Democrat politicians continue to try and avoid any connection between their votes for the extreme cap-and-tax law in 2021 and the huge increase in gas prices afflicting Washington drivers now, but as KING 5 reports, the truth is out there and some “43 state lawmakers called on Washington State’s Department of Ecology to step in and help bring prices down.” The legislators even provided a few ideas on how the state could help consumers immediately, rather than waiting until the next session.

“According to AAA, the average cost of gas in the state is $4.95 per gallon. GasBuddy reports that Washington has the highest prices in the country, slightly more than California. ‘We needed to intervene now because you can see the escalation and the impact, or the pain at the pump that we’re seeing. Why wait?’ said Sen. Jeff Wilson, R-Longview.” You can read more about why the state should stop trying to be #1 in this area here… KING 5.

The controversy over Washington State’s political re-districting continues now in court rooms, with state Democrats reduced to arguing that it was racist for the voters in the 15th Legislative to have the opportunity elect a Hispanic woman to the State Senate last year, seemingly because State Senator Nikki Torres is a Republican. You can read for yourselves about how Democrats demand very specific racial quotas, as the Washington State Standard sifts through how “a judge is deciding the next step: if the map for the 15th Legislative District is to be redrawn, how it will be done and by whom in time for the 2024 elections.”

Attorney General Bob Ferguson decided that it was better to admit failure than try to fight the far-Left wing of his party in court, and so the state agreed in court with the those who want new district lines rather than defending the state’s interests. You can read more about how this lawsuit is mainly about electing Democrat candidates, and not racial justice, here…Washington State Standard.

Now that the COVID emergency and the disastrous impacts of our various government shutdowns and mandates are fading from view, you don’t hear Governor Jay Inslee bragging near as much about how only he “could save lives” during the pandemic. And a story in Spokane’s Spokesman-Review points out that might be because of one specific area of failure for the governor – his keeping Alcoholics Anonymous meetings closed longer here than anywhere in the country – is looking like a very poor decision indeed.  You can read more about the deaths that Jay Inslee doesn’t want to acknowledge his role in here… Center Square, Spokesman-Review, Shift.

Seattle City Councilwoman Kshama Sawant has been struggling for relevance ever since announcing she would not be seeking re-election this year. Her publicity-seeking brought her back to one of her favorite issues – rent control – which the city cannot impose due to state law wisely forbidding it. But MyNorthwest points out that fact doesn’t matter to Sawant, who used her bill proposal to light into her fellow left-wingers since “the Democratic Party currently has a majority in the Governor’s mansion (Ed. Note, you only need one vote there). Yet, they did not even propose to lift the ban on rent control this legislative session.”

Despite the failure of Olympia Democrats to give council members like Sawant the ability to screw up the real estate markets in their cities, you can read here about how other Seattle left-wingers now have “Council Bill 120606, that would cap maximum (rent) rate increases based on the rate of inflation” to rally around here… MyNorthwest.

A headline over the weekend in Tacoma looked a little too much like Seattle, but it turns out that news like “Rapid bus line to start later, deliver less and cost more” is not necessarily confined to a Sound Transit project. Indeed the News Tribune reports that a “new bus line that operates like light rail was supposed to be whisking Pierce Transit riders between downtown Tacoma and Spanaway in 2022. Today, it’s not even out of the planning stages, won’t begin operating until 2027 at the earliest, will cost $37 million more than original estimates and deliver a scaled-down version of its original plan.”

You can read more about a textbook case in a government promising more than it could deliver and badly underestimating cost estimates here. … Tacoma News Tribune.

Last week’s Newsmaker Interview was with Steven Strachan, the Executive Director of the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs (WASPC). Last week the organization released its annual Crime in Washington report which revealed that while violent crime rates are dropping around the country, they continue to rise in Washington State.

The report also showed that Washington ranks dead last (behind all other states and the District of Columbia) for the number of police officers per the number of residents they are paid to protect.  The data also demonstrated that it is persons of color who have been disproportionately impacted by the rise in crime and the reduction of police officers.

In Shift’s interview with Executive Director Strachan, he discussed the data in WASPC’s report and how local and state lawmakers must be mindful of the disturbing trends when developing “balanced” future public safety proposals.   He also shared his thoughts on how more police officers can be recruited to the state, the legislature’s recent “fix” of the Blake decision (drug possession laws), and what still needs to be done to improve law enforcement’s ability to pursue suspected criminals… Shift.

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