The Tahoma Audubon’s Early Bird Gets the Worm breakfast fundraiser this morning nearly drew a quorum of the Pierce County Council.

Council members Shawn Bunney, Dick Muri, Calvin Goings and Terry Lee were on hand. I didn’t spot any others, so it apparently wasn’t an illegal meeting. The environmental vote apparently counts for something around here. I don’t think the electeds came for the packets of bird seed and candy worms that graced the tables.

Update: Oops. Four members do count as a County Council quorum. I guess if the members all sat at separate tables they’re off the hook. I hope. (Ace TNT columnist Peter Callaghan further sets me straight about this; click “read more” to see his note).

Bunney informed me that the council will give the Pierce County Alliance a full hearing on its controversial Prometa drug treatment progam at 2:30 p.m. on Nov. 14. Last week we citicized the council for yanking funding for the program without giving the Alliance a chance to defend it. (Editorial).

We expect to publish an oped piece from the alliance on Sunday. Reporters in the newsroom are taking a deeper look at the program’s disputed success rate but it won’t appear right away.

In other council news, Councilman Calvin Goings (D-Puyallup) showered praise on fellow Councilman Dick Muri, R-Steilacoom. Muri’s strong stand on a transfer of development rights (TDR) proposal resulted, Goings said, in 5-0 committee approval Monday.

Backers of the proposal, which would allow developers to buy development rights from farmland owners in return for greater project density elsewhere, told me Councilman Roger Bush groused about it but ended up voting for it.

The vote was a setback for the Master Builders Association of Pierce County, which recently began lobbying for a voluntary approach. Backers are optimistic but wary of potential weakening amendments when the measure hits the full council.

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What you’re about to read here is worth what you paid to read it. It’s only a guess.

But we think we figured out the odd letter to the editor in today’s print edition from Robert Hill, the fella whose referendum-filing spree last spring is the reason for Proposed County Charter Amendment No. 8 on the Pierce County ballot. (We endorsed it.)

Even though the amendment is aimed at serial filers like Hill – who filed 14 referenda – he claims to be in favor of it. In fact, he says he’s the “official spokesperson” for

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There’s been some hoopla over a letter sent to Lakewood voters about how Mayor Claudia Thomas should be bounced in favor of her younger opponent (see our editorial today). It was sent by three Lakewood CARES council members, John Arbeeny, Pad Finnigan and Ron Cronk.

I thought the whole age issue was kind of funny, given something I know about Herroner: She can really cut a rug (for younger readers, that means she’s got moves).

I attended an event earlier this year commemorating the 50th anniversary of Alpha Kappa Alpha in the South Sound area. Thomas, a member of AKA, the oldest national sorority geared to black college graduates, helped put on the event.

When the music began, Thomas was one of the first to hit the dance floor. And I have to say, she can get down. Literally. She must have the knees of someone half her age. She may be 76, but I hope I have her energy (and knees) when I get there.

In case you live outside Lakewood and didn’t see a copy of the letter in question, here it is:

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We noted earlier that $300,000 a year has been accumulating in a special Pierce County historic preservation fund since 2005 – and that people are bound to have conflicting plans for spending that kind of money.

Sharon Winters, president of Historic Tacoma, is getting nervous. She notes that the committee charged with figuring out how to allocate the county’s money was given a strangely narrow mandate – by the Pierce County Council – to “examine the preservation of historic records and documents, and architectural renderings.”

Winters wants to see a good share of that money spent preserving

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A couple key Pierce County land-use issues are close to being decided by the County Council: the fate of a proposed transfer of development rights program, and the Alderton-McMillin community plan.

Lots of behind-the-scenes dickering the past few weeks. Might pop up at the council level this week or next. We have our fingers crossed.

In August, we took a stiff editorial shot at Republicans on the council’s community development committee for amending the Alderton-McMillin community plan. The plan covers the fertile valley between Sumner and Orting; the amendments would have largely gutted the existing

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At least this educator is kissing the staff, not the students.

Driving down Sprague Street after dark last week, my heart was warmed by that rarest of sights: a Tacoma police officer actually lurking on on a side road looking for traffic violations.

I’ve been driving through Tacoma for more years than I’d care to admit, and I think I can count on both hands (OK, maybe a toe or two) the times I’ve seen a cop on traffic patrol.

I thought: They’re finally going after those idiot berserkers who run red lights and kill people on occasion.

Wishful thinking. As it turns out, the Tacoma Police Department

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If you’ve already got your mind set to vote against insurance companies and for Referendum 67, you’ll get a chuckle out of this online video ad. If you work for an insurer, it will make you cringe.

Nothing too subtle about the tactics of Fuse, a new online advocacy organization launched last month to back “progressive” causes in Washington. Executive Director Aaron Ostrom used to hold the same position with Futurewise, the group Formerly Known As 1000 Friends of Washington.

I didn’t discover Fuse until today, but Seattle Times political blogger David Postman had

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