This editorial will appear in Monday's print edition.

No one need look at a bar graph to know Pierce County families are hurting – just drive down a residential street peppered with homes in foreclosure or visit a job fair where the line snakes out the door.

Cold, hard data cannot accurately capture the pain of those losing their homes or their jobs, but it can help get them help. That's where the United Way of Pierce County's recently unveiled "community indicators" come in.

The indicators are the product of an impressive and exhaustive three-year effort to collate every scrap of reliable data to provide a comprehensive picture of the community's well-being.

United Way calls it "the global pulse of the most vulnerable among us."

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in tomorrow's print edition.

Talk of war in Korea hits close to home in the South Sound.

In the event of hostilities, American military contingency plans call for deploying possibly thousands of Fort Lewis soldiers – our neighbors – to the Korean Peninsula.

That makes the latest round of missile-rattling by North Korea doubly disturbing. Kim Jong Il’s Stalinist regime in Pyongyang has threatened war against South Korea many times in the past; threatening the democratic south is its default foreign policy. Lately, though, its threats have taken on an increasingly nuclear flavor.

The dictatorship has long been manipulating the world with its on-again, off-again nuclear weapons program.

Eight times since 1994, it has either revved up its nuclear efforts or claimed to shut them down in exchange for rewards, concessions or recognition.

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Metro Parks has been mulling over a plan to ban smoking in Tacoma’s parks. The proponents’ chief gripe is that smokers are a bad example to kids.

My chief gripe is that so many smokers are habitual, casual, who-gives-a-@%#* litterers. The world is their ash tray.

Not all smokers are guilty, by any means, but the galactic magnitude of cigarette trash out there – butts, packages, matches, etc. – proves that a lot of them think nothing of foisting the dregs of their addiction off on the public.

Ultimate gross-out: Getting out of your car in a parking lot and discovering you’ve stepped onto a small mountain of butts somebody dumped on the pavement from their ashtray. Horsewhipping would be too kind a punishment.

The backlash has arrived, and not just at Metro Parks. The New York Times on Friday reported that municipalities all over are banning smoking from beaches, playgrounds and other public spaces.

San Francisco’s mayor is proposing a 33-cents-a-pack tax to pay for the $11 million the city estimates it spends cleaning up cigarette litter every year. One San Francisco smoker didn’t help her cause when she told The New York Times, “It is satisfying to just toss it down when you are done.”

The statistics are truly amazing.

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The brochure promises “the grand company of luminaries,” and calls for all like-minded souls to congregate on a luxury cruise around the Mediterranean. For 14,000 dollars you and your significant other can sail the high seas with conservative royalty Karl Rove and Co.

When passengers aren’t busy partaking of the endless buffets and sunning themselves on their own private veranda they can cruise into the inner recesses of Karl Rove’s mind during “an exclusive cocktail reception.”

All this aboard the beautiful Holland America's Noordam or as the GOP could call it, the “S.S. We-Might-As-Well-Go-Down-With-Drink-In-Hand”

When you think about it, a cruise ship could be the perfect place for underscoring a Rove/ Limbaugh philosophy. In fact, these gentlemen might say a cruise ship makes for a perfect microcosm of conservative society.

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This is a comment a regular reader, "papasan," added to our editorial, "The blame spreads widely in Leah King’s death." I'm posting it here because it's an inside look at how post security worked in his day. I wonder how much has changed.

I spent 2 years in the barracks on Ft. Lewis and many a night on "CQ" (Charge of Quarters) duty.The barracks had just been built and provided soldiers with rooms of 2-3 men. As an NCO, I had a private room.

A major problem was that the CQ was far removed from the barracks complex and one could only communicate with the soldiers by intercom.

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This editorial will appear in tomorrow's print edition:

The Supreme Court may be the least democratic part of the U.S. government, but it is still only one step removed from democracy.

Because the Constitution vests the power to nominate justices in the executive, members of the court are chosen by multiple presidents over a period of decades. The result is a court that – very roughly – reflects the temper of the voters who pick occupants for the White House.

The current court is a case in point. America’s political culture has often been often described as “center right” (though the election of Barack Obama suggests a recent leftward shift). The makeup of the high court is in fact center right: four liberals, four conservatives, and one moderate conservative – Anthony Kennedy – who often wields the decisive vote.

This is the system created by the founders; by and large, it has prevented the court from becoming too detached from the citizenry.

That argues, normally, for the Senate to confirm the president’s choice – including the newly nominated Sonia Sotomayor.

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When it’s over, will we call it ...

The Great Recession?

The Great Decession?

The Great Repression?

The Mediocre Depression?

The Waterboarded Economy?

The Flip-That-House Hangover?

Irrational Indigence?

The Binge and Purge?

Derivative Diarrhea?

The Cave Bear Market?

The Great Sheriff’s Auction?

Was it a recession or was it a depression? That depends ... did you lose your job?

Because the Constitution vests the power to nominate justices in the executive, members of the Supreme Court are chosen by multiple presidents over a period of decades. The result is a court that – very roughly – reflects the temper of the voters who pick occupants for the White House. That system, created by the founders, argues for the confirmation of Sonia Sotomayor.

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.

These days ...

Value Village is the new Macy’s.

Hamburger is the new steak.

Hobo stew is the new hamburger.

Penny tubes are the new 401ks.

Lava lamps are the new flat screens.

Daytime soaps are the new jobs.

Pabst Blue Ribbon is the new champagne.

Fake crab meat is the new sushi.

Low-rent apartments are the new McMansions.

Homeless camps are the new low-rent apartments.

Old Plymouths are the new Lexuses.

Old Schwinns are the new old Plymouths.

Maybe I’ll think of some more.

I just got off the phone with Aaron Toso, the spokesman for the Department of Natural Resources, who read our editorial on the reprieve granted state parks.

Apparently, one way the state avoiding closing state parks was to raid trails grant funding – and now DNR might have to close some recreation areas. No decisions have been made, but the Legislature gave the department authorization to close up to 40 sites. In numbers alone, that's about the same hit that the state parks system was bracing to receive if lawmakers didn't come up with money.

Obviously, hikers and four-wheelers are not too happy about the prospect of losing access or seeing trails deteriorate. Read on for the DNR memo that went out yesterday to user groups.

=> Read more!

The furor over the death of a 16-year-old girl in a Fort Lewis barracks reminds me of what I consider one of the great achievements of my life.

Not once, but twice a few years ago, I extracted my son from Marine Corps custody for several hours while he was in basic training in San Diego.

We gamed the fearsome Marine Corp Recruit Depot. We braved the terror of drill instructors. We drove past concrete barriers and Marine guards who carried M-16s and looked like they were prepared to use them. Security was lighter at Checkpoint Charlie.

I did it by acting bored, casual, natural, "I do this every day." Also, it helped that he was in sick bay, not the place where sergeants were hovering over every twitching recruit.

So I have some sympathy for military guards who get caught with their pants down. If it can happen to the U.S. Marines, the greatest guards in history, it can happen to anyone.

This editorial will appear in tomorrow's print edition.

Members of the Army – and the Marines, Navy and Air Force, for that matter – reflect the society they come from.

The average 19- or 20-year-old soldier is smarter, better disciplined and more law-abiding than his or her civilian peers. But soldiers aren’t immune to America’s social problems, and they sometimes carry those problems from civilian life into the service.

