Many questions remain over Governor Inslee’s plan to release 950 inmates to reduce the spread of the coronavirus within Washington’s 12 corrections facilities.  Despite publicly stating the number of prisoners that Inslee will set free before they have completed their sentences, the governor’s office has yet release who exactly will get to leave early, and the Department of Corrections has yet to inform the public how they will monitor the released prisoners.  Many people are upset because this is yet another example of the problems within Inslee’s Department of Corrections and could have been avoided.  Meanwhile liberal criminal rights’ advocates are using the coronavirus outbreak to demand even more individuals be released early – to give them time to register to vote for their favorite Democrat.  (Seattle Times)

A new source for economic data analysis, the Puget Sound Indexer, has launched with new tables regarding the business sectors most impacted by the coronavirus outbreak.  The report shows that more than a third (34.4%) of those employed during February in the Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation field were filing unemployment claims in April.  Accommodation and Food Service has seen 29.2% of its former workers filing claims and Construction has 27.5% now on unemployment benefits.  Meanwhile only 0.5% (one-half of one percent) of former government workers are currently collecting unemployment payments. (Puget Sound Indexer)

Democrats, unconcerned with the many obvious problems, continue to push for all states to implement a vote-by-mail process to help their candidates before this November’s Presidential election.  Currently only Colorado, Hawaii, Oregon, Utah, and Washington are vote-by-mail states. Democrats want to throw $500 million in tax money to force the remaining 45 states (with nearly 3,000 counties) and the District of Columbia to switch election systems, train staff and volunteers, verify every voter’s signature and mailing address, change state and county election laws, and obtain new equipment while staff is working from home and county and state governments are facing tax revenue shortfalls.  In Washington, we have seen the many problems of a vote-by mail system over nearly a decade of experience.  If the Democrats (including Representative Suzan DelBene [D-Medina] who is co-sponsoring congressional legislation) get their way, it will likely be an election disaster in November.  Even Democrat King County Elections Supervisor Julie Wise says, “It’s not going to be pretty” if liberals succeed in jamming through an all vote-by-mail election. Apparently, Democrats believe people who are quickly adapting to social distancing practices in all other aspects of life during the COVID-19 crisis are incapable of using the same techniques to line up to vote. (Crosscut)

Liberal special interest groups continue to use the coronavirus outbreak as a selfish excuse to obtain funding for their projects.  Many environmental groups are banding together to grab taxpayer money for their pet projects, while fellow big government liberals are disguising their projects as environmentally related in order to get on the gravy train.  Their rational is that the federal government has just spent over $2 trillion due to coronavirus and thus government should spend that amount (if not more) on their schemes.  It is interesting to see the author describe the “Jay Inslee-sized hole” in the climate debate after the Washington governor’s embarrassing presidential campaign failure. We in Washington are familiar with the “Jay Inslee-sized hole” for we have seen it in our governor’s mansion for the past 7-plus years. (Gizmodo)

Western State Hospital in Tacoma reports that 27 staff members and 6 patients have tested positive for the coronavirus. The mental health hospital, operated by Washington State’s Department of Social and Health Services, has been the source of many recent complaints from staff members who say the Inslee Administration has not done enough to protect staff safety.  Staff members are concerned that COVID-19 testing procedures may have caused the virus to spread among employees.  (News Tribune and Seattle Times)

Many Seattle residents have been surprised by the enforcement of 20 mph speed limits around schools despite students now learning from their homes.  The reason is because 16 schools still provide free lunch to low-income students, and thus the reduced speeds are enforced in school zones between 10:45 AM to 1:15 PM. (MyNorthwest)

Three small towns along Highway 2, which were crippled by winter storms in January, are again facing revenue losses due to the lack of travelers.  Yet the three towns (Baring, Index, and Skykomish) are the only locations within King and Snohomish counties without a coronavirus patient. (Everett Herald)

Chairman of the U.S. House of Representatives Agriculture Committee Collin Peterson (D-Minnesota) has asked the Trump Administration to increase the federal government’s purchase of agriculture commodities to donate to food banks.  Specifically targeted are products that are normally purchased by restaurants, bars, and resorts which have been closed.  Representative Peterson has requested $9.5 billion to “help ensure the production that no longer has a foodservice market can be made available to help our nation’s foodbanks.” (Washington AG Network)

Washington State has paid $1.5 million in rent for April to use the recently closed Astria Regional Medical Center in Yakima, despite announcing it will not re-open the facility due to the leveling off of new coronavirus patients.  The state will continue to pay a retainer for the facility and will decide on a monthly basis whether to re-open the hospital. (YakTriNews)

First, the annual Bloomsday race was moved to September 20^th, and now Spokane’s other premier sports event, Hoopfest, has been postponed to August 22-23.  The 31-year tradition was originally planned to take place June 27-28.  Normally the event draws nearly 25,000 participants and 250,000 spectators, as 45 city blocks are shut down for multiple 3-on-3 basketball tournaments. (Spokane Hoopfest)

A Central Washington University professor is using the current slowdown to teach a worldwide audience about his area of expertise – geology.  As more people are staying home, Professor Nick Zentor is using YouTube to instruct an at-home audience about geology. Zentor has used his previous broadcast experience on PBS to produce a daily program from his backyard. (MyNorthwest and YouTube)

10^th Congressional District candidate Marilyn Strickland sent an email survey to people outside the congressional district asking for their opinions on her campaign.  The email states, “we have selected 250 people from Seattle to take part in our 2020 State of Health Care survey,” YET the district Strickland hopes to represent lies within Pierce, Thurston, and Mason counties, with the northern borders some 30 miles away from Seattle.  Thus, Strickland (who doesn’t reside in the district) believes it is more important to obtain the views of people who live in Seattle than to actually move into the district and learn the views of those she wants to represent in Congress. (Strickland Campaign email and Ballotpedia)

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