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.
Americans up in arms over the future of U.S. health care should spare some outrage for its present.
A Hearst Newspapers investigation has found that a decade after the National Institute of Medicine urged the health care industry to stop blaming doctors and nurses and find ways to prevent medical errors, little has happened.
A mandatory nationwide system for reporting and analyzing medical mistakes never got built, and its prospects grow dimmer by the year. Meanwhile, some experts say the rate of medical error is increasing.
This editorial will appear in Wednesday's print edition.
Bike lanes are key element in ‘Complete Streets’
Some drivers were not amused when a short stretch of North 21st Street in Tacoma recently went from two lanes to one to accommodate new bike lanes.
Chances are, many of the critics use the North 21st arterial to quickly get from one end of town to the other and resent “calming” strategies that add a little time to their commute. But those strategies are the very things the people who actually live in the neighborhood tend to like because they slow down traffic and make it safer to walk or bicycle.
Building bike lanes, curb extensions, medians, sidewalks or wide paved shoulders are part of the “Complete Streets” program that Tacoma leaders have bought into, which means that more city roads will be reconfigured in coming years to enhance access to pedestrians, cyclists and transit users as well as motorists.
For instance, within the next several weeks, bike lanes will be added to South 12th Street between Sprague and Union avenues. To accommodate the change, the eastbound two lanes will go down to one lane.
State Rep. Tom Campbell’s 3-year-old law to require hospitals to report medical errors is apparently being routinely ignored, with nearly a third of the state’s 100 hospitals turning in not a single report. “I think there’s opportunity for further reporting,” says the VP for patient safety at the state hospital association. Ya think?
Tacomans should get used to the kind of controversial changes that are happening on North 21st Street. The changes are a part of the city’s “complete streets” policy that puts an emphasis on accommodating all forms of transportation, not just motorists.
If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to kim.bradford@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.
Referendum 71 sponsors are looking more and more like they're playing from the anti-public disclosure script developed in California for Proposition 8.
They're not satisfied with simply fighting the release of R-71 petitions and the names of people who signed them. Now they're also asking Washington's Public Disclosure Commission to not release the names of donors to their campaign (provided the referendum makes the ballot, which remains uncertain).
Proposition 8 backers are also suing in federal court to get smaller donors exempted from California's campaign finance disclosure law.
This latest development in the Washington case begs the question: Would opponents of the state's "all-but-marriage" law for same-sex couples be fighting the release of R-71 petitions even if the likes of WhoSigned.org wasn't threatening to make the petition signers' names available online?