The death of Lakes High School sophomore Leah King in a Fort Lewis barracks last February has forced a hard look at drug abuse on the post. A just-concluded Article 32 hearing for Pvt. Timothy E. Bennitt – in whose room King died of an overdose – clearly points toward a serious breakdown of discipline among some of the young soldiers there.

However much or little responsibility Bennitt bears for King’s death, several facts emerged from the hearing:

Bennitt was buying illegal drugs and apparently retailing them to other soldiers. He and others were using them in their private rooms.

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in Thursday's print edition.

Thirteen parks that appeared headed to the state’s budget chopping block earlier this year have eked out a reprieve of sorts. But their future is far from assured.

Gov. Chris Gregoire last week vetoed a budget proviso that required the state to pursue transferring the targeted parks to local governments or nonprofits.

But the governor’s veto doesn’t put those parks – which include Joemma and Kopachuck in Pierce County and Tolmie in Thurston County – in the clear.

Gregoire said in her veto message that she still expects the state officials to move forward on transfers when “appropriate and mutually beneficial.” In other words, if someone will have them, don’t hesitate to hand over the deeds.

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The Walla Walla Union-Bulletin's editorial today is about how those conniving (my word, not the U-B's) members of Congress attached an amendment allowing guns in national parks and wildlife to legislation intended to whip the credit card industry into shape. The paper's editorial bemoaned the practice:

This is one of the quirks in our federal legislative system. A wide range of topics can — and are — addressed by one piece of legislation. This is not allowed in the Washington state Legislature, for example, where it is mandated that legislation must stick to a single topic.

I no sooner finished reading that editorial than I received a note from the Secretary of State's office announcing the filing of a referendum by a Federal Way man who claims state lawmakers made like those D.C. shysters this session.

Gerald Galland claims that the Legislature violated the single-subject rule by slipping language that fundamentally changes the annexation process into a bill that was purportedly about giving fire district employees notice about changes in employment. Galland has a vested interest – he lives in an area that the City of Federal Way attempted to annex in 2007.

I'll reserve judgment on the merits of Galland's case – if it makes the ballot, our editorial board will want to weigh in – but a quick review of the legislation in question makes me think he's on to something. If lawmakers did indeed attempt to surreptitiously cut voters out of the annexation process, they will deserve to be spanked come November.

One thing is clear from the Article 32 hearing for Pvt. Timothy Bennitt: security and oversight at Fort Lewis barracks were appallingly lacking.

Thirteen parks that found themselves on the state's budget chopping block this year eked out a reprieve of sorts. But parks supporters cannot rest yet.

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.

This editorial will appear in Wednesday's print edition.

If Tillicum were a house, it would be a fixer-upper.

It’s run-down, but it has a lot of promise. Its location – along Interstate 5 and near major employers (Fort Lewis, Madigan Army Medical Center) couldn’t be better for economic development, and its amenities include public access to a lovely lake.

But it’s been held back by a crippling structural defect: crappy plumbing, to put it bluntly. Tillicum isn’t on sewers, which puts a damper on redevelopment prospects. The kind of businesses Lakewood would like to locate there aren’t interested in gambling on a failing septic field.

That’s all about to change. Tillicum – a mostly low-income part of Lakewood along the west side of I-5 – is poised on the brink of an extreme makeover, thanks to a massive sewer project funded by Lakewood taxpayers and a combination of state and federal grants.

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in tomorrow's print edition.

If you use electricity – and everybody does – you’ve been taxed for more than 20 years to finance a nuclear waste project the Obama administration is killing after an investment of $13.5 billion.

That money is being kissed off for no good reason beyond politics. There’s more: The administration intends to keep paying for the Yucca Mountain project after its death.

Since 1983, geologists and other scientists have been studying Yucca Mountain, Nev., as a permanent storage site for the nation’s radioactive reactor wastes. In 1987, Congress chose Yucca Mountain as the most promising option after scientists had explored every plausible and half-plausible alternative – including burial at Hanford in Eastern Washington.

Electric ratepayers throughout the country have since been financing the necessary research at Yucca Mountain. That research hasn’t turned up any evidence that Yucca Mountain isn’t the best place to bury America’s reactor wastes. It is arid, stable, isolated and under federal control. The proposed site at Hanford, in contrast, was next to the Columbia River and saturated with groundwater.

=> Read more!

Finding a site for disposal of the nation’s radioactive reactor waste should be a matter of science. Under Barack Obama’s administration, it’s become a matter of politics. Didn’t Obama promise to disentangle science from politics just last March?

Tillicum has been held back by its lack of sewers. That's all about to change. Tillicum – a mostly low-income part of Lakewood along the west side of I-5 – is poised on the brink of an extreme makeover, thanks to a massive sewer project funded by Lakewood taxpayers and a combination of state and federal grants.

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.

This editorial will appear in Tuesday's print edition.

Celebrities and politicians both have a heck of a time acknowledging that age waits for no one. Such denial may be harmless enough for the likes of Joan Rivers, but it’s downright dangerous among the governing class. Taxpayers, beware.

A tidal wave of retiring Baby Boomers has long threatened to swamp the programs that guarantee retiree benefits, but elected leaders have failed to act. Now the recession is compounding the effects of their procrastination.

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According to military.com, most Americans don't know the difference between the purposes of Memorial Day and Veterans Day. I touch on that in today's editorial, but you can read more about it here.

This editorial will appear in Monday's print edition.

We honor those who served and died
Today is Memorial Day – the day set aside to honor those who died in the nation’s wars and other military actions.

Many Americans confuse Memorial Day and Veterans Day. Here’s the difference: On Memorial Day, we honor members of the military who died in service to their country or as a result of injuries incurred during battle. Deceased service man and women are also remembered on Veterans Day, but the main purpose of that holiday is to honor living veterans who served honorably in the military – in wartime or peace.

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This editorial will appear in tomorrow's print edition.

When 911 has an emergency, who does it call for help?
Pierce County’s chief emergency dispatch center, the Law Enforcement Support Agency, is short on staff, short on money and may be shorter on both by the end of the summer. If that happens, the inevitable result will be longer delays for police response.

LESA has long struggled to answer 90 percent of its calls within 10 seconds – the national standard for dispatch centers. The agency has been pushing hard. In 2005, about 74 percent of all callers connected almost immediately; last year, LESA had brought that up to about 81 percent.

It’s a marvel LESA is doing even that well. An independent performance audit released last month concluded that the agency was more than lean; it was downright skeletal.

The auditor, Texas-based 9-1-1 SME Consulting, found that LESA and the Seattle Police Department handed roughly the same number of calls per year – and logically should have comparable communications staffs.

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Tom Orr, a cop-turned-lawyer-turned-administrator, runs the Law Enforcement Support Agency, the agency that answers most of the 911 calls in Pierce County.

He came by today at our invitation to answer questions about a performance audit that concluded LESA – “arguably the busiest and most demanding” such agency in the state – was seriously understaffed.

LESA is genuinely struggling to provide timely 911 response, and it may face greater struggles if it’s squeezed further by the recession.

But citizens could lighten its load immediately. How? Don’t call 911 unless it’s an emergency, guys. Orr said that about 40 percent of the calls coming into LESA are for routine stuff – barking dogs, for example, or questions about the weather or traffic conditions.

