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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
