far more complicated than that, and other factors are also helping to save police jobs.

In his response to President Obama's speech Tuesday, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal struck a sour note by dissing on the $140 million in stimulus package money for, as he put it, "something called 'volcano monitoring.'"

For those of us who live in the shadow of what's been called the nation's most dangerous volcano, monitoring isn't just a line item in a big funding deal, it's a potential life-saver. Volcano monitoring could mean the difference between life and death for thousands of local residents.

Hey, we don't begrudge the money spent on Louisiana to prevent another hurricane-related catastrophe.

Here's an article outlining what that "volcano monitoring" is all about.

Metro Parks commissioners better be prepared to deliver since they've decided to keep hope alive for Titlow pool fans.

Lakewood's proposal to set some deadlines for citizen initiatives is perfectly reasonable, but perhaps a less confusing way to go would be to tie the city's deadlines to the state's.

If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to kim.bradford@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.

I watched President Obama's speech last night and thought he set the right tone: no pussyfooting around the fact that the economy is in dire straits, but voicing optimism that we have it within ourselves to set things right.

Maybe he touched on too many topics, though (including curing cancer, if I'm not mistaken). I think he should have focused on the economy and the war, but as David Broder writes in his column that runs Thursday:

"Buoyed for now by his victories over Hillary Clinton and John McCain, by his soaring approval scores and by a Republican opposition whose incoherence was demonstrated by the reply from Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Obama is clearly of a mind to strike while the iron is hot."

Here's what editorial writers at other newspapers had to say about Obama's speech.

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Aberdeen's newspaper has this story about House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler's frustration over her repeated efforts to require public bodies to tape their closed-door meetings.

Cities and counties have blocked the legislation in the past, so this year Kessler is pushing a neutered bill to require executive-session taping only when a local government has been found to have violated open meetings laws.

But apparently she can't get even that past her colleagues. Kessler told the World that she failed to come up with the four votes necessary to get the bill out of the Government and Tribal Affairs Committee.

From the story:

"I don't know what's going on," Kessler said. "I really, truly don't know. Some of the people who say they support the bill must be working behind the scenes to kill it. That's all I can imagine."

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in Wednesday's print edition.

Bus rapid transit makes sense for Meridian
Carving out a lane for fast bus service could help alleviate pressure on the notoriously busy corridor.

Ever tried to get from one end of Meridian Street in Puyallup to the other?

Cue the music from “Mission: Impossible” here, because that’s what it can feel like. Meridian (Highway 161) gets clogged at just about any time, but it’s especially aggravating at rush hour.

The City of Puyallup and Pierce Transit hope to make Meridian a little less impossible by partnering on a bus rapid transit project. The first step is to secure $1.5 million from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) to complete an engineering study of the corridor by next year.

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in Wednesday's print edition.

Obama’s choice of the former Washington governor suggests that the new administration will remain committed to free trade.

Many economists and historians believe the Smoot-Hawley Act of 1930 – which imposed high tariffs on thousands of foreign imports – helped deepen the Great Depression.

That history bears on Barack Obama’s reported plan to nominate Gary Locke as secretary of the Commerce Department.

The former Washington governor could prove an ideal choice, if he stands up to the powerful Democratic constituencies pushing to protect U.S. industries from foreign competition.

=> Read more!

My grandmother had a saying and it went like this: “It may take some years, but eventually, everyone’s bill comes due.” Ok, maybe it wasn’t her saying, but it should have been because it is wise, and as we know all too well these days, it is true.

Did anyone honestly think we could foot a war at approx. 10 billion per month, cut taxes, increase spending, let “maverick capitalists” like Maddoff run the store, encourage an “ownership society”/housing bubble so we could have a place to park assets, and not think any of these would come at a heavy cost?

I can almost see the deficit tab sitting on the diner counter complete with smiley face and scribbled note “ It was a pleasure serving you. Y’all come back- George W. Bush.”
I suppose we can be grateful for the little things. We can be grateful that President Bush was unable to privatize social security. Can I get an “Amen” on that one?

Now Obama’s the man left holding the tab. And he’s taking some hits. Turns out some Republican’s expectations of Obama were even higher then those of Independents and Democrats.

=> Read more!

Now, let me see if I've got this straight: For the first month of his presidency, Barack Obama concentrated on "economic stimulus," producing a "package" that costs about $850 billion, give or take. And much of that $850 billion will be paid for with borrowed money, inflation, and other forms of deficit spending.

Right?

So, Monday I wake up and read the newspaper, and I'll be damned if it doesn't say that the president has begun a new economic initiative: He is going to "reduce the deficit" and "tighten up on spending"!!!!

Because these policy initiatives are disconnected by a few days, are we supposed to believe they don't contradict each other? Are me and my libcon buddies the only ones who see through this doubletalk?

I don't think so.

Yesterday, the Dow tanked at its lowest point in 12 years. A lot of folks think we're in deep do-do.

"Yes we can" elect someone to the highest office in the land who knows surprisingly little about markets, finance, wealth-creation, and long range impact of defict spending.

This editorial will appear in tomorrow's print edition.

Lawmakers should approve a Senate bill to prevent the sealing of court documents that hold evidence of public hazards.

In theory, the sealing of court records shouldn’t hide evidence of a continuing threat to public safety. In reality, it happens.

Firestone, for example, long succeeded in concealing evidence that its tires were prone to tread separation that could cause crashes. When it settled with plaintiffs who’d claimed injury, it negotiated the sealing of the settlements.

Likewise, Merck succeeded in sealing records that might have alerted the public to the risks of heart attacks from its anti-inflammatory drug Vioxx. Innocent people have died as a result of secret settlements bought with hush money. Such coverups ought to be against the law. They would be under a bill sponsored by state Sen. Adam Kline, D-Seattle.

=> Read more!

The folks who tried to close down Lakewood's casinos last years – and were mightily rebuffed by city's voters – haven't folded their tents and gone away.

Below is an excerpt from a missive from David Anderson, the leader of the anti-gambling forces:

Finally, you might be interested to know that the SaveLakewood Community Matters YES! 2009 campaign is well underway, the details of which are described in the January issue of our newsletter.

Our goals include unseating the incumbents, three of which were supported by the casinos in their 2005 campaigns, and returning to the signature drive to put yet another initiative on the ballot in November to ban social card rooms.

So, another initiative may be in the works. I asked Anderson why he wants to unseat all the council incumbents. Here's his reply:

=> Read more!

Last week, in something delicately called an "early guidance," economic forecaster Arun Raha told legislators they'd have about $2.3 billion less to spend over the next 30 months. The announcement means the state now faces an $8 billion budget shortfall.

On cue, entering from stage left, come 28 liberal economists telling the governor and legislative leaders that they better consider raising taxes. Fair enough. Liberal economists, like other special interests, have a right to their opinion. But there is something a little pretentious about this:

Drawing upon economic theory, we believe reducing government spending will have a more deleterious effect on Washington State’s economy than would increasing revenue. Although both cuts in government spending and tax increases have the potential to slow economic growth, cutting government spending would likely have the most immediate impact by directly reducing consumption. Tax increases are less problematic...