Barking dogs, for heaven’s sake. LESA’s non-emergency number, by the way, is 253 798 4721.

Washington's new assisted suicide law has been put to use. A 66-year-old Sequim woman with pancreatic cancer died Thursday night after taking the lethal dosage of drugs prescribed to her.

How do we know this?
Compassion & Choices of Washington, which campaigned for the Death with Dignity law last fall, announced the woman's death as the first under the new law. The Department of Health said last month that the law prohibited it from being the one to make such an announcement.

After I questioned how Compassion & Choices can be sure of its assertion – given the mandated secrecy surrounding the identities of patients who request aid with dying – spokesman Steve Hopcraft admitted it can't. The group is working with "several" terminally ill patients but he doesn't know whether it has contact with every patient who is taking the legal steps required to end his or her life.

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All sorts of interesting e-mails come in to the Letters to the Editor – including a press release from Golfweek magazine.

Golfweek, which bills itself as "the most authoritative, authentic and independent publication in golf," has just named Chambers Bay golf course as the second best municipal course in the country. The course in University Place will host the 2015 U.S. Open.

No. 1 is Bethpage State Park (Black), site of next month’s U.S. Open in Farmingdale, N.Y., and No. 3 is Torrey Pines (South), in La Jolla, Calif.

The top 10 public courses in Washington, according to the magazine, are:

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The editorial board took a field trip to the Foss Waterway Seaport today. If you haven't been, the maritime museum is impressive. The vast timbered interior is unlike any warehouse I've seen. It's the last remnant of what boosters call the birthplace of the Port of Tacoma, a mile-long string of warehouses built by the Northern Pacific Railroad to store Washington wheat.

The Dock Street building survived only through what executive director Tom Cashman calls "accidental bureaucratic wisdom." Thirty years ago, Tacoma police needed a place to store impounded vehicles. The city gave the cops the Balfour Dock building, but warned them it was leaky. The police department slapped a new roof om the building, saving it from suffering a fate similar to the Municipal Dock Building whose demolition was decreed in 2001.

A major $7 million overhaul of the wharf in 2007 saved the Balfour building from slipping into the Foss Waterway. Now officials on planning on further improvements to shore up the 45,000-square-foot building and make it usable year-round by more groups. They need to make seismic upgrades, replace the roof, put in heating and do some interior renovation.

They're hoping that the City of Tacoma will contribute to the restoration since it owns the building. So far, the state has been the biggest government contributor, ponying up $3 million. But public and private donors alike are starting to look askance at a project in which the owner has not yet contributed.

It might be a hard sell this year – the city is facing potential budget shortfalls. But it's easy to get excited about what might be after hearing the Seaport guys talk.

This editorial will appear in tomorrow's print edition.

Tacoma has been linked to some notorious crimes and criminals, including Ted Bundy, David Brame and “Beltway Sniper” John Allen Muhammad.

None of their acts came close to matching the enduring, nationwide effects of the sexual attack on Ryan Hade, the “little Tacoma boy,” 20 years ago this week.

Although Ryan survived his 1989 sexual mutilation at the hands of sexual psychopath Earl Kenneth Shriner, the horror of it triggered a wave of public outrage that has not abated to this day.

Ryan died in a motorcycle accident four years ago. On Wednesday, Ryan’s mother, Helen Harlow, gathered with a few friends at Tacoma’s Celebration Park to remember him. The park itself – at South D and 80th streets – could serve as a metaphor for the crime and its consequences.

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This editorial will appear in Friday's print edition.

Payday lending critics scored a win for borrowers this past legislative session by settling for less.

A bill signed last week by the governor accomplishes something that advocates for the poor had pushed for several years to no avail: a reduction in payday loans’ effective annual percentage rate.

The current rate is technically 390 percent, which sounds outrageous and would be if payday loans’ terms were longer. But on the typical two-week loan, the annual figure of 390 percent equates to a reasonable $15 charge for a $100 loan.

In the past, payday lending critics have campaigned for a 36 percent cap, which the industry convincingly argues would be a ban. The advocates showed up this year licking their wounds and asking for a 60 percent cap.

What they got was nowhere close, but they did succeed in ratcheting down fees for those borrowers who might need it most. The new law does this in a roundabout way: by changing the length of loans.

=> Read more!

The sexual assault on Tacoma’s “little boy” 20 years ago left an enduring legacy, including a sexual predator law that became a model for the rest of the nation.

Payday lending critics scored a definite win this past legislative session, and the results could begin to test lenders' contention that they cannot survive cheaper fees.

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 note with amusement that the Republican National Committee has decided not to rename the Democratic Party the "Democrat Socialist Party." The new name probably wouldn't have caught on anyway, especially among Democrats.

Many Republicans have already taken to calling the opposition the "Democrat" party. They do it for no good reason beyond the fact that it annoys the Dems no end.

This business of renaming the other guy's party could get out of hand. What if Democrats started calling the Republicans the “War-Happy Wingnut Party”?

The Greens might wind up labeled as the “Hippie-Dippy Tree Sitter Party”

Libertarians, the “Let Robber Barons Rule the World Party.”

It's probably advisable to keep on letting parties name themselves.

This editorial will appear in Thursday's print edition.

Watch those credit card bills.

That was solid advice for card-carrying Americans before Wednesday, and it’s good advice today now that Congress has approved new curbs on some of the credit card industry’s more dubious practices.

Provided President Barack Obama signs the bill as expected, banks will have nine months to gear up. Put another way, they have until February to extract money from card holders before they have to play, if not nice, then at least somewhat fair.

Banks have already started raising interest rates and upping fees in anticipation of the tighter regulations. Consumers would do well to read every scrap of paper they get from credit card companies, fine print and all.

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in tomorrow's print edition.

When you try to do everything for everybody, you can wind up not doing enough for the neediest. With the best of intentions, some want to take early childhood education down that path.

While signing the state’s new basic education bill Tuesday, Gov. Chris Gregoire vetoed a section that promised preschool for “at risk” children. She said she wanted to offer preschool to all of the state’s 3- and 4-year-olds children.

She’s echoing what’s become a mantra among some advocates of early learning. The idea is that all children would benefit, so it should be offered to everyone.

The case for that argument is weak.

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The photo above looks like a harbor bustling with commerce. It’s actually the opposite.

All those ships are parked, empty, outside Singapore – because there’s no cargo for them.

According to Tacoma’s port director, Tim Farrell, the global recession has sidelined about 12 percent of the world’s merchant ships. It’s hit the Port of Tacoma hard. Farrell, who stopped by today, said container volume has fallen 25 percent since 2007.

An expansion of Panama Canal is to be completed in 2013, which will make it more economical to ship many Pacific cargoes directly to the East Coast rather than transship them by rail via Tacoma and other West Coast ports. That, plus the expected ratcheting down of the international economy, means the Port of Tacoma may not see 2006-levels of cargo again until 2018.

At least we don’t have a hundred empty ships anchored for the duration in Commencement Bay.

I just finished writing tomorrow's editorial about the new credit card rules that passed Congress today. We generally like the new curbs on an industry that has been in recent years been making money hand over fist with gotcha schemes. Unfortunately, space didn't permit me to mention a troubling aspect of the legislation: Guns in national parks.

