Chris Cargill, President of the Mountain States Policy Center, lays it out plainly: when Olympia and D.C. politicians proudly spiked the Albertsons-Kroger merger, they promised families would win. Instead, Washington just lost six Fred Meyer stores—hundreds of jobs gone, thousands of families cut off from a nearby grocery, and Shoreline staring down a food desert. Some “victory.”

Cargill points out the obvious: grocery competition isn’t your corner store anymore—it’s Amazon deliveries, Walmart’s price cuts, and Costco’s warehouse aisles. Albertsons and Kroger needed each other to survive. But Democrats couldn’t resist meddling, burning $1,100 an hour in taxpayer money to block the deal, even as union leaders supported it.

The bitter irony? Killing the merger didn’t “protect” consumers—it left them with fewer options, higher prices, and empty storefronts. If politicians really cared about competition, they’d strengthen regional grocers to take on the giants. Instead, their grandstanding guaranteed families lose out.

As Cargill makes clear, the closures in Kent, Renton, and Shoreline should be a wake-up call. Every time politicians play politics with the economy, ordinary people end up paying the price—in lost jobs, shuttered stores, and fewer groceries on the shelf. Read more at Center Square.

Nothing says “leadership” like creating the problem, then taxing you to pretend to solve it. King County Councilmember Claudia Balducci—who just happens to be running for County Executive—now wants to use a shiny new sales tax to fund a “retail crime task force” after Kroger announced the closure of six grocery stores across the region. The reason, in part (see above)? Rampant theft and safety concerns—issues that exploded thanks to years of soft-on-crime Democrat policies.

Balducci’s big plan? Hire two detectives and one prosecutor for $600,000 a year. That’s right—after stores shutter, jobs disappear, and families lose neighborhood groceries, Democrats swoop in with a regressive tax hike and call it a solution. Meanwhile, Kent’s mayor is blunt: King County’s failed policies made cities less safe and hammered their tax base.

Even Balducci’s opponent, Girmay Zahilay, isn’t sold—preferring a “data-driven” process (the Democrat translation: more endless studies while criminals keep looting).

The irony is rich: Democrats ignored pleas to crack down on retail crime, then acted shocked when businesses fled. Now they want voters to applaud them for throwing a few taxpayer-funded jobs at the mess they created. Call it what it is—another progressive cycle of failure, where you pay more and get less. Read more at Center Square.

Democrats couldn’t resist meddling with Washington’s ferry system, demanding shiny “green upgrades” instead of sticking with proven, reliable engines. So we got the Wenatchee, a hybrid-electric retrofit that was supposed to showcase the future of eco-friendly transit. Instead, it showcased something else entirely: what happens when political virtue-signaling trumps basic competence.

Just weeks after its much-hyped conversion, the Wenatchee sputtered out mid-service. Two of its four drive motors quit while docking at Colman Dock, cutting power and leaving the crew scrambling. Thankfully no one was hurt—but the humiliation? That landed squarely on the taxpayers who footed the bill for this pricey science project.

Commuters didn’t ask for a green experiment. Families trying to get home didn’t demand cutting-edge technology that can’t stay online for a month. What people wanted was simple: ferries that run on time, safely, and reliably. Instead, Democrats handed over a boondoggle dressed up in green paint and buzzwords.

This fiasco is just the latest example of Olympia’s ruling class congratulating themselves for “saving the planet” while ordinary Washingtonians are stuck dealing with the fallout. The lights may have gone out on the Wenatchee, but the bigger blackout is in Democratic leadership—a party more interested in chasing headlines than actually keeping Washington moving. Read more at Seattle Red.

Camas just passed a citywide ban on public camping after residents had enough of tents, RVs, needles, and waste clogging up sidewalks, parks, and libraries. Officials cited safety hazards, ADA violations, declining business traffic, and even environmental damage from unchecked encampments. Translation: public spaces meant for families became no-go zones thanks to years of politicians refusing to enforce basic rules.

The U.S. Supreme Court’s Grants Pass ruling cleared the way for cities to pass these ordinances, but here’s the kicker—none of this would be necessary if Democrats hadn’t spent years enabling street camping under the guise of “compassion.” The result? Businesses shutter, property values sink, families stay away, and taxpayers foot the bill for endless cleanup operations.

Camas’ ban is a step toward accountability, but without shelter space and real services, the problem just shifts to the next town over. Meanwhile, the Washington Policy Center is right—government doesn’t have to bungle this alone. Private partnerships, housing, and treatment options should have been part of the conversation long ago.

Instead, Democrats let the crisis spiral until communities had no choice but to start banning tents from sidewalks. Now residents are stuck with the bill, neighborhoods are scarred, and Olympia’s leadership keeps wringing its hands. The bottom line? Cities like Camas are forced to clean up the disaster Democrats created—and families are just hoping to get their parks back. Read more at the Washington Policy Center.

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