1. The state Department of Ecology’s revised water-right proposal could be the win-win solution that keeps Lake Tapps from disappearing. But the key is whether the new plan adequately protects fish runs to the satisfaction of the federal agencies who look after the Muckleshoot tribe’s protective interest in the fish. Let’s hope DOE did its job well. In meantime, lake residents need to recognize that recreational use of the lake may be somewhat reduced as as part of the tradeoffs. That’s better than no lake at all.

2. We don’t much like that new wall the history museum was

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The editorial board is in the middle of interviewing candidates as part of the general election endorsement process. Today we met the delightful Stan Barker, the Republican running against incumbent state Rep. Dennis Flannigan in Tacoma’s 27th District.

Barker noted that he’s married to the former Karen Prindel, Miss Tacoma 1961. Actually, she was the first runner-up, he said, but got the crown by default when it was discovered that the winner had posed nude.

He’s pretty realistic about his chances in the heavily Democratic 27th. But my colleague, Patrick O’Callahan, said he shouldn’t give

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A couple of local blogs (also here) have expressed concern recently about the wall being built along Pacific Avenue in front of the Bridge of Glass.

It’s part of the long-delayed Century Park project. In 1994, the nonprofit group Save Our Station started selling plaques cut from the weathered green copper that once covered the dome of Union Station for $25 apiece. More than 200 people bought them, according to Sean Robinson’s story in The News Tribune last year.

The plaques were supposed to grace a wall in the empty concrete plaza that leads

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1. If the Senate doesn’t act by Friday, Washington taxpayers will lose the sales tax deduction on their federal income taxes. After that, it’s too late for the IRS to implement the deduction on next year’s filing forms. Senate Republican leaders are still holding the sales tax deduction hostage to other legislation the GOP leadership wants, including the estate tax. We understand hardball politics, but this is a matter of fairness for residents in Washington and other states with no income tax.

2. The Tacoma City Council didn’t have to be so grudging in lending its support to

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Two bitter foes, the conservative Evergreen Freedom Foundation and the Washington Education Association, are taking a six-year-old legal fight to the nation’s top court. Here’s a nutshell view:

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed today to hear a case stemming from a Public Disclosure Commission complaint EFF filed against the WEA in 2000. The issue centered on the union’s alleged political use of compulsory fees paid by non-member teachers.

The PDC ordered $590,000 in penalties against the WEA. The WEA appealed to Superior Court, where it lost. But an appeals court and the state Supreme Court

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1.The terrorism suspect interrogation bill is too important to rush through Congress this week as congressman are hurrying out of town to go home and campaign. Very little is known about what interrogation techniques it would permit. The legislation has too many unanswered questions to be rushed through Congress.

2. The governor is right to make it abundantly clear that rebuilding or replacing the Alaskan Way Viaduct will require tolls; time to squelch the idea that somehow state taxpayers will come up with the additional $460 million needed for the state’s share of the project.

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Tacoma City Councilwoman Julie Anderson has joined backers of the Nov. 7 ballot measure that would bring instant runoff voting to Pierce County. On behalf of Citizens for a Better Ballot, she’s hosting 1980 presidential candidate and IRV advocate John Anderson early next month for a meeting with IRV supporters and guests.

Anderson’s imposing new North Tacoma residence, believe it or not, was once the Whitworth College Literary Society Hall (the college later moved to Spokane) and more recently home of The Church of the Divine Man.

The U.S House of Representatives is poised to be in session this year for just 99 days, nine days less than the “Do Nothing” Congress of 1948 that Harry Truman pilloried. The Senate is on track for just 129 days, the sixth fewest since 1948.

Check out the “Punch Clock Campaign.” These folks want members of Congress to sign promises to put their schedules on their websites and promise a bounty to any citizen who can persuade his senator or representative to do that.