The price of getting reasonable safeguards for consumers through the Senate was overturning a longtime ban on concealed, loaded guns in national parks and wildlife refuges. We were pretty fond of that ban. Visitors could still bring their weapons into the park, they just had to keep them unloaded in a secure place.

Call us crazy, but the thought of people walking around Mt. Rainier with loaded guns doesn't whisper peace and quiet. Then there's the whole matter of park employees' and the public's safety. Allowing people to pack loaded weapons could dangerously escalate conflicts between visitors or with park staff.

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Credit card companies, done under by their own outrageous gotcha schemes, will finally have to play, if not nice, then somewhat fair under new rules passed by Congress. Don’t believe the saber rattling that good customers will end up paying the price.

Gov. Gregoire appears to have become an advocate of universal preschool for 3- and 4-year-olds. But limited preschool money spent on at risk children, not creating a new middle class entitlement.

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.

Last Saturday night, The Tacoma Symphony Chorus sang Haydn’s Creation. It got a pretty poor review from this newspaper, leaving many folks in the seventy-plus chorus (of which I am a member,) a little disheartened. The reviewer was knowledgeable, fair and she called it as she saw it. But as they say in the philosophy biz “perspective is reality” And this is what I saw from where I was standing…

Christ Church Episcopal in Tacoma Washington is not a typical church. From floor to ceiling it is fashioned completely of cement; solid gray and round like a missile silo, or as it was recently described, “gray Brutalism.” Lit mostly from above by a large circle of light, nothing in particular is illuminated. Not a fine piece of Birch or marble to be found. Brutal indeed.

But then you sit down and notice the small panes of stained glass imbedded in the concrete. Bright and immovable, they tell a simple story, a story of a Creator in a material world. Literally and metaphorically they tell the story of the sacred in the concrete. God with us, in the rough and brutal world. Notice this, and see that Christ Church Episcopal is the perfect place to sing Haydn’s Creation.

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This editorial will appear in tomorrow's print edition.

Has somebody been waterboarding Nancy Pelosi? She’s been doing way too much talking lately.

The normally precise and collected House speaker has been looking flustered and defensive as she’s tried to explain when she learned of the CIA’s use of waterboarding on three top al-Qaida leaders in 2002.

The Washington Post reported in 2007 that the CIA had briefed key members of Congress – Pelosi included – on the brutal interrogation techniques it was using on “high value” prisoners. Pelosi, as ranking member of the House intelligence committee, was in on a September 2002 briefing in which the subject of waterboarding – which induces the sensation of drowning – came up.

Pelosi now says she was lied to – that the briefers told her only that waterboarding had been deemed legal, but that they specifically told her it wasn’t being used. She started out blaming the CIA, but switched the blame to the Bush administration after being challenged by professional CIA officials.

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This editorial will appear in Wednesday's print edition.

At last: Tougher fuel, emission standards

It was a startling image: Auto industry executives, environmental officials and state leaders who have been at each other’s throats for years over the issue of tougher fuel and emission standards gathered together Tuesday in the White House Rose Garden to celebrate . . . tougher fuel and emission standards.

They had all signed off on what some are calling the single most important action the United States has taken to date against global warming: a nationwide average fuel-economy standard of 35.5 miles per gallon by 2016.

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Performance audits, if you haven't heard by now, got gutted by the Legislature this session. So says Tim Eyman, the Washington Policy Center and just about every editorial board in the state.

The governor, who is scheduled this afternoon to sign the budget that was balanced in part with a $29 million raid on the performance audit fund, is said to be considering a veto. (UPDATE: The governor did indeed veto the fund transfer.)

But her legislative director Marty Brown's harshest words yesterday were reserved for another provision inserted into the state budget, the one that attempts to turn performance auditors into "bounty hunters" by tying funding to demonstrated savings.

The provision assumes that Auditor Brian Sonntag has some ability to force state agencies to adopt his audit recommendations. He does not.

If lawmakers really wanted to make sure they were getting the best bang for their performance-audit buck, they'd put the onus on the auditees, not the auditors. But the way they went about it only gives state agencies incentive to not adopt Sonntag's recommendations. Getting rid of pesky auditors is suddenly as easy as ignoring everything they say.

All that said, I get where lawmakers were coming from.

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Not since the Reformation has there been such a hullabaloo, or so it seems.

What was Notre Dame thinking? Can we hear the commencement committee proposal now…“Hey, I have an idea Father. Let’s invite America’s favorite liberal to speak at graduation.”

Hundreds of thousands of Catholics signed petitions requesting Notre Dame rescind the invitation on moral grounds. President Obama’s pro- choice position has many Catholics viewing the president as someone who “acts in defiance of fundamental principles.”

One Catholic pundit labeled President Obama “the Oval Office’s most vigorous promoter of abortion rights.”

Via the Washington Post, a protester is quoted as saying; “ Our mission is to tar him with the blood of the babies so he can never shake it 'til 2012.” A billboard near Notre Dame read “Shame on Notre Dame,” and “Judas and Jenkins (Father Jenkins is Notre Dame’s president) betrayed Jesus.

In spite of the controversy, President Obama gladly accepted the honor. Ivy covered walls are no barricade against his “Bring it! “ attitude.

Besides, it’s a commencement speech. How hard can it be for a gifted orator such as he?

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This editorial will appear in tomorrow's print edition.

Gambling is an ethically challenged industry and a capricious source of revenue – as witness its sudden decline in the current recession. We wish the Puyallup tribe weren’t economically dependent on the profits from its two Emerald Queen casinos.

But dependent it is. Given the fact that many Puyallup households are making ends meet with their per capita shares of gambling profits, those casinos should be professionally run.

There’s evidence that they are not. A recent audit by Lamar Associates, a D.C.-based firm specializing in gambling operations, found abundant evidence of mismanagement in the casinos, ranging from poor security to poor morale to a less-than-inviting ambiance. Lamar Associates concluded that the tribe is forfeiting up to $40 million in potential profits as a result.

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Readers have complained loudly about our publication last week of John Yoo's column from the Philadelphia Inquirer in which he had some advice for the president on possible Supreme Court picks.

The general theme of reader e-mails, calls and letters: How dare someone who authored memos condoning torture attempt to offer his advice to Obama, and how dare you, TNT, publish it.

The Inquirer, which has gone much further and actually hired Yoo to be a regular columnist, has been under a great deal of heat itself. On Sunday, the paper's editorial page editor responded:

Our Editorial Board strives to take distinct positions on every topic that we write about. But we also want to make sure our pages present alternative points of view.

That's the reason we run Yoo, and former Sen. Rick Santorum, who also generates quite a bit of critical e-mail when he writes. But despite the suggestion of bloggers, there's nothing more nefarious at play.

There have been calls for Yoo's disbarment, or worse, for his work for President Bush. Many of the e-mails that we have received are already calling him a "war criminal."

Whatever happens to Yoo, I hope to have his reaction in a column written exclusively for The Inquirer. Then, our readers will get their turn to respond to what he has to say.

That's what newspaper opinion pages do well.

When newspapers stop being a vehicle for thoughtful conversation, and instead provide an arena for one crowd to pummel the other crowd, without listening to what anyone else has to say, then papers might as well be the blogosphere - or talk radio.

I could be wrong, but I was under the impression that a university couldn't confer an honorary degree unless it could also confer the real thing.

In other words, you can't grant an honorary doctorate in, say, architecture unless you've got an architecture school. Right? Aren't there rules about this sort of thing?

