Governor Jay Inslee and his liberal special interest buddies have their heads in the sand over the economic realities facing our state and employers.  The governor needed a study financed in part by government employee unions to misleadingly demonstrate that Washington State is a good place to work. Obviously, the study did not talk with private sector employers who are forced to pay the ever-increasing taxes or who are struggling to keep their businesses open while adhering to the ever-changing state emergency restrictions.  Yes, Washington State is a great place to be a government employee (where you receive a pay raise while the state is in a historic economic crisis), but this is not true for the rest of the state’s workers. This is yet another example of our governor only listening to those who benefit from increasing the size, cost, and power of state government, while ignoring the needs of private-sector workers. (Shift)

Last Friday’s Newsmaker Interview was with Jeff Wilson, one of the Republicans’ leading hopes to gain a seat in the State Senate.  Southwest Washington’s 19^th Legislative District’s Senate contest, which features current Port of Longview Commissioner Jeff Wilson taking on incumbent Democrat Senator Dean Takko, is one of the hottest races in the state.  We spoke with Commissioner Wilson about the race and his views on the issues that are important to the district.  Wilson shared his thoughts on the controversial sex education bill, the failure of Governor Inslee and the Democrats to call a special session to address our budget crisis , and the “lawlessness” and attacks on police officers which the Democrats have refused to condemn. (Shift)

Governor Inslee stumble his way through a national interview over the weekend.  Among the confusing and nonsensical statements Inslee made on “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” are these gems:

• “I’ll tell you why 80% of the homes were burned down in Southeastern Washington… the only moisture in Eastern Washington was the tears of people.”
• “We have a great candidate in Joe Biden who understands that we can put people to work. The wind turbins there are generating clean electricity and putting people in good union jobs. That’s the future we need. But we need to have action.”
• “We have this cosmic challenge to our communities.”

During the very short interview, the governor side-stepped his administration’s failure to manage to state’s forests.  During his first term as governor, Inslee admitted that the state needed to manage more of the state’s lands to reduce the spread of fires.  Yet, because of the poor performance of his administration at improving the health of Washington’s forests, the governor’s office took down the data from its website which showed the state was failing to meet the Inslee-inspired goals. (This Week with George Stephanopoulos and Washington Policy Center)

Over six months into the coronavirus pandemic, and Governor Inslee’s dysfunctional Employment Security Department (ESD) is still incapable of processing benefit applications in a timely or accurate manner.  Many applicants receive messages from ESD stating there are troubles with their information, but they are not notified what the problems are or what is needed to correct them.  These on-going errors are frustrating for thousands of Washington citizens, who require the benefits to feed their families and pay bills. (Everett Herald)

Over the weekend, columnist Danny Westneat provided his thoughts on the current situation of how the state is handling the coronavirus pandemic.  He wrote about the “troubling phase we find ourselves in with the coronavirus crisis. Which is that it no longer feels like a crisis. We’re going along, doing whatever we’ve been doing, with no apparent sense of urgency or plan for getting out.”  While other states have brought in technological innovation to reduce the spread of the virus, Washington’s leadership appears unable to make necessary decisions. (Seattle Times)

Bellevue’s mayor states that the city will continue to attract more employers while Seattle’s far-left policies drive them away by creating an inhospitable business environment.  Following Amazon’s announcement last week that it will be adding 10,000 more employees (to the 15,000 already announced) to its Eastside locations, Bellevue Mayor Lynne Robinson said the move is a reaction to Seattle imposing its (inaccurately named) “JumpStart” tax. “We would not support putting a tax like that on our business partners. We are lucky that we have Microsoft, Facebook and T-Mobile and Amazon, they all want to be here, and their employees want to be here.” (KOMO News)

Seattle employers and small business owners are demanding input over the future of the city’s law enforcement.  While City of Seattle councilmembers have excluded nearly all contrary opinions as they  slash spending on public safety (even ignoring suggestions from the police chief and the police guild), business organizations are asking that councilmembers pledge to preserve “a safe work environment protected by duly sworn officers, emergency responders and/or crisis responders if threatened or attacked.”  More than 450 Seattle businesses and community leaders have formed a coalition and will deliver a petition to councilmembers today. (Seattle Times and Petition Signers)

A local Black Lives Matter chapter has called for an investigation into recent Seattle City Council actions, including to the resignation of Police Chief Carmen Best.  In a letter to the city’s Ethics and Elections Commission, the local chapter of BLM states its members are concerned about the transparency of city officials. The group says the resignation of Chief Best was “ a loss” and that it does “nothing to further our fight for authentic police accountability and the safety of Black lives, that the first Black woman to hold the position of Chief of Police of the Seattle Police Department has been forced out of her job by the Seattle City Council.” (MyNorthwest)

Kathryn McCarthy, the wife of Tacoma City Councilmember Conor McCarthy, wrote an insightful op-ed on the recent tactic of protestors to intimidate elected officials by showing up outside their homes. McCarthy states that recent actions by protestors have scared her young kids. She says to the activists, “your cause doesn’t give you the right to violate a person’s privacy and security” (News Tribune)

The campaign to recall Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant announced it has received $40,000 in contributions during its first three weeks.  While the Socialist councilmember accuses the recall effort of being financed by “right-wing billionaires”, the facts show that nearly all contributions come typical Seattle residents.  The group is capping contributions at $25 and records show 1,900 people have already donated.  Sawant is expected, as she has done in past campaigns,  to rely on out-of-state contributions from other whacky socialists to primarily fund her recall defense.  To learn more about the recall campaign, please visit: www.RecallSawant2020.org (Recall Sawant media release)

Commercial real estate brokers are seeing a dynamic shift of possible tenants deciding against locating their offices in Seattle.  Because of Seattle City Council’s actions to impose a new tax on employers and to defund the Seattle Police Department, a recent survey has shown a large increase in the number of employers choosing to locate their businesses on the Eastside.  CBRE states that normally 6% of tenants are looking to locate on the Eastside.  Recently that number has tripled to 17%. (Puget Sound Business Journal)

Selah’s police chief resigned his position due to on-going problems with the city administrator.  Chief Richard Hayes stated in a letter to the mayor that City Administrator Donald Wayman “micromanaged” the police force and created situations which made it difficult for officers to effectively perform their jobs.  Much of the recent problems revolved around Wayman’s dispute with Black Lives Matter members and forcing officers to act against those using chalk art to support the group. (YakTriNews)

On Monday morning, Pullman topped the New York Times list of American cities with the most per capita cases of the coronavirus.  Prior to August 20^th, Whitman County had only 138 COVID-19 cases. Yet in the past three weeks (since many Washington State University students returned to campus). 847 new cases have been confirmed – nearly all have been with college-aged individuals.  Nearly all WSU Fall classes are online, and thus the primary reason for many students to return to campus is to socially interact with other students.  (Spokesman-Review)

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