The appeal to "economic theory" is unlikely to persuade families and business struggling to get by in an economic collapse precipitated, in part, by serious missteps taken by the credentialed ubersmug, the degreed greedy with economic training.

Economists disagree, often and vigorously. If they didn't cable news would have more dead air time, perhaps a good thing. Of the 28 folks who signed the letter, 24 work in tax-supported institutions: county government, community colleges, and four-year universities. Does it surprise anyone that they agree that raising taxes would be a good thing?

Here's an editorial cartoon that hits a little too close to home.

This editorial will appear in Monday's print edition.

Voters can’t be blamed for wondering if the districts’ timing is off, but the need to modernize and expand schools isn’t going away.

Bad things can happen to good ideas on the way to the ballot.

No one – certainly not Tacoma and Puyallup school district officials – knew when they were making plans at this time last year how far and fast the U.S. economy would fall. Yet here they are, with the country in the grip of a recession, trying to make their case for new taxes to build schools, modernize others and equip campuses with up-to-date technology.

It’s an uphill fight, to be certain. Puyallup and Tacoma voters turned down similar bond measures in much better times. For taxpayers to take on millions more in debt now would be an act of faith – in economic recovery and the power of education.

The News Tribune’s editorial board hopes voters take that leap even as we recognize that many struggling families will be simply unable to see their way beyond present circumstances.

=> Read more!

Don't expect a lot of political fireworks when the Academy Awards are given out tonight. Hollywood, which leans liberal, doesn't have a whipping boy in the White House anymore. Oh, there might be some anti-Prop. 8 statements, but probably not much else.

Here's a good preview by Washington Post writer Rachel Dry that also looks back at some of Oscar's most political moments.

By Rachel Dry
The Washington Post

WASHINGTON — It has been a good run of late for the celebrity political activist. Barack Obama — who enjoyed high-wattage support and Web video paeans from most of the Hollywood A-list — made it to the White House. And just this month, judges at the International Criminal Court decided to issue an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, a victory of sorts for Hollywood Darfur crusaders George Clooney and Don Cheadle.

So what red-carpet manifestos or acceptance-speech politicking are we in for this Oscar Sunday?

Well, it could be kind of a lean year.

=> Read more!

Some people believe the earth is 10,000 years old. Some people believe the government is hiding aliens at Roswell, N.M.. Some people believe the destruction of the World Trade Center in 2001 was an inside job.

But public colleges aren't generally in the business of teaching such things with a straight face. Empiricism is supposed to be a big deal in academia. Right?

At Pierce College, maybe not so much. Check some of the offerings from its continuing education catalog:

FIRST DEGREE REIKI "the breath of the soul or universal life energy"; "this Japanese healing art passes a large, warm current of vital life force through the hands of the practitioner into the person being treated"; such illnesses as cancer, diabetes and AIDS "are consistently and potently served with Reiki."

COUNTDOWN 2012: THE AWAKENING OF HIGHER CONSCIOUSNESS & THE NEW EARTH "What does the Mayan calendar say about 2012?" "Is this the end of the world?" "Who are the Indigo/Crystal/Rainbow children?" "Why is the animal kingdom behaving differently?" "Welcome to the great shift in the collective consciousnes and the new earth of peace, love, joy an abundance for all."

THE LIGHTBODY ACTIVATION "specially programmed cystals that raise your body's vibration with Fifth Dimensional energy to create a positive shift in consciousness. It is performed in a relaxing enviornment where you lie in a crystal triangle. Your chakras are activated, light is spun into the layers of your aura, and prana is brought into the cells of your body."

HEALING WITH RIVER STONES AND CRYSTALS "You will participate in asimple crystal healing where crystals of the appropriate color and energy are placed at corresponding chakras." "No prior knowledge is needed to attend."

I realize these aren't classes for credit, but they are official offerings of Pierce College for which fees are collected. Their listing in the catalog gives them the school's imprimatur.

The administration's embarrassment threshold must be awfully high.

Leave it to Tacoma to provide yet another cautionary tale.

Seems our very own “Galloping Gertie,” as locals knew her, makes the best analogy for an economy on the brink of disaster.

In his New York Times column today, David Brooks compares the current global economic crisis to the Tacoma Narrows Bridge, the old one, circa 1940, the one that snapped and crashed.

Brooks described the disaster this way: "oscillations built on one another until the whole thing was freakishly alive."

Brooks uses poor ol’ Gertie to illustrate the critical nature of the economy, mostly speaking to his fellow conservatives who are reacting to the stimulus package Foghorn Leghorn style "Ah, just wait here a minute see, that there 1,400-page stimulus plan hasn’t even been read in its entirety, it’s full of pork and stuff we don’t like.”

=> Read more!

For Sunday: Gov. Chris Gregoire, in her state of the state address last month, challenged lawmakers looking to fill a then-$6 billion budget hole to “put our sacred cows out to pasture forever.”

It got us wondering what those sacred cows might be, and who would be willing to name them. Earlier this month, we invited current and former state officials, policy analysts and interest group representatives to suggest what lawmakers would do if they’re really serious about leveraging the economic crisis to make hard choices. (For a sneak peek, see our opinion site.)

For Monday: Tacoma and Puyallup school districts are asking voters to help them improve, expand and construct new schools. We weigh in on the March 10 ballot measures.

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.

This editorial will appear in tomorrow's print edition.

The land under the Alaskan Way Viaduct could serve as insurance against cost overruns on a new Seattle tunnel.

Washington transportation officials are confident there will be no cost overruns on the tunnel that is to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct in Seattle.
Or so they say.

But optimistic promises won’t guarantee that state taxpayers and other highway projects won’t get robbed if the tunnel turns into Big Dig West. State Rep. Dan Roach of Bonney Lake may have stumbled on a better safeguard.

As things stand, Gov. Chris Gregoire and various Seattleites are pushing for legislative approval of a $4 billion-plus tunnel that would carry Highway 99 under downtown Seattle. The tunnel or something like it must be built. The existing viaduct is long past its prime and dangerously vulnerable to collapse during an earthquake.

The state’s supposed share of the huge project is $2.8 billion, which is probably a reasonable number given the importance of the corridor. The problem lies in capping that share. The deal being presented to the Legislature would leave the state responsible for cost overruns – and big tunnels are notorious for big overruns.

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in Friday's print edition.

Junior’s back where he belongs – with the M’s
Ken Griffey Jr. started his baseball career with the Mariners,
and now it looks like that’s how he’ll end it.

My, oh my: The Kid is coming back.

And all of a sudden, some of that old Seattle Mariner magic is back with him.

Fans hoping that Ken Griffey Jr. would end his career back where it started were coming to grips earlier this week with being jilted yet again. It looked like he was going to sign with the Atlanta Braves to be closer to his family in Florida.

