This week’s Newsmaker Interview is with Gerald Baron, the Executive Director of Save Family Farming, who discusses a recent Washington State Supreme Court ruling which could result in many farms across our state being forced to shut down.  In November, the all-Democrat Supreme Court ruled that a 60-year-old state law, which exempted farmworkers from overtime pay, was unconstitutional.  That means the resulting higher labor costs will make farming in Washington State even more expensive in the future. Adding insult to injury, class-action lawsuits by workers seeking 3-years of back overtime pay, which was not required by law at the time, could put many small farms out of business.  Baron discusses the lawsuit, its devastating impact on law-abiding small farmers, and efforts to protect the farms and jobs in the legislature (while Seattle Democrats try to make the situation even worse). (Click to read the full Newsmaker Interview)

Make your second-round selections in Shift’s “Madness in Olympia” Tournament.  After thousands of Shift readers participated in the first round, the top eight bad ideas the Democrats have proposed in Olympia this year have been whittled down to the final four disasters-in-the-making.  Make your selection for the top two whacky liberal measures you want to see in next week’s championship round.  In the “More Taxes” bracket, you can select between “State Income Tax on Capital Gains” and “Low Carbon Fuel Standard.”  In the “Less Public Safety” bracket, your choice is between “Eliminating Police Resources” and “Retroactively Release Prisoners.” Make your selections today (and share with your friends) to help us crown the “Worst Idea of 2021” Champion.  (Shift’s Madness in Olympia Tournament)

Finally, Governor Jay Inslee is using his “emergency powers” to force schools to provide all students with at least 30% of their instruction time in-person and on-campus.  The governor has been reluctant to make this rational move in fear of upsetting his major campaign contributors at the Washington Education Association, who have been attempting to leverage the COVID-19 pandemic to bolster their union bank accounts.  Republicans demanded this move several weeks ago and have been requesting a different approach to our public schools for months. The governor’s office said an order will be issued next week which requires schools to offer in-person instruction to K-6 students by April 5, and all students by April 19^th.   (Seattle Times and Washington State Republican Senate Caucus)

GOP lawmakers are pleased that Governor Inslee has followed the Republicans’ previous call to reopen the state’s economy to Phase 3, which will finally allow many businesses to expand their indoor capacity to 50%.  Senator John Braun (R – Centralia) stated he was pleased for the many small business employers and workers who have suffered greatly during this past year of Governor Inslee’s seemingly arbitrary restrictions. “My reaction must pale in comparison to the reaction that families across the state are having. People have gone through tremendous hardships. Maybe this will give them hope for the future.”  Senator Ann Rivers (R – La Center) was hopeful that this will assist many Washington residents “to come back from the brink of ruin.”  Yet Senator Rivers was upset that the governor still refuses to work with elected members of the legislature and local health officials.  “I do wish he had worked with us more directly since collaboration is how we are going to recover fully.” (Senate Republican Caucus)

Democrats sure choose some interesting things to get excited about, as State House Finance Committee Chair Noel Frame (D – Seattle) said she was “happy to grab the baton” in the Democrat’s greedy desire to pass an unconstitutional and unnecessary state income tax on capital gains.  After the Senate passed the state income tax measure (SB 5096) by a 25-24 vote last weekend, attention now moves to the much loonier House, where there is an even a stronger yearning to increase the size and power of state government – and financing by tapping a new state income tax.

Despite state revenues rising 7% in the next two years (and with next week’s revenue forecast expected to show much more revenue growth in the next budget) and an additional $4.2 billion-dollar blank check from the federal bailout bill, there is absolutely no need to impose more taxes on Washington State residents.  And while the Democrats insist that their reason for the tax hike is to bring more “fairness” to the state’s tax structure, they have not proposed eliminating any taxes out of “fairness”.  If you would like to provide your opinion to Finance Committee members before next Monday’s hearing, you can do so by clicking on this link. Here is a helpful source to provide you with background on the illegal state income tax on capital gains legislation.  (Cornfield Report/Everett Herald, Washington Legislature Bill Summary, SB 5096 Comment Form, and Washington Policy Center)

Washington State Supreme Court ruled that convicted murders who are 18-to-20 years old should not automatically be given the same sentence as those who are 21 years old.  In the latest piece of confusing logic from the far-Left court, its 5-4 ruling banned automatic life sentences for those under 21 who have committed first degree murder. They may still be sentenced to life in prison, but the judge must consider whether their youth weighs in favor of a lesser punishment. (Seattle Times)

Violent liberal protests continue, as activists set fire to the federal courthouse in Portland and Democrat politicians again fail to condemn the violence committed by their supporters.  Repeating their attempted mass murder in Seattle last summer (when they attempted to set fire to the East Precinct and to seal the exit doors officers would need to escape), suspected Antifa thugs in Portland set fire to the courthouse while many people were still inside.

