The subject of our editorial today – outgoing Pierce County Prosecutor Gerry Horne – takes issue with some of the numbers cited.

I wrote, "Today, an estimated 150 to 200 offenders are not being released to Pierce County each year who in earlier years would have been." I picked up those numbers from a Viewpoint by state Sen. Mike Carrell, who was instrumental in getting "fair share" legislation passed in 2007. He cited the prosecutor's office as his source.

Horne argues that the impact is even greater. And he wrote: "I guess we'll have to talk with Sen. Carrell to track down what I believe to be misleading stats."

Here's Horne's take on the numbers:

You indicate that "an estimated 150 to 200 offenders are not being released to Pierce County each year who in earlier years would have been."

Those stats grossly minimize the numbers of prison convicts who were actually sent to Pierce County every year during a 25-year period. Actually, 900 to 1,000 prison convicts had been sent to Pierce County each year to attend state work release programs alone!

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Bob raises a valid question about our editorial on the allegation that Federal Way Municipal Court Judge Michael Morgan assumed a clerk's online identity to post disparaging comments about his opponents.

Why can't “Christine Faucher” be lying? Just because she asked city officials to investigate doesn't mean she is in the clear. She probably realizes that unless they have a camera pointed at the computer it is impossible to tell who logged on at a specific time. Nothing like throwing out a red herring for the hound dogs to follow...

Anything's possible, but what Bob suggests would be a rather twisted plot. Faucher gets a hold of Morgan's password somehow, sneaks into Morgan's office when he's away, logs in as him, then logs back out, logs back in under the general user account, posts the comments under her name, then cries foul to city officials.

If Faucher had been looking to implicate Morgan, wouldn't she have made the comments while logged into Morgan's account? Or maybe she didn't have his password, but dashed into his office while he was away and logged into the general user account to post the comment?

That would have been quite daring on her part since the city's Internet log shows Morgan would have been away from his computer for only a few minutes. What's more, Faucher (or whoever this imposter was) would have had to sneak into Morgan's office three separate times on Aug. 3 to post two comments to the Federal Way Mirror site and submit a registration for The News Tribune site.

I recommend reading the city's timeline of events, which also offers this interesting tidbit: Someone logged into Michael Morgan's computer as Michael Morgan at 7:18 p.m. on Aug. 3 to look up RCW 42.17.130. The title of that statute? "Use of public office or agency facilities in campaigns."

Former Army intelligence whistleblower Christopher Pyle – whose revelations about the military spying on civilians sparked congressional inquiries in the 1970s – spoke to Democracy Now! a few days ago about the Fort Lewis case.

I think the significance is less that the Army is monitoring civilian political activity than that there is a network, a nationwide network, of fusion centers, these state police intelligence units, these municipal police intelligence units, that bring together the services of the military, of police, and even private corporations to share information about alleged terrorist groups in cities throughout the country. I was fascinated by the story of the Air Force officer from New Jersey making an inquiry to the police in the state of Washington about this group. This is an enormous network. It’s funded by the Homeland Security Department. Police departments get a great deal of money to set up these intelligence units. And they monitor, largely, lawful political activity, in violation of the First Amendment and, when the military is involved, in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act.

Washington state has its own fusion center. In July, outgoing Tacoma City Hall reporter Ian Demsky raised concerns about the Homeland Security activities of the Tacoma police, revealed in public records released to a local opponent of the Northwest Detention Center.

Last night, Ben Schiendelman at seattletransitblog.com weighed in on the debate over how Sound Transit will build its Sounder tracks from Freighthouse Square through Tacoma’s Dome District and over Pacific Avenue.

His take: This fight has gone on long enough. Opponents have had their shot. Let's get on with building the ST's proposed berm to carry the tracks through the neighborhood.

So far, so good. We offered the same opinion last week.

But then Schiendelman derails by casting the opponents of the berm concept as transit foes with ulterior motives.

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Let’s make this clear: The News Tribune is endorsing incumbent Linda Bird for University Place City Council Position 1. We think she is by far the best candidate in the field of three on the Aug. 18 primary ballot.

But UPlace voters might think otherwise if they’ve seen the many campaign signs posted by one of her two opponents, Dan Carnrite. Big stickers across his signs read: “Carnrite better choice,” and he attributes the quote to The News Tribune.

He took the words “better choice” out of context and is implying that he is the TNT’s choice for the position. That is not the case.

In our July 24 endorsement editorial, “Keep Linda Bird on UPlace City Council,” we clearly stated that she is the best of the three candidates. But we recognize that some voters might want an alternative to the incumbent. We wrote: “For University Place voters who are intent on change in Position 1, Carnrite is the better choice due to his background in planning in Edgewood, Pacific and Tenino.”

We are disappointed to learn that a candidate we thought had promise took our words out of context. Voters should take that into consideration when they mark their ballots.

Our editorial today looks at the dangers of using a cell phone or texting while driving. But they aren't the only activities that can increase your chance of getting into an accident.

DWE is a big problem, too. Driving While Eating, that is.

We all do it. I pick up a mocha at least once a week at my favorite drive-thru and commit DWS (Driving While Sipping). I've also guilty of DWM (Driving While Munching), usually on sunflower seeds while on long road trips.

I draw the line at DWEB (Driving While Eating Burgers), though, but only because I'm so messy I'd dribble condiments all over myself.

One survey, by Exxon, found that more than 70 percent of drivers eat while driving and 83 percent drink beverages. (My guess: The drivers who say they don't are lying.)

So what are the most dangerous foods to consume while driving? The Orlando Sentinel came up with a list.

We don't have rights to reprint it, but click here to read it.