Good riddance, M’s fans rationalized. Let Atlanta have him and his bum knee. At 39, he’s too old; spend the money signing a promising up-and-comer.

But then surprise, surprise. Somewhere along the way, Griffey’s heart won out over his head and he decided to return to the club he left in 1999 after 11 years (apparently after a strong nudge by the great Willie Mays and former Mariner Harold Reynolds). Griffey’s coming back to play at Safeco Field – “the house that Junior built.”

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in Thursday's print edition.

The president’s plan to shore up the ailing housing market aims at the heart of the nation’s financial crisis.

Key to lawmakers’ agreement last month to release the second half of the financial bailout money was President Barack Obama’s promise to do something about the soaring numbers of home foreclosures.

On Wednesday, Obama delivered. Over-delivered, some would say.

Obama had been expected to propose a housing fix for those homeowners in immediate danger of foreclosure. He did, but then went a good deal further, at least symbolically.

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in Thursday's print edition.

Too easy for underage girls to get onto post
A number of Fort Lewis’ security rules seem to have been violated, and now a local girl is dead.

Well, now the terrorists know how to sneak into military installations: Disguise themselves as teenage girls.

A troubling gap in security came to light with the death early Sunday morning of a 16-year-old Lakes High School student in a Fort Lewis barracks. Another girl has been hospitalized. Authorities believe the tragedy may be drug-related.

It’s legal for civilian minors to go on post with someone who has a Department of Defense ID. But they’re not supposed to be in the barracks unless accompanied by a parent or legal guardian, and overnight visits are not allowed. Those rules appear to have been violated in this case.

Anyone who’s been stuck in a long line trying to get onto Fort Lewis and had to show identification and registration might well wonder why it’s so easy for young girls to get onto post to party into the wee hours with soldiers.

=> Read more!

Victoria Woodards is set to announce she's running for a Tacoma City Council seat this year.

Heard via email from the candidate herself, although her public announcement is going out later today. So I haven't had the chance to find out what seat she's going for.

(I need to wake up: Woodards attached the announcement, which says she's going for the at-large Position 6 seat now held by Mike Lonergan, who's term-limited)

Woodards is currently a Metro Parks commissioner, second term (I think), and pays the bills by working as aide to Pierce County Councilman Tim Farrell, one of the two lonely Democrats on the County Council.

If memory serves, Woodard has been active in neighborhood groups and a leader in staging the annual Ethnic Fest celebration at Wright Park. I know she led the choir at her church on the Hilltop, so she'd undoubtedly be the best gospel singer on the council, if elected. She also gets bonus points for being a Lincoln High School graduate.

Here's Woodards' press release:

=> Read more!

Key to lawmakers' agreement last month to release the second half of the financial bailout money was President Barack Obama's promise to do something about the soaring numbers of home foreclosures. On Wednesday, Obama delivered. Over-delivered, some would say.

Fort Lewis authorities should be aghast that their security measures are so vulnerable that teenage girls can easily circumvent them.

If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to kim.bradford@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.

Associate Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s recent illness no doubt sent President O’Bama’s Kitchen Cabinet into a fuss. The liberal press corps certainly sounded the battle cry: Ginsberg must be replaced with a liberal woman who will protect Roe v. Wade!

If Ginsberg does step down, she will no doubt be replaced with a liberal woman judge. But there is (a little) good news for conservatives and libertarians: Obama and friends are going to have to search pretty darn hard to find anyone who is both qualified and as liberal as Ruth Bader Ginsberg!

Whatever happens, and the conservative 5-4 Supremes majority notwithstanding, the 1/3 Compromise will remain in place.

“1/3 Compromise”?

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in Wednesday's print edition.

Federal Way court hobbled by charges
Municipal Court Judge Michael Morgan is presiding under a cloud. That’s not fair to the people seeking justice in his court.

Serious concerns about the mental and emotional state of Federal Way’s head municipal court judge have, to public appearances at least, fallen on deaf ears.

That’s a problem for the court and the administration of justice.

Nearly three months ago, the city’s police chief wrote to the city manager to recommend that Judge Michael Morgan be put on leave following a court supervisor’s report that he was potentially unstable.

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in Wednesday's print edition.

Peanut scandal: More of the same lame oversight
One of the nation’s biggest recalls again points out huge gaps in food-safety regulation.

A revealing exchange took place last week at a congressional hearing into the food-contamination scandal at the Peanut Corp. of America.

Oregon Congressman Greg Walden asked the company’s president, Stewart Parnell, if he would be willing to eat some of the items included in the massive nationwide recall of peanut products.
Parnell declined to answer, much less accept the offer.

Little wonder. Products containing his company’s peanuts – including cookies, candy and ice cream distributed to stores and schools – have been linked to at least nine salmonella deaths; hundreds more have been sickened. He’d be a fool to agree to bite into any of them.

=> Read more!

Rumor has it the message on the Hello Kitty sticky note read “Stay away from the cold medicine.” Famous last words if ever there were, but alas, Japan’s finance minister, Shoichi Nakagawa, in a hurry to last week's G7 meeting in Rome, ignored the dire warning, his mind occupied with bigger worries, and in an effort to stop some post nasal drip, he imbibed.

The international press called him “drunk,” an embarrassment to the proceedings and to his country. Apparently, slurred speech, unsteady gait and near narcoleptic fits pass for drunk these days.

=> Read more!

Federal Way's police chief recommended – three months ago – that one of the city's municipal judges be put on leave. Yet Judge Michael Morgan's still on the bench, and no one can say why. Something's not right.

Congress and the FDA share the blame with a Georgia peanut processor for the most recent food contamination that has killed at least nine people.

If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to kim.bradford@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.

Today's George Will column is coming under fire for misrepresenting evidence to bolster Will's dismissal of global warming.

Will relies on two key scientific findings: That global sea ice levels remain the same as they were in 1979, and that there has been no recorded global warming for more than a decade. The first claim has been refuted by the very university researchers that Will cited. The second appears to be a convenient use of the facts, at best.

Talking Points Memo has more information here. Nate Silver of FiveThirtyEight.com takes a look at the data here.

This editorial will appear in Tuesday's print edition.

One more time: No vaccine-autism link
Parents endanger their children when they don't allow them to be immunized against dread diseases.

Many parents who refuse to have their children vaccinated aren't paying attention to scientists, choosing to give more credence to anecdotal "evidence" and Hollywood celebrities. So there's probably little chance they'll have any more faith in a U.S. Court of Claims, which last week concluded no link exists between autism and childhood vaccinations.

One of the court's "special masters" said that the petitioners seeking compensation for their children's autism "have been the victims of bad science conducted to support litigation rather than to advance medical and scientific understanding" of the condition.

Indeed, the Sunday Times of London reported last week that the original 1998 study linking autism to the mumps, measles and rubella vaccine – the one that touched off the whole controversy in the first place – had been manipulated for litigation purposes.

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in Tuesday's print edition.

Aid in dying needs careful regulation
Rules being drafted to implement I-1000 don't adequately address mortality disclosure and patient mental health.

