The failure of the Inslee Administration to comply with court orders over providing treatment for mentally ill criminal suspects could cost state taxpayers $300 million in fines.  This is the latest of several serious mismanagement problems which the Washington State Department of Social and Human Services has had with providing treatment to those suffering from mental illness during Governor Inslee’s decade in office.  The current problem centers around Western State Hospital as it has with many of the state’s previous problems (including federal government decertification and forfeiture of $53 million in federal money due to state management failures, administration not doing enough to protect staff from physical assaults by patients, and the repetitive failure to adhere to state COVID safety procedures leading to several virus breakouts among patients and staff).

Currently the state cannot handle more patients at Western Hospital, thus criminal suspects must spend long periods of time sitting in local jails not receiving treatment required for them to be competent to stand trial. These delays go against a seven-year-old court order made in the Trueblood court case.  In that case the federal court ruled that the Inslee Administration was “violating the constitutional rights of some of its most vulnerable citizens” by not providing them with treatment.

So while Governor Inslee has more than doubled the cost of state government during his time as governor, his focus has been on hiring more state workers (who pay dues to state employee unions who in turn financially support Democrat campaigns) and not on improving the mandatory services the state is supposed to provide.  Thus we can expect to see the governor soon call for the state to raise taxes to fix this problem which the governor could have solved years ago if his administration had properly administered state resources. (KING5 News, Seattle Times, and Washington State Spending by year)

Texts obtained by the media through a public records request reveal that Democrat Representative Sharon Shewmake was behind the scheme last year of the Democrats controlling the Whatcom County Council to ignore the preference of the county Republican organization and instead pick Simon Sefzik to replace the late state Senator Doug Ericksen. Yet this strategy by Rep. Shewmake to handpick her 2022 opponent may backfire on the Democrat politician because the young now-Senator Sefzik has proven to be a hardworking and intelligent legislator who is currently mounting a very strong campaign.

The Cascadia Daily News obtained texts from Representative Shewmake, who had already announced she was running against Senator Ericksen before he suddenly died last December, to Democrat county councilmembers revealing how she supported Sefzik to be appointed to the senate seat (and be her 2022 opponent) over the GOP’s preferred choice of Whatcom County Councilmember Ben Elenbaas. Clearly Representative Shewmake and her fellow Democrats on the county council underestimated the 22-year-old Sefzik, as current polls have him slightly ahead in the 42^nd Legislative District contest. (Cascadia Daily News and Shift Newsmaker Interview)

Seattle City Councilmember Dan Strauss is the latest liberal politician seeking to hide from public scrutiny and bar the media from a public event.  At a public meeting focused on crime in the Greenwood (North Seattle) neighborhood, the councilmember attempted to force the host of the event (the Taproot Theatre) to kick out any individual who recorded the event. The meeting took place after a security guard for a nearby apartment complex was shot in the face by a drug dealer and the public has become increasingly concerned about the rise in crime and open-air drug markets in the neighborhood’s retail center.  A panel of Councilmember Strauss, State Representative Noel Frame, Police Officer Mike Cruzan, and Josh Castle from the Low-Income Housing Institute (which runs “tiny house villages” for former homeless individuals) was brought together to discuss various problems associated with the city’s skyrocketing crime rates and the city’s homeless policies.

Just as the panel began its presentation, Councilmember Strauss turned to the Taproot Theatre’s director asking her to have a person removed who was recording the event. Evidently Councilmember Strauss felt he could not be “candid” with the packed house of 230 local residents if the media was present. After some quick conversations, the Taproot staff decided not to adhere to the councilmember’s anti-transparency demand and allowed the media members to stay.  Makes us wonder, what exactly could Councilmember Strauss say if the media was not present? (KUOW/NPR and KIRO7 News)

The Seattle Southside Chamber of Commerce Is holding an online public forum this evening to discuss the impact of skyrocketing crime rates in Southwest King County communities and the impact the crime wave is having on local employers.  The communities of SeaTac, Burien, Des Moines, Normandy Park, and Tukwila have been some of the hardest hit by the irresponsible anti-police and drug decriminalization policies passed by the Democrats in the Washington State Legislature. Burien Acting Police Chief Todd Morrell, who will be one of the forum’s panelists, says he understands the frustrations of business owners and how liberal restrictions on police officers make it nearly a waste of time to report a crime. The 7:00 PM ZOOM forum is open and free to the public. To register, please click on this link. (Q13 Fox News and the Seattle Southside Chamber of Commerce)

The highly regarded Lynden Dutch Bakery posted on Facebook a picture of its white board which clearly revealed the inflationary impact Democrat economic policies at the national level and the energy and tax policies at the state level have had on the price of its ingredients, and thus on the consumer price of its bakery goods.  The board showed that the bakery was currently paying more than double what it paid in January 2021 for eggs, flour, all-purpose shortening, and donut fry shortening.  The small business also experienced 50% to 75% price increases in the past 18 months for sugar, yeast, cake flour, salt, and rainbow sprinkles.  The post acknowledged that the price of their products was also impacted by rising labor costs and delivery fuel surcharges.

