Washington Democrats are about to face an all-too-familiar problem: citizens noticed what they did.

Two initiatives backed by Let’s Go Washington — one restoring parental rights in public schools and another keeping girls’ sports for girls — just cleared the signature threshold and are headed straight for the Legislature, whether Democrats like it or not. And judging by past behavior, they really don’t.

Supporters turned in hundreds of thousands more signatures than required, blowing past the minimum and undercutting the usual talking point that these issues are “fringe” or “extreme.” Even the initiative’s backers note that many signers were independents and Democrats — a fact that makes progressive activists especially uncomfortable.

The parental rights initiative is aimed squarely at lawmakers who rewrote a voter-approved initiative after it passed — quietly stripping parents of guaranteed access to their own kids’ medical records. Democrats insisted they knew better than voters, and now voters are responding by dragging the issue right back to Olympia.

The second initiative would bar biological males from competing in girls’ sports — a position Democrats insist is dangerous, discriminatory, or both, despite polling that repeatedly shows broad public agreement with it. Instead of debating the policy, progressive groups defaulted to emotional rhetoric, accusing supporters of “playing political games” while being backed, conveniently, by powerful unions and advocacy organizations that dominate education politics in the state.

Now lawmakers have three options: pass the initiatives, reject them and send them to voters, or try their favorite move — pass a “compromise” version that keeps voters confused and control firmly in Olympia.

Either way, Democrats are cornered. For the third straight year, they’re being forced to publicly defend policies that sideline parents, elevate ideology over biology, and treat voter-approved initiatives as optional suggestions.

The real irony? The same lawmakers who lecture endlessly about “democracy” are once again scrambling because the public used it.

And this time, the signatures are already in. Read more at the Washington State Standard.

If you’re thinking about launching a business in Washington, here’s the honest advice Democrats won’t give you: don’t blink — you’ll miss your own closing sale.

A new national study ranks Washington dead last for business survival. Just 41.1% of new businesses here make it to their fifth birthday, far below the national average of 51%. Translation: more than half of Washington startups don’t fail because of bad ideas — they fail because they picked the wrong state.

Out of more than 22,000 businesses launched in 2019, fewer than 9,200 were still alive by 2024. That’s not “creative destruction.” That’s policy-induced suffocation.

And no, this isn’t because Washington lacks entrepreneurial spirit. Quite the opposite. Lots of people are trying to start businesses here — they just can’t survive the high taxes, high labor costs, endless regulations, and constant rule changes handed down by Democratic lawmakers who’ve never met a payroll.

Compare that to West Virginia, where nearly 58% of businesses survive five years. Or even California — the state Washington Democrats love to imitate — which somehow manages to keep more than 54% of new businesses afloat. Alaska, with barely any startups at all, still crushes Washington on survival.

The pattern is clear: states with lower costs and less government interference do better. States run by progressive ideologues who think small businesses are just taxable ATMs do not.

Washington’s political leadership loves to brag about Amazon, Microsoft, and other tech giants — conveniently ignoring that small businesses are getting crushed under the very policies those giants can afford to absorb. Higher minimum wages, mandatory benefits, carbon taxes, B&O taxes, and compliance paperwork galore might look virtuous from Olympia, but on Main Street they’re lethal.

For entrepreneurs here, the message is brutal but honest: the first five years aren’t just hard — they’re a government-created obstacle course.

And until Democrats stop treating small businesses like expendable props in their policy experiments, Washington will keep earning its spot at the bottom of the list. Read more at Seattle Red.

Seattle Democrats are back at it — reversing the reversal of their last failed drug policy and pretending the outcome will somehow be different this time.

According to an internal Seattle Police Department directive confirmed by the police union, officers are now being told not to arrest people for public drug use or possession. Instead, they’re instructed to refer users to diversion programs — whether they accept help or not. Arrest? Off the table. Accountability? Optional.

Sound familiar? It should.

From 2021 to 2023, after Washington’s drug possession laws collapsed, Seattle effectively stopped enforcing public drug use. The result was exactly what critics warned: open-air drug markets, soaring overdose deaths, rampant theft, and national embarrassment centered around places like Third and Pine. In 2023, city leaders quietly admitted failure and restored enforcement tools.

Now, under Katie Wilson and Erika Evans, Seattle is once again removing the only leverage that makes diversion work: the threat of consequences.

Even people who work daily with addicts are sounding the alarm. Outreach workers report that users openly admit they know Seattle won’t arrest them — and that the city has become a place where it’s simply too easy to stay addicted. When there’s no pressure to choose treatment, there’s no reason to stop using.

This isn’t tough-love rhetoric from outsiders. It’s coming straight from people on the streets and from former addicts who survived long enough to get clean. Many say the same thing: jail wasn’t the end — it was the interruption that saved their lives. Not a permanent solution, but a pause long enough for clarity to return.