On March 4, terminally ill Washingtonians over the age of 18 will be able to start putting the voter-approved Death With Dignity Act into action by requesting a lethal prescription to end their lives on their own terms.

But not all the details for implementing the voters' will have been ironed out – and some of the wrinkles are likely to remain after the act goes into effect.

=> Read more!

Now here's a restaurant that is using some creativity to get diners in the door during hard times: Endolyne Joe's in West Seattle has tied the price of its blue plate special to the most recent Dow Industrial Average closing mark.

For instance, on Friday (the most recent active day on Wall Street), the Dow closed at 7850. So tonight (Monday), diners can get Seth's Mama's Beef Stroganoff over egg noodles with sauteed green beans for $7.85.

Read more about the special – which is only available till it runs out – here.

I've eaten at this restaurant several times; it goes with a theme for several months. Right now, it's featuring "the down-home flavors of Georgia, U.S.A."

Two other Seattle restaurants in the Chow Foods chain, the Hi-Life in Ballard and the 5 Spot on Queen Anne, are also offering the same "closing bell" special. I haven't eaten at either, so you're on your own. But I highly recommend Endolyne Joe's – a favorite with its West Seattle neighbors. It's just up the hill from the Fauntleroy ferry dock.

There hasn't exactly been a blizzard of hats flying into the ring for Tacoma City Council races this fall, even though five seats, including the mayor's post, are up for grabs.

Architect Jim Merritt has announced for mayor, and Beckie Summers-Kirby has declared for the South Tacoma council seat to be vacated by Connie Ladenburg.

Marty Campbell, active in community and business issues and owner of Stadium Video and Buzzard Records, has filed with the Public Disclosure Commission for the East Side district seat to be vacated by Rick Talbert. But he hasn't made a public declaration of candidacy yet.

Considering that four of the five contests are for open seats and the August primary is only six months away, that's not much action. As always, though, there's plenty of unconfirmed gossip and speculation.

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We know Norm Dicks, the Sixth District's man in the other Washington, as a friend of the environment and defense contractors. But who knew he was such a staunch supporter of the arts?

Today's The New York Times has a story citing U.S. Rep. Dicks as playing a key role in preserving $50 million for the arts in the massive economic stimulus bill Congress passed last week.

Dicks swung into action behind the scenes, The Times reports, after Oklahoma Republican Sen. Tom Coburn inserted an amendment that excluded museums, theaters and arts centers, along with casinos and golf courses, from stimulus funding.

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It's Presidents Day, so here's a quiz to see how well you know our commanders in chief.

Match the following quotes with the correct president. Your choices are:

Thomas Jefferson
Abraham Lincoln
Theodore Roosevelt
Franklin Roosevelt
John F. Kennedy
Lyndon Johnson
Richard Nixon
Bill Clinton
George W. Bush
Barack Obama

1. "In the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years."

2. "Banking establishments are more dangerous than standing armies."

3. "I believe that God has planted in every heart the desire to live in freedom."

4. "Be sincere; be brief; be seated."

5. "If you're walking down the right path and you're willing to keep walking, eventually you'll make progress."

6. "Mankind must put an end to war or war will put an end to mankind."

7. "Sometimes I feel like a fire hydrant looking at a pack of dogs."

8. "Do what you can, with what you have, where you are."

9. "We can draw lessons from the past, but we cannot live in it."

10. "If you want to make beautiful music, you must play the black and the white notes together."

ANSWERS:

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This tribute to Abraham Lincoln, whose 200th birthday we mark this month, will appear in Monday's print edition.

A president’s plan: Preserving the Union
For Abraham Lincoln, his duty was clear: Do anything it took to ‘save the Union . . . the shortest way under the Constitution.’

In 1842, the Springfield, Ill., Temperance Society invited a young state lawmaker to address its group on the occasion of the 110th anniversary of George Washington’s birthday.

A 33-year-old Abraham Lincoln told the society’s members, “On (Washington’s) name, an eulogy is expected. It cannot be. To add brightness to the sun, or glory to the name of Washington, is alike impossible. Let none attempt it.”

We’ll take the Great Emancipator’s advice and skip the exaltations. What’s true of Washington is also true of Lincoln. The 16th president, born 200 years ago this month, is not in need of any additional myth-making.

Truer honor can be found in his own words. They reveal a man who was clearly a great thinker, orator and strategist, but also very much a man and a product of his times.

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in tomorrow's print edition.

When Washington slips into a deep recession, the unfortunates who subsist on GAU wind up with a bright red bulls-eye painted on their backs.

However far state revenues drop, Washington’s lawmakers can’t leave Olympia without producing a balanced budget. Emptying the prisons and closing the schools aren’t options. That leaves social welfare programs at high risk – and Government Assistance Unemployable at highest risk of all.

Gov. Chris Gregoire has proposed saving roughly $400 million over the next two years by eliminating medical insurance and $339-a-month cash grants to about 22,000 GAU recipients. GAU makes a tempting target for budgeteers because it is funded entirely by the state and leverages no federal money. And its recipients – single unemployed adults, no children – are at the top of no one’s list.

All have serious disabilities, but they’re not usually obvious or dire enough to qualify them for federal disability payments. A state survey found that, in 2003, 36 percent of GAU recipients struggled with mental illness, 69 percent had physical problems and 32 percent were drug or alcohol abusers. Thirty percent had an arrest record.

=> Read more!

Social welfare wonks (I happen to be one) may be interested in the following descriptions of individuals on GAU.

Government Assistance Unemployable is in the cross-hairs of state budget writers. The program provides $339 in cash per month, food stamps and medical insurance to an average monthly caseload of about 33,000 people.

Typically, these are people who don't quite qualify for federal disability, sometimes because their impairments aren't severe enough, permanent enough or well-documented enough. Yet they are unable to support themselves, in the judgment of state welfare agencies.

The profiles below come from a social worker at a community health care clinic. These are some of the more mediagenic recipients. A study of the GAU population done a few years ago found that 32 percent had drug and alcohol problems and 30 percent had been arrested at least once in 2003 and 2004.

1. I have been seeing an African American male, age 52 since 9/7/08. This man has been in prison for over 30 years.

He is a barber by trade and cut hair while in prison. When patient first started coming to see me, he could not sit with his back toward a window or the door.

He could not sit still and was constantly looking around all of the time. This patient had trust issues and would never look me in the eye. Now, he has reduced his stress level by moving into his own apartment and taking almost daily walks in the park that is very close to his apartment.

=> Read more!

In 1968, an infamous issue of Look Magazine, journalists featured photographs of 200-plus American soldiers who died during one week of the Vietnam War.

Some of those same journalists have now reached their 60s and 70s, and before our Iraq victory, they were anxious to give the 60s "one more go" for old time’s sake. In 2005-06, amidst angry headlines of “Another Vietnam” and “Bush’s Vietnam,” we were treated to the names and photographs of American dead in Iraq served up to us in plagiarized renditions of the Look magazine piece; a favorite motif was pictures of flag-draped coffins.