A temporary suspension of the state’s 49.4 cents a gallon gas tax, as Republican’s proposed and Governor Inslee and Democrat leaders opposed, would have helped the bakery (and its customers).  Instead Washington citizens will see transportation costs rise even further next year as Governor Inslee’s Cap and Trade policies are expected to increase the cost of gas another 46 cents a gallon.  The owners of the Lynden Dutch Bakery will need to keep changing the white board and increasing the price of its goods, all due to the irresponsible actions taken by Democrat politicians. (Lynden Dutch Bakery Facebook post, Shift Newsmaker Interview Senator Simon Sefzik, and Washington Research Council)

The Benton County Democrat Chair suddenly resigned after receiving an “unnecessarily harsh” phone call from Washington State Democrat Chair Tina Podlodowski.  Richard Reuther sent an email to his fellow Tri-City area Democrats saying he was immediately stepping down as the Interim Chair of the county party organization after Chair Podlodowski chastised him about his decision to endorse a moderate Republican candidate for Benton County Prosecutor who is running against another GOP candidate in next month’s general election.  Reuther said Podlodowski was “rude, belittling and dismissive,” and he stated that there is “cluelessness at the state level” about how to organize volunteers at the local level.

Current Benton County Prosecutor Andy Miller announced earlier this year he was stepping down from the office after 36 years.  Miller holds the distinction of being one of the very few Democrats to have a long career in an elective office in Eastern Washington. Similar to former Chair Reuther, Prosecutor Miller also endorsed the moderate Republican candidate Ryan Lukson over the more conservative Republican candidate Eric Eisinger. No word on whether Chair Podlodowski made an “unnecessarily harsh” phone call to Prosecutor Miller as well.

Chair Podlodowski is familiar with making controversial decisions regarding endorsements for prosecuting attorneys.  After former Democrat Governors Christine Gregoire and Gary Locke endorsed moderate Ann Davison for Seattle City Attorney in September 2021, Chair Podlodowski blasted out a tweet chastising Democrats who supported Davison and demanding her fellow Democrats to “stand for your values” in that election.  Evidently to Chair Podlodowski it was radical city attorney candidate Nicole Thomas-Kennedy, who posted hundreds of radical tweets including one telling police to “eat covid laced shit & quit your job” and another calling police officers “murderous tools,” who better represented her party’s values. (Tri-City Herald, YakTriNews, Seattle P-I, Chair Podlodowski Twitter,  Shift, and NTK4Crime website)

Spokane Valley’s elected officials are expected to decline an automatic 1% increase in property taxes for the 14^th year in a row.  The responsible city leaders  of the state’s eighth largest city (population 105,000) plan to vote next week to forego the automatic 1% property tax increase that nearly all other local governments take. Current officials say they will continue to manage their financial resources wisely in order to help lower and middle-income households make it through difficult inflationary times. (Spokesman-Review)

Shift’s Newsmaker Interview was with Republican State Senate candidate Janelle Cass, who is running against controversial career politician Senator Marko Liias in the 21^st Legislative District (Southwest Snohomish County). The Democrat incumbent made news during the 2022 legislative session when he was forced to apologize on the senate floor for insulting Oregon Governor (and fellow partisan Democrat) Kate Brown. This was after he nearly caused a retaliatory tax war with Washington’s neighboring states over his proposed “export tax” on fuel refined in Washington State but sold in other states.

Cass is an Air Force veteran (a graduate of the Air Force Academy), small business owner, and the mother of two college-aged children.  In her interview, Cass described her opponent as “a firehouse of bad legislation” and was frustrated by the “trade war” with our neighbors Senator Liias almost caused by his actions. She drew another contrast with Senator Liias by stating she supports the coalition of Snohomish County local officials who are seeking to repeal the Democrats’ anti-police legislation which Liias supported. She stated her opposition to her opponent’s plan to take zoning out of the hands of local citizens and give it to state bureaucrats in Olympia, as well as her frustration with our state’s public schools for passing students to the next grade despite failing subjects. Finally, she listed her favorite book as a classic science fiction comedy which millions of people have enjoyed.(Click to read full Newsmaker Interview)

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