My Wednesday column is on The Responsi-Bull Project, a cooperative effort to reduce Pierce County’s pit bull population the right way, through spaying, neutering, training and education.

Let’s start with some of the basics you can read in the column, then move on to interesting info that I could not shoe-horn into the allotted 670 words.

The project, coordinated by the Pawsitive Alliance, has three parts: Pit-Fix, Pit-Ed and Train-A-Pit.

Pit-Fix will offer free spaying or neutering to 30 pit bulls in Pierce County. Coalition HUMAnE Spay & Neuter Clinic at 2106 Tacoma Ave. S. in Tacoma. Call (253)627-7729 for information.

Pit-Ed is a free class from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 18., at Positive Approach Dog Training, 1501 S. Center St. in Tacoma. You’ll need reservations for the event sponsored by Positive Approach and BullsEye Dog Rescue. Call (360)981-7080 or e-mail lorrie@bullseyerescue.org.

Train-A-Pit is a series of four obedience classes from 4 to 5 p.m. or 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. Saturdays beginning Jan. 24 at Positive Approach. Participants pay $40 at the beginning and get $10 returned at each class. Use the Pit-Ed contacts to register.

It’s a great effort, but why would Pawsitive Alliance, which is based in North Bend, be spending its money and effort in Pierce County?

Simple, said its board president, Andrea Logan: “Tacoma takes in the most dogs and cats of any shelter in the state.”

In 2007, the Humane Society for Tacoma & Pierce County accepted 15,842 dogs and cats, more than all the shelters in King County. That’s 43 pets a day. Of them, 6,654 were euthanized. That’s 18 a day, including almost two pit bulls and two underage kittens.

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Don’t be suprised if you see a little extra tie-straightening at the Puyallup City Council meeting tonight.

Starting with tonight’s meeting, all Puyallup City Council meetings will be taped and broadcast on Channel 22. Residents can catch meetings Thursdays at 8 a.m., Fridays at 2 a.m., and Sundays at 8 p.m.

The city is spending about $60,000 this year on a televising contract with Rainier Media Center, the same group that broadcasts meetings for the smaller cities of Fife, Orting, Sumner and DuPont. Officials spent an additional $40,000 to install the necessary recording equipment.

Later in

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Calendars are tough to toss.

They’re like friends who keep us organized, never talk back and always cheer us up. I’m thinking of surrounding myself with song birds in exotic locations in 2009, having spent 2008 enjoying native plants in unlikely locations. My desk is way more cheery than the view out the window.

So why would I just flip those gorgeous photos away like used cereal boxes?

The kittens, puppies, trains, planes, automobiles, surfers, fish, mountains and firefighters on our walls had nothing to do with the events that unfolded during this miserable year. They deserve

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The Daffodil Festival is looking for volunteers to sit on a citizen advisory board and guide it through tough financial times.

Citizens on the committee would advise the Daffodilians, the group that runs the festival, about how to make 76-year-old event appeal to the local community.

Organizers have repeatedly said that without a substantial increase in fundraising, they won’t have the money to put on the festival or its annual Grand Floral Parade in 2010.

The idea for a citizens committee came up in two public workshops the Daffodilians held in November. Citizens and local

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It’s tough to imagine a story more wrenching than that of the teen accused of drowning her newborn son in Port Angeles, then putting his body in the trash.

The girl was pregnant in October, when she moved from Pueblo, Colo., to Port Angeles to live with her father, who has a long, long criminal history. She may not have known that,in this state, she could have her baby, transfer him into caring hands, and walk away. The solution to her desperate problem was as close as a fire station or hospital.

She is in

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Are you annoyed of feeling like you’re in the lunar rover when you drive home? Of course you are; that’s why Jason Hagey and I wrote about Tacoma’s potholes a few months ago.

Well, someone else wants to talk to you know: The History Channel. We received an email from a producer putting together a two-hour special about the country’s crumbling infrastructure, and they want to hear from you if you’re “directly impacted and passionate about describing the problem.”

If you’re interested, e-mail me at scott.fontaine@thenewstribune.com and I’ll forward it on to them.