This editorial will appear in Thursday’s print edition.
Firm deadline a good idea for Lakewood initiatives
The City Council and the Pierce County auditor have strict deadlines; initiative supporters should, too.
Lakewood has already seen what happens by not having firm deadlines for turning in initiative petitions: Its very first experience with a citizens initiative was a huge, last-minute pain in the neck.
The fact-checking didn’t end with the campaigns. FactCheck.org is still on the case, offering this critique of President Obama’s SOTU-like speech:
…
He said “we import more oil today than ever before.” That’s untrue. Imports peaked in 2005 and are substantially lower today.
He claimed his mortgage aid plan would help “responsible” buyers but not those who borrowed beyond their means. But even prominent defenders of the program including Fed Chairman Bernanke and FDIC chief Bair concede foolish borrowers will be aided, too.
He said the high cost of health care “causes a bankruptcy in
In his response to President Obama’s speech Tuesday, Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal struck a sour note by dissing on the $140 million in stimulus package money for, as he put it, “something called ‘volcano monitoring.’”
For those of us who live in the shadow of what’s been called the nation’s most dangerous volcano, monitoring isn’t just a line item in a big funding deal, it’s a potential life-saver. Volcano monitoring could mean the difference between life and death for thousands of local residents.
Hey, we don’t begrudge the money spent on Louisiana
…Metro Parks commissioners better be prepared to deliver since they’ve decided to keep hope alive for Titlow pool fans.
Lakewood’s proposal to set some deadlines for citizen initiatives is perfectly reasonable, but perhaps a less confusing way to go would be to tie the city’s deadlines to the state’s.
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I watched President Obama’s speech last night and thought he set the right tone: no pussyfooting around the fact that the economy is in dire straits, but voicing optimism that we have it within ourselves to set things right.
Maybe he touched on too many topics, though (including curing cancer, if I’m not mistaken). I think he should have focused on the economy and the war, but as David Broder writes in his column that runs Thursday:
“Buoyed for now by his victories over Hillary Clinton and John McCain, by his soaring approval scores and by a Republican opposition whose incoherence was demonstrated by the reply from Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, Obama is clearly of a mind to strike while the iron is hot.”
Here’s what editorial writers at other newspapers had to say about Obama’s speech.
Aberdeen’s newspaper has this story about House Majority Leader Lynn Kessler‘s frustration over her repeated efforts to require public bodies to tape their closed-door meetings.
Cities and counties have blocked the legislation in the past, so this year Kessler is pushing a neutered bill to require executive-session taping only when a local government has been found to have violated open meetings laws.
But apparently she can’t get even that past her colleagues. Kessler told the World that she failed to come up with the four votes necessary to get the bill out of the Government and Tribal Affairs Committee.
From the story:
“I don’t know what’s going on,” Kessler said. “I really, truly don’t know. Some of the people who say they support the bill must be working behind the scenes to kill it. That’s all I can imagine.”
This editorial will appear in Wednesday’s print edition.
Bus rapid transit makes sense for Meridian
Carving out a lane for fast bus service could help alleviate pressure on the notoriously busy corridor.
Ever tried to get from one end of Meridian Street in Puyallup to the other?
Cue the music from "Mission: Impossible" here, because that’s what it can feel like. Meridian (Highway 161) gets clogged at just about any time, but it’s especially aggravating at rush hour.
The City of Puyallup and Pierce Transit hope to make Meridian a little less impossible by partnering on a bus rapid transit project. The first step is to secure $1.5 million from the Federal Transit Administration (FTA) to complete an engineering study of the corridor by next year.
This editorial will appear in Wednesday’s print edition.
Obama’s choice of the former Washington governor suggests that the new administration will remain committed to free trade.
Many economists and historians believe the Smoot-Hawley Act of 1930 – which imposed high tariffs on thousands of foreign imports – helped deepen the Great Depression.
That history bears on Barack Obama’s reported plan to nominate Gary Locke as secretary of the Commerce Department.
The former Washington governor could prove an ideal choice, if he stands up to the powerful Democratic constituencies pushing to protect U.S. industries from foreign competition.