Farmers and other agricultural interests have faced long odds in recent legislative sessions, with the emergence of Democrat majorities dominated by urban representatives who know little of rural life but plenty about government control. That’s the underlying story from the Columbia Basin Herald that “Senate Bill 5476, which aimed to provide agricultural employers with the flexibility to schedule up to 12 weeks of 50-hour of ‘special circumstance’ workweeks without triggering overtime pay requirements met its end in the Senate Committee on Labor and Commerce.”

The response from people who have actually been to a farm was understandable, as “Sen. Judy Warnick, R-Moses Lake, said she was disappointed that SB 5841 died. She believes there was much pressure from labor unions who testified against the bill.” Read more about how liberal Democrats are intent on driving up the costs of all food products to better serve their campaign donors here… Columbia Basin Herald.

Shift will leave with  little comment on the story out of the Spokesman-Review that after years of Democrats pushing for drug legalization, the Washington Poison Center’s medical director advises his fellow Washingtonians that “(W)e would like most people to carry Naloxone.”

The result of the Democrat preference for a hands-off approach to drugs, according to one well-meaning activist, is that if “you are in an area that’s highly populated with vulnerable populations that use misuse and abuse opioids, then, yes – I think you should be carrying and trained in Narcan in case of an emergency. And unfortunately, that is a lot of places.”… Spokesman-Review.

The next time a politician from the city of Everett says they do not have enough money for one of their urgent priorities, remember this item from the Everett Herald: “former Everett Chief of Police Dan Templeman will earn $234,252 as a city senior executive director in the Everett mayor’s office.”

That’s right: The public will get to pay over a quarter million dollars (benefits included) to have a bureaucrat replace the last bureaucrat who left under a cloud for being the “senior executive director” advising Mayor Cassie Franklin. Read on for more tawdry details of government waste here… Everett Herald.

Another example of what the Democrats in Washington state are prioritizing instead of the six citizen initiatives that hundreds of thousands of Washingtonians signed and have been certified for legislative action. Let’s charge people a deposit when they buy a bottle of anything, as explained by the High Country News, because “for those who notice every dime, the bottle bill turns spare containers into cash.”

That’s right, Far-Left Democrats get to claim they are helping the environment and helping the poor while creating a new government bureaucracy. Read more about how their triple win will require building “in a review process to ensure that collection sites are accessible and convenient across the state,” just so they can stay involved in your purchasing decisions… High Country News.