Shift’s Weekly Photograph from former
Congressman Rod Chandler (WA-08) 1982 – 1994
Shift Wire
In an exclusive news-breaking story, Shift obtained access to internal documents which reveal that, in order to meet the goal of clearing the backlog of unemployment benefit applications, Employment Security Department (ESD) Commissioner (and major Democrat fundraiser) Suzi LeVine and her leadership team instructed state employees to remove the protective review and audit restrictions on unemployment claims that were coming in. This directive allowed the ESD to process the backlogged applications quickly, even on claims that were more likely to be fraudulent. ESD employees were told to approve so-called “quit claims”, without investigation of why the employee quit. Department directors complained about removing the safeguards, but the Inslee Administration was more concerned about being able to say they finally removed the huge backlog which its policies had created than in denying obvious fraudulent claims. Such actions will end up costing taxpayers even more money due to the incompetence of the Inslee Administration. (Shift)
Newsmaker Interview
Shift’s Newsmaker Interview is with Representative Luanne Van Werven (R – Lynden), Co-Chair of the House Republican Organizational Committee. Van Werven provides her insights into how and where the House Republicans will pick up seats in the 2020 elections. The three-term representative highlights the issues which are being discussed in the state’s legislative campaigns. Representative Van Werven also comments about the complete silence coming from statewide and legislative Democrats even as their fellow Democrats in Seattle are imposing radical measures on the state’s largest city and are quickly taking control of the Democrat party. (Shift)
State
The Seattle Times joined many other Washington State newspapers in calling on Governor Jay Inslee to convene a special session of the Washington State Legislature to fix the state budget, following estimates of an $8.8 billion shortfall in previously projected revenues due to the coronavirus pandemic. The Times points to a Washington Research Council study which revealed that if Governor Inslee and the Democrats had followed the Republican legislators’ request, and reconvened to revise state spending in June, estimated cuts to state programs would only be 3% – 9%. Instead, by delaying the inevitable both because Inslee and the Democrats wanted to give state employees a second pay raise in 12 months and launch new state spending programs on July 1, the cuts will need to be as high as 28%. The editorial states, “Waiting has real-world impacts. Residents who care about particular programs — such as higher education and early learning — should demand Inslee and the Legislature act soon to prevent deeper cuts.” (Seattle Times and Washington Research Council)
Republican budget Leaders held a media availability today, where they repeated their call for a special session of the Washington State Legislature. Senator John Braun (R – Centralia) stated that while every Republican member of the legislature supports convening a special session immediately, only a handful of Democrats were willing to defy the orders of their party bosses and call on legislators returning to Olympia to fix the state’s budget. Braun said the Democrats “continue to kick the can down the road” until after the November elections. Senator Judy Warnick (R – Moses Lake) discussed how, by not acting now, Governor Inslee and the Democrats will cause severe financial hardships for nursing homes and others who require state aid. Representative Drew Stokesbary (R – Auburn) discussed how the Inslee Administration is essentially violating Washington State law by not either calling for a special session or imposing across the board cuts due to the revenue shortfall and budget deficit. (Legislative Republican media availability and Washington Policy Center)
The Washington Policy Center will be holding a virtual event on August 19th to discuss how the executive branch and the bureaucracy is circumventing the role of the legislature. The event will include legislators and policy leaders discussing recent examples within Washington State of this dangerous government trend. The event is free and will take place at 10:00 AM this Wednesday. You can register by clicking on the link. (Washington Policy Center)
Western Washington
State Democrat leaders continue to remain quiet as violence persists in Seattle. Governor Jay Inslee, Attorney General Bob Ferguson, U.S. Senator Patty Murray, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell, and Washington State Democrat Party Chair Tina Podlodowski refuse to condemn the actions of protestors who continue their acts of destruction. Instead of standing up for the public safety of community members and business owners, the state’s Democrat leadership appear to be most concerned about losing votes from the extreme members of their party. At the same time, they have abandoned longtime Democrat and Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan as she fought against deep cuts in public safety funding, and have said nothing regarding the “racist acts” (as portrayed by Reverend Al Sharpton, the leadership of Black Lives Matters, and leaders of the Seattle Black Community) of the Seattle City Council which led to resignation of Seattle’s first female Black Police Chief Carmen Best. (KOMO News)
