This editorial will appear in Friday’s print edition.

It’s hard to believe, but there is a bright side to the tawdry tale of a Lakewood police officer accused of embezzling money meant for the families of four murdered fellow officers.

It was yet another Lakewood officer, Jeremy Vahle, who got suspicious that money might have been diverted from the Fallen Officers’ Fund, a trust established to help the families of the four Lakewood officers shot to death in November 2000: Sgt. Mark Renninger and officers Tina Griswold, Ronald Owens and Greg Richards.

Instead of sweeping the embarrassment under the rug and handling it behind closed doors, the Lakewood Police Department faced it head-on. Under Chief Bret Farrar, evidence was gathered and presented to Pierce County prosecutors. They forwarded it to the FBI and the U.S. Attorney for further action.
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This editorial will appear in Wednesday’s print edition.

Some Federal Way-area officials are so unhappy with Sound Transit that they’re contemplating secession from the tri-county transportation agency. There’s no mechanism for such a move, but that’s not stopping them from talking about it.

Their pain is our pain – to a point.

Sound Transit has determined that sales tax revenues from the South King County sub-area have fallen so steeply that the agency must delay extension of light rail to Federal Way from 2023 to 2034 or later. That delay means that the next light rail leg – to Tacoma – will be delayed as well. Originally projected to be completed by 2029, it’s now looking like sometime in the 2040s.
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This editorial will appear in Tuesday’s print edition.

Some lawmakers are considering whether to move the Special Commitment Center for violent sex offenders off McNeil Island as a way to help close the state’s $2 billion-plus budget gap. It has become more expensive to run since closure of the state prison on the island.

The only two choices for relocation being discussed, according to a report Sunday by The News Tribune’s Jordan Schrader, are Western State Hospital in Lakewood and the shuttered Maple Lane School in Ground Mound near Centralia.

Lawmakers should consider a few facts about those locations that make it hard to see where short-term savings could be made – and short-term is what the state needs right now.

Consider:
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This editorial will appear in Thursday’s print edition.

Compared to all the drama in the Tacoma and Puyallup school districts lately, things have been quiet in Pierce County’s third- and fourth-largest districts, Bethel and Clover Park.

Even so, voters in the two suburban districts should not overlook important school board races Nov. 8 that involve challenges to three solid incumbents.

• In Bethel, District 4 incumbent Joy A. Cook is seeking her fifth term. There’s a chance that, if elected, the Graham resident would not be able to finish her term because she could be moving out of the district. …

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This editorial will appear in Thursday’s print edition.

The City of Lakewood and Camp Murray have gotten chummier in recent weeks over the issue of moving the camp’s main gate. But should they take the relationship to the next level?

Lakewood and Camp Murray will explore whether it makes sense for the city to annex the 240-acre state-owned property. The site – home to the Air and Army national guards as well as the state’s emergency operations center – is currently in unincorporated Pierce County. But it’s within Lakewood’s urban growth boundary, and the city has long been interested in annexing it as well as Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

At first glance at least, annexation would seem to be more in Camp Murray’s interest than in Lakewood’s. The city likely would assume some infrastructure and maintenance responsibilities – such as contracting for road repair and snow removal. But it wouldn’t get sales or property tax revenue because there are no businesses or residences at the camp. Read more »

This editorial will appear in Monday’s print edition.

Pierce County Councilman Dick Muri recently summed up what’s wrong with the county’s lax fireworks law:

“It’s not Independence Week that I know of,” he said, referring to the fact that residents of the unincorporated county can legally set off “safe and sane” fireworks for 11 hours daily during the eight days between June 28 and July 5. Muri is part of a County Council committee exploring whether to reduce the hours and days fireworks can be set off or to ban them outright.

If shooting off fireworks truly is an expression of patriotic fervor, celebrating July Fourth’s role in the nation’s history, why allow it more than a week before Independence Day? Or the day after?

“We could maybe at least keep the carnage down to one day,” Muri sensibly suggests.

That would be more in keeping with neighboring counties. Fireworks are limited to July 4 in unincorporated King County and to July 3 and 4 in Thurston.
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This editorial will appear in Friday’s print edition.

The primary ballots haven’t all been tallied yet – thanks to the requirement that they only need to be postmarked by Election Day. But some things are already clear.

Just because it’s more convenient to vote now that the election is all-mail doesn’t mean people are suddenly voting in much higher numbers. As of Thursday afternoon, turnout was a lackluster 27 percent. In the last off-year election (2009), turnout was 19.2 percent.

Turnout this year wasn’t helped by the fact that voters in some communities might not have had much to get …

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This editorial will appear in Friday’s print edition.

The proposed plan to move the Camp Murray main gate into Lakewood’s Tillicum community isn’t ideal. But it may be as good as it’s going to get, and the alternative – the status quo – is not a good option.

The plan is much better than what camp officials had in mind 10 months ago, when they wanted to move the gate to Tillicum’s Portland Avenue with virtually no mitigation for the community.

The City of Lakewood rightly pulled the plug on the earlier plan by refusing to issue the necessary permits. Read more »