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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