But there was one big contextual difference between the Vietnam and Iraq pictures: In seven years in Vietnam we lost 55,000; in five years in Iraq we have lost 4,000.

We honor these 4,000 brave American volunteers, and the Iraqi policemen and soldiers who, since 2004, have fought alongside them.

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in tomorrow's print edition.

It would be more reassuring if all $798 billion were actually meant for economic recovery.
What – exactly – is in that $789 billion stimulus bill?

As both House and Senate rushed Thursday to give it final approval by Saturday, major news organizations had only secondhand reports of its contents. It’s a good bet that only a few members of Congress will completely understand it before they send it to President Obama’s desk.

Haste and lack of scrutiny invariably lead to major flaws in spending bills. The argument for speed here is a good one: The faltering American economy needs a large injection of money and jobs right now, if not three months ago. But an injection shouldn’t be watered down when there’s only so much room in the syringe.

The big question about this package is not whether it’s buying too much stimulus but whether it will deliver too little.

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in Friday's print edition.

The Legislature has yet to pass a spending cut, making a huge budget problem worse by the day.

Another day, another $63 million in the hole.

Tuesday’s revenue collection report continued the downward trend that’s bedeviled Washington tax coffers for months now.

The deepening recession is undermining the assumptions state economists made in forecasting a $5 billion shortfall last November.

Over the last three months, tax collections have missed even those pessimistic marks, to the tune of nearly $200 million. Economists are expected to deliver a new bottom line next week.

A little panic would be a healthy thing at this point, yet it seems to be missing from the mix in Olympia. The Legislature has yet to pass a single spending cut, to the frustration of a governor who had advised quick action.

=> Read more!

It’s not a good sign that as the $789 federal stimulus package heads for fast-tracked approval, most major news organizations – and probably most members of Congress – are still trying to figure out what's in it.

The state Legislature, which has yet to pass a single spending cut, is either in denial about the size of the budget problem or hoping that the situation gets so dire that new taxes are an easier sell.

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.

This editorial will appear in Thursday's print edition.

The Port of Tacoma’s recent failures reflect badly on both the executive director and commissioners elected to provide oversight.

Tim Farrell may have mismanaged a couple of key Port of Tacoma projects, but he didn’t act alone.

Farrell, the port’s executive director, came under unusual fire from the port commissioners during his most recent performance review. They criticized him for ballooning cost estimates on the port’s “most important undertaking”: construction of a Blair Waterway shipping terminal to serve the NYK Line.

Its projected cost rose a whopping 50 percent, from $800 million to $1.2 billion – largely because port officials didn’t figure correctly the expense of reconfiguring utilities and cleaning up past contamination.

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in tomorrow's print edition.

Marijuana users may not deserve prison. But they aren’t entitled to multimillion-dollar sponsorships.

Buy Kellogg’s cereal. Eat lots of it.

That’s our reaction to calls by marijuana advocates to boycott the Kellogg Co. because it chose to stop portraying Michael Phelps as a hero for kids on boxes of Frosted Flakes.

Phelps, as the whole world must know by now, has admitted smoking weed after a photo surfaced of him taking a hit from a bong. Smoking marijuana is a common and piddly offense. Phelps acknowledged it and promptly apologized. He gets points for forthrightness.

But the Kellogg Co. gets points for not renewing its contract with Phelps after the image of him pulling on a water pipe got splashed on screens around the world.

The problem with lionizing him on breakfast tables in front of 7-year-olds was inadvertently underscored by the marijuana touts themselves.

=> Read more!

Tim Farrell may have mismanaged a couple of key Port of Tacoma projects but he didn't act alone. Voters elect the commissioners to ensure their interests at the port are protected, and they clearly have not been minding the store.

Eat Kellogg’s corn flakes. That’s our reaction to an attempted boycott of Kellogg’s products by marijuana advocates irate that the company dropped its sponsorship of Michael Phelps. There’s a difference between arguing that marijuana laws ought to be changed and arguing that marijuana is good. People who want to coerce a private company to celebrate a dope-smoking athlete don’t get it.

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.

This editorial will appear in Wednesday's print edition.

Pierce County Prosecutor Gerry Horne is making a mistake in thinking he knows better than voters what they want.

Gerry Horne has a humdinger of a succession plan for the Pierce County prosecutor’s office. Bad news, voters: You’re only peripheral to it.

Horne, who has been prosecutor for eight years, announced last week that he is retiring in August. The date was not picked at random.

“I chose this timing so that my anticipated successor, Mark Lindquist, would be selected via the appointment process and have the fullest amount of time as the incumbent prosecutor prior to the general election of 2010,” Horne said in a Feb. 4 memo to staff.

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in Wednesday's print edition.

A-Rod joins a long list of major-league cheats
Alex Rodriguez’s admission that he played ‘juiced’ leaves
a lot of questions still unanswered.

It’s hard at this point to generate much outrage over Alex Rodriguez’s confession that he used performance-enhancing drugs. The reaction is more one of sadness and disappointment that the former Seattle Mariner shortstop who once seemed to have the world on a string no longer seems destined for Cooperstown – not with that enormous asterisk now attached to his name.

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Here’s a double feature you don’t want to miss: “Revolutionary Road” and “The Wrestler”

I know, I know, the purpose of “Inside the Editorial Page,” is to discuss current and relevant events, but if you indulge me, I will show how art, as only it can, holds a mirror to culture and gives a picture more clear than any astute commentator. Besides, it’s Oscar season and I adore movies! (Someone find this woman a movie club.)

Unless you are a movie reviewer it’s unusual to see two Oscar nominated movies in one day. It’s not even advisable. Our favorite movie reviewer Soren Anderson would probably tell us a good movie needs to be digested slowly, leave the double dose of gravitas to the professionals, but against the best advice, on Sunday I saw both “Revolutionary Road” and “The Wrestler.”

To my surprise they were about the same thing; pain.

=> Read more!

Talk of merging the Ports of Tacoma and Seattle is afoot again. In this legislative memo, Michael Ennis at the Washington Policy Center argues for House Bill 1421.

I'm not sure the bill has legs given that it hasn't even had a hearing yet, but this is the kind of year when anything promising government efficiencies could get traction. And the Port of Seattle is having budget trouble right now – last week, the CEO ordered two-week furloughs.

We've been wary of port consolidation in the past for the same reason that we worry about any proposal to lump Pierce County and King County together for governance purposes. There have been several developments at the Port of Tacoma in recent years that might never have happened if Seattle was calling the shots.

Here's Ennis' main argument for a merger:

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Here's what Kelly Haughton, Mr. Ranked Choice Voting in Pierce County, intends to tell the county council today as it considers whether to ask voters to repeal the new voting system:

In the 2000 elections, the voters of Pierce County voted in three momentous races in which the winner received less than a majority of the votes.

These elections changed the course of history, and are viewed by many as unfair outcomes. From this election came an increased drive to reform our election system to be more fair, to be more inclusive and to inspire more debate of the issues.

