State Rep. Jeannie Darneille, the longtime director of the Pierce County AIDS Foundation, has become one of the Legislature’s chief champions of human services since Tacomans in the 27th District sent her to the House six years ago.

Now running for a fourth term, Darneille was in to see us Friday for an endorsement interview. She spent much of her time sharing concerns about parentless children who “age out” of the state’s foster care system – the kids no one adopts over the years. One particularly sad statistic: 70 percent of these youths fail to graduate from high

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When it comes to elections, newspaper editorialists learn humility fast. Some people may believe or fear our recommendations routinely sway the outcome of votes, but there’s little evidence of that in the actual returns. What we really do is add another informed voice to the debate – along with lots of other people.

Occasionally, though, I think we do tip things in a direction we think is healthy for the communities we serve. On Sept. 19, for example, Tacoma voters rejected an attempt by the gaming industry to legalize the casinos that were supposed to have shut down last

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If you’re the type that can’t get enough of Tacoma city government at work, here’s good news: Starting today, the city will start archiving audio from meetings of the six City Council standing committees. The TVTacoma website has all the info.

This is where you would go, for example, to see if Councilman Tom Stenger is keeping his promise to be civil. It was his angry tirade against a citizen speaking at a committee meeting in August that led to a formal City Council reprimand for his behavior. Now everything said at those meetings will all be on

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Saturday:

Two short takes, one on Paul Allen finally doing something more useful with his money by paying for the $40 million "brain atlas" that is now online and free for scientists and the public to use. We’ll also take note of that U.S. Funded $75 million police academy project in Iraq that turned in to an utter disaster, saying it seems emblematic of the war effort itself right now.

Sunday:

We take our first public stand on one of the Nov. 7 statewide ballot measures, Iniitative 933. The so-called property rights initiative is nothing but

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We’ve posted a rough sketch here showing the layout of the History Museum plaza area and the indirect path pedestrians currently take from Pacific Avenue to the Bridge of Glass. (Click on the image if you need to make it larger).

In fairness to the museum, let us note that director David Nicandri told the ed board Thursday he believes that the pedestrian experience of the bridge is enhanced by the indirect approach. I think he has a point. When you enter the museum plaza from the sidewalk, you get a sidelong view of the bridge across

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The conservative Evergreen Freedom Foundation is talking up a spat between state Auditor Brian Sonntag and several legislators defending one of EFF’s favorite targets: the state Department of Transportation.

EFF called attention to a Sept. 21 letter Sonntag sent to state Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen (D-Camano Island) , Rep. Ed Murray (D-Seattle) and Rep. Bev Woods D-Poulsbo, denying accusations that his office is making a “wtich hunt” of its DOT performance audit. Apparently the legislators objected to the “scope” of the audit.

Sonntag, as you may recall, joined arms with EFF last year to promote

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Today we ran an editorial calling on the City of Tacoma to make up for its tardy opposition to the Century Park wall by finding a solution that will allow the Washington State History Museum to make good on its plans to commemorate the group that helped save Union Station.

The newsroom ran an artist’s rendering of the wall in Thursday’s paper. But to get a full understanding of what the wall might look like, you need to see these photo illustrations from the project’s architects.

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Is George Bush going to bomb Iran before he leaves office? Seymour Hersh thinks so.

Hersh is the reporter who won a Pulitzer for exposing the My Lai massacre in the Vietnam War. He spoke at a private, $100-a-head fundraiser at Primo Grill for 26th District House candidate Larry Seaquist. Seaquist, who once commanded the battleship Iowa, is an old acquaintance of Hersh’s; Hersh came here for a speaking engagement tonight in Seattle.

Hersh, according to our informant, believes Bush will be emboldened in lame-duck status the next two

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