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 Tuesday's print edition.
Piracy problem isn’t America’s alone to solve
The scourge will continue as long as many nations are willing to pay princely ransoms for hijacked ships.
The rescue of an American sea captain from Somali pirates after a five-day standoff was an Easter Sunday lift to the spirits akin to January’s “miracle on the Hudson” story.
The Navy deserves praise for what’s being called a “textbook” operation to liberate Capt. Richard Phillips.
The skipper of the Maersk Alabama cargo ship had courageously offered himself as a hostage when a gang of Somali pirates boarded his ship full of relief supplies headed for Uganda, Rwanda and – ironically – Somalia.
This editorial will appear in Tuesday's print edition.
Cutting human services to the bone in hopes of persuading Washingtonians to approve new taxes is the wrong approach.
Olympia insiders are starting to place the usual bets about whether the Legislature, now in a mad scramble to finish its work, will go into overtime.
Chances are lawmakers will wrap up business on April 26 as scheduled. Politicians don’t want to look dawdling or indecisive when the economy is tanking and people are hurting.
But say they do run out of time. A special session could have an upside – if only lawmakers used it wisely.
In a perfect world, the Legislature would finish the budget on time and save the extra innings for the inevitable debate over tax proposals.
I was scanning the wires to see if there were any developments on the pirate story I was editorializing on for Tuesday when I spotted the slugline, "Detonating squirrels."
How can anyone resist reading that?
Thinking it must be a belated April Fools story, I started reading. Unfortunately, it's real.
Squirrel lovers, read at your own risk.
Parks to detonate squirrels
SPOKANE, Wash. (AP) — The Finch Arboretum is being overrun by ground squirrels, and Spokane Parks and Recreation is bringing in some special artillery.
The agency is using a special machine called the Rodenator Pro to detonate some of the estimated 100 to 150 squirrels tearing up the grounds.
Shades of Carl Spackler, the gopher-hating groundskeeper from “Caddyshack.”
The crisis involving the Maersk Alabama and its captain may be over, but the problem of piracy off the horn of Africa remains, presenting yet another foreign policy challenge for President Obama.
Lawmakers better not be planning to single out human services for extra cuts to persuade voters to pass a new sales tax in November. The Legislature should pass the budget they want the state to live with, without banking on a bailout from the voters.
If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to kim.bradford@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.
When I was a kid there were two holidays my siblings and I looked forward to with great relish: Halloween and Easter. Granted, both occasions were usually fraught with some inherent humiliation, one Halloween I recall a sincere “What’s wrong with wearing your father’s leisure suit and going as Hollywood Square’s legend Paul Lynde? I have a scarf that will match perfectly.”
Easter too had its own perils; scratchy dresses, hair pulled so tight I looked positively Vulcan, and every other year squeezing into patent leather shoes. “Of course they will fit, you only wore them twice.”
But alas, those recollections are cast quickly into the shadows because the sunshine that penetrates those memories shines directly on the one thing those two holidays had in common: candy. Sweet, sweet, yummy, candy.
Yea, yea, all kids like candy, right?
Please note this: My siblings and I didn’t just like candy, we needed candy. You see, we were deprived. My mother believed, more than most, in “good nutrition,” and she didn’t just preach it, she practiced it.
Do you know how good a jellybean looks to kid whose steady diet consists of carrot juice and alfalfa sprouts?
If your e-mail inbox is anything like mine, you're constantly getting chain mail about all sorts of insidious threats. In my case, most of these come from relatives (I mean you, Dad).
Invariably I check out the claims on snopes.com and find them to be false. In some cases, they've been making the rounds of the Internet for years. If you'd like to check out the 25 top urban legends, according to snopes, click here. (Not all are false, either.) The weirdest: that the Swiffer WetJet can be dangerous for pets.
I recently stumbled across another Web site that specializes in confirming or refuting political rumors: factcheck.org. Many of the rumors overlap with ones you can read about on snopes.
Check out the site's most frequently asked questions. On the list is the perennial chestnut: "Was Obama born in the U.S.?"
