Given the number of sleazy little episodes dribbling out of state government which Shift has covered during Governor Jay Inslee’s nearly 11 years in office – think Employment Security Department fraud, or Department of Corrections issuing get-out of-jail early cards, etc. – it seemed only a matter of time until an insider stepped forward to blow the whistle on real corruption. That’s why much of today’s briefing will be coverage of what investigative reporter Susannah Frame brought to the public’s attention last night – over objections from the governor’s office that KING 5 should remain silent since it did not “truly understand this process before drawing conclusions and reporting on claims that have not yet been investigated.”

The Inslee administration’s heavy-handed attempt to (again) stop KING 5 from reporting actual facts about Governor Inslee’s precious carbon tax appears to be backfiring, now that a “former state economist has filed a legal claim against two state agencies and the Office of the Governor for allegedly retaliating against him for refusing to keep quiet” about the true cost of the state’s carbon tax. The 35-year employee’s charge is explosive: “his career was ruined for his refusal to lie about how a new state policy, according to his mathematical calculations in early 2023, would jack up prices at the pump by 45 to 50 cents per gallon.”

You can read more about the Inslee administration promising “independent investigations to determine whether (the claims) can be substantiated” here… Shift, KING 5.

Shift’s Newsmaker Interview is with author, filmmaker, and former Levi Strauss & Co. executive Jennifer Sey, who will be one of the featured speakers at the 2024 Roanoke Conference (January 26 – 28 in Ocean Shores). Her new book. “Levi’s Unbuttoned: The Woke Mob Took My Job but Gave Me My Voice” details her experience fighting liberal activists over her concerns distance learning was having on student’s education and social development.

In her interview, Sey described her concerns with isolating children during COVID and her fight with activists who attempted to silence her concerns.  She detailed her experience within Levi’s where members of the management team (whose children went to private schools which continued in-person learning) told her that she must stop advocating for re-opening public schools. Finally, Sey talked about her upcoming documentary, “GENERATION COVID,” which focuses on the long-term damage the lockdown will have on our children… Shift.

Now that a whistleblower has emerged from Gov. Inslee’s Department of Transportation, Shift thought it worth raising a few specific questions that we hope to see pursued by local media and perhaps even the governor’s own investigators in the coming days.  A first could be following up on the allegation that a former lead gas price economist “was pressured in January to keep quiet about his calculation that cap-and-trade would lead to a 45- to 50-cent increase on every gallon of gas.”

Let’s see whether somebody identifies the public employee who wanted to help the Inslee administration avoid public exposure and “instructed (the whistleblower) not to write emails about it to avoid having to turn over the documentation if someone requested public records on the topic” here… KING 5.

One easy follow-up for reporters would be to ask a few more people around the Inslee administration (beyond his clearly misguided flack Mike Faulk) whether it is reasonable to accept that when gas prices were soaring to record levels this summer, and the media was hounding the governor’s office to explain who was to blame for Gov. Inslee being wrong about the price increases, that KING 5’s call this week “was the first time our office was made aware of this individual or these assertions, and we have not had the opportunity to review them.”

Read on to see whether you think that the departure of the person who “was the primary WSDOT employee tasked with forecasting fuel consumption, pricing and revenues from gas taxes and fees” might have attracted someone’s attention near the governor here… KING 5.

Backroom negotiations have a way of turning some in the media off, even if they might agree with what’s going on in those back rooms. That’s why it’s refreshing to see The Columbian weigh in against the secret Biden and Inslee administration plans to demolition the four Lower Snake River dams, writing that “any discussion or step toward an eventual solution should be fully transparent and subject to public review. And it should be led by a Congress that will have the final say on the matter.”

You can understand why the extreme environmentalists that have been working in secret with the Democrats to rip out the dams would like to remain in the shadows.  But read on for why “finding the most effective and expedient path for saving endangered salmon requires open discussion and transparency” here… The Columbian.

The use of intimidation and violence seems to be a re-emerging tactic for local liberals as far-Left activists run out of ways to influence public policy. Another story of the hypocritical lack of tolerance and respect for opposing views came to light today, with the Seattle Times reporting that Congressman “Adam Smith’s Bellevue home has been vandalized by people advocating for a cease-fire in the conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza.”

Let’s hope that the Bellevue police will be able to find the terrorist sympathizers who defaced the congressman’s house, as we agree with him that the “simple truth is that extremism on both sides is degrading to our political system and must be rooted out for our democracy to be able to persist”, though we leave it to you to decide from which side the extremism directed at Rep. Smith was coming from here… Seattle Times.

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