Maybe not. Get a load of the University of Puget Sound bestowing an honorary doctor of laws on Harold Moss during its graduation ceremony.

I realize "doctor of laws" is a standard honorary degree. But given that UPS sold its law school up the river to Seattle University 16 years ago, doesn't it take some chutzpah to keep on passing out law degrees, however honorary?

This editorial will appear in Monday's print edition.

Hard choices ahead for Basic Health Plan

The Basic Health Plan was once the stuff of grand ambition.

It was to be the primary program for covering the working poor. In 1995, lawmakers set a goal to enroll 200,000 Washingtonians in the plan.

That, together with Medicaid, was to get the state, if not universal health care coverage, at least near-universal access.

Today, the Basic Health Plan doesn’t come close to fulfilling its original mission. Over the last several months, plan administrators have bled its rolls to fewer than 100,000 people in anticipation of the state’s $9 billion shortfall.

Sure enough: The Legislature delivered a budget last month that cut $255 million from the plan. That’s about 40,000 slots, or more – if the Health Care Authority can’t come up with a plan for “disenrolling” people fast enough.

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in tomorrow's print edition.

Real-world police work isn’t “CSI,” “The Closer” or Detective Harry Bosch. It’s not even the reality-based “Cold Case Files” most of the time.

But it could have been a lot better than the Puyallup police investigation that followed the disappearance of 14-year-old Misty Copsey during the Puyallup Fair in 1992.

Over the past week, in an online series summarized in today’s newspaper, The News Tribune’s Sean Robinson has documented the twists, turns and outright blunders of that investigation.

The mistakes may not have made any difference to Misty: She was almost certainly murdered, perhaps shortly after her disappearance. The investigation itself is now ancient history, for the most part, and the Puyallup police have since overhauled their “missing person” procedures.

But Robinson’s account does make for a cautionary tale on how not to respond to a child’s likely abduction. Whatever happened to Misty, it’s all too possible the lapses let a homicidal criminal remain at large.

=> Read more!

Sorting through some old papers from my father’s house a few days ago, I found a fascinating historical document: “College Scope,” a 1968 pamphlet distributed as “another helpful service of National Bank of Commerce.”

College Scope turned out to contain a summary of tuition and room-and-board expenses at virtually every college in the country (circa 1968).

I looked up what my alma mater, the University of Washington, was charging in the year of Woodstock and the Tet Offensive. Annual tuition: $345. No, I didn’t misplace a decimal.

OK, you’re thinking, but there’s been all that inflation over the last 40 years. So I plugged $345 into the Bureau of Labor Statistics' online inflation calculator. It translated $345 in 1968 dollars to $2,114 in 2009 dollars.

Actual UW undergraduate tuition for a state resident today is $6,250. Thanks to the budget crisis, that will go up $875 next year and $1,000 the year after.

So, UW tuition has risen at roughly three times the rate of inflation over the last 40 years (the same would be true of WSU and the other state universities). And you ain't seen nothing yet.

It never ceases to amaze me how much the World War II generation was willing to pay to provide college opportunity to its children.

I’ve seen a surprising lack of newspaper commentary on President Obama’s decision to fight the release of photos from investigations of suspected abuses of U.S. captives.

After kicking the question around, we concluded that the release should be delayed for the safety of U.S. troops. We tend to be pretty sensitive about the military, especially our neighbors at Fort Lewis and McChord.

The New York Times editorial page, whose left knee (it doesn't have a right knee) usually twitches at a whisper of prisoner mistreatment, hasn’t yet said a word.

The Los Angeles Times, below, almost brushes off concerns about American personnel. The Washington Post (below below) seems tortured by the dilemma; it says the president’s argument is “compelling” yet concludes, almost in passing, that the photos “should be made public.”

Except for the “damn the torpedos” L.A. Times, the choice between troop safety and government transparency seems to have a lot of us tied up in knots.

Release the Torture Photos
The Los Angeles Times

The release of dozens of new, graphic images of detainees being abused by their American captors would almost certainly reignite international rage. It could lead to an angry backlash in the Middle East and to more jihadi recruits, as the Abu Ghraib photographs did in 2004. It could even lead to new outbursts of violence at a moment when the Obama administration was finally hoping to put the last eight ugly years behind us.

But the truth must come out. The Pentagon was right when it agreed last month to abide by a judge’s order and release the photos, in a case brought by the American Civil Liberties Union. And President Obama was wrong Wednesday when he reversed that position.

=> Read more!

A few comments on the “Electoral College Pact Bill” recently signed by Gov. Gregoire. In this statute, Washington state pledges its 11 Electoral College votes to the winner of the national popular vote, regardless of how our state’s majority votes. The ebullient media have been quick to report that Washington now joins a “small but growing” compact of states including Hawaii, Illinois, Maryland and New Jersey that will allocate their 61 electoral votes this way. The backers aim to one day sign up an electoral majority (270 votes) to the "pact."

This process of getting states to pass statutes bolstering a democratic majority vote outcome is of course directly descended from Bush’s “stolen” 2000 Electoral College victory. 2000 was one of five (1800, 1824, 1876, 1888, 2000) elections where the majority vote winner did not win the Electoral College; no one is counting Kennedy’s 1960 popular vote “majority” or the five times (1860, 1912, 1948, 1968, 1992) the winner only got about 40 percent of the popular vote but won the Electoral College anyway.

Why try to eliminate the Electoral College by the complex and laborious process of individual state “pact” statutes? Because the only other way to do it is a constitutional amendment, and there is no way the required 75 percent of the states are going to approve such an amendment. The Electoral College is a mighty good deal for those states whose populations hover around 1 million to 2 million yet claim three to five electoral votes.

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in tomorrow's print edition.

Last fall, Craigslist seemed sincere about giving up the life. Alas, she was back on the streets within days.

In November, the online classified ad site signed a deal with 40 states, Washington included, to rid its pages of come-ons from pimps and prostitutes. By then, Craigslist had let its erotic-services section become the greatest bazaar of the flesh trade in human history.

But the company didn’t exactly reform; it mainly became a little more discreet. Its continuing enabling of prostitution was exposed last month by a medical student’s murder of a masseuse in Boston; he’d hooked up with her on Craigslist.

Closer to home, we have the case of a Kent man who stands charged of trying to entice a woman – in a police sting – to a Seattle motel room where he intended to kill her. Police and other watchdogs have seen prostitution ads stay up on “erotic services” long after they’d besieged Craigslist with complaints about them.

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in tomorrow print edition.

If the lives of American troops were not at stake, the Obama administration would have no excuse for witholding photographs that reportedly depict past abuses of Iraqi and Afghan prisoners.

But Barack Obama made a defensible decision this week to appeal a court’s order to release the photos. Those images must be made public at some point; the question is when. National security and the safety of troops are not trifling considerations, even when weighed against the powerful claims of open government.

The pictures in dispute are evidence from about 200 settled investigations of Americans charged with mistreating captives. Officials who’ve seen them say they generally consist of autopsy photos of prisoners who died in custody and snapshots taken by military personnel. Some of the latter have been compared to the souvenir photos taken in Baghdad’s Abu Ghraib prison, which depicted the humiliation of Iraqi prisoners.

=> Read more!

