These days …

Value Village is the new Macy’s.

Hamburger is the new steak.

Hobo stew is the new hamburger.

Penny tubes are the new 401ks.

Lava lamps are the new flat screens.

Daytime soaps are the new jobs.

Pabst Blue Ribbon is the new champagne.

Fake crab meat is the new sushi.

Low-rent apartments are the new McMansions.

Homeless camps are the new low-rent apartments.

Old Plymouths are the new Lexuses.

Old Schwinns are the new old Plymouths.

Maybe I’ll think of some

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I just got off the phone with Aaron Toso, the spokesman for the Department of Natural Resources, who read our editorial on the reprieve granted state parks.

Apparently, one way the state avoiding closing state parks was to raid trails grant funding – and now DNR might have to close some recreation areas. No decisions have been made, but the Legislature gave the department authorization to close up to 40 sites. In numbers alone, that’s about the same hit that the state parks system was bracing to receive if lawmakers didn’t come up with money.

Obviously, hikers and four-wheelers are not too happy about the prospect of losing access or seeing trails deteriorate. Read on for the DNR memo that went out yesterday to user groups.

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The furor over the death of a 16-year-old girl in a Fort Lewis barracks reminds me of what I consider one of the great achievements of my life.

Not once, but twice a few years ago, I extracted my son from Marine Corps custody for several hours while he was in basic training in San Diego.

We gamed the fearsome Marine Corp Recruit Depot. We braved the terror of drill instructors. We drove past concrete barriers and Marine guards who carried M-16s and looked like they were prepared to use them. Security was lighter at Checkpoint Charlie.

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This editorial will appear in tomorrow’s print edition.

Members of the Army – and the Marines, Navy and Air Force, for that matter – reflect the society they come from.

The average 19- or 20-year-old soldier is smarter, better disciplined and more law-abiding than his or her civilian peers. But soldiers aren’t immune to America’s social problems, and they sometimes carry those problems from civilian life into the service.

The death of Lakes High School sophomore Leah King in a Fort Lewis barracks last February has forced a hard look at drug abuse on the post. A just-concluded Article 32 hearing for Pvt. Timothy E. Bennitt – in whose room King died of an overdose – clearly points toward a serious breakdown of discipline among some of the young soldiers there.

However much or little responsibility Bennitt bears for King’s death, several facts emerged from the hearing:

Bennitt was buying illegal drugs and apparently retailing them to other soldiers. He and others were using them in their private rooms.

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This editorial will appear in Thursday’s print edition.

Thirteen parks that appeared headed to the state’s budget chopping block earlier this year have eked out a reprieve of sorts. But their future is far from assured.

Gov. Chris Gregoire last week vetoed a budget proviso that required the state to pursue transferring the targeted parks to local governments or nonprofits.

But the governor’s veto doesn’t put those parks – which include Joemma and Kopachuck in Pierce County and Tolmie in Thurston County – in the clear.

Gregoire said in her veto message that she still expects the state officials to move forward on transfers when "appropriate and mutually beneficial." In other words, if someone will have them, don’t hesitate to hand over the deeds.

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The Walla Walla Union-Bulletin’s editorial today is about how those conniving (my word, not the U-B’s) members of Congress attached an amendment allowing guns in national parks and wildlife to legislation intended to whip the credit card industry into shape. The paper’s editorial bemoaned the practice:

This is one of the quirks in our federal legislative system. A wide range of topics can — and are — addressed by one piece of legislation. This is not allowed in the Washington state Legislature, for example, where it is mandated that legislation must stick to a single topic.

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One thing is clear from the Article 32 hearing for Pvt. Timothy Bennitt: security and oversight at Fort Lewis barracks were appallingly lacking.

Thirteen parks that found themselves on the state’s budget chopping block this year eked out a reprieve of sorts. But parks supporters cannot rest yet.

If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to patrick.ocallahan@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune’s editorial board.

This editorial will appear in Wednesday’s print edition.

If Tillicum were a house, it would be a fixer-upper.

It’s run-down, but it has a lot of promise. Its location – along Interstate 5 and near major employers (Fort Lewis, Madigan Army Medical Center) couldn’t be better for economic development, and its amenities include public access to a lovely lake.

But it’s been held back by a crippling structural defect: crappy plumbing, to put it bluntly. Tillicum isn’t on sewers, which puts a damper on redevelopment prospects. The kind of businesses Lakewood would like to locate there aren’t interested in gambling on a failing septic field.

That’s all about to change. Tillicum – a mostly low-income part of Lakewood along the west side of I-5 – is poised on the brink of an extreme makeover, thanks to a massive sewer project funded by Lakewood taxpayers and a combination of state and federal grants.

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