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"Your Voice" features longer and distinctively personal commentary from readers on topics that don't seem to fit in a letter to the editor. Try to limit submissions to about 600 words.
Send proposed articles to chief editorial writer Patrick O'Callahan, The News Tribune, PO Box 11000, Tacoma, Wash. 98411 (or e-mail Patrick O'Callahan). Articles may be edited and republished in any format by The News Tribune.
Voters should always take care when making their election picks, but some parts of the ballot deserve more attention than others this year.
The firestorm surrounding Referendum 71, which would keep the state’s everything-but-marriage law, is a two-pronged debate. There’s what the law does, and what might come next.
The theory behind Initiative 1033 – tying the growth of government to the growth of population, plus inflation – strikes us as sound. What worries us is the impact of its peculiarities.
From its beginnings as a fishing and boat-building village, Gig Harbor has been one of the most distinctive and picturesque communities in Washington.
Sumner’s citizens will find two city contests on their Nov. 3 ballots. They’ll also find the luxury of four decent candidates in those contests.
Lakewood voters are particularly fortunate this election cycle for two reasons.
The races for Federal Way school board took on additional significance last week when Superintendent Tom Murphy, a respected 20-year veteran of the district, announced his retirement.
A funny thing happened to the Pierce County auditor’s office in the two years since citizens voted to make it nonpartisan: It seems to have become more partisan than ever.
The Bethel School District gets the prize for having, if not the most vigorous school board campaigns, at least the oddest. It’s remarkable that the races are even contested.
The campaigns for and against the three proposed Pierce County charter amendments both seem to be operating on the KISS principle: “Keep it simple, stupid.”
Last year, voters in Federal Way rejected – by a hefty 10 percent margin – a proposal to give the city a strong-mayor form of government.
In University Place, one issue overshadows this election: the achingly slow progress of Town Center, the public/private development on Bridgeport Way the City Council envisions as a way to expand the tax base.
Tacoma voters could change the direction of city government this election, with a majority of the nine-member City Council potentially at stake.
If no news is good news, then Federal Way is in good shape. The only real hot-button issue there is whether the city should adopt a strong-mayor form of government. Voters will weigh in on that issue Nov. 3.
Few local governments have weathered the economic downtown as well as Bonney Lake, thanks in large part to growth in recent years that fueled tax revenues and allowed the city to build up a comfortable rainy day fund.
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