LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
CHATTER BOX
Tell us what's on your mind about a public issue. Call 253-353-7100 and leave a 30-second message that could be printed in the paper or posted here as mp3 audio. (Please don't leave your phone number in the message, otherwise we can't use the comment.)
WHAT WE'RE READING
CIVIC TOOLKIT
Legislative Action
Contact your elected officials and keep up-to-date on advocacy, education and civic concerns.
• Civic toolkit
Contact your elected officials and keep up-to-date on advocacy, education and civic concerns.
• Civic toolkit
YOUR VOICE
From The Reader
"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.
"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.
No union likes having its back against the wall, but that seems to be where the Machinists union stands right now on the question of keeping 787 Dreamliner production in Washington.
Kerry Killinger said he wanted to create the Wal-Mart of banks. He attempted to do it in a curious way, by ruining the very customers he said he wanted to serve.
In 2004, Washington Secretary of Sam Reed was at the center of the firestorm created by one of the closest gubernatorial races in U.S. history. Two recounts, multiple lawsuits and six months later, Reed – a Republican – declared that Democrat Chris Gregoire had beaten Republican Dino Rossi by 133 votes out of nearly 3 million cast.
That didn’t take long.
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.
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.
There’s just no polite way to put this: The state Supreme Court blew it.
Leaders of the Port of Tacoma, including Executive Director Tim Farrell, have blamed the global recession for the failure of the massive NYK terminal project. The story turns out to be far more complicated – and far less flattering for the port.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
At this point, Barack Obama – president and now Nobel laureate – lacks only canonization as a saint.
Tacoma’s mayoral contest this year poses the kind of dilemma we wish every race offered: two candidates so good that it is hard to pick between them.
The nation could be on the verge of a serious swine flu crisis – one that could strain the health system’s ability to cope with it. But many parents and health professionals are reacting to the pandemic with little more than a ho-hum and a shoulder shrug.
The races for Tacoma school board won’t be decided for another month, yet there’s already been an upset.
The blows to the Port of Tacoma just keep on coming.
Federal Way’s municipal court has been troubled for too many years now. With any luck, it should be a healthier institution after election day.
Vengeance will be Dale Washam’s, or so it would appear from the details of a union complaint alleging unfair work practices.
Guess what happens when a global flu pandemic meets sick leave rules straight out of the world of Charles Dickens?
Pierce Transit and Wilson High School aren’t to blame for the senseless, cruel beating of a medically fragile boy by another boy on the No. 16 bus. But they share responsibility for the disturbing aftermath.
Tim Farrell, executive director of the Port of Tacoma, was at the center of the Port of Tacoma’s attempt to create a massive terminal for NYK Line on the Blair Waterway. He naturally wants to put the collapse of that project in the best possible light.
Outrage over psychotic killer Phillip Paul’s three-day getaway last month is rare political currency. Expect state lawmakers to find a way to spend it.
Pigskin Picks
Warren Miller Dynasty
Win Seahawks Tickets
GET THE E-EDITION
View every news page every day with the digital edition of The News Tribune.
Have The News Tribune delivered to your home daily and save up to 30% off the newsstand price!
Subscribe Today!
Subscribe Today!
Terms of Service |
Privacy Policy |
About Our Ads |
Advertising Partners |
Contact Us |
About Us |
Site Map |
Jobs
|
RSS
1950 South State Street, Tacoma, Washington 98405 253-597-8742
© Copyright 2009 Tacoma News, Inc. A subsidiary of The McClatchy Company
1950 South State Street, Tacoma, Washington 98405 253-597-8742
© Copyright 2009 Tacoma News, Inc. A subsidiary of The McClatchy Company