Last night PBS aired “WWII Behind Closed Doors: Stalin, The Nazis and the West,” the episode was the second of a three part series. The show’s focus was on the uneasy alliances forged during the Second World War, specifically between Stalin and the West.

The show pointed out that friendship is a fickle thing during war. Consider this: In August of 1939 Stalin signs a non aggression pact with Hitler, and eight days later Hitler brings to Poland 1,500 tanks, 1,500 airplanes and 1,500,000 men. Stalin looks the other way while Poland goes down in flames.

Fast forward three years later and see that Stalin went from Friend o’ Hitler (FOH) to being named Time Magazine’s “Man of the Year.” The quote below his picture in Time read, “Stalin’s methods were tough- but they paid off.”

“Tough”? My high school math teacher was tough. Stalin was a monster. He admitted to the western allies that he had slaughtered thousands of “rich peasants,” and it was obvious he tried to cover up the Katyn Massacre wherein 4,400 polish officers were bound and shot in the back of the head. And that’s just the sampler platter.

=> Read more!

Obama's change of heart on releasing "enhanced interrogation" photos is a simple issue for two camps.

It's being excoriated by the ACLU, anti-torture activists and people who want to put the Bush administration in the worst possible light. They want those photos out there.

It's an equally easy call for those who see the issue in terms of the safety of U.S. military personnel. Any images of Americans abusing Muslims under color of authority will inflame militants and probably lead to more attacks on soldiers.

It's a tougher issue when you care deeply – and simultaneously – about open government, the safety of the military and America's reputation in the Middle East.

The obvious parallel is Abu Ghraib. The photos of American guards humiliating Iraqis in that Baghdad hellhole was a staggering blow to the Islamic world's image of the United States. But the photos told a story that needed telling.

Could the story have been told without the pictures? I'm inclined to think that written accounts can expose abuses without poking a stick in the eye of Muslims.

I haven't seen any photographs of the factory-line murders inside Auschwitz, yet – having read the firsthand testimonies – I'm pretty clear on what happened there. I don't think my sense of moral revulsion is any less for not having seen images of it. But I'm a written-word kind of guy.

For some of us, Obama's about-face presents an exceptionally tough dilemma.

This editorial will appear in tomorrow's print edition.

King County is going hog wild for tunnels these days. As always, South Sounders better keep a hand on their pocketbooks.

At the urging of East Side leaders, Sound Transit has been studying the possibility of sending light rail underground through Bellevue’s downtown core. The regional transit agency has already bored a hole through Beacon Hill and is about to start doing the same through Capitol Hill, to connect Seattle’s about-to-debut light rail line to the University of Washington.

Most controversially, the Legislature has decided to buy into a $4 billion-plus downtown Seattle tunnel to replace the Alaskan Way Viaduct.

None of these tunnels is intrinsically wrongheaded. In terms of the final structure, all beat the surface-level or elevated alternatives. The question is, who pays?

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in Thursday's print edition.

Puyallup drivers to city: Message received

Comes now a bit of welcome news: Citations for red-light running in Puyallup are down 58 percent.

Well, that’s a relief. For a while there, we were kind of worried about you drivers in Meekerville.

That’s because early results from the City of Puyallup’s decision to install red-light cameras at three intersections last year weren’t encouraging.

=> Read more!

A one-day session could be a godsend to schools
This editorial will appear in tomorrow's print edition.

Gov. Chris Gregoire and the Legislature's leaders downplayed the importance of a special session last week – though only after they'd failed to agree on what to do with it.

Democratic leaders had been keen on getting back to Olympia to tie up loose ends from the regular session. But they couldn't agree on which loose ends needed tying up. Gregoire wanted to avoid a runaway session by restricting the agenda to a few bills. Said House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler, "If that's all we're going to do, why not just wait?"

A special session not needed? Hundreds of parents and teachers statewide might beg to differ.

The governor is right about limiting the agenda. The agenda could in fact be kept tight enough to wrap everything up in a day or less. If lawmakers approved one bill – one bill only – it would make a world of difference to many Washington school districts.

=> Read more!

Here's what the St. Louis Post-Dispatch said Monday about the dire financial straits of many American newspapers.

I like the lack of whining. Also the guarded optimism. Also the conclusion: "Handouts aren’t good for watchdogs."

During last week’s Senate hearing on the “Future of Journalism,” Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., observed that the newspaper industry appears to be an “endangered species.”

A chorus of senators rightfully expressed concern that newspapers’ role as watchdogs and cornerstones of an informed democracy is jeopardized by the wrenching recession that has toppled many economic pillars.

But the news industry doesn’t face a crisis of journalism. It is a crisis of advertising that affects all commercial media — including local television, magazines, radio and cable news. Like newspapers, other media companies have been enforcing layoffs, unpaid furloughs and pay cuts to reduce expenses as revenue shrinks as advertisers pull back.

The closings of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Denver’s Rocky Mountain News stunned those within the media field and created national headlines forecasting the demise of daily newspapers. But those closings prolong a long, regretful decline of a second newspaper in big markets. The Seattle Times and Denver Post survive.

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in tomorrow's print edition.

The public is at last seeing Judge Michael Hecht’s defense against the accusations that have sidelined him in the Pierce County Superior Court. We wish it were more convincing.

Hecht, who was elected to the court last fall, is charged with hiring a prostitute and threatening to kill another. Those issues plus two lesser ones (stealing campaign signs and using racial epithets) prompted the state Commission on Judicial Conduct last month to charge him with violating ethical guidelines.

The criminal allegations have been hanging over Hecht for months. His 62-page answer to the commission’s charges finally tells his side of the story.

=> Read more!

We've lamented the Legislature's cut of 9,000 seats in the state's higher education system. Gov. Chris Gregoire says the number is exaggerated.

Paying a visit today, Gregoire said the real cut was 3,000 seats. The other 6,000 didn't exist in the first place, at least in the budget. That was the number of students "overenrolled" – extra seats state colleges open to applicants without getting legislative funding for them.

"The implication is that the Legislature cut 9,000 when the Legislature never funded those 9,000," Gregoire said. She said she expects the state colleges to go on overenrolling students.

My guess is that university administrators, who saw their schools slammed in the legislative session, won't be as big on overenrollment as the governor is.

Awake early.

I am excited it is Mother’s Day. It promises to be a beautiful one, full of sunshine and a warm temperature. I am happy for two reasons: 1) I get to call my own mom and thank her and 2) I can finally stop playing “Guess what I made you for Mother’s Day?” with my eight year old, a game more difficult than it sounds.

It’s been a good year for us mothers. We made political strides, and yes, we have Sarah Palin to thank. Even if you don’t agree with her politics, she was nominated for U.S. Vice President not in spite of being a mother, but because of it.

Palin had a son shipping off to Iraq, a pregnant teen, two school aged children and a baby with special needs. From the party that espouses traditional values, and by traditional values they mean a familial power structure that gives dads the highest rank, they said she could handle it. She was tough, tough like a pitbull.

And she would have been tough; it’s just that her politics didn’t win the day.

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in Sunday's print edition.

The class of 2009 is graduating from college with miserable distinction: Not only do its students face one of the toughest job markets in recent history, they carry more debt than any previous graduating class.

Time has run out for the federal government to do something meaningful to make higher education affordable.

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in Friday's print edition.

