This blog is designed to give readers a glimpse of our editorial-page operation and how we make our decisions. We’ll let you know who we’re meeting with, what they’re telling us, what events and issues we’re looking at. We’ll also pass on information and observations that may not make our print editions. In addition to the editorial board members who post on this blog, the board includes Publisher David Zeeck, Executive Editor Karen Peterson and Managing Editor Dale Phelps.
Editorial board bloggers
Editorial page editor Patrick O’Callahan oversees the online and printed opinion sections of The News Tribune. He came to The News Tribune in 1987 and has worked at Washington newspapers since 1979. E-mail him at patrick.ocallahan@thenewstribune.com
Editorial writer Cheryl Tucker, in addition to writing commentary, manages the daily production of the editorial and op-ed pages and edits letters to the editor. She began her journalism career in 1974 at a Virginia newspaper and came to The News Tribune in 1978. E-mail her at cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com.
Editorial writer Kim Bradford manages the online opinion section of The News Tribune and writes commentary. She joined The News Tribune in 2005 after working 11 years at newspapers in Washington and Maryland. E-mail her at kim.bradford@thenewstribune.com.
Guest bloggers
Editor emeritus David Seago retired from The News Tribune in 2008 after 41 years at The News Tribune. E-mail him at sds99@harbornet.com.
Richard Davis’ column on state politics frequently runs in the print edition of The News Tribune. He was president of the Washington Research Council, a statewide think tank, from 1986 through 2006. Currently, as a principal with The Simeon Partnership, Inc. he coordinates the activities of the Washington Alliance for a Competitive Economy, a business coalition founded by the Research Council, the Association of Washington Business and the Washington Roundtable.
Karen Irwin of University Place, a mother of four, has been a frequent contributor to The News Tribune's print editions. She has also written for Seattle's Child, Puget Sound Parent, the Tacoma Weekly, the Fayetteville Observer Times and the political blog Right Meets Left. She graduated from California Lutheran University with a degree in English literature and is currently working toward a history degree.
Michael Allen, professor of history at the University of Washington Tacoma, was born and raised in Ellensburg. He served with the U.S. Marines in Vietnam from 1969-70. He has written five books, including the prize-winning "Patriot's History of the United States: From Columbus' Great Discovery to the War on Terror," "Rodeo Cowboys in the North American Imagination" and "Western Rivermen, 1763-1861: Ohio and Mississippi Boatmen and the Myth of the Alligator Horse." Allen lives in Tacoma and Ellensburg and has three children.
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This editorial will appear in 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.
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:
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.
“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.
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.