You could probably guess what tops the list: hot coffee.

On July 20, 1969, American families huddled around the TV set (most of us only had one back then) to watch the lunar landing. We held our collective breath as the astronauts looked for a good place to land the Eagle.

I remember thinking, "What if they land on the edge of a crater and go tumbling down? They won't be able to leave the moon."

I was 16 and babysitting that summer night for the Schulwolf family in Norfolk, Va. The children were already in bed, so I sat all alone in a dark living room watching the events unfold on TV.

I called home to talk to my mom just after the landing. It was an experience that we all wanted to share.

Do you have an interesting story about what you were doing for the moon landing? Leave a comment.

John Miles, our pick for Tacoma City Council's District 5, sent us a copy of a message he received this morning from a former neighbor in the 8th and I neighborhood, where Neighbors' Park is. We said in our editorial that he "helped develop" the park. The neighbor took issue with that statement.

John,
I am happy for you that you received the endorsement. However, I feel that it is wrong to take credit for developing the park. Neighbors' Park was developed by the intensive hard work of neighbors even before I became an 8th & I Neighbor in 2000. John, a few work parties does not equal developing a park.

John's response:

I’m so sorry that they wrote it this way. I did not tell them that I “developed” the park; I told them that I carted wheelbarrows of bark mulch when the new playground went in.  I agree with you that it would be wrong to take credit for the park. I used my work as an example of my civic involvement from before my years with Edison.

Please accept my apology. Your group has made a tremendous difference and will never be recognized sufficiently. In fact, you should take credit for training me in making a difference.

- John Miles

We rechecked our interview notes. Miles told us he "worked" on the park. "Helped develop" might have been too strong a description, but any mistake is ours, not John's.

Community organizers put in a lot of work, so I can understand the sensitivity to giving credit where credit is due. For the record, we did contact people Miles has worked with in the Edison neighborhood who gave him good reviews.

The six of us on the editorial board usually figure out something to say about any controversy we tackle. Not so with the proposal to ban smoking in Tacoma’s parks.

Three of us – David Zeeck, Cheryl Tucker and myself – would welcome smoke-free public parks. The other three – Karen Peterson, Kim Bradford and Dale Phelps – think that would be too much government.

Kim’s going to lay out their side of the argument. Here’s ours:

• It’s a protect-the-public-interest issue. Smokers don’t invade our air space, but smoke does. Parks are public accommodations. But if you can’t sit on a park bench or your kid can’t swing on a swing without getting a whiff of obnoxious tobacco smoke, you’ve been intruded upon – and not by government.

• You ban smoking in parks for the same reason you ban smoking at ballparks: Nobody should be forced to breathe someone else’s toxic exhaust.

• It’s a quality of life issue. Parks with clean air are more attractive and greater community assets.

• It’s a litter issue. Many smokers routinely drop their butts on the ground. Either the public pays to have the butts cleaned up, or park users have to play in an ashtray.

• Yes, it would be hard to enforce a smoke ban in parks. But it’s harder to enforce litter laws; unlike littering, smoking is easily spotted. In any case, laws often serve to spell out social expectations even when they aren’t enforced. Law-abiding smokers – the majority, I assume – won’t need the threat of a ticket to comply.

Not all journalists are of like minds, even when it comes to the practice of journalism itself. Like several readers, TNT columnist Peter Callaghan disagreed with our editorial yesterday about former Tacoma resident Warren Yeakey's lawsuit against the Seattle Post-Intelligencer for its news coverage of a fatal November 2006 construction crane accident in Bellevue.

Pete's e-mail to editorial page editor Pat O'Callahan:

Disagree with your conclusion. In our attempt to combat all libel lawsuits and rulings we stood firmly behind some of the worst reporting I have seen in a decade or more. The PI did much more than report two fact. It breathlessly suggested that it had solved the crime. Any reader would have concluded that a terrible accident that killed a man in his apartment had
been caused by a drugged out crane operator.

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How valuable would it be to watch the arguments in such landmark U.S. Supreme Court cases as Marbury vs. Madison, Brown vs. Board of Education, Bush vs. Gore? Technology wasn't possible for that to happen with the first case, but it was with the other two.

And what about big cases happening in the present? Will future generations look back and wonder why they were denied the chance to watch Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg interrogate hapless attorneys?

Providing a window into history is one reason Washington Supreme Court Chief Justice Gerry Alexander wholeheartedly supports televising high court proceedings. I talked with him Tuesday for today's editorial about cameras in the U.S. Supreme Court.

Alexander speaks from experience: TVW has been airing arguments in his court since 1995. He likes it – and thinks it would be a great idea for the U.S. Supreme Court. Televising can help the public learn about government and democratic institutions, he said, and demystify the court process.

"It's been a very pleasant relationship (with TVW), and there's been no disruption in proceedings," he said by phone from Olympia.

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In reviewing the Tacoma school board members' evaluations of Superintendent Art Jarvis, I was struck not by what they contained, but by what they didn't.

The "teaching/learning" category listed three "essential functions and goals" on which the board judged Jarvis. Not one of them mentioned student achievement. Rather, the school board considered whether teachers and students were assigned to schools and classes on time, and whether the district had a plan to provide sufficient curriculum resources, especially in math.

That's all important stuff, but as we said in today's editorial, all is for naught if kids aren't learning.

The school board has set rather ambitious goals for the district as a whole; reducing the dropout rate and increasing student achievement by 10 percent a year are among them. Jarvis should be evaluated, at least in part, on how whether the district achieves those goals.

I wrote board president Kim Golding to ask her if the board had a reason for not wanting to tie the superintendent's evaluation explicitly to student performance. Here's her response:

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