Shift’s Newsmaker Interview is a pre-session discussion on the issues facing the Washington State Legislature with Republican Senate Leader John Braun of Centralia.  Senator Braun was first elected to the Senate in 2012 and was voted GOP caucus leader prior to the start of the 2021 legislative session. The upcoming 2023 session will be the first time Senator Braun will lead his caucus without COVID restrictions placed on legislative activity and public participation.

In his in-depth interview, Senator Braun provides his thoughts on a wide assortment of issues. He states his belief that the return of public participation in the legislative process should deliver better policies. Sen. Braun provides his thoughts on whether Democrats are willing to reverse their disastrous policies on restricting police pursuits and essentially decriminalizing possession of lethal drugs.  The U.S. Navy veteran and captain in the Naval Reserves also shares his thoughts on Washington students learning loss due to the liberals’ COVID restrictions, emergency powers reform, implementation of the Democrats’ long-term care payroll tax (WACares), and the Democrats’ latest proposal to take money from state residents – the “Washington Future Fund.” (Click to read full Newsmaker Interview)

There is finally a crack in Governor Jay Inslee’s unscientific vaccine mandate of state workers, especially for those who received a “medical” (as opposed to “religious”) exemption and were provided telework “accommodations” by the state.  Transportation expert Mariya Frost tweeted a memo from the Director of Human Relations for the Washington State Department of Transportation which states, “some situations may allow vaccine excepted employees to assist with our growing business needs from the office or field through the exemption process.”

The memo goes on to say that those WSDOT employees who  have been forced to telework due to the mandate can have their status reviewed by their supervisor and may be allowed to work again alongside other state employees and interact with the public.

While this could mean those who received medical exemptions may return to their former work environments, it does very little for those the state discriminated against who received “religious” exemptions. Previously Frost produced a study which showed that WSDOT provided accommodations to 87% of those who obtained a medical exemption, but only 11% of those who received religious exemption. Those WSDOT workers who were not accommodated by the state were among the 402 workers the department fired due to Governor Inslee’s unilaterally decided mandate.

Governor Inslee’s partisan vaccine mandate on WSDOT employees brought major frustration to those who travel across the Cascade Mountains or commute on the Washington State ferry system. Last winter, WSDOT did not have enough workers to snowplow mountain roads, causing the very rare situation where all of the Cascade passes were closed for long periods of time. Thanks to Governor Inslee’s polices, thousands of people were stranded, and freight could not reach its destination.  For over a year, the ferry system has not had enough certified workers to staff Puget Sound ferries, causing thousands of last-minute cancelations and a severely reduced sailing schedule. (Mariya Frost Twitter and Washington Policy Center study)

Jason Mercier of the Washington Policy Center reports that Governor Inslee’s annual revealing of his budget proposal will be made next Wednesday, December 14th. In the past the governor has sometimes revealed his budget priorities over several days.  It is expected that the proposal will continue to use any state surplus tax revenue to continue to increase the size of government (which has more than doubled during Inslee’s time in office).

That would continue the Inslee tradition of no assistance to low-income workers who continue to be hit the hardest by the liberals’ inflationary policies and the Democrats’ energy policies . Those policies have dramatically increased the price of gas these workers need to get to work and transport their children to school. (Jason Mercier Twitter)

A Yakima Herald editorial asserts that Republican legislators should receive credit for their comprehensive “Power Washington” plan.  The plan was released last week and provides seven specific energy goals to ensure Washington residents can continue to depend on reliable power sources while also reducing carbon emissions.  Noteworthy to Yakima residents, the plan calls for the reversal of the Democrats’ 2022 legislation which removed the voice of local citizens in determining where large solar and wind farms are located.  Shift will have more on the Power Washington plan next week.  (Yakima Herald and Republican Senate Caucus media release)

12 Western Washington counties joined one Central Washington county health department in issuing new guidance for residents to resume wearing facemasks indoors.  While the rise in COVID cases is still a concern, the health officials stated that they are also worried about the increase in influenza and RSV cases.  The 13 counties are Clallam, Clark, Jefferson, King, Kitsap, Kittitas, Pacific, Pierce, Skagit, Skamania, Snohomish, Thurston, and Whatcom.  While there will likely be many people who will ignore the new facemask guidance, it is interesting that county officials are able to issue guidelines for what they believe is best for their communities and that it is unnecessary for the governor to abuse emergency powers to keep the public safe. (County health officials statement on wearing facemasks)

A family is suing the City of Seattle for $10 million because the Seattle Fire Department (SFD) failed to update an important list and this failure caused medics to not enter a home where a 47 year-old man eventually died of a heart attack.  The SFD keeps a list of addresses where there are individuals who have been previously hostile to either law enforcement or firefighters.  When medics encounter such an address, SFD protocol is to wait for police to arrive before entering the premise.  In this case, the police did not arrive after 13 minutes (likely due to the mass exodus of police officers due to liberal public safety policies) before medics on the scene decided to ignore protocols and enter the home, but it was too late to save the man.  Attorneys for the family say the list the SFD used is old and still has a former resident who had trouble with police officers.  (MyNorthwest)

A new state requirement for testing groundwater is the latest regulation which will increase cost for Washington State’s dairy farmers.  The Washington State Department of Ecology is requiring nearly all dairy farmers to regularly test their groundwater to see if it is contaminated by manure. Previously the state only required testing of fields fertilized with manure, but a lawsuit from wealthy urban environmentalist has added the cost of testing groundwater to the responsibility of all dairy farmers. The DOE will now determine how many groundwater tests each dairy farm must perform. The state has not figured out how much this will add to the overhead cost farmers must pay, but a spokesperson for the Washington State Dairy federation stated it will be “crushing” for some small dairy farmers. (Capitol Press)

The non-profit group that is profiting from the large Spokane homeless encampment on state property is now seeking an emergency restraining order to stop the City of Spokane and Spokane County from removing the residents.  The controversial Jewels Helping Hands is currently paid by the State of Washington to “manage” the large encampment which the state has allowed to grow on Washington State Department of Transportation property.  Since the group does not want the taxpayer-funded money train to stop, it has coordinated a lawsuit with encampment residents to keep local officials from closing it down despite  all the crime and violence which is occurring in and around the encampment.  This week, Jewels Helping Hands added to the lawsuit, seeking to have a judge issue an emergency order preventing the removal of the encampment before the courts rule on the original lawsuit. (KREM2 News and Shift)

Former gubernatorial and congressional candidate Loren Culp rightfully received media criticism for his fundraising efforts when his campaign consultants received a large chunk of the donations the campaign was receiving after his campaign ended.  Yet there is no criticism from the state’s press corps for Governor Inslee essentially doing the exact same thing.

As Shift pointed out last week, the governor’s campaign is sending almost daily email blasts to possible contributors before the state’s fundraising freeze goes into effect at midnight tonight. And just like the Culp campaign, the Inslee campaign’s public disclosure reports reveal it is his campaign consultants who are receiving nearly all of the funds.  Yet the media members remain silent about the Inslee campaign’s fundraising efforts which pay the high monthly retainer fees of its campaign consultants.  It appears as if reporters withhold criticism of the governor in the hope that their actions will allow them to follow in the footsteps of former reporters David Postman (Seattle Times) and Mike Faulk (Yakima Herald) who both escaped the uncertainty of working for newspapers by obtaining high paying government job with great benefits to spin messages for the governor.

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