Todd Myers, Director of the Center for the Environment at the Washington Policy Center, has authored his second book, Time to Think Small (November 1 release date) examining the failures of large (and often very expensive) government climate initiatives and how collective use of technology will solve many of the environmental challenges which government cannot.  We asked Myers to give Shift readers some insight from his latest book and briefly explain how the use of technological innovation is already solving many environmental problems. Myers outlines how government banning plastic grocery bags does very little to solve issues related to plastic waste in the ocean, yet two different projects using technology are effective in removing destructive materials from our waterways. (Please click to read full guest column)

A bombshell letter from the father of the Democrat’s 10^th Legislative District House candidate Clyde Shavers accuses his son with being untruthful about many claims, including his military service, where he lives (not in the district), and the conditions behind the immigration of his mother.  Brett Shavers stated that he wrote the letter after numerous attempts to encourage his son to be truthful with his campaign statements.  He explained, “I write this (letter) only to correct the record and personally as a matter of integrity.” Copies of the three page letter can be found here, here, and here. The 10^th LD encompasses Whidbey (including the Naval Air Station Whidbey Island) and Camano Island, Northwest Snohomish County and Southwest Skagit County.

The letter states that candidate Shavers has been dishonest about being a submarine officer. His father wrote that Shavers never completed the submarine officer training course and that he must be truthful. Yet Shavers’ campaign materials continue to state that he served as a submarine officer.  The letter also claims that candidate Shavers had “disdain of enlisted service members, and his revulsion to wear the uniform.”

Brett Shavers’  letter states that candidate Shavers has no ties to Whidbey Island, that he owns a condo in Kirkland, and that he currently rents a room at a Whidbey Island Bed and Breakfast. The father asserts that the only tie his son has to the district is that they drove through it a few times when Clyde was a kid.   The letter also states that the candidate claims his fiancé lives with him on Whidbey Island, though the truth appears that she lives and works in California.

The candidate’s father also seeks to correct the impression his son attempted to convey about his mother’s immigration to the United States from Japan. While campaign materials suggest that she was an economic refugee seeking to escape poverty, the truth is she came to American as a foreign exchange student and she decided to move permanently here after she fell in love with Brett Shaver.

There are many other misstatements by his son that Brett Shavers attempts to correct.  He is a former Marine and police officer. He writes, “this is the most difficult letter I have ever had the misfortune to write.” Yet he wrote it because, “We have nothing if we have no honor. We only have the truth to guide us.”

The 10^th Legislative District has become one of the top battlegrounds in the state as the Democrats seeks to hold onto control of the Washington State Legislature.  Democrat Shavers is running against first-term Republican Representative Greg Gilday, who won the seat by 900 votes in 2020.  In the other 10^th District House contest, Republican Karen Lesetmoe is challenging Democrat incumbent Representative Dave Paul, who won by only 650 votes in 2020.  (Brett Shaver letter page one, page, two, and page three, WA Redistricting Commission map of 10^th LD, Shift Newsmaker Interviews, and Everett Herald)

After 975 days, today marks the end of Governor Jay Inslee’ unprecedented and undemocratic abuse of his emergency powers and a Republican State Senator asserts that Democrat lawmakers should join GOP lawmakers in making necessary changes to the law to ensure that future governors do not manipulate the law in a similar fashion.  During both the 2021 and 2022 legislative session, Democrat legislators refused to consider several Republican reform efforts and instead chose to enable Governor Inslee to ignore the legislative branch and local officials by unilaterally imposing laws which significantly impacted millions of lives.

