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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Sometimes I get letters to the editor that make me want to scream. Here's one – which we aren't publishing – from a Tacoma reader:
I'm going on my second day without buying a paper. When the PI bumped up the price of their paper from fifty cents to seventy five they priced them selves out of my budget. I use to enjoy reading two diverse papers. Now, sadly, at the end of Davids Zeecks Column on Sunday I saw that "The News Tribune" was going to raise news stand prices by twenty five cents (daily) and fifty cents for a Sunday paper.
Funny... It seems not to long ago I read that "The News Tribune" was doing "okey dokey" and that they would be in business for some time. David Zeecks states one of the factors for the increase is the cost of newsprint. With the PI to the north out of business where is that newsprint going?
And the cost of reporters? Are they getting raises? Really? In this reccession? And why a quarter a paper, why not a nickle or a dime? Whats magical about the quarter. I feel like I'm being fleeced by someone who figures that they should be able to get what they want by being the only game in town. Good luck I'm now an online reader.
No, the P-I's closure has nothing to do with the price of our newsprint. No, our reporters aren't getting raises.
No, we aren't the only game in town – the Internet is sucking so much advertising revenue out of newspapers that the weaker ones (like the P-I) are folding.
And yes, if all newspaper readers stopped buying papers because they could get the news online, there'd be precious little news to be found online. Oddly enough, most news comes from reporters employed by newspapers.
UW President Mark Emmert was in today, and I've never seen him so close to anger.
He's royally upset by the budgets proposed this week by the state Senate and House of Representatives. They would devastate higher education in Washington, reducing enrollments by at least 10,000 seats.
Emmert wasn't demanding a bigger share of the state budget; he did push for the authority to raise tuition by 14 percent. For middle-income families, this would be more than offset by expanded federal financial aid now in the pipeline. Low income families are already effectively exempt from tuition under the Husky Promise program.
Some highlights of the visit:
• "More students want to go to college than at any time in our history."
• Washington is more dependent on engineers, scientists and other tech specialists than any other state, "and we're the state that has beat the hell out of higher education."
