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.
The robbers who gunned down an armored car guard inside the Lakewood Wal-Mart Tuesday were mad dog killers. Also, uncommonly foolish.
This utterly senseless crime appears to have been planned. One of the four defendants charged with murder is a woman who worked inside the store; she is believed to have provided the two actual gunmen with information about the comings and goings of the armored car.
Despite the planning, the robbery was an instant blunder. Some fathomless depravity prompted the robbers to walk up and shoot Karl Husted in the head – they apparently knew he was wearing body armor – without giving him a chance to peacefully surrender the money he’d picked up in the store.
Their casual brutality triggered a massive manhunt that included the FBI. It also triggered the state’s capital punishment law: Murder in the commission of another felony potentially incurs the death penalty.
Criminals can be on the callous side.
Get a load of how one of the accused Wal-Mart robbers, Marshawn Turpin, reportedly responded when a detective asked if he had anything to say to the family of the guard killed in the robbery:
Turpin: "Sorry, I guess."
Detective: "You guess you're sorry? A man was shot dead for money."
Turpin: "I wouldn't apologize. What would that do. He's already gone."
Detective: "If you would have gotten away with this," the detective asked, "how would you have felt?"
Turpin: "Bad, but, but I would have gotten over it because of the money."
And what do you do after robbing a store and leaving an armored car guard dead inside? For two other suspects, it seems to have been time for a spending spree.
During a tour of Giza, a photo, one among many, is captured today of President Obama walking under a Sphinx. The iconic face of Egypt, the Sphinx looks to be made of sand and yet is seemingly impervious to time. Somehow the photo captures the impermanence of President Obama’s youth, his vitality, his effectiveness, as it would should any of us stand next to such a timeless giant.
And therein lies the value of visiting the world’s wonders. We go see these amazing achievements of man, in part, because we are reminded that there are things that went before us and things that go on long after we are gone. We go to these treasures to be reminded that time is not on our side, that we have but one brief moment to get it right.
This couldn’t be truer than for our current president, who is only guaranteed four years to make inroads where there are none in U.S./ Middle East policy. One brief moment to get it right.
He enters the arena with scaremongering among all sides. War. Jihad. Oil. Blood.My territory. Your territory.
Conservatives are upset today that he called ours a Muslim nation regurgitating, (or maybe it never left?), old campaign rhetoric that Barrack Hussein Obama is secretly hell bent on the Islamization of the U.S.
