The wildfire scenes coming out of Lahaina, Maui, and the rest of Hawaii are nothing short of tragic for all of us at Shift. That leaves us, while stunned in sadness, to turn to highlight this news that is not really a surprise to those aware that only Democrats have been elected governor in Washington state since 1984 – the nation’s longest such partisan chief executive streak. Evidently the folks at the (Tacoma) News Tribune found it newsworthy to highlight a national study pointing out, “Washington state is the 8th-most expensive place for household bills in the country at $2,468 per month. Bills in the state are over $5,000 more annually than the national average.”

You might expect that dark Democrat blue states like Hawaii, California and New Jersey top the most expensive list, but thanks to Governor Jay Inslee’s really high-cost energy policies, Washington is making its move up (led by King County being 10% more expensive than any other Washington county). The DoxoINSIGHTS study found that Washington “residents spend about 37% of their income on household expenses, including rent, utilities and insurance”, and you can see how much more it costs for household essentials where you live here… News Tribune.

Democrats in Washington state from Governor Jay Inslee on down have spent the last month trying to change the trending story of the day from being about how their risky environmental policies have sent gas prices soaring. Blaming foreign wars, routine maintenance and “transparency” have not worked, so the latest liberal trick appears to be pitching a faulty national study – with an eager local advocate – which persuaded Spokane’s Spokesman-Review to put in writing that “Washington drivers may benefit more than those in any other state by switching to an electric vehicle.“

You can tell that the numbers have been fully baked in this study by the reporter’s claim it was produced by a “nonpartisan think tank,” though those thinkers admit to their motivation as “a clean energy and environmental policy firm to provide timely research and analysis on low-carbon energy policy options to policy makers, thought leaders, and members of the media.” You can read more about how liberal spin is always good for the liberal news cycle here… Spokesman-Review.

Sometimes a solution to a problem is so obvious, those of us at Shift wonder why seemingly no one on the Seattle City Council can see the connection. That is certainly the case with this KUOW story about why “the city is fielding more complaints about vacant residential and commercial buildings than ever before – and watching a growing number of those buildings go up in flames.”

Let us go out on a limb here and suggest that if the city of Seattle actually started arresting people for breaking laws already on the books, and then tried them in court, maybe they would have fewer buildings suddenly catching on fire in the city. Instead, “Seattle averaged about one vacant building (burning) each week by mid-July, a rate one-third higher than last year.”  You can read whether making crime illegal again might be worth a shot here… KUOW.

Shift can tell things aren’t trending in the liberal direction when Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat is forced to deploy the old “things could be worse, we could be California” defense for Governor Jay Inslee. And that’s what he had to do today regarding our soaring gas prices, writing about “one smidgen of good news for Gov. Jay Inslee and Democrats, who have been getting roasted all this hot summer over our state’s sizzling gas prices. We’re not No. 1 anymore.”

Mr. Westneat was moved to write his defense of Democrats in the context of the initiative effort being launched to repeal the state’s disastrous cap-and-tax law (which Shift covered earlier this week), since the “backlash against the Democrats’ climate change policies, which experts say helped boost fuel prices here, is now out of the gate.” You can read more about the motivation for the initiative effort here…Seattle Times, Shift.

It is becoming a Shift tradition to carry some stories with little editorial comment or analysis, under the assumption that sometimes the crazy just has to speak for itself. So, you can just ignore all of the shootings, public drug use, and/or general hygiene problems which currently plague the city of Seattle, and know that activists throughout the city stand ready to stand in solidarity with trees. You can learn more from KIRO 7 how a new showdown is looming “around the potential removal of a large tree in Seattle. A huge Douglas Fir on Northeast 90th in Maple Leaf could be cut down as soon as Thursday” here… KIRO 7.

Sometimes it can be awkward hanging around the old water cooler with fellow employees that may not be your favorites. That’s why you can imagine some Seattle City Council members prefer working remotely after you find out from this MyNorthwest story that retiring Seattle City Council President Debora Juarez is picking favorites in the city’s most high-profile race this fall – and the one she currently serves with and knows best (Andrew Lewis) is not her recommendation.

You can learn Councilmember Juarez believes challenger Bob Kettle will “bring principled leadership gained in the Navy, and built upon as a community leader here in Seattle” to the council, as opposed to whatever it is that first-termer Lewis brings, here… MyNorthwest.

Motivated again by the devastating news out of Hawaii today, we at Shift wanted to highlight some good news from here, and the Yakima Herald provided it with reports that “improved harvests Yakima Valley growers have seen for early-season fruits such as cherries and apricots are predicted to continue with this year’s apple crop.”

We can all celebrate that the “forecast issued Tuesday by the Washington State Tree Fruit Association estimates a statewide crop of just more than 134 million standard 40-pound boxes of fresh apples, a 28.8% increase over the 104.3 million boxes harvested in 2022” here… Yakima Herald.

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