January 2009 marks the first year of The Melon’s online magazine and to commemorate such an auspicious occasion, we’re pleased to announce the 1st Annual Golden Melon Awards. This is an opportunity to reward those outstanding Melon contributors and fans.

The Melon is now accepting nominations for the following categories. Submit a nomination by entering a comment or emailing goldenmelon@thmelononline.com. Nominees will be announced in early December and the awards will be given out on January 3rd, 2009. If you have category suggestions, as well, please forward those.

• GOLDEN CONTRIBUTOR (Contributor of the year.)
• INTERVIEW OF THE YEAR (Best interview of the year. Both podcasts and videos qualify.)
• MELONITE OF THE YEAR (For outstanding Guest Contributions or Commenting.)
• THE HARTMAN AWARD (Article/piece with most educational value. Named after our first guest on Melon Radio Darrick Hartman.)
• THE SOUND AWARD (Given to an article with outstanding local (Sound Area) coverage.)
• THE SPIT-SEED AWARD (Most hilarious, weird or insane article/piece or figure relating to The Melon.)

Nominations are due by December 1st.

Season 1

NOTE: We are currently in the process of migrating this audio over to new servers. We apologize but none of this audio works right now. Please email themelon@themelononline.com if you’re looking for a clip.

12/08/07 – Education Special
Guests: President of the University of Puget Sound Ronald Thomas, and Vice President of the Tacoma Education Association Darrick Hartman

12/01/07 – Status of Iraq, Guiliani, Google’s bid for 700MHz spectrum.
Guests: Conservative Activist Tim Eyman, Tech Corespondent Walker Lindley, President of the Washington State Stonewall Democrats, Anita
Latch. Video interview with Tim Eyman

11/17/07 – (Due to technical difficulties this recording is missing the first portion of the show.) Chiquita Banana, more Pakistan, Georgia
Guests: Washington Representative Dennis Flannigan, Student Activist and Trail Newspaper writer – Walid Zafar, Former President of the UPS Young Democrats, and member of the UPS Political Science Association Steven Sparks. Interview with Dennis Flannigan.

11/10/07 – Overturn of Bush Veto, Fighting in Sri Lanka, American Economy.
Guests: Student Activist Bart Bodrian, Liz McGourty and Cara Munson, Co-Presidents of the UPS Logger Pep Band, ASUPS President Hart Edmonson, Executive Vice President of the Tacoma Education Association, Darrick Hartman, and Maralise Hood, Executive Director of the Pierce County Center for Dispute Resolution. Interview with Maralise Hood.

11/03/07 – Mukasey’s approval, Hugo Chavez’s Amendments, Israel’s action in Gaza.
Guests: Professor of Politics and Government at the University of Puget Sound, Seth Weinberger, Sam Armocido, Rian Johnson from P.I.S.S.A.R., Leana Schwatz and Shannon Wright from Students for a Free Tibet, and Robert “The Traveler” Hill, recent candidate in the Tacoma City Council Primaries. Interview with Robert “The Traveler” Hill.

10/27/07 – California Fires, Russia and Iran, New UN Environment report.
Guests: Peter Braun, President of Cocktales. LGAP’s Shira Goldstein, SAC’s Eric Lanigan, Barrack Obama organizer Debby Pattin of Thurston County, and Rebecca Wolfe, State Coordinator for the Dennis Kunicich campaign. Interview with Debby Pattin. Interview with Rebecca Wolfe.

10/20/07 – Bombing in Pakistan and Pre-9/11 Wiretapping.
Guests: Walker Lindley – Treasurer of UPS Young Democrats and Marilyn
Strickland, candidate for Tacoma City Council Position 8. Interview with
Marilyn Strickland.

10/13/07 – The Cleveland School Shooting, Armenia Resolution, ENDA and Gore’s Peace Prize Win.
Guests: Carolyn Ham – Treasurer of VOX, Maddy Ryen -UPS student of History and Activist. Walker Lindley and Walid Zafar.  Interview with Ellly Claus-McGahan – candidate for the Tacoma School Board. Interview with Elly Claus-McGahan

10/06/07 – S-CHIP, Attacks on AU Peace keepers, Korean Nuke talks.
Guests: Professor Nick Kontogeorgopoulos, Torey Holderith, UPS Political Science Association President and Yusif Word, President of UPS Black Student Union. Interview with Professor Kontogeorgopoulos on Burma

09/29/07 – Myanmar Protests, Ahmadinejad visits America.
Guests: Former Director of Centro Latino Dr. Julio Quan & Professor of Comparative Sociology Monica Dehart. Interview with Quan and Dehart Walid Zafar, UPS Young Dems President Phil Munsterman, with Rio Connelly.

09/22/07 – Jena 6, U of Florida Taser incident.
Guests: UPS Young Dems Treasurer Walker Lindley and Darrick Hartman, Vice President of the Tacoma Education Association.

You know, the more I visit the Tacoma School Board, the more I realize how ceremonial it really is. From the perspective of an outsider it’s nearly impossible to determine what indeed is actually going on – video camera or not (the School Board’s website isn’t exactly the most transparent service either.) Nevertheless, this is more or less what I was able to gather from Thursday’s meeting.

Imagine that the economy is in shambles and everyone agrees it’s going to get worse. The lines dividing Wall Street and Main Street are rapidly beginning to blur (artificially or otherwise.) Unemployment nationwide is steadily rising and we in the Pacific Northwest can hardly expect to be immune. In fact, historically national economic downturns have hit this region harder than most do to our inability to diversify our industries. During the most recent recession that followed (and preceded) September 11, 2001 – Oregon led the country with an unemployment rate of over 10% with Washington a close second. As of August unemployment statewide had only climbed to 6%, placing us still below the national average, though current trends suggest that we will breach the 7% marker by the end of the month.

Now imagine you’re on the Tacoma School Board, and you’ve just been informed by Governor/Candidate Gregoire that some cuts to public education are almost inevitable at the state level – leaving local governments with the unenviable task of asking the cash-strapped voters to makeup the difference via bonds and levies to renovate a few middle schools and a couple of high school football stadiums and soccer fields. The District’s analysts project the final bill at being somewhere around $300 million. Since Washington is one of only a few states that doesn’t have an income tax, the burden of paying for this particular upgrade will fall to middle-class homeowners who remain frightened by the economy and upset about a recent auditing scandal that found – among other things – some school board members in other districts of the state indulging on $52 a plate dinners using tax-payer money.

That’s exactly what the Tacoma School Board considered on Thursday, whether or not to raise the total tax rate on assessed property from $4.77/per $1000 to $4.80/per $1000. Or, in other words, while last year the average homeowner in Tacoma paid $1,173.42 in property taxes – should this bond measure pass – they’ll be paying $1,197.21: a difference of $23.79.

Does this plan make sense? Probably yes.

As Superintendent Jarvis pointed out, during times of economic decline Government often becomes the chief provider of jobs. With unemployment on the rise and the construction industry going into a slow decline, the School Board has a golden opportunity to put its tax dollars to work by reinvesting them back into the community from which they were gleaned. Simultaneously, as School Board president Jim Dugan pointed out, the decreasing demand for construction jobs in Pierce County will result in lower bids from willing contractors.

Now the only challenge will be pitching this idea to the voters. And because what the School Board is proposing is a capital bond, it is still bound by the supermajority requirements that 4204 broke on levies last election cycle.  That means 60% of the electorate or more must vote the measure up.

Related interview with President of the Tacoma Education Association Darrick Hartman:

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