My goodness. We thought there were only three ways to fix the quake-damaged Alaskan Way Viaduct: rebuild it as an elevated highway, replace it with a conventional trench-and-cover tunnel, or replace it with a surface boulevard.

Make that three-and-a-half: For a while, Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels was pushing a skinnier trenched tunnel. But the state Department of Transportation didn’t like the looks of his Tunnel Lite.

Seattleites, Gov. Gregoire, King County Executive Ron Sims and others fought each other to near-exhaustion over those options. Now – after all the shin-kicking – the DOT has just spread out a menu

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We don’t have much quarrel with the U.S. Supreme Court decision upholding Indiana’s voter ID law, although the majority opinion acknowledged that Republican backers of such measures have not demonstrated there is an actual problem of voters trying to cast ballots using false identities. Washington has looser voter ID requirements, and they appear to be sufficient — as long as election officials do their jobs competently and carefully.

A new Census report showing a $1 billion active-duty military payroll in Pierce County actually understands the economic impact of McChord and Fort Lewis. It doesn’t include the 11,000 civilian workers

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A reader comments:

It has been my feeling that the TNT has been generally pro Obama during the current campaign, so I say congratulations on stepping up to the plate on this topic (Today’s editorial). Much easier to dismiss, ignore, or minimize his relationship with Pastor Wright than to tackle it head on.



Even my son, who has been an Obama supporter, is becoming more skeptical.



Mike Day

Tacoma

My response:

Mike,

We did endorse Obama in the presidential primary, but that has no influence on

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The Legislature voted to allow it, but would publicly funded political campaigns work in Pierce County? Would citizens go for it?

A panel of speakers will explore the topic at a public forum Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Saturday at Tahoma Unitarian Universalist Church, 1115 S. 56th St.

Panelists include Tacoma City Councilwoman Marilyn Strickand, Seattle City Councilman Nick Licata, Craig Salins, director for Washngton Public Campaigns, and Julio Quan, former director of Tacoma’s Centro Latino.

The event is sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Tacoma-Pierce County, Washington Public Campaigns, the

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The election-day nightmare of Republicans is voting fraud, traditionally the specialty of Democratic machines.

The election-day nightmare of Democrats is vote-suppression, the specialty of shifty conservatives who worry about the rabble’s political inclinations. The masters of suppression were the old-time Southern Democrats who devised poll taxes, literacy tests, lynching and various other tactics to keep blacks from voting. No – take that back. The masters were the founding fathers, who restricted the franchise to white, male property owners.

That’s the political context of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision Monday to uphold Indiana’s voter-ID law. Indiana’s Republican

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Scott Winship, the kind of community volunteer who surely deserves the "servant leader," has added another title to his long list of civic contributions: He’ll be the 2008 board president for United Way of Pierce County.

Winship, currently an attorney for Vandeberg, Johnson & Gandara, has alternated between banking and the law for more than 20 years. He was president and CEO of North Pacific Bank when it was sold in 1998 and helped found Northwest Commercial Bank in Lakewood.

On the community service side, Winship has been board chair for both MultiCare Health Foundation and the Nonprofit

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