Meanwhile, the same Democrat politicians who rushed to microphones and profited from sending out repeated fundraising letters after extremist Trump supporters committed violent acts on January 6^th, have remained quiet as their fellow liberals attempted to kill innocent public employees.  For Governor Inslee, we suspect his handlers feel it is best for him to remain silent, rather than to have him speak and say he thought “Antifa is a person” or that he was completely unaware that liberal activists violently took over a Seattle police precinct and six blocks of the state’s largest city.  And again, the state’s media enables this dangerous silence by Democrats when they refuse to question liberal politicians for refusing to condemn the violence. (Andrew Ngo Twitter, C-Span, Rebecca Perry Twitter, and Shift)

The King County Council, in passing hazard pay requirements for a selected number of grocery store workers, has joined the Seattle City Council in enabling Amazon founder Jeff Bezos to make even more money, and provide more profits for grocery stores who are just outside unincorporated King County borders.  As the latest liberal government entity to believe it has the expertise and right to set the wages for private businesses, the Democrat-controlled council imposed a $4 an hour wage increase on selected grocery stores in unincorporated King County, though few of them are actually represented by the council members supporting this silliness.  As we have seen in Seattle, this has increased grocery costs in stores (impacting low-income families the most).  This has been a significant benefit to Amazon Fresh in Seattle, which delivers groceries, but is not subject to the wage hike.  Grocery stores which are in unincorporated King County will likely lose business to stores across the line within city borders, as they can provide groceries at a cheaper cost. (MyNorthwest)

King County Councilmember Reagan Dunn has sponsored an ordinance which will help to prevent “Zoom-bombers” and other invasions of privacy which occur during 12-step recovery meetings. The measure, which would allow hackers to be sued in civil court, was passed unanimously by the full council.  With Governor Inslee closing down in-person recovery meetings for the past year, online meetings have been the only avenue for support which many addicts have been allowed to access.  Those who “bomb” the meetings with pornographic images and racist language have been an on-going problem. (Seattle Times)

Agriculture workers can receive their COVID-19 vaccination shots five days sooner than originally scheduled, because Jay Inslee woke up and saw his shadow (or something like that).  Those involved in food production can obtain their vaccine starting on March 17^th.  Several agriculture organizations, including the Washington State Tree Fruit Association, are working with health officials to help with distribution. (Yakima Herald/Walla Walla Union Bulletin)

Washington State University reported that its athletic department has a $31.7 million operating deficit for the current fiscal year. This is mostly due to the reduced PAC-12 football schedule, which negatively impacted the conference’s television revenue. (Spokesman Review)

A jump in coronavirus cases in Pullman indicates that it is tough to stop college students from partying within 6-feet of each other.  Once again, COVID cases have spiked at Washington State University, with 171 cases reported last week.  Last fall, COVID infection rates skyrocketed when only some students returned to campus, which gave Pullman the distinction of being the U.S. “city” with the most per capita cases for a few days.  There have been a total of 2,129 COVID cases thus far among the WSU students. (KQQQ Radio)

Despite repeated pleas from local officials, small business workers, Republican lawmakers, and newspaper editorialists, Governor Jay Inslee has refused to admit that we live in a democracy and has continued to keep his dictatorial control over Washington residents.   The governor’s partisan and elitist methods (which often seem to benefit his political friends and hurt his opponents), have caused many to question his actions and led some to resist obeying his edicts. Remember when the state needed to run ads which featured retired General James Mattis to encourage compliance with the governor’s mask order, because so many across the state had lost faith in the Inslee’s random directives?  The governor’s ongoing disrespect for local health officials was nearly disastrous a few weeks ago, when state officials used faulty data that nearly kept six Central Washington counties stuck in Phase 1.  (Click to read full Shift article, YouTube, Yakima Herald, and KEPR-TV)

BabylonBee Friday

Do you like The Daily Briefing?

Please consider making a contribution to ensure Shift continues to provide daily updates on the shenanigans of the liberal establishment.

Forward this to a friend.  It helps us grow our community and serve you better.

You can also follow SHIFTWA on social media by liking us on Facebook and following us on Twitter.

If you feel we missed something that should be covered, email us at [email protected].