I can't help but be newly impressed every time I see the transformation happening at South 11th and Tacoma Avenue.

The new owners of the historic Samuel Roberts building have single-handedly spiffed up an entire neighborhood with their overhaul of the building that once housed the storied Kelly's Restaurant. I wasn't around these parts when the former jazz club was in its heyday, so I don't know how it used to look. But in recent years since the club closed, the building has been an eyesore, with its tattered awning and grimy facade. Situated as it is on a prominent corner, the building made the area around the public library and County-City Building seem downright downtrodden.

The new owners, who are remodeling the building into law offices and a bistro, have accomplished a stunning makeover. The whole feel of the neighborhood has changed with this one building. While it's not a cure for everything that ails this stretch of Tacoma Avenue, which has seen more than its share of crime and still has a certain dicey air, it certainly is a start.

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It’s no big deal in the scheme of things, but U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott’s would-be earmark for an exclusive private club is too easy a target to pass up.

The Seattle Democrats wants $250,000 – a microscopic sum on Capitol Hill – to repair the limestone window sills of the Rainier Club building, a historic bastion of privilege in downtown Seattle. The piddly item might not have been noticed had McDermott himself not listed it among other budget requests on his Web site.

The rationale is historic preservation. The Rainier Club building dates to 1904, when it opened as a clubhouse for the city’s alpha males and their buddies.

The structure’s getting down at the heels; according to McDermott’s office, an engineer’s report “concluded that the sills require replacement to prevent water from penetrating into the fabric of the masonry. Water seepage into the wall fabric will cause deterioration of interior and exterior mortar.”

The organization itself doesn’t seem to be suffering from water damage. The club’s membership requirements have loosened up over the last 100 years, but its Web site still describes its building as “a home-away-from-home for business, cultural and civic leaders, diplomats and other professionals. Our members are pampered with personalized service within the context of an elegant setting.”

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This editorial will appear in tomorrow's print edition.

Does the Tacoma Police Department have too much money to throw around and too many officers at its disposal?
How else to explain the fact that it has been paying cops to play against city firefighters in an annual fundraiser?

Thanks to a whistleblower’s complaint, the City of Tacoma acknowledged the practice this week. On May 29, a basketball team’s worth of officers did their hook shots and rebounds on the public’s dime during a game that raises money for the Hilltop Action coalition.

City officials confirmed Tuesday that the cops got a full 10-hour shift’s work of pay for their pseudo-charitable participation in the roughly two-hour event. Additional officers had to cover the actual police work the players weren’t doing during those lost shifts. The players were also paid to practice for the game.

Whose genius idea was this? It should be blindingly obvious to anyone in the TPD and city government that police time is one of the scarcest commodities in Tacoma.

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Apparently as a concession to the angry dissidents who’ve been filling the streets lately, the Iranian theocracy may be moving to outlaw the stoning of criminals.

Stoning is supposedly a gender-neutral death penalty. It’s not quite that simple. Condemned men and women are partly buried before the rocks start to fly. Any convict who can break free of the earth and run off wins a complete pardon.

This is where the sex discrimination comes in: Men are buried up to their waists; women are buried up to their necks. So it’s somewhat easier for the men to escape.

I swear I'm not making this up. Read this account of several recent stonings in Iran.

Men half-buried; women completely buried. That seems an apt metaphor for Iran's medieval dictatorship.

The Tacoma Police Department has way more money than it needs if it can afford to pay its officers to play basketball.

It's no big deal in the scheme of things, but U.S. Rep. Jim McDermott's would-be earmark for an exclusive private club is too easy a target to pass up. What worries us is the probability that some of his colleagues in Congress are slipping earmarks far more absurd and expensive under the taxpayers' radar.

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.

Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.

Pierce County lawmakers are not happy with the City of Seattle's decision to sweeten its deal to lure Russell Investments away from Tacoma. They wrote Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels today, essentially accusing him of adopting an "economic development strategy based on regional poaching."

It had first appeared that Seattle would be a reluctant suitor, in keeping with the gentleman's agreement among Puget Sound cities not to poach each other's prized companies. But with Seattle's move last week to give Russell a break on the business tax, it become clear that Seattle was playing to win.

Now, the Pierce County delegation wants Nickels to rescind the offer.

... it was with tremendous disappointment we read about your efforts to provide local tax incentives to lure away Pierce County’s largest private sector, for-profit employer. Not only does a public competition for Russell Investments represent misguided and cannibalistic public policy from a regional economic development perspective, it erodes the very foundation of cooperation we have worked to develop in recent years. ... For the sake of continuing to move the Puget Sound region forward, we hope that you will reconsider your recent proposal.

We've also heard word that Sen. Jim Kastama of Puyallup and Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown are preparing an op-ed for The Seattle Times along these same lines. UPDATE: Here it is. They say:

In the best interest of all concerned, we urge Seattle to look to the future instead of its neighbors' backyards. Poaching businesses is no substitute for true economic strategy.