Governor Jay Inslee embarrassingly claims the reason for his continued use of undemocratic “emergency powers” (for nearly 600 days!) is because “only I can save lives,” yet the reality is that he truly enjoys making partisan political decisions which benefit his major campaign contributors.  Governor Inslee’s latest political handout is to his buddies in the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), who the governor says he won’t terminate even if they are not vaccinated after next Monday’s deadline, as he has promised he will do to other unvaccinated state workers.  Even though many SIEU members’ job is to provide home health care to those (think the elderly and those with serious medical conditions) who are most susceptible to the effects of COVID, Governor Inslee thinks those workers should be spared from losing their job, while state forest workers who spend their days out in the woods will be fired for ignoring his orders.  It is amazing how the millions of dollars in campaign contributions which the SEIU pours into Democrat candidates’ campaigns helps clear up the “science” Governor Inslee claims dictates his actions. (Click to read full Shift Article)

The Washington State Ferry system is temporarily back to a near-normal schedule after the state had to cancel hundreds of scheduled sailings since last Thursday and through the weekend due to a lack of qualified ferry workers.  The state’s ferry system seemingly did experience a severe computer outage as well, with its website, cameras, and mobile app down until late Monday morning.  Possibly compounding the crisis is that Washington State Department of Transportation officials have yet to determine what impact Governor Inslee’s vaccine mandate will have on their ability to maintain ferry service starting next Monday, when state workers who are not immunized are scheduled to be fired by the governor. No word on whether Inslee will ask them to walk the plank, or just throw them overboard, for not following his orders. (Seattle P-I/MSN)

Some good news – a Thurston County Superior Court Judge struck down Democrat Washington State Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler’s attempt to raise insurance rates on millions of Washington residents. The 78-year-old liberal career politician has long sought to remove consumer’s credit ratings as a method to receive a discount on insurance rates, because he doesn’t understand the concept of profit and loss. During the 2021 legislative session, Commissioner Kreidler’s proposed bill to accomplish this feat died in committee, because even liberal legislators thought it was a bad idea. So Kreidler decided to copy what his buddy Governor Inslee has been doing since the start of the pandemic, and just use the pandemic as an excuse to impose his partisan actions through use of “emergency orders”.  Last Friday, Judge Mary Sue Wilson struck down Kriedler’s orders, saying the insurance commissioner failed to establish that there was an actual emergency and that he even failed to inform legislators there was an emergency when he proposed his bill.  It is not known yet if Kreidler will appeal the judge’s ruling. (KIRO TV and Senator Mullet Seattle Times Op-Ed)

Toll revenue on both Highway 167 and I-405 are approximately 50% of what they were pre-pandemic, and the state is scrambling to find “creative ways” to recoup the lost revenue. Governor Inslee’s minions at the Washington State Department of Transportation will likely included its proposals as part of the much-anticipated transportation package lawmakers will debate during the 2022 legislative session.  Among the proposals are increasing toll fees, moving up new toll roads on its construction schedule, seeking more federal assistance, and even borrowing money from the constitutionally protected Motor Vehicle Fund (gas tax and car tab fees). (Washington Policy Studies)

City of Seattle officials claim they will start citing vehicles which have been unmoved for 72 hours, starting this Friday.  Throughout Seattle, homeless encampment in city parks are nearly always accompanied by a number of people living in their vehicles, some of which are large RVs. The city states its primary targets will be abandoned vehicles with no one coming back to them, which officials say, “poses a specific risk to public health.” Homeless advocacy groups are already condemning the policy, arguing that homeless individuals will now face impoundment fees, despite the city saying vehicles which are abandoned are the targets of the policy which was not enforced during the pandemic. (KOMO News)