Republican Senator Lynda Wilson (R – Vancouver) today called on Democrats to join them to “ensure that when the next emergency comes along, as it surely will, the legislative branch has the authority to review all emergency proclamations from the governor and put time limits on them when appropriate.” Senator Wilson wants to reform our state’s emergency laws so they are similar to nearly all other states by placing time limits on how long the governor can impose laws before re-establishing the legislature’s constitutional role to write and pass laws..(Republican Senate Caucus media release)

Governor Inslee’s troubles with the state’s psychiatric care administration continue as one patient is the suspect in the murder of another patient.  A 51-year-old patient is in Pierce County Jail after his 69-year-old roommate at Western State Hospital was killed. Both are in the heavily secured section reserved for those who were found “not guilty by reason of insanity.”  This is the latest of multiple significant problems at the state’s two major psychological facilities (Western State in Steilacoom and Eastern State in Medical Lake) during the Inslee Administration which have included loss of federal dollars due to poor administration, failure to follow the state’s safety guidelines causing multiple COVID outbreaks, and the failure to accept patients from local jails who need to receive treatment before standing trial. Even though the governor has more than doubled the cost of state government during his nine years in office, he continues to ignore the many large problems occurring in state-run mental facilities. (Seattle Times and Shift)

Four Skagit County mayors have sent letters to their state legislators asking them to repeal major portions of the Democrats’ anti-police package that was passed in 2021, after liberal lawmakers caved into the demands of violent rioters in Seattle.  The mayors of Anacortes, Burlington, Mount Vernon, and Sedro-Woolley sent letters to the legislators from the 10^th, 39^th, and 40^th legislative districts asking for changes in the state’s police pursuit laws, drug possession laws, and juvenile questioning restrictions.  The mayors wrote, “Unless serious thoughtful action is taken at the state level, we believe public safety will continue to degrade for the over 75,000 people we four mayors represent.” Skagit County Commissioners are also considering send a similar letter to the legislators. Remember that when the legislature attempted in 2022 to fix the portion of their anti-police package that dealt with prohibiting police pursuit, the Democrats in the Senate decided to kill the bill and allow criminals to continue escaping the police. (The Center Square)

A Pierce County Deputy Sheriff reports that armed robberies have nearly doubled during the first nine months of 2022. In the latest jarring crime stat since the Democrats passed their 2021 anti-police legislation, Sergeant Darren Moss said that the armed number robberies have continued to climb during the past three months, while they are declining in other urban areas around the country as Americans move into the post-pandemic era.  The sergeant said that armed robberies are up 95%  between January and September of this year over what they were just a five years ago and that normally an increase of 5% is considered a large leap. (MyNorthwest)

There have been five break-ins of marijuana retail shops in the South Puget Sound region involving a car smashing through the entrance of the store during the past couple of weeks. Police do not know if they are being committed by the same individuals.  The crimes involve a stolen car smashing into the store after hours and thieves following behind, grabbing merchandise, and then taking off in a second stolen car.  All have by filmed by security cameras.  The robberies have taken place in Auburn, Maple Valley, Tacoma, and Olympia.. (MyNorthwest)

The Kittitas County Auditor says his office has received approximately 40 complaints of voters receiving a ballot that has tear over one of the ballot selection boxes. The rip in the ballot sometimes eliminates the entire box while others have a small pin hole.  The damage is done in one of the boxes for a candidate for Public Utility Commissioner and was apparently caused during the printing process. If you have received a damaged ballot, please contact your county auditor so a new ballot can be sent. (KOMO News)

Governor Jay Inslee and Democrat lawmakers have often broken the law when they use public funds to conduct obvious and partisan campaign activities.  An ethics complaint was filed last week against the governor and several Democrat legislators for their illegal use of taxpayer dollars to promote Democrat campaigns. The governor has held several partisan media events on abortion (seemingly the only issue all Democrats feel comfortable talking about this campaign season, since their policies on crime, homelessness, drugs, housing costs, state income taxes, more government spending, long-term care payroll taxes, higher energy costs, tearing down dams, restricting agriculture, vaccine mandates, “emergency” powers, etc., have either failed or are very unpopular) which were paid for with public funds. On Friday, the governor hoped to prop up the struggling campaign of incumbent Democrat Senator Claire Wilson (who is being challenged by Republican Linda Kochmar) by holding a pro-abortion media event in Federal Way. Like the other events, this one was organized by government workers and is paid for with public funds. (Click to read full Shift article)

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