This eventually led to the adoption of Ranked Choice Voting in Pierce County and other places around the US.

In 2000, the presidential election was very close. The winner was going to be settled by who won the electoral votes of Florida. After an extended period of time, it was determined that George Bush received a few more votes than Al Gore in Florida and Bush won the election.

Ralph Nader received far more votes than the difference between Bush and Gore in Florida. Many Democrats believe Nader cost Gore the election. To many Democrats, Nader was a spoiler and votes for Nader were wasted votes. In subsequent elections, Democrats actively sought to discourage Nader from running.

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This editorial will appear in Tuesday's print edition.

Payday lending proposals inching closer to answer
Lenders and their critics have made progress, but they still have yet to find a true compromise.

If the Legislature had an award for straight talk, state Rep. Sherry Appleton would be in the running.

Appleton is the Poulsbo Democrat who in previous years led the fight to cap payday lending’s annual percentage rate at 36 percent under the banner of consumer protection.

Such caps sound more than reasonable, but given the short-term nature of payday loans, a 36 percent cap is tantamount to a ban on payday lending. Payday lenders now make $15 on a $100 loan; under a 36 percent cap, they could charge only $1.38 for a two-week loan.

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in tomorrow's print edition.

The Legislature should give priority to the sick and poor as it appropriates federal health care money.

When people hit hard times, there is – in theory – a safety net to catch them. What happens when the safety net itself hits hard times?

We’re finding out the hard way. One harbinger of trouble is Community Health Care, a nonprofit that provides medical care on a sliding scale to tens of thousands of Pierce County residents who otherwise couldn’t afford it. Community Health Care turns away no one – though it’s been having a much harder time giving newcomers a timely appointment.

Faced with falling revenue, it’s preparing to shut down its Sumner Family Medical Clinic, one of the 12 medical and dental centers it operates in the county. It’s also moving to cut 29 positions.

=> Read more!

The RCV debate goes on.

Rob Richie, executive director of FairVote, is a big champion of ranked-choice voting, which debuted in Pierce County last November.

Here's his reaction to our editorial on the Pierce County Council's plan to let voters have another shot at repealing RCV this yea:

Advocates of ranked-choice/instant-runoff voting like me obviously would prefer not to see yet another repeal attempt, but there's a history of voters in such situations sticking with their preferences.

If the repeal vote happens, it certainly should be instructive to have a live example of an RCV election going on for voters to have a very concrete way to think about it.

You might want to keep an eye on Burlington, Vermont's RCV election for mayor next month. There will be four candidates taking on an incumbent in a very competitive race that is sure to go to multiple rounds of counting.

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This editorial will appear in Monday's print edition.

Get to the bottom of troopers’ fake degrees
At a time when budget cuts have frozen new hires, 10 State Patrol troopers are being paid not to work.

There are two ways to look at news that 10 Washington State Patrol troopers used phony online degrees to get extra pay.

The best-case scenario is that they were clueless, honestly believing that the most they had to do to earn a bachelor’s degree was write an essay – and a check. No classes, no tests, just extra pay.

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Bishop Richard Williamson is in a bit of hot water these days. He has aligned himself with the philosophy of an ultraconservative group that largely denies the scope of the Holocaust.

The Bishop makes the news today because Pope Benedict XVI recently lifted his twenty-year excommunication. (He was part of St. Pius X, a group that broke away from the church over the cessation of Latin in the mass.)

Now that Bishop Williamson has been brought back into the fold, people are starting to ask questions, questions like “Why are you denying the Holocaust?”

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This editorial will appear in Sunday's print edition.

Crazy doesn't begin to define Nadya Suleman's story.

She's the California single mom who gave birth to eight babies while her first six waited at home, the unemployed psychiatric tech who collected state disability while building her brood, the baby-obsessed daughter who drove her mother to bankruptcy and her dad to Iraq.

Train wrecks invite gawkers, and the magnitude of this one just keeps growing. The PR agency Suleman hired from her hospital bed is having plenty of help keeping her name in the headlines. Each day brings new details that pique public incredulity.

The debacle is spectacle, and something more. It's not just disbelief or outrage driving blog buzz and office chatter and OMG e-mails from one mom to the next. The Suleman story has so many layers, and so many of those layers reopen big questions about parenting, reproductive freedom, medical ethics, societal obligations and celebrity culture.

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Q. Which Washington city holds the record for being the site of the nation's costliest armed robbery?

Click on Read more at the bottom for the answer.

I came across the factoid while reading a Fort Worth Star-Telegram opinion article on the wire by Dallas attorney Randy Johnston. He makes the point that the Washington armed robbery netted "a measly $4.46 million" – chump change compared to the $50 billion stolen by financier Bernard Madoff.

Johnston, author of “Robbed at Pen Point,” argues that white-collar criminals should be treated just like the ones who use guns. Here's his article, and the answer to the trivia question:

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Iraq actually made mainstream media (MSM) news coverage this week. The most recent Iraqi elections mark yet another success and a step towards more freedom and, incrementally, less Jihadist clout in the Middle East.

This is the first we’ve heard about Iraq in the MSM for months. Why? Because, after all of our initial mistakes, things are going well over there and the MSM has lost interest. For the liberal media, good news is no news….

Besides, liberal (and leftist) reporters have already accomplished their main goal – vilifying President Bush and tilting the 2008 election towards the Democrats. The fact that Bush’s and Petraeus' war strategy ultimately succeeded is irrelevant to that story….

So, Saddam Hussein is dead and his reign of terror is over; democracy is slowly growing in Iraq; Iraqi women at last have the right to vote and hold office; Al Qaeda in Iraq is utterly defeated and has fled to Iran and Afghanistan; and the Middle East balance of power continues to slowly shift in our favor.

Good news is no news.

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This editorial will appear in Friday's print edition.

The feds do it and so do many states, so why shouldn’t Washington also use DNA evidence to catch serial criminals sooner?

Anthony Casper Dias has become the poster boy for expanded DNA testing – for good reason.

On July 31, 2005, Dias hit a State Patrol cruiser and fled the scene. He was arrested and charged with felony hit and run. Dias posted bail and was released to await trial.

A month later, Dias raped a Fircrest woman in her bedroom.

Had authorities collected a DNA sample when Dias was arrested for slamming into a police cruiser, they would have had their man.

Instead, Dias went on to rape seven more women and girls in Tacoma, Federal Way and Des Moines. News of his spree – in which he entered homes and held the residents hostage for hours – left countless others in fear.

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in Friday's print edition.

Washington’s congressional delegation is taking another run at removing the financial penalty for treating Medicare patients.

Round three in the fight to get Washington doctors fair pay for attending to the state’s elderly.

On Thursday, U.S. Sen. Patty Murray and Rep. Adam Smith introduced – for the third time – the MediFair Act. We hope it proves the charm.

For far too long, doctors in this state and others have been penalized for being too efficient.

Yes, you read that right. Washington’s Medicare reimbursement rates are some of the lowest in the nation because this state has been a leader in cutting the costs of hospitalization and surgery.