In a rare occurrence by a government entity, because the City of SeaTac has consistently sought ways to reduce the cost of providing government services, the city just announced residents will soon be PAYING LESS to recycle their waste.  A few members of the SeaTac City Council have routinely explored ways to keep fees and taxes low for the city’s residents.  The city was informed in 2018 that it would receive less from selling its recycled goods due to the amount of contaminants it contained (48% of residents had contaminated materials).  This forced the city to charge residents more for recycling.  The city council decided to explore ways to reduce the impurities so its recycled goods could fetch a high price.  The council decided to eliminate plastics from its list of recyclable materials and developed a contamination enforcement fee system for multi-family and commercial customers. These moves resulted in only 9% of residents currently having tainted recycled goods.  The lower rates will begin in November. (City of SeaTac Blog and Shift’s Newsmaker Interview)

Bruce Harrell becomes the latest liberal politician to ignore a mask mandate, all for the sake of a good photo op for his Seattle mayoral campaign.  Former City Council President Harrell is receiving criticism for a large fundraising event held last Friday, where Harrell was pictured posing with supporters while not wearing the mandatory mask.  This follows Democrat Governor Inslee (who arbitrarily imposed the mask mandate) being  pictured not wearing a mask while posing with former Democrat governors Gary Locke and Christine Gregoire in September. (Seattle Times and Governor Inslee Twitter)

Spokane City Councilmember Kate Burke apparently has not learned what occurred in Seattle when elected city officials made inaccurate and blanket derogatory comments about those protecting the public safety. The self-described “Democrat Socialist” said during last week’s council meeting that “Our nation created police departments to harass and jail black and indigenous people of color and protect private property, which only supported white property owners” and that the police department has a “Racist structure.”  Evidently the councilmember is not aware of the skyrocketing crime rate (especially in neighborhoods with a high density of minorities) and slow emergency response times due to 300 well-trained officers leaving Seattle’s police department after similar ignorant statements were made by Seattle City Councilmembers. Thankfully for Spokane residents, Councilmember Burke and her wildly inaccurate statements will only plague the city council for the few remaining months of her sole term. (Facebook Post of Spokane City Council virtual meeting and Seattle Neighborhood Crime Rates)

Tree fruit growers appear to be more fortunate than their wheat farming colleagues, in that some of their crops actually thrived during the record-setting heat wave this past summer.  While the pear and Honeycrisp apple crops were down, Golden Delicious crops were up considerably.  Overall the tree fruit harvest appears to be up slightly from last year, despite a severe shortage of workers which cost the loss of much of the Honeycrisp apple crop, as they rotted quickly in the hot, dry conditions.  (Wenatchee World)

last Friday’s Newsmaker Interview was with second-term State Senator Brad Hawkins (R – East Wenatchee), the leading Republican on the Senate’s Early Learning & K-12 Education Committee.  In the debate over state Democrats attempting to force school districts across Washington to teach the very controversial Critical Race Theory to our children, Senator Hawkins is expressing concern that “our communities are gradually losing their ability to guide the decisions of the school boards they elect.”  Senator Hawkins has also become a leading advocate for the development of clean hydrogen power, which could provide a significant economic boost to Central Washington. In his interview, Senator Hawkins shares his views on these topics, and his thoughts about the lawsuit to stop the Democrats’ state income tax on capital gains, the governor’s never-ending use of emergency powers, and his recent survey of Central Washington constituents regarding Governor Inslee’s vaccine and face mask mandates. (Click to read full Newsmaker Interview)

King County Democrats fully understand they would lose any election based on the issues and the liberals’ failed policies on homelessness, crime, and climate change, leaving them to resort to their usual bag of dirty tricks in an attempt to ruin the outstanding reputation of a hard-working, knowledgeable, and kind-hearted public servant, King County Councilmember Kathy Lambert.  Sadly, the Seattle Times ignores any critical observations of the Democrats’ disgusting talking points, and prints exactly what the Democrats want them to print.  On the other hand,  the newspaper still refuses to mention a national news story regarding an unprecedented 18 current and former staff members of Democrat Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal stepping forward to criticize the progressive politician for creating a “hostile workplace” and berating her staff in public.  Maybe the Times should check the mirror, for its liberal bias is definitely showing.  (Click to read full Shift Article)

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