This editorial will appear in tomorrow's print edition.

You want spooky? Here’s spooky.

Every computer geek in the world knows this already, but non-geeks ought to be aware of the worm called Conficker. This rogue software has infected computers throughout the world by exploiting a chink in Microsoft’s Windows operating system. Computer security experts don’t know who devised it or what it does – other than replicate itself relentlessly on unprotected machines.

Each infected machine has become what is called a “zombie” – a computer that can be secretly controlled through the worm. All of these machines are networked, potentially empowering Conficker’s controllers to make them all work in tandem to wreak some kind of international havoc.

What kind of havoc is anyone’s guess. Many believed Conficker would spring its tricks on April Fool’s day, but it didn’t. Some fear it might suddenly erupt with a tsunami of spam – but that’s just speculation.
What Conficker has mainly done is lurk, like a sleeper agent, on untold millions of computers.

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This editorial will appear in Sunday's print edition.

The first rule of writing a ballot title is to plainly, accurately and neutrally describe what the measure would do.

The second is to give voters the benefit of the doubt.

Pierce County violated the first but observed the second in settling on ballot language for three charter amendments that voters will consider in the November election.

Two critics of those proposed amendments have challenged the county in court, saying the ballot titles are confusing and prejudicial. They are half right.

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The first rule of writing a ballot title is to plainly, accurately and neutrally describe what the measure would do. The second is to give voters the benefit of the doubt. Pierce County violated the first but observed the second in settling on ballot language for three charter amendments that voters will consider in November.

Computer security experts don't know who devised the Conficker worm or what it does – other than replicate itself relentlessly on unprotected machines. It demonstrates the continuing global menace of highly sophisticated malware.

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.

This editorial will appear in tomorrow's print edition.

First Amendment rights aren’t trivialities.

Washington’s political parties have legitimate concerns about the erosion of their constitutional right of association under the state’s new Top Two primary. State leaders should be addressing those concerns.

The unusual Top Two system – which simply advances the two leading candidates to the November election, regardless of party – was upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court last year. But the decision had caveats.

The court affirmed Top Two in principle but not necessarily in practice. The parties’ grievance with Washington primaries has been twofold: Outsiders are allowed to help choose their November candidates. And candidates are allowed to pose as Democrats, Republicans or whatever, whether the parties like it or not.

That’s “forced association,” which the judiciary has found unconstitutional under the First Amendment.

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This editorial will appear in Friday's print edition.

Is it graffiti, or is it art? And can it be both?

The mural proposed by Urban Grace Church for the back of Tacoma’s Rialto Theater is striking,. The design incorporates elements of both street graffiti and Islamic mosaic pattern in a pleasingly aesthetic way that reflects the church’s commitment to religious diversity.

The mural is light years beyond what many people think of when they hear the word “graffiti” – the indiscriminate “tagging” by young vandals on buildings, fences and railroad cars. Even some of that can be artistic, but when it’s unwanted, it’s vandalism.

In the case of the Rialto mural, the graffiti is wanted. It would be paid for through a $3,000 grant from the City of Tacoma as part of neighborhood beautification efforts and created by Fab-5, a nonprofit organization that mentors young people through media that is relevant to them – such as hip-hop music and graffiti art.

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This editorial will appear in Thursday's print edition.

Maybe it was the lovely summer evening, but the thousands who showed up Tuesday at Lakewood’s Harry Lang Stadium to talk heath care were in a surprisingly good mood.

Congressman Adam Smith, D-Tacoma, booked the stadium after the RSVP list for his town hall meeting outgrew two smaller venues.

Smith’s previous town hall meeting, in late July, drew 300 people, an impressive head count for its time. But town hall meetings have since hit the big time, with the national media attention and the get-out-the-protest campaigns to prove it.

These days, a Democrat who can’t draw a crowd big enough to cause the fire marshal consternation should be worried that voters don’t think he or she matters.

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Congressman Adam Smith, moderate that is, told neither side of the health care reform debate exactly what it wanted to hear Tuesday night. His town hall meeting in Lakewood was raucous but only by Northwest standards. Participants were passionate but generally respectful. If only citizens were always so engaged.

The intriguing graffiti mural proposed for Tacoma’s Rialto Theater is a legitimate art form and may discourage vandalism.

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.

This editorial will appear in Wednesday's print edition.

Federal Way’s Municipal Court is afflicted with more cases of the he-said, she-saids than a nasty divorce.

The latest: Police say they have reason to suspect Judge Michael Morgan assumed the identity of an employee to post online comments critical of two election opponents.

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This editorial will appear in Wednesday's print edition.

When an offender is released from a state prison and doesn’t settle down in Pierce County, there’s a decent chance Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney Gerry Horne deserves credit.

Horne, who leaves office Monday after 27 years in the department and nine years in its top job, forged a reputation for seeking justice – for crime victims as well as for the public he served.

He was an early and fierce champion for the concept of “fair share.” After establishing that Pierce County was the state Department of Correction’s favorite dumping ground for released offenders, he worked tirelessly to get legislators on board with the idea that other counties should take back their own offenders.

That’s happening now, thanks to legislation passed in 2007, and Pierce County will be a safer place because of it. Today, an estimated 150 to 200 offenders are not being released to Pierce County each year who in earlier years would have been.

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Allegations that Federal Way Municipal Court Judge Michael Morgan assumed the online identity of one of his clerks are serious and can’t wait until after the election to be sorted out.

Retiring prosecutor Gerry Horne did well by Pierce County, most notably by getting the state to finally quit contributing to the crime rate by dumping ex-cons here.

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.

This editorial will appear in Tuesday's print edition.

It’s hard to make a rule against stopping just short of breaking the rules. The attitude is offensive, but it’s not an offense.

So maybe no rule can guarantee that what happened to Taylor Mack on Fort Lewis two years ago won’t happen again.

Mack, then a 20-year-old Lacey woman, woke up in a barracks room to discover her face had been beaten to a pulp. Her jaw, nose and an eye socket had been broken. A tooth had been knocked out, and she’d suffered a concussion.

The admitted perpetrator was a newly discharged soldier, Andre John Roberts, 26. According to Mack, she’d been rebuffing Roberts’ advances. She wound up in the room alone with him the night of June 19, 2007, and woke up looking worse than a mauled prizefighter.

What happened then – as reported Sunday by The News Tribune’s Sean Robinson – was an exercise in evading responsibility.

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This editorial will appear in Tuesday's print edition.

The Martin Luther King Housing Development Association is in such sorry shape that it can’t afford to assess its own sorriness.

The nonprofit agency is asking the City of Tacoma for $6,000 to hire an accountant to sort out its books following the departure of its two top administrators. And that’s chump change compared to what it appears it will take to bail out the financially distressed agency.

Association executive director Felix Flannigan and chief financial officer Val Tiller were fired last month for what the board president describes as a combination of unauthorized financial transactions and a lack of financial controls and oversight.

Flannigan might take the fall – and perhaps he deserves it – but association board members also ought to account for why they didn’t intervene sooner.

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