This blog is designed to give readers a glimpse of our editorial-page operation and how we make our decisions. We’ll let you know who we’re meeting with, what they’re telling us, what events and issues we’re looking at. We’ll also pass on information and observations that may not make our print editions. In addition to the editorial board members who post on this blog, the board includes Publisher David Zeeck, Executive Editor Karen Peterson and Managing Editor Dale Phelps.
Editorial board bloggers
Editorial page editor Patrick O’Callahan oversees the online and printed opinion sections of The News Tribune. He came to The News Tribune in 1987 and has worked at Washington newspapers since 1979. E-mail him at patrick.ocallahan@thenewstribune.com
Editorial writer Cheryl Tucker, in addition to writing commentary, manages the daily production of the editorial and op-ed pages and edits letters to the editor. She began her journalism career in 1974 at a Virginia newspaper and came to The News Tribune in 1978. E-mail her at cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com.
Editorial writer Kim Bradford manages the online opinion section of The News Tribune and writes commentary. She joined The News Tribune in 2005 after working 11 years at newspapers in Washington and Maryland. E-mail her at kim.bradford@thenewstribune.com.
Guest bloggers
Editor emeritus David Seago retired from The News Tribune in 2008 after 41 years at The News Tribune. E-mail him at sds99@harbornet.com.
Richard Davis’ column on state politics frequently runs in the print edition of The News Tribune. He was president of the Washington Research Council, a statewide think tank, from 1986 through 2006. Currently, as a principal with The Simeon Partnership, Inc. he coordinates the activities of the Washington Alliance for a Competitive Economy, a business coalition founded by the Research Council, the Association of Washington Business and the Washington Roundtable.
Karen Irwin of University Place, a mother of four, has been a frequent contributor to The News Tribune's print editions. She has also written for Seattle's Child, Puget Sound Parent, the Tacoma Weekly, the Fayetteville Observer Times and the political blog Right Meets Left. She graduated from California Lutheran University with a degree in English literature and is currently working toward a history degree.
Michael Allen, professor of history at the University of Washington Tacoma, was born and raised in Ellensburg. He served with the U.S. Marines in Vietnam from 1969-70. He has written five books, including the prize-winning "Patriot's History of the United States: From Columbus' Great Discovery to the War on Terror," "Rodeo Cowboys in the North American Imagination" and "Western Rivermen, 1763-1861: Ohio and Mississippi Boatmen and the Myth of the Alligator Horse." Allen lives in Tacoma and Ellensburg and has three children.
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This editorial will appear in tomorrow's print edition.
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.
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.
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.