The Olympia Downtown Alliance conducted a survey in which 40% of business owners say they could close in the next year, and 22% said they could close in the next six months due to the health restrictions placed on them by the state. The Alliance is asking consumers to safely visit these merchants or to order products online to help keep these employers from going out of business. (Daily Olympian)
University of Washington Atmospheric Professor Cliff Mass stood by his blog post which led to his removal from public radio programming, in which he equated some of the violent actions of Seattle rioters to those in Germany who smashed windows of Jewish retailers in 1938. He stated that the station management of KNKX did not speak to him to understand his perspective prior to firing him, after members of Seattle hostile left-wing “cancel culture” demanded on social media that he be fired. Mass said, “Seattle has changed radically in the last decade or so. There was a time when this was a tolerant city where diversity of opinion was tolerated, where a diversity of viewpoints was respected. Where people weren’t after people’s throats. But something changed… I think companies, public radio stations, universities, whatever, they are going to have to say, that we will respect diversity of viewpoints. We are not going to cancel anyone; we will not fire anyone. People can have their viewpoints and we will respect that.” (Q13 The Divide)
Recently, history was made, as the first all women crew served together at Station 22 in Lakewood. Even though women currently make up a small percentage of the West Pierce Fire Department (less than 10%, at 11 out of 140 firefighters), the numbers continue to grow. (News Tribune)
Eastern Washington
Bars and restaurants in Clarkston, Washington, are losing business because residents can drive across the Snake River to Lewiston, Idaho, where there are fewer restrictions. In Washington State, bars must end alcohol service at 10:00 PM, and keeping many bars from operating during their most profitable hours. Washington State’s mask requirements has made going to Lewiston more attractive for customers of other types of businesses. (Lewiston Tribune)
The Walla Walla Union Bulletin “again urge(s) Inslee to call a special session so lawmakers can start getting this growing budget crisis under control.” The editorial states, “It’s past time to face that reality. Accepting the reality of the problem is the first step.” (Walla Walla Union Bulletin)
The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) announced they had lethally removed all three members of the Wedge wolf pack in Stevens County. WDFW officials said they had hoped that they could remove just one member of the pack to reduce livestock attacks. But the attacks continued, and the last two members were killed as well. (Capital Press)
Say What???
The Washington State Democrats sent out an email on Monday morning which had two items that that raised some eyebrows at the Shift office. 1) The email spoke of a gathering for Sheriff Loren Culp in “Cheval County.” Since there is no Cheval County in Washington, this is yet another example of the Washington Democrats being clueless to anything outside of the Seattle city limits. For future reference, we provide this link to a map of Washington State, so the State Democrats can learn the names of all 39 counties. 2) They called the Culp rally “the grossest disrespect for public health we’ve seen in Washington.” Have they heard about the recent riots where dozens of police have been hurt? Did they hear about the murders of young black men that took place in the CHAZ? (These local stories made national news, but apparently the Democrat party staff is as clueless as Governor Inslee and these events “are news to them”). Apparently to the Washington State Democrats, injuring police officers and the killing of young Black men are not examples of a gross “disrespect for public health.” We know the Washington State Democrats have abandoned Police Chief Carmen Best, The Seattle Police Department, Seattle employers and workers, and Seattle residents who have had their public safety threatened by the extreme actions of the Democrats on the Seattle City Council (which many Black groups and leaders called “racist”), but thankfully, the rest of the state still supports law and order. (Washington State Democrats email, Map of Washington State, Law Officer, New York Times, and Rebecca Perry Twitter)
Overheard on the Internets
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