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.
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.
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.
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.
