Has Ben Stuckart again violated the City of Spokane’s Code of Ethics, despite being out of office for just eight months?  While serving two terms as City Council President, Stuckart’s actions resulted in fines for ethics violations and supporters of his campaigns were slapped with Public Disclosure Commission complaints (and had ads pulled from TV).  Now we learn that Stuckart may have again violated the city’s ethics code.  City regulations prohibit former officials like Stuckart from lobbying the current city council and staff for one year after they leave public employment, yet a news report states he has been lobbying “behind the scenes” for the measure to fluoridate Spokane’s water. (Shift)

Bob Ferguson, in responding to a letter from Senator Doug Ericksen over the Attorney General Office’s public absence in combatting the continuing riots and attacks on Seattle police officers, provided strangely flippant answers to very serious concerns which many Washington citizens share with state legislators.   While weakly saying “I do not support property damage or any other intentional violation of the law,” Ferguson failed to condemn the specific actions of the current protesters or stand by the Seattle police officers who have been repeatedly attacked. (Page 1 and Page 2 of letter from Bob Ferguson)

On Wednesday evening, protestors moved their target to the Washington State Patrol offices in Seattle’s Eastlake neighborhood.  Police needed to tow cars to prevent serious accidents, used pepper spray to disperse the crowd, and made arrests.  Despite the protestors’ focus on a Washington State agency, there continues to be no comment from Governor Jay Inslee on the repeated, often violent attacks, on law enforcement personnel.  The reluctance to condemn the violent actions against those who serve to protect the public appears to be a common trait among Democrat officials.  Gov. Inslee, AG Ferguson, U.S. Senator Patty Murray, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell, and State Democrat Party Chair Tina Podlodowski have all been silent about the violent actions of Left-wing protestors and have refused numerous opportunities to support police officers. (Seattle Times)

Washington Secretary of State Kim Wyman, Senator Lynda Wilson (R – Vancouver), and Representative Jacquelin Maycumber (R – Republic) will be featured in a Republican Women in Government fundraiser this evening. The three will discuss their experiences and provide suggestions for the future.  The webinar will take place at 7:00 PM.  Registration is required. (Republican Women in Government registration information)

Seattle continues to be the butt of jokes and condemnation for officials across the country, primarily for its lack of action in stopping the on-going attacks on its police officers and businesses. Yesterday we reported that Detroit’s Chief of Police stated, “I am not going to let any group set up a Seattle zone of lawlessness here in the city of Detroit.” Last night during the Republican National Convention, South Dakota’s Governor Kristi Noam correctly stated, “From Seattle and Portland to Washington and New York, Democrat-run cities across this country are being overrun by violent mobs. The violence is rampant. There’s looting, chaos, destruction and murder.” Mayor Durkan immediately jumped on MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Show, to claim crime is down 5% and that “business continues.”  She failed to mention that many people have stopped reporting crimes in Seattle because the City Attorney’s office refuses to prosecute offenders.  The boarded-up windows of many retailers in Downtown Seattle and Capitol Hill refute the mayor’s claims that “business continues.”  And a quick conversation with any of the dozens of police officers who have been physically assaulted in the past few weeks will verify Governor Noam’s statements about violent mobs. (Seattle Times, Detroit News, Cliff Mass Blog, and Officer.com)

The Seattle Police Officer Guild President is asking Democrat elected officials to condemn the on-going and increasingly violent actions of protestors.  The many violent attacks on law enforcement officials in recent months merits “forceful” comment, Mike Solan said, “It’s quite clear that there are people that are hunting cops to kill them, and this is very concerning,  I’m demanding that our elected officials publicly decry these acts, demand that this violence stops, because I believe, if they come out forceful, they could have an impact to stop this nonsense.” (MyNorthwest)

King County Executive Dow Constantine released his latest set of long-term greenhouse gas emissions goals, while hoping no one notices that under his “leadership” the county is falling far short of meeting previous stated goals.  In 2015, Constantine promised that the county would reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 2020 (and, reduce 50% by 2030 and 80% by 2050), yet current data shows that the county has only reduced emissions by 1.4% and thus is missing its targets by 96%.  Constantine has blamed his administration’s failure on population growth – apparently his environmental experts were predicting that people would suddenly stop moving to King County after 2015.  Constantine’s latest goals appear to be the same as those he released in 2015, with the county still aiming to cut emissions in half by 2030.  Since most government environmental policy measures are really disguised efforts to grow the size and cost of government, we fully expect King County to again fall far short of its emissions goals by 2030.  We have a much more optimistic belief that Amazon (which pledged to use 100% renewable energy by 2025 and be carbon neutral by 2040) and other businesses (which seek results, not false promises) will meet their goals.  If we genuinely care about the environment, shouldn’t we be investing our limited government environmental resources on environmental policies that work and stop investing in the false promises of politicians? (Seattle Times, Shift, Washington Policy Center, and Amazon)

Alaska Airlines announced that it is planning to return four more daily flights out of Everett’s Paine Field in the next couple of months.  Alaska had stopped all flights out of Everett in March, due to the coronavirus outbreak, and had resumed two daily flights four weeks ago. Prior to the outbreak, Alaska had operated 18 daily flights from Paine Field.  Alaska spokesperson stated that the company does not expect to return to full passenger volumes for three or four years. (Everett Herald)

Despite an increase in coronavirus cases in Pullman due to some Washington State University students returning to campus, Spokane area colleges are hoping their students will adhere to health guidelines to prevent outbreaks on their campuses.  Whitman County has confirmed 162 new cases among young adults in the past four days and have blamed this mini-outbreak on students not wearing masks or adhering to social distancing guidelines. Gonzaga University and Whitworth University are hoping their students learn from the mistakes of WSU students, and are more responsible in their social interactions. (Spokesman Review)

Chelan and Douglas counties will experience a slight reduction in restrictions for swimming pools and religious services, but occupancy levels at retail locations will be decreased. Community pools will be allowed to reopen, but under very restricted terms, and indoor religious services will be capped at 25% occupancy.  Yet retail stores occupancy has been reduced from 50% to 30%.  (Wenatchee World)

The company which produced a mailer that attracted some Democrat and media attention in the 28^th Legislative District Senate campaign has provided Shift with its response to a factually incorrect and biased story that was published by National Public Radio’s local affiliate, KUOW.  DMM Media points out the many factual errors in the story and provides proof that the picture of Democrat candidate T’wina Nobles was not darkened for the mailer, as the company had been attacked for by Democrat activists. DMM Media further claims that KUOW, in its article, darkened the photo of the mailer to make the piece appear more sinister. Thus, while falsely asserting that DMM Media darkened the photo, KUOW is the actual offender in using a darkened photograph.  (Shift)

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