=> Read more!

When people hit hard times, there is – in theory – a safety net to catch them. What happens when the safety net itself hits hard times?

We're finding out. Community Health Care, a nonprofit organization, is a big part of the net in Pierce County. It provides medical care on a sliding scale to tens of thousands of Pierce County residents who couldn't otherwise afford it.

Now – faced with falling revenue – it's shutting down its Sumner Family Medical Clinic, one of 12 medical and dental centers it operates. It's also moving to cut 29 positions.

The cuts are driven by an expected $1.3 million loss to the organization's $30 million annual operating budget, says CEO David Flentge. If something like Gov. Chris Gregoire's budget proposal gets through the Legislature, the loss could reach $3 million.

Flentge says the squeeze is coming from several directions.

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Vice-President Cheney is at it again.

Trying to scare us with his crystal ball. Tuesday in Politico, Cheney said there was a “high probability” of a terrorist attack.

To borrow a phrase frequently employed by my fourth grade son “no duh!”

We swung a bat at the hornet’s nest that was Iraq and thought we could create order from the end of our guns. We turned our attention away from Afghanistan, and worst of all, we reacted fast and alone. We made a unilateral mess, and though Britain tagged along, the damage is ours.

Did we embolden the enemy and create new ones? In the words of one former V.P. hopeful, “you betcha!”

Why did we swing at the hornet’s nest?

We did so because Dick Cheney scared us.

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This editorial will appear in Thursday's print edition.

Tax problems shouldn’t emerge this late in game
The Obama administration’s vetters aren’t doing a good enough job of weeding out problem nominations.

Couldn’t any of these folks afford to hire H.R. Block?

Two nominations for high-profile positions in the Obama administration bit the dust this week after revelations of tax problems: Tom Daschle, the former senator nominated to lead the Department of Health and Human Services, and Nancy Killifer, the nominee for head of the Office of Management and Budget.

If it hadn’t been for the fact that another tax scofflaw, Timothy Geithner, had won approval as treasury secretary, the sins of Daschle and Killifer might have been deemed survivable. But President Obama had promised that his administration would be different, that there wouldn’t be different sets of rules for average people and the people who run things.

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This editorial will appear in tomorrow's print edition.

RCV complicated Pierce County’s November elections, but it can’t be blamed for everything that went wrong.

It’s a good time to start thinking through the merits of ranked-choice voting – the system itself, not the circumstantial disputes attached to it in Pierce County.

The County Council is poised to put the fate of RCV before the voters this November. The electorate has already approved it twice, in 2006 and 2007, but this time there’s a difference: Voters now have personal experience with RCV, having used it to decide several county positions Nov. 4.

A lot of them didn’t like that experience, judging from the responses of nearly 91,000 citizens who filled out a questionnaire that came with their ballots last fall. Two-thirds of the respondents seemed ready to ditch it after its trial run.

=> Read more!

I just received an e-mail from the Point Defiance Zoological Society, warning its members about Republican Sen. Tom Coburn's efforts to cut zoos out of the running for stimulus dollars.

Coburn is not just going after zoos. He's also gunning for rotating pastel lights, zero-gravity chairs and dry heat saunas, too.

Those are old foes of the gentleman from Oklahoma. He's been using them as props in his campaign against government waste since the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention installed them in the agency's fitness center a couple years back.

As you can imagine, arts groups and parks supporters are none too happy about being lumped together with such ridiculous items. The Point Defiance Zoo doesn't appear to be on the City of Tacoma's or Metro Parks' lists of stimulus projects, so I assume the Zoo Society is trying to get the message out on behalf of its counterparts elsewhere.

Differ with his tactics all you want, but Coburn has a point.

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An election to repeal ranked choice voting looks like a done deal in Pierce County. We’ve argued for giving RCV another trial run, but if that’s not going to happen, it’s time to start thinking through the merits and demerits of the system.

This is getting ridiculous: Yet more nominees for prominent positions in the Obama administration are found to have tax problems. What? Is H.R. Block too pricey for them?

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.

Yesterday's hearing on Gov. Gregoire's climate change legislation provided sharply contrasting views of how to prepare for the post-recession recovery. (Although the question came up several times, no one offered a prediction of when that blessed day would arrive.) Backers of the legislation, which would put in place a cap-and-trade regulatory regime.

"Cap-and-trade" puts limits ("caps") on greenhouse gas emissions. Companies that can't meet the limit can buy allowances ("trade") from companies that have room below the limit. How that all will come together isn't yet clear, but that's the general idea.

Gov. Gregoire and major environmental groups say the legislation will be good for the economy.

"Washington is well-positioned to capitalize on the unique economic opportunities surrounding the growing green sector,” Gregoire said. “These proposals will help protect our environment as well as create and support jobs, stimulate the regional economy and strengthen Washington’s competitiveness in the global economy.”

Business groups disagree, pointing to higher costs that would put them and the state at a competitive disadvantage.

=> Read more!

My friend Dick Coulter is among the many volunteers dismayed by the sudden suspension of the popular Read 2 Me tutoring program in Tacoma elementary schools.

Because I serve on Read 2 Me's board, Dick sent me these questions – more like comments – today:

I am wondering if the program will reopen in March.
I am wondering if there will be a way to volunteer at McCarver if Read2me does not reopen.
I am wondering why the district and state do not fund education so this type of program does not have to rely on donations.
Why are we as a society and community are more willing to spend our tax dollars on war before we teach our kids to read?
I wonder if the program is as effective as we have been told. If so, why not fund it? Aren't reading, writing and arithmetic the basics that everyone supports?
I wonder why we let "no new taxes" become such a mantra that we shoot ourselves in the foot. I want health care assistants able to read my chart and prescriptions when they care for me.
I want to support fewer people residing in jail and more going on to some form of training or education beyond K-12. Isn't there a correlation between incarceration and literacy?

The board is preparing a letter and FAQ for tutors and supporters that will go out soon. The bottom line is that resuming operations in March depends on successful fundraising and a plan for sustaining the program next school year and beyond.

If Michael Phelps wants to puff on a marijuana bong, that’s his business. He’s not hurting anyone else, and he’s surely not hurting his own physical constitution. Pot is not a performance-enhancing drug, it’s a recreational drug.

Doesn’t a 12-time Olympic gold medalist know how to take care of his body better than lawmakers and journalists?

I don’t imagine that marijuana is a “new” thing for Phelps; he no doubt smoked pot before and after someone snapped that infamous cell-phone flick. Which means: he likely was smoking pot while becoming the greatest swimmer in the history of mankind.

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in Wednesday's print edition.

Historic preservationists have their best shot at saving sacred places by reaching out to troubled congregations.

An evolution is happening on the local historic preservation front, and it’s a welcome one.

Witness Historic Tacoma’s work to save Tacoma’s Sixth Avenue Baptist Church.
This is the group that was born of the fight over another historic church, First United Methodist – may it rest in peace.

