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 Monday's print edition.
Some bright spots
in gloomy donor picture
MultiCare’s ER campaign, early learning and low-income college students get a boost from significant foundation grants.
The tough economy has businesses and individuals reining in their expenditures for just about everything. Unfortunately that also includes donations to worthy causes.
We know that’s happening – if only anecdotally. Food banks are receiving fewer donations of food and cash, even as they’re experiencing alarming increases in the number of people seeking help. United Way of Pierce County saw the corporate distress and layoffs and warned its member agencies to expect a 25 percent across-the-board cut this year. Tacoma’s Read 2 Me, the nation’s longest-running reading tutoring program, is in trouble after losing corporate donors. Many arts organizations are barely holding on.
Still, amid the gloom, there are some rays of light . Consider:
Dan Voelpel wrote a terrific column in last week's TNT about the minimum wage. Washington state will soon have the highest minimum wage in the nation – over $8/hour to work at a McDonald's.
But many young folks won't be working at McDonald's, or anywhere else. Anyone who has taken Economics 101 knows that the higher the mandated pay for unskilled laborers, the fewer of those laborers will work. Employers will cut costs where they need to, and they won't enter overpriced labor markets.
For example, in the Midwest, Shoney's Restaurants have quit using busboys/girls because they cannot afford to pay unskilled laborers more than they are worth. As a result, waitresses (who make tips) are busing tables, and customers are waiting a little longer for lunch. Closer to home, my local coffeehouse just transitioned from two afternoon servers (who also make tips) to one. Finally, study the growth of a score of large Post Falls, Idaho, chain motels (and motel maids) at Spokane's, and Washington state's, loss....
There is a compromise here. Lower the minimum wage back down to $6 an hour. That will put tens of thousands of folks back to work. And it will get my three teenagers out of the house this summer!
