This editorial will appear in tomorrow's print edition.

Washington has a huge back door standing wide open to the swine flu: the migrant farmworker stream. The state’s public health agencies should be launching a crash effort to reach this population.

Most of Washington’s migrant farmworkers are Mexican. Many of them – or their friends, or their families – are likely to have been in Mexico recently or had close contact with someone else who’s been there.

This population is at obvious risk of carrying and transmitting the swine flu.

Another problem: Migrant farmworkers often travel in crowded vehicles and live close together in migrant housing.

Another problem: Migrants don’t have regular doctors. Few have any kind of health insurance. Although they can seek medical treatment at community health clinics – some of which focus on farmworkers – many are simply disconnected from the American health care infrastructure.

Yet another problem: Migrants tend to lie low – to remain disconnected from mainstream institutions – to avoid deportation. Some may fear stepping forward for treatment.

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This editorial will appear in Thursday's print edition.

The latest sign that the economy is bad, really, really bad: The City of Tacoma is, in the words of a city councilman, having to cinch its belt one notch tighter.

City Hall had been an oasis of relative prosperity. While the state’s businesses laid off workers by the thousands and the Legislature grappled with a $9 billion shortfall, Tacoma city government seemed largely immune to the ravages of the recession, thanks partly to healthy reserve.

Just a few months ago, the City Council felt flush enough to spend $4.6 million on overhauling the city’s salary schedule, a move that bumped nonunion employees pay up by as much as 15 percent. The council almost handed City Manager Eric Anderson a similar raise last month before he wisely declined.

Now it appears that Tacoma won’t ride out the downturn as easily as it expected.

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WashingtonVotes.org released its annual Missed Votes Report today, and the Pierce County delegation looks pretty good.

The Perfect Attendance Award for always showing up to vote is shared by Sen. Derek Kilmer, D-Gig Harbor; Rep. Jan Angel, R-Port Orchard; Rep. Tami Green, D-Lakewood; Rep. Troy Kelley, D-Tacoma; Rep. Jim McCune, R-Graham; Rep. Dawn Morrell, D-Puyallup; Rep. Skip Priest, R-Federal Way. None of them missed a single vote (out of 847 in the Senate and 887 in the House). That's impressive.

On the other hand, Rep. Dennis Flannigan, D-Tacoma, had by far the highest number of missed votes in the House: 164. Legislators were given the opportunity to explain their reasons for not voting. Here's what he said:

"I've missed several votes, even days in this legislative session. My (wife) has been, and continues to have difficult health problems.”

The City of Tacoma certainly wasn't alone in misjudging the depths of this economic crisis, but City Hall is just now getting around to trimming things like travel and subscriptions? It's not lost on citizens who have already had to tighten their belts several more notches that they are footing the bill.

Giving people an extra nudge to buy lottery tickets would be unseemly during good times. But during bad times, when people are more desperate than ever for an economic boost and may be more susceptible to a glitzy marketing campaign, it's just wrong.

UPDATE: With the World Health Organization upping the swine flu warning level to 5 ("pandemic imminent"), we're changing gears and writing about the need for local and state health officials to address possible outbreaks among the mostly Mexican farmworker population.

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.

Notes from the Mothership….

In my primary occupation I spend a great deal of time driving. I guess you could say I’m in the pick up and delivery business. I’m either delivering children or picking them up. An occupational perk of being in the van- which by the way, my kids have nicknamed “The Mothership” or “ Mo’ ship” is that I spend a great deal of time listening to the news. Stop me on the street and I can rattle off the day’s headlines- current Dow Jones numbers included. I say this without a hint of pride. It just comes with the territory.

So yesterday, I’m driving my usual route, coffee in hand, with one extra delivery (son forgot his lunch,) listening to the news as usual: “Swine flu, potential worldwide pandemic, banks in need of more capital, Arlen Specter switches parties, Dow up 87 points …”and then this: “Astronomers see oldest object in the universe yet.”

The announcer goes on to say, “The ten second blast astronomers witnessed (“witnessed”!) happened when the universe was only 630 million years old.”

The fact that scientists even know what a gamma ray burst looks like is pretty impressive, considering we didn’t know the earth was round until a short time ago, relatively speaking.

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Now that President Obama has made it through the first 100 days, what should he focus on in the second 100? The Washington Post
asked former officials, strategists and others for their advice.

ALLAN J. LICHTMAN
Author of “The Keys to the White House” and “White Protestant Nation”; history professor at American University
Forget about the first 100 days of a president’s term. Since Franklin Roosevelt established that artificial benchmark in 1933, newly elected presidents have accomplished more in their second 100 days than in their first.

Dwight Eisenhower signed the armistice ending the Korean War on July 27, 1953. Ronald Reagan steered his landmark 25 percent across-the-board tax cuts through Congress on Aug. 4, 1981, and George W. Bush gained passage of his signature $1.35 trillion tax cut on May 26, 2001.

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