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 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.
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.
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.
