This editorial will appear in Friday’s print edition.

Steven Powell’s conviction on 14 counts of voyeurism Wednesday should give police plenty of time – as he sits in prison – to explore his possible involvement in the disappearance of his daughter-in-law, Susan Powell.

His role in the corruption of her husband, who burned their two sons to death in February, is already obvious.

Josh Powell had a penchant for pornography and a tendency to demean and menace his wife, as Susan’s emails and other surviving documents have made clear. His murder of the two young boys doesn’t prove that he killed their mother, but it does prove that he was capable of worse. At the very least, one could say that Josh was not a paragon of respect for women.

Like father, like son.
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This editorial will appear in Thursday’s print edition.

When it comes to violent crime, appearances can deceive.

Sometimes it feels as if every third or fourth infamous murder in the entire nation has a Pierce County connection.

Most recent is what may be the single worst U.S. war atrocity since Vietnam – the slaughter of 17 villagers in Afghanistan. It happened on the other side of the world, but the accused is a Lake Tapps man, Staff Sgt. Robert Bales.

Before that came Josh Powell’s immolation of himself and his two sons. Before that, Maurice Clemmons’ murder of four Lakewood police officers. Before that, David Brame; there can’t be many police chiefs of mid-sized American cities who’ve killed their wives and committed suicide.

Before that, Beltway Sniper John Allen Muhammad. All the way back to Tacoma native Ted Bundy.

Such nation-shocking killings – combined with the less spectacular homicides, home invasions, robberies and assaults – can leave the impression of a crescendo of crime.

Diminuendo is more like it, looking at the actual statistics.

Every year about this time, The Washington State Association of Sheriffs & Police Chiefs releases an immense summary of crimes in Washington’s cities and across the state.

Comparatively, Tacoma and Pierce County never come off looking good in these reports.
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This editorial will appear in Wednesday’s print edition.

The world changes. Heaven forbid that the U.S. Postal Service should change with it.

The USPS is supposed to operate like a business – which includes adapting to the real world – but the U.S. Senate has again made certain that it operate as a vehicle for patronage and political pandering. It has just pressured the organization into abandoning an emergency-cost cutting plan to close hundreds of money-losing post offices and mail-sorting centers nationwide, including several offices in Pierce County and the processing center on Pine Street in Tacoma.

Result: The postal unions and the nation’s remaining snail mail fans are happy. And the Postal Service – which has been losing $25 million a DAY – will keep on running immense losses unless Congress permits it to restructure itself for the 21st century.

On hold, too, is the USPS plan to end Saturday mail delivery – another fossil from the age when snail mail was the only game in town. Ending that tradition would have saved the system – and ultimately the taxpayers – royal sums of money. It would also have antagonized the people who don’t the status quo to change, ever.

The status quo is enforced politically. Communities defend their post offices like Rottweilers, and they terrify members of Congress who otherwise wouldn’t spend a penny bailing out an archaic mail system.
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This editorial will appear in Monday’s print edition.

When a $2 million budget shortfall led to closure of two Tacoma library branches that serve lower-income neighborhoods, many in the community hoped that someday, when the economic picture brightened, they might reopen.

Sadly, that doesn’t appear to be in the cards. The two library buildings – Martin Luther King Jr. in Central Tacoma and Swan Creek on the East Side – have been put on the market. Bids will be taken until May 22.

It shouldn’t have come to this. And it probably wouldn’t have had the city’s finances been better managed in recent years with tighter reins on employee salary increases and benefits – including such misguided frills as “longevity pay” given on top of raises simply for sticking around.
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Those who follow political doings on the other side of the continent know that Elizabeth Warren, a Massachusetts Democrat running against U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, has gotten snarled in a dispute over her claim to Cherokee heritage.

The allegation from Brown’s camp is that Warren parlayed a drop of Indian blood into professional advantage. She’s blue-eyed, blond-haired and affluent, but apparently one of her 32 great-great grandparents was indeed a Cherokee. (Hold the “Cherokee princess” jokes.) For nine years, Warren listed herself as “minority” in a directory of attorneys that law schools turn to when hiring their faculty.

There’s an odd harmonic resonance between Warren’s embarrassment and a genuine scandal in our corner of America.

A few days ago, the head of the Office of Minority and Women Owned Business Enterprises – a small state agency that nudges government contracts toward historically disadvantaged groups – resigned amid charges her office was enabling fraud.

An impressive investigation by KING 5 had turned up evidence that the OMWBE had looked the other way as supposed minority contractors served as fronts for white-owned businesses.

This is a time-honored scam that exploits the good intentions of affirmative action.
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There’s bad news for would-be college students, then good news, then more bad news. Stick with us.

The bad – for most Washington students – is the new round of steep tuition increases headed their way. Earlier this month, Washington State University approved its second consecutive 16 percent increase, which will raise the price of next year’s schooling by $1,500.

The University of Washington also looks headed for a 16 percent increase; the UW and WSU will each cost something north of $11,000 in 2012-2013. Tuition will be lower at other public universities and lower still at community and technical …

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If you’re an Avengers fan who is also still grieving for Maurice Sendak, you can download this wallpaper by Hannah (rhymes with Donna) Friederichs that mashes up the two.

For the link, click here.

This editorial will appear in Friday’s print edition.

It’s hard to look at President Barack Obama’s announcement Wednesday in support of same-sex marriage as anything more than anticlimactic symbolism, welcome that it is.

It’s not likely to be much of a political game-changer in the presidential election. Those strongly opposed to expansion of gay rights probably weren’t inclined to vote for Obama in November anyway after he overturned restrictions on gays in the military and announced that his administration would not defend the Defense of Marriage Act in court.

Because of Obama’s longtime support for gay rights, supporters of same-sex marriage were probably already inclined to vote for him even though his public position on the issue was only “evolving.” His reluctance to come out in favor of same-sex marriage had widely been interpreted as being politically motivated: He hoped not to alienate the independent voters so crucial to his re-election. His announcement this week certainly was prompted by Vice President Joe Biden’s earlier comments of support for same-sex marriage.
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