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)

Suzi LeVine, the poster child for unaccountability, ineptness, and political patronage within the Inslee Administration, said she “loved every minute” of her disastrous tenure as the Commissioner of the Employment Security Department (ESD).  In her January 21^st resignation letter to Governor Jay Inslee, which was obtained through a public records request since it’s not the type of thing you’d want to see published, LeVine fails to mention, or take any responsibility for the multitude of problems which occurred during her “leadership” of the ESD.  Evidently, LeVine “loved every minute” of being responsible for one of the largest thefts in American history, after she removed security procedures which were creating too much work for her staff, which then allowed foreign criminals to steal $600 million. She “loved every minute” of forcing nearly 100,000 Washington State residents (who lost wages due to Inslee’s one-man “emergency” rule of the state) to wait months for their benefits.  LeVine also “loved every minute” of being publicly admonished by Washington State Auditor Pat McCarthy (a fellow Democrat) essentially for obstruction of justice for imposing “significant constraints” on the investigation into the many problems that occurred during her tenure at ESD.  While Oregon’s governor fired her Employment Department director over far less grievous actions, LeVine kept her job and received a “promotion” to the federal government” for one primary reason – she raises money for Democrat politicians.

In her latest act of arrogance, LeVine equates her new position in the U.S.  Department of Labor with the actual heroes in the military, law enforcement and fire departments.  LeVine states that she is now “an economic first-responder for our country.” Yet LeVine’s past job performance indicates that if she were an actual “first-responder” at the scene of a fire, LeVine would hold open the doors for criminals to steal the fire victim’s possessions, while informing all those trapped inside that they cannot be helped until all of the criminals are first removed from the building, and then impede the investigation into why so many people lost so much because of her actions. (Puget Sound Business Journal, Seattle Times, and OregonLive)

The Washington Alliance 4 Kids has begun an online petition to encourage Governor Inslee to adhere to the latest scientific research that indicates three feet of separation is all that is needed for children to safely attend school.  The parent organization states, “The 6-foot rule is not rooted in science or empirical data and should be reduced to 3 feet. 3 feet of distancing is also recommended by the World Health Organization and thousands of pediatricians, researchers, scientists, and public health policy experts across the country and the world.”  To learn more about the data and to sign the petition, please click this link. The Washington Alliance 4 Kids was one of the leading parent groups whose activism led to the proposed reopening of all Washington State schools, overruling the unscientific demands of teachers’ unions.  The organization has also stated that it will also be working towards returning schools to five days of in-person instruction as soon as practicable. (Washington Alliance 4 Kids petition and World Health Organization guidelines for schools,  WA Alliance 4 Kids, and Shift)

The Pierce County Prosecutor says that proposed legislation to release violent criminals and sex offenders early is “bad policy” and is “a gamble with public safety.”  In a News Tribune op-ed, Prosecutor Mary Robnett provides her argument against the bill (HB 1282), which she believes would lead to “wholesale release of our most serious violent criminal and sex offenders into our community.” The bill is sponsored by many Puget Sound area Democrats, and would retroactively increase the amount of time convicted criminals could receive off due to good behavior, so that they could be released and much closer to voting for those who freed them. (News Tribune and Washington Legislature Bill Summary)

When the Seattle City Councilmembers bowed to liberal activists who led the violent riots last summer, they slashed police funding and diverted some it to a $3 million study on how Black organizations can determine how the funds formerly allocated to law enforcement can in the future be spent by community organizations.  While violent crime and property theft have skyrocketed since the council cut the Seattle Police Department’s budget, the Washington State Auditor has already begun investigating the questionable practices used to award this boondoggle, and many individuals and groups have become upset with the way in which the study was conducted.  With a huge financial windfall coming from the taxpayers of Seattle, courtesy of city council members afraid of protests, it was predictable that many feelings would be hurt and accusations would fly as community groups scrambled for their piece of the taxpayer-funded pie.  And the city council’s shortcuts to haphazardly implement its community policing programs have also led to predictable questionable financial activities.  Thus far the city council’s willingness to appease the violent rioters has led to nearly 200 police officers leaving the department, skyrocketing crime, one of the largest exodus of residents in Seattle’s history, hundreds of downtown retail businesses have closed, and serious divides have been created within the Black Community.  Other than that, it has worked perfectly.  Almost like the “Summer of Love” Mayor Jenny Durkan proclaimed it to be. (Seattle City Council Insight and Seattle Times/Danny Westneat)

Eight individuals participating in Grays Harbor County’s rehabilitation programs as the result of drug possession charges have been released from the program due to a recent Washington State Supreme Court ruling.  When the court ruled last month that many drug possession laws were unconstitutional, it had negative repercussions impacting those who were in the county’s drug treatment, work training, and education programs.  With the charges dropped due to the court’s ruling, the eight individuals were no longer eligible for the county’s program, despite some being close to obtaining their GED and others just starting their drug-addiction treatment. (Daily World)

In a strange analysis of the facts, the (Tacoma) News Tribune’s editorial board concluded that it is a myth “that everything coming out of Olympia has an urban, westside bias.”  What is the paper’s logic for this statement?  It is because the wine industry has been successful in pushing legislation (HB 1289) that will allow 18–21-year-old workers to be employed in the harvesting of grapes that are mostly grown in Eastern Washington, while breweries and distilleries, which are dominant in Western Washington, have not been successful in promoting the same type of legislation (HB 1483) for its potential younger workers.  Evidently, the News Tribune believes all the Seattle-centric tax, environmental, and criminal justice legislation being passed by the Democrat-controlled legislature is balanced by the fact the wine industry has a better lobbyist than the brewers. (News Tribune and Washington Legislature Bill Summary)

A retired journeyman carpenter provides his thoughts on the environmentalists seeking to tear down the four lower Snake River Dams, in a Lewiston Tribune op-ed.  Marvin Dugger states, “Their goal is to tear out the dams; salmon are just a tool they are using to achieve their goal of a free-flowing river.”  Dugger argues that other factors (sea lions, ocean conditions, and migratory birds) have more impact on the demise of salmon than the dams. He also argues that if environmentalists are successful in breeching the Snake River dams, they will then go after those on the Columbia River as well. (Lewiston Tribune)

Last Friday’s Newsmaker Interview was 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)

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