Instead, Seattle’s new approach traps people in addiction while the surrounding community absorbs the fallout: theft, porch prowling, wire stripping, smash-and-grabs, and more. Addiction doesn’t disappear when enforcement does — it just spreads outward.

Democrats call this compassion. Critics call it what it looks like: abandonment dressed up as empathy.

Seattle voters were promised a “different approach.” They’re getting one — again. And just like last time, the people most harmed will be addicts left to deteriorate in public and neighborhoods forced to live with the consequences.

Compassion without accountability isn’t mercy.
It’s surrender.

And Seattle is about to relearn that lesson the hard way — again. Read more at MyNorthwest.com.

Just as serious fraud concerns are surfacing nationwide in taxpayer-funded daycare programs, Washington Democrats have decided now is the perfect time to make daycare providers harder to scrutinize.

Enter Senate Bill 5926, a Democratic-sponsored bill that expands public records exemptions for child care providers — not just small, in-home daycares, but large centers that receive substantial public funding. Names, identifying details, and other information that help watchdogs follow the money? Off-limits.

Democrats insist this is about “privacy.” Critics call it what it looks like: preemptive damage control.

The timing couldn’t be worse. Independent reporting out of Minnesota has exposed alleged daycare fraud schemes involving shell businesses, fake enrollments, and millions in siphoned taxpayer dollars. Naturally, that’s led to calls for more transparency and oversight.

Washington Democrats chose the opposite response.

Under SB 5926, the public could still see licensing and inspection results — but not necessarily who is actually running these taxpayer-funded operations. In other words, you can see whether a building passed inspection, but not easily track the people or entities cashing the checks.

Even supporters of childcare subsidies are raising eyebrows. Shielding identities doesn’t prevent fraud — it prevents discovering it.

Let’s Go Washington founder Brian Heywood summed it up bluntly: if you’re taking taxpayer money, taxpayers should be allowed to know who you are and what you’re doing with it. Apparently, that’s now a controversial idea in Olympia.

This fits a familiar Democratic pattern:

• When problems emerge → limit public access
• When accountability gets uncomfortable → rewrite the rules
• When journalists start asking questions → reduce transparency

Rather than tightening oversight or strengthening audits, lawmakers are lowering the blinds and hoping nothing embarrassing turns up.

If there’s truly nothing to hide, Democrats should welcome scrutiny. But rushing to shield an industry facing growing national fraud investigations suggests they’re more interested in protecting the system than protecting taxpayers.

Once again, Olympia’s message is clear: trust us — and please stop looking so closely. Read more at Seattle Red.

Washington Democrats are once again patting themselves on the back for a grand climate scheme that looks great in a press release and collapses the moment it meets reality.

Their latest masterpiece is the Washington Zero-Emission Incentive Program (WAZIP) — a $126 million subsidy program meant to bribe trucking companies into buying electric or hydrogen trucks that are wildly more expensive, harder to use, and nowhere near ready for real-world freight hauling. Lawmakers passed it, climate groups celebrated it, and now… everyone’s wondering why it isn’t even up and running yet.

The problem Democrats don’t like to talk about: the trucks don’t work economically.

A diesel Class 4 truck costs about $60,000. The electric version? Roughly $160,000 — before charging infrastructure. Class 8 trucks are even worse: $160,000 for diesel versus $600,000 for electric. Even Seattle’s own incentive program — offering up to $180,000 per truck — failed to make the math pencil out. Operators walked away anyway.

So the state’s solution is predictable: bigger subsidies, more bureaucracy, and more delay. The program will be funded by carbon auction revenues under the Climate Commitment Act — meaning higher costs passed along to consumers — and will offer vouchers, special carve-outs, bonus perks, and extra money for “approved” businesses. All of it depends on custom software that still isn’t finished, months after lawmakers expected launch.

Meanwhile, Democrats are furious at… themselves. The program’s biggest cheerleaders are now publicly complaining that their own agencies can’t execute the plan fast enough. The Department of Transportation says it’s “complex.” Translation: the policy sounded easier than it actually is.

And the irony doesn’t stop there. While Washington followed California’s extreme emissions rules, Congress pulled the plug on those standards, easing pressure on the trucking industry — and exposing just how far out on a limb state Democrats went. Add in the cancellation of federal hydrogen hub funding, and yet another “promising” green technology is stuck on the drawing board.

Even trucking companies that want to reduce emissions admit the truth: they need workable solutions, not mandates backed by fantasy numbers and taxpayer-funded bailouts.

Bottom line: Democrats built a climate policy that assumes technology will magically improve, prices will magically fall, infrastructure will magically appear — and taxpayers will quietly foot the bill while everyone waits.

Spring launch? Maybe. Functional program? Don’t bet the delivery schedule on it. Read more at the Washington State Standard.

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