First Lt. Ehren Watada’s legal victory comes at a price: the Army’s fight to enforce an officer’s responsibility to uphold his sworn duty.

A federal appeals court this week accepted the U.S. Justice Department’s decision to halt the Army’s appeal in the case against the Fort Lewis war objector.

Watada was court-martialed in 2007 for refusing orders to deploy with the rest of his Stryker brigade. It would have been the first combat deployment for the Hawaii native who had accepted his commission after the U.S. invaded Iraq.

=> Read more!

King County Executive Ron Sims, awaiting confirmation as deputy secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development, called on the Legislature today to give counties the ability to raise taxes for public health.

Part of what's behind Sims' plea is a failed gamble that the Legislature would come through with money to shore up public health. But even absent such a poor bet, there is no doubt that county health departments are hurting.

Today's editorial suggested the Legislature revisit its big cuts to health care should it reconvene in a special session. Laurie Jinkins, deputy director of health at the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, broke away from battling swine flu to give us the lay of the land:

Legislative decisions contained both good and bad news for local public health departments. The good news is they didn’t cut as much discretionary funding at the end as they considered during budget negotiations. Statewide, public health will receive about $4 million less than last year in the dollars that are flexible.

But the bad news is that health departments will receive $4 million less in discretionary/flexible funds and also see cuts to a number of programs that are key to improving the health of communities: immunizations, HIV/AIDS, parenting support, and smoking prevention. Local health will have to make hard choices about whether or not to use our limited flexible funding to backfill those cuts at the same time we’re responding to a public health emergency.

The bottom line: Public health is receiving fewer dollars overall at a time when the department is trying to manage a human swine flu outbreak, reduce the levels of sexually transmitted diseases, protect drinking water, increase healthy family relationships and help people get healthier by eating better, exercising more, and smoking less.

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in Thursday's print edition.

Could it really be? The U.S. economy is finally coming up for some air? Well, thank goodness, and pass the Visas.

None other than Ben S. Bernanke says it’s so. In his testimony Tuesday before the Joint Economic Committee in Congress, Federal Reserve soothsayer and head cheerleader for the financial markets said, “the pace of contraction may be slowing,” that consumer demand “may be stabilizing” and that the housing market has “shown some signs of bottoming.”

That, dear readers, is what qualifies as a message of optimism these days.

We’ll take it. Americans are just plain tired of frugality. They’ve skimped and saved and bought generic, and it’s wearing on them, literally.

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in Thursday's print edition.

Bold ideas – and some might even work

Can malaria-carrying mosquitoes be infected with a fungus to suppress their sense of smell – and their ability to sniff out humans to bite?

Is it possible to turn tomatoes into antiviral drug-delivery systems that would help people in poor countries fight off deadly infectious diseases?

Will shooting a laser at a person’s skin before giving a vaccination boost immunity?

Maybe. Maybe not. But the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is willing to spend $100 million to find out if any one of these or 78 other “unorthodox” ideas will pan out. It’s all part of the foundation’s goal of finding innovative ways to improve the lives and health of people around the world.

=> Read more!

A Supreme Court justice’s retirement always raises great expectations and fears, and David Souter’s retirement is no exception. Liberals are excited and conservatives are worried.

But nothing is going to change. Indeed, nothing is going to change on the Supreme Court for a long time. It may take eight years; probably more.

The reason is simple. The Supreme Court has a slender conservative 5-4 majority, and the conservatives are the “young” guys. Of the five conservatives – Roberts, Alito, Thomas, Scalia and Kennedy – Scalia is 73 and Kennedy 72, but Roberts is 53, Alito 58 and Thomas 61.

The liberals? Souter was the youngest (70); Ginsberg is 76 and unhealthy, and Stephens is 89. Only Breyer (71), and whoever Obama appoints to replace Souter, have long court careers ahead of them. That leaves the 5-4 vote unchanged for several years to come. Even if Obama gets to appoint two more judges (possible) the main shift will be that the liberals will become the "young guys" (and gals).

But can Obama “solidify” liberalism by appointing ideologues to replace Souter, Ginsberg and Stephens? It will be hard to find judges more liberal than those three. It was the conservatives who solidified their 5-vote position by exchanging Roberts for Rehnquist and Alito for O’Connor. Roberts and Alito are both relatively young and very conservative; and Kennedy is a more secure “swing” vote than O’Connor ever was (watch the voting rights decision coming up soon).

So, when can liberals count on finally gaining their coveted fifth vote? Probably around 2016. Unless the Republicans win back the presidency. If the Democrats win in 2016, conservatives had better get prepared to duck....

Disclaimer: This writer is 59 years old and thus has a completely unrealistic view of the term “young”.... This writer is also well aware that John Roberts has a heart condition. All Americans pray for the Chief Justice’s and Justice Ginsberg's good health.

Could it really be? The U.S. economy is finally coming up for some air? Well, thank goodness, and pass the Visas. This frugality business is getting old.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is spending $100 million to find out if any one of 81 unorthodox ideas will pan out. The grants, while relatively modest in size, have real potential for resulting in incremental advances that will help people live longer and better lives.

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.

I was listening to the radio Tuesday and heard an ad for a May 16 educational event at Mount St. Helens featuring Bill Nye the Science Guy.

The event is called "It's a Blast."

Am I being too sensitive to think that sounds a little in-sensitive? Maybe I'm putting myself in the shoes of those who lost someone in the eruption of Mount St. Helens on May 18, 1980. When they hear the word "blast," do they think "fun time" or something else?

Fifty-seven people were killed when the volcano erupted. I know it's been almost three decades, but it still seems too soon to be making light of the event with a snappy "It's a Blast" reference.

Adding to the cringe-worthiness: The event is taking place at the Johnston Ridge Observatory – named after geologist David Johnston, one of those killed that day.

This editorial will appear in Wednesday's print edition.

Swine flu is keeping state Rep. Deb Wallace up at night, and for good reason.

Wallace has not caught the dread virus, nor is she a health care worker trying to halt its spread. She’s just one of many Democrats who voted for a state budget that slashed $1 billion from health care programs.

Days before the Legislature adjourned April 26, swine flu hit the news. No sooner had lawmakers packed their bags for home than the nation’s public health agencies were on high alert.

Wallace, sleepless in Vancouver, dashed off an e-mail to her fellow Democrats at 4:20 one morning last week. Someone forwarded it to The News Tribune’s man in Olympia, Joe Turner.

“Many of you are probably having the same 3 a.m. thought that awoke me in the middle of the night,” Wallace wrote, explaining that she’d been reading up on pandemics.

“Although politically difficult, I think this is the time to look at further reductions (reduced work week or other reductions) to buy back the health care coverage of the thousands we eliminated.”

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in Wednesday's print edition.

Change needed in prosecuting minor crimes

A Seattle University law professor makes a good case for changing the way courts handle misdemeanors such as marijuana possession and driving with a suspended license.

In an 18-month study, Robert Boruchowitz found that defendants’ constitutional rights are routinely violated in many of the nation’s misdemeanor courts – most significantly by the lack of enough public defenders to handle heavy caseloads. Scores of defendants receive little or no legal advice and are pressured into plea agreements that might not be in their best interests.

If that weren’t bad enough, Boruchowitz and fellow researchers found that millions of taxpayer dollars are wasted when courts prosecute relatively minor crimes rather than resolve them out of court.

=> Read more!

