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 tomorrow's print edition.
The Legislature’s first priority must be a budget that spreads $8 billion of agony as widely and as shallowly as possible.
Half the people in the country seem to be clamoring for a bailout these days. The Democrats who run the Legislature look ready to join the club.
In their case, the bailout would come from Washington’s taxpayers. Faced with a staggering $8 billion funding shortfall through the end of the next biennium, legislative leaders are flirting with a tax package for the November ballot. A state Supreme Court ruling Thursday effectively killed the possibility of raising taxes without a vote of the people.
But the budget-writers in the Capitol shouldn’t bank on November, either. Many Washingtonians will be reluctant to send more of their money to Olympia when their own income has been downsized by precisely the same forces squeezing the general fund.
The line of attack on a November tax package would be simple: “Families have to make ends meet; so should state government. Deal with it.” That argument might be answered only if the Legislature has wrung every conceivable economy out of existing state spending.
This editorial will appear in Friday's print edition.
The property owner’s opposition to listing the University Union Club on Tacoma’s historic register should not be a trump card.
Truly historic buildings have, in a sense, dual ownership. They belong not just to the people listed on their deeds, but also to the community.
Whether the University Union Club on Broadway qualifies as worthy of that distinction, we’ll leave to Tacoma’s Landmarks Preservation Commission members.
They are better equipped to know whether the building retains “enough integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling and association to convey its historical, cultural or architectural significance” – the bar for a listing on the historic register.
The former gentleman’s club certainly has much to recommend it.
Laurie Jinkins, deputy director of health at the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, asked if we were planning to editorialize on the proposal to ban smoking in Tacoma's parks. Here's part of the exchange:
Laurie,
We may talk about it soon. We probably don’t have time for a full sit-down meeting. Give me your quick take, if you could. We’ve been adamantly in favor of indoor smoke bans, but I don’t know about this. Actually, my biggest complaint about smoking outdoors is that smokers feel they have a license to litter, like cigarette butts don’t count as trash.
Pat O’C
Pat ---
I suppose my first thought is that this is really something that's in MetroParks authority, not ours, however, I know that the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department staff have been consulting with MetroParks through their policy development.MetroParks has a great role in promoting healthy activities for children and families, which are integral to creating healthy communities. This policy seems to fit squarely within their mission.
The Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department is fully supportive of MetroParks' work to improve the quality of life of citizens by making parks smoke-free. So, I'll just give you some of the information that we shared with MetroParks staff:
• Reducing trash. You're right about this one, for sure. According to the Department of Ecology, 480 million cigarette butts are littered annually across Washington State. And the butts are not biodegradable (plastic filters take roughly 15 years to decompose).
· Denormalizing smoking. 90 percent of smokers start as teenagers, often because they see adults smoking. Reducing images of smokers has an impact.
Legislative leaders are living in a fool’s paradise if they think voters will bail them out of the $8 billion state fiscal crisis – unless they have truly wrung out existing spending and forced serious economies on public programs and payrolls.
A community's interest in preserving its architectural heritage sometimes has to trump private property interests.
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.
We did some hand-wringing Tuesday over the state judiciary's seeming inability to persuade (or compel) Judge Michael Hecht to stop hearing cases until the criminal charges against him are settled.
Our suggestion that the Washington Supreme Court intervene got me this informative response from Wendy Ferrell, communications manager for the state judiciary:
Hi Patrick,
In regards to the Hecht story, I just wanted to touch base re: the Washington Supreme Court’s role and authority in this situation.
As your op-ed correctly noted “…the upper reaches of the judiciary appear to have no mechanism for moving expeditiously. Ethical accusations against judges are normally investigated by the state Commission on Judicial Conduct…”
The Commission on Judicial Conduct is provided for in the Washington State Constitution and is the ONLY mechanism available under current state law for investigations of judicial misconduct.
Far be it for me to discourage anyone from buying full-page ads these days, but today's A9 was a bit over the top.
In case you haven't seen it, the ad screams, "Senator Kastama, why are you denying my husband justice?" It goes on to tell the story of Paul Ondell, a former Naval Shipyard worker exposed to asbestos.
Paul's widow – and a Seattle law firm – accuse Kastama of blocking a bill that would punish companies that fail to issue warning about the dangers of asbestos.
Actually, the bill is an attempt to undo a state Supreme Court ruling unfavorable to lawyers who bought the ad.