First United’s congregation voted in 2006 to sell the 89-year-old modified Gothic building to neighbor MultiCare Health System. It met the wrecking ball the following year. A new hospital emergency department is rising in its place.

In that case, the community didn’t learn that the church was in serious trouble until too late. By then, MultiCare had made the congregation an offer it couldn’t refuse.

A loose-knit group of historic preservationists worked to block the demolition or at least delay it – until hospital lawyers outwitted them.

That experience galvanized people concerned about preserving the community’s architectural heritage. Historic Tacoma, which operates on a shoestring budget and with an all-volunteer board, has been working ever since to call attention to the city’s historic buildings and neighborhoods.

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This editorial will appear in tomorrow's print edition.

If Judge Michael Hecht is innocent, the state should reassure the public. If he isn’t, he should be speedily removed from the bench.

We hope the state Attorney General’s Office won’t take its own sweet time in resolving the case of Judge Michael Hecht of the Pierce County Superior Court.

If ever a state investigation needed fast action, this one does.

The charges against Hecht – frequenting prostitutes and threatening one of them – are serious enough, if true, to disqualify him from the bench.

And the plot continues to thicken. Previous allegations of prostitution came from two men, one of whom might have been under the age of consent when he said Hecht paid him for sex. Now Tacoma police have turned up a third man, who says he prostituted himself with Hecht in the last two years.

Two weeks ago, Salvador Mungia, president elect of the Washington State Bar Association, summed up the implications on these pages:

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Wonder what President Obama is texting on his new Blackberry? Writer Matt Bail thinks he knows. He wrote this for the Los Angeles Times.

From the leaked e-mails of Barack Obama:

7:58 a.m.
To: Michelle Obama
From: BHO
In line at Starbucks. Oh wait, they’re waving me to the front. Nice. More later.

9:02 a.m.
To: Rahm Emanuel
From: BHO
This meeting will not end. Seriously, look at Boehner. Why so tan? He’s from Ohio. What gives?

9:41 a.m.
To: Hillary Clinton
From: BHO
I’m sprawled out on the Oval Office rug, just luxuriating. Thought u’d like to know. LOL.

10:33 a.m.
To: George W. Bush
From: BHO
U were right about the nuke codes gag. Joint Chiefs have zero sense of humor. Your move in online Scrabble, BTW.

12:14 p.m.
To: Michelle Obama
From: BHO
Stuck on Beltway. Oh wait, they’re closing it 4 us. Nice. More later.

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“Doubt.”

The movie is up for best picture and if relevancy were criteria then it would surely win.

What about “Milk” you ask?

After all, the picture is about the first openly gay elected official and it comes at a time when many states are seeking civil rights of a different kind, specifically the legalization of gay marriage.

While it’s true one can’t watch "Milk" without thinking about the recently hard fought battle over Prop. 8, (California’s ballot proposition that restricts definition of marriage,) “Doubt,” I argue, is the more relevant of the two.

“Doubt” is a movie about rules, and it asks the viewer when, if ever, is it OK to break them.

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The topic of today's editorial – the funding crisis facing the Read 2 Me tutoring program – is one close to my heart.

My colleague Patrick O'Callahan and I were reading tutors in the program (formerly known as Werlin Reading Teams) for six years, tutoring Treasure, Katya, Elizabeth and Jeffry. We're taking a break this year as we deal with greater demands on our time at work, but we're still big supporters of the program and would like to get back in if our schedule permits.

For the children, the benefit of tutoring is obvious: 45 minutes each week of one-on-one time with a caring adult. I know we saw real progress being made over the course of our time with all the children we tutored.

There's also a benefit for the tutors.

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This editorial will appear in Tuesday's print edition.

Rescue Read 2 Me, and keep kids reading
Private funding for the longtime Tacoma tutoring program
takes a hit from the faltering economy.

Once a week during the school year, something special happens for Tacoma schoolchildren who are having problems with reading.

For 45 minutes, each child in the Read 2 Me program has a captive audience of one adult volunteer whose only purpose is to focus attention completely on him or her. They work on basic skills, real aloud to each other and play games that are as educational as they are fun – for both student and tutor.

But now the program is in trouble, in large part because the faltering economy has dried up the private contributions that pay for administrative staff, classroom coordinators and materials.

The program has been suspended for the month of February, and its future is cloudy. Read 2 Me’s chief executive officer, Barbara James, says $100,000 needs to be raised to continue the program through May.

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This editorial will appear in Tuesday's print edition.

City manager Eric Anderson won’t hit his target of cutting the city’s crime rate in half by June, but that’s largely beside the point.

Audacity isn’t a crime. How fortunate for Tacoma’s city manager, who is having enough trouble with the city’s crime rate without adding to it.

Last April, Eric Anderson said he wanted to do the impossible: cut the city’s crime in half in 14 months.
Nine months later, Tacoma’s nowhere close to that goal, and nothing short of the mayor declaring martial law will get the city there by the end of June.

But don’t label this a failed experiment, at least not yet. Even a 10 percent reduction in crime – a bar that city officials say they might be able to meet by July – would mean something big to the city residents who would have otherwise been crime victims.

Perhaps more important than the numbers is the evidence that Tacomans are taking this fight seriously.

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Good news! It looks like we might pay off the new budget deficit after all.

At first I was skeptical. When President Obama announced the terms of the Democrat “stimulus” package, all I could think about was how much this “stimulus” was going to cost me and other American taxpayers. Hundreds of billions, trending towards a trillion dollars.

But now some taxpayers have stepped forward to help make up the gap. As a result of his confirmation hearing, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will pay $30,000 in back taxes. And on Monday, Health and Human Services secretary nominee Tom Daschle told senators he will pay back the $130,000 he cheated the federal government. True, we lost quite a chunk of change when Gov. Bill Richardson withdrew his nomination for secretary of commerce, but criminal litigation may retrieve some of that.

And there are still big bucks on the horizon.

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Read 2 Me's demise would be a blow to at-risk kids who depend not only on the tutoring the program provides, but also the opportunity to develop a one-on-one relationship with a caring adult. The Tacoma School District should be looking at ways to keep the program going during its one-month hiatus and possibly beyond.

Tacoma city leaders should keep setting a high bar for crime reduction. The strides the community has made in cleaning up the city will pay off years from now as residents take greater pride in their surroundings and kick the criminal element to the curb.

If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to kim.bradford@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.

This editorial will appear in Monday's print edition.

Fort’s ‘lifestyle center’ threatens local business
Communities near the Army post are understandably concerned about the prospect of further revenue losses.

It’s easy to see why some Lakewood city officials are upset about a $90 million shopping and restaurant center planned for Fort Lewis. Lakewood City Councilman Walter Neary even went so far as to accuse the Army of giving Lakewood – to paraphrase here – the universally recognized single-digit salute.

Lakewood and other South Sound cities already lose sales tax dollars when active-duty and retired military shop at the post commissary and exchange. Because military facilities do not charge taxes, they often are able to undercut prices in the civilian community.

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