Swine flu is keeping state Rep. Deb Wallace up at night, and for good reason. She's one of the Democrats who passed a state budget that slashed $1 billion from health care programs. Her call for lawmakers to reconsider should they return for a special session is a sound one.

An 18-month study finds that defendants' constitutional rights are routinely violated in many of the nation's misdemeanor courts – most significantly by the lack of enough public defenders to handle heavy caseloads. If that weren't bad enough, researchers found that millions of taxpayer dollars are wasted when courts prosecute relatively minor crimes rather than resolve them out of court.

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.

. . . the Inside the Editorial Page blog!

In our dreams. No, the 13th Annual Webby Award winner in the politics category is the liberal Huffington Post. The award was given Tuesday by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a 550-member group of Web experts.

But according to online voters, the best political Web site is FactCheck.org. That site won the “People’s Voice” award for the third year in a row.

I use this site a lot to check out the latest political rumor going around. I blogged about it back on April 13. Click here to read that post.

The other nominees in the political Web site category were: C-SPAN Debate Hub, OpenSecrets.org and Truthdig.

For a list of all the Webby winners (it includes links) in categories ranging from Activism and Health to Travel and Weird, click here. I found several sites I want to check out.

This editorial will appear in Tuesday's print edition.

President Obama, in taking aim at tax benefits enjoyed by U.S. companies operating overseas, is hoping public sentiment against outsourcing will help him balance his budget.

The president has long said he would pursue overseas tax evaders. Now with the federal government struggling to deal with the recession, Obama needs to recoup that money more than ever.

But his plan, announced Monday, is more than a crackdown on tax cheats. It also represents a large tax increase on U.S. businesses that employ millions and are struggling themselves to weather the economic downturn.

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in Tuesday's print edition.

Report leaves FWay court in healthier light

Getting information about a dispute within Federal Way’s municipal court has been as hard as pulling teeth from a crocodile. What has emerged tends to discount a claim that Judge Michael Morgan has posed a threat to others.

Last November, a court supervisor, Cindy Rocque, told the police and others that Morgan had spoken of suicide and about taking “others down with him.” Police Chief Brian J. Wilson reacted as he should have, recommending that the judge be placed on leave and evaluated. Wilson also concluded that there was no cause for a criminal investigation. The police took no further action.

Rocque was subsequently fired. Getting a full picture of what actually happened has been greatly complicated by her threat of a wrongful termination lawsuit. Given the potential of legal action, city employees and officials have been reluctant to say much. For that matter, Rocque and her attorney have repeatedly refused to return phone calls to a News Tribune reporter.

=> Read more!

Getting information about a dispute within Federal Way's municipal court has been as hard as pulling teeth from a crocodile. What has emerged tends to discount a claim that Judge Michael Morgan has posed a threat to others.

President Obama's proposal for new curbs on offshore tax havens is likely to be just the opening salvo in what will be a hard-fought war to overhaul the corporate tax system.

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.

Seems like the folks at the Secretary of State's office are cheering the Pierce County auditor's bid to switch to all-mail elections this year. Spokesman Dave Ammons sent us some stats prepared by elections chief Katie Blinn that show vote-by-mail participation is a lot higher than poll voting.

If you'll recall, the Secretary of State supported a bill in the Legislature that would have forced Pierce County, the last poll voting holdout in the state, to go all-mail. The editorial board opposed that effort because we believe Pierce County should be free to make that decision for itself. But in today's paper, we endorsed the idea of (voluntarily) giving all-mail a go to save money this year.

Something else of interest for you election junkies: Blinn is moderating a panel discussion this afternoon on ranked choice voting. One of the panelists: Jan Shabro, who beat out the highly respected Blinn for the Pierce County auditor appointment.

This editorial will appear in Monday's print edition.

All-mail election is worth a try
If anyone were still hanging around the halls of the state Capitol, they would have been snickering at Pierce County right about now.

Hours after the Legislature adjourned – effectively putting to rest fears that the state would force Pierce County onto the all-mail election bandwagon – the Pierce County Council was mulling getting on board anyway.

County Auditor Jan Shabro says she’d rather not have to do it, but county budget cuts are making her ask the council for permission to scrap poll voting temporarily.

=> Read more!

They are calling it the “Green Car Smackdown” as two cities, Portland and San Francisco, go toe to toe, or rather, Birkenstock to Birkenstock, for the title of “Electric Car Capital of the World.” Both are vying to be the city of the future as their municipal governments race to see who lets go of their gas first. Both cities are very eager to have local cars run on electricity.

The mayor of Portland recently pointed out that his fair city already has EV (electric vehicle) startups and a charging station, which one assumes are full-serve. (If you can’t pump your own gas in Portland, you probably won’t be able to inject potentially lethal volts of electricity into your car.)

Mayor Gavin Newsom of San Francisco believes it is his city that should lead the way in alternative ways of doing business. He says he has the full support of city leaders and business owners to provide infrastructure and incentives. San Francisco too has built a charging station and increased its fleet.

Enthusiasm aside, both these cities may have jumped the gun a bit.

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in Sunday's print edition.

Lawmakers left huge balance on the Visa

State lawmakers left the Capitol last week congratulating themselves on staring down a budget shortfall of historic proportions.

They are due much credit. Paring spending expectations to the tune of $9 billion took extraordinary effort and a rare willingness to depart from the usual script. Legislators didn’t always go far enough, but they did show significant progress in letting priorities guide the decision-making.

Now for the bad news: The “session from hell”? It may have been merely a warm-up.

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For Sunday: Rep. Deb Wallace's suggestion that the Legislature reconsider cuts to health care was a good one even before swine flu hit Washington state. The writer who was working on this topic has been pulled away to work on something else, so we're subbing an editorial about the bills that are coming due for future Legislatures.

For Monday: The state had no place telling Pierce County to switch to all-mail ballot, but now that the question has been reserved for the people who should make the decision, a temporary suspension of the hybrid voting system is worth considering.

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.

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Geez, give a guy the nod on the eve of your state's presidential caucuses, and the federal government's apparently your oyster. Gov. Chris Gregoire's name has been bandied about for any number of Obama administration slots: vice president, energy secretary, attorney general, commerce secretary, interior secretary, ambassador to Kiribati. (OK, I made that last one up).

Now comes word that another plum – some would say the plummest yet – assignment could be hers: U.S. Supreme Court. As our friends over at Political Buzz have already noted, The New York Times mentioned Gregoire as a possible replacement for supposedly retiring Justice David Souter.

To review from the last go-around of rumormongering (when the governor turned up in Iraq rather than Obama's stable), if Gregoire were to depart for the other Washington, Lt. Gov. Brad Owen would take over until a special election could be held.

Back in January, the hope/fear was that an early departure by Gregoire would make perennial GOP foe Dino Rossi a shoo-in. I'm not so sure; after two failed bids, Rossi has the air of a has-been.

Attorney General Rob McKenna is looking a like a smarter pick these days if Republicans want to appeal to moderate voters. On the Dems side, there's Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown of Spokane. Even if you didn't agree with her income tax push this legislative session, you have to admire her dogged defense of it.

But does either have Rossi-like momentum to launch a gubernatorial bid on short notice? They and other potential candidate might be hoping that if Gregoire is indeed destined for D.C. that it takes Obama a bit longer to get around to tapping her.