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.
When the state Supreme Court takes a couple days to unanimously rule against you, it’s a safe bet you didn’t have much of a case.
Such was the fate last week of a lawsuit to prevent the public from seeing a report on the inner workings of the Federal Way Municipal Court.
Judge Michael Morgan spent 15 months trying to keep what is known as the Stephson report from seeing the light of day. Now we know why.
Amy Stephson is a Seattle attorney who specializes in on-the-job harassment and hostile work places. The City of Federal Way hired her in January 2008 to investigate claims that something was seriously amiss in the municipal court.
Rae Iwamoto, the administrator of the Federal Way Municipal Court, has this to say about Michael Morgan:
If all that I knew about Judge Morgan was based on the items in the Stephson report, I might have a very different view and opinion of him. However, I have had the good fortune and privilege of getting to know the whole person during the year and a half that I have worked with him.
Also, please note that I was not interviewed by Ms. Stephson when she did her investigation, although I was employed at the court during all of the period from January 2006 until November 2007.
What is missing from the report are any allegations of misconduct while Judge Morgan was on the bench. I have received numerous positive comments about his judicial demeanor, knowledge of the law and fairness. And although I recognize the Stephson report is not concerned with his judicial competence, I include this because it does shed light on the whole person.
What is also missing from the report are the numerous activities and attempts by Judge Morgan to foster good staff relationships: He hosted an all-staff outing to a Mariners game; hosted an all-staff bowling party; paid for custom T-shirts for staff to wear at a Relay for Life event; and provided other generous gifts and perks.
Michael Morgan, the embattled Federal Way judge, offers this rebuttal to the newly released Stephson report, which harshly criticized his administration of the city's municipal court:
Ms. Stephson's report was thoroughly vetted by the Commission on Judicial Conduct. The CJC interviewed all the witnesses Ms. Stephson interviewed and also interviewed additional eyewitnesses.
The CJC was also furnished a report written by a lawyer that determined that one employee that Ms. Stephson heavily relied upon was considered by that lawyer to be "blatantly dishonest." Four days after Ms. Stephson interviewed this particular employee, this employee also made unfair and untrue claims about four other court employees.
Eyewitnesses (besides myself) interviewed by the CJC contradicted some of Ms. Stephson's assertions and the witness that one report described as "blatantly dishonest" was contradicted in large part by an eyewitness that Ms. Stephson did not interview. Ms. Stephson, as reflected in her report, did not ask for my account of certain situations before she made conclusions about those situations.
Inherent to parenthood are awkward conversations.
Parents know them as the Where-How-Why-Yuck conversations. They don’t necessarily follow in the where, how, why order but they all pretty much finish with “Yuck!” (Reference classic “Where do babies come from?”)
New parents can expect these exchanges to begin at about age four, although some kids start much earlier, peak at age nine or 10, and dramatically drop off at age 13, only to pick up with gusto in mid-life, or so I am told.
The best way to get through these “talks” is a “just the facts” approach.
The one I always dreaded was the “Where did this meat come from?” And every kid asks it.
The first time it’s asked, you can usually deflect: “Fred Meyer, honey, now eat your green beans,” but if your little one was prompted by an older sibling who counts grossing out a younger sibling as one of life’s few joys, then you will not get off so easy.
You will have to say, “It came from a cow, honey.”
