Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal is being blamed for his office’s inability to certify teachers in time for the 2022 – 2023 school year with several districts fearing they will start the school year without enough certified teachers.  A spokesperson for the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) stated that this year was no different from previous years, yet they are seeking to hire additional application processors to address the OSPI’s backlog of more than 3,700 applications.  It is frustrating for many that state government is so poorly administrated that despite the state budget doubling in size over the last nine years, government agencies consistently claim more people need to be hired before it can perform its basic functions. (KIRO7 News)

The Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) finally removed a homeless encampment on its property near the interchange of I-90 and I-5, just South of Downtown Seattle.  Many local businesses were pleased to see the crime, garbage, and drug use associated with the encampment removed from the neighborhood. Others stressed that while the encampment may be gone, the people remain in the city, and they could return even if the state is providing them with free shelter. (MyNorthwest)

New footage from inside the Cathlamet ferry shows a man scrambling to get inside the vessel’s passenger area just as it crashed into the dolphin at the Fauntleroy ferry dock in late July.  The man appeared unhurt.  It is expected that the ferry will be out of service for repairs at least for the rest of 2022. Federal investigators have been investigating the crash but have yet to say publicly what the contributing factors were to the accident.  Many are interested in knowing whether Governor Inslee’s vaccine mandate and the subsequent staff shortages within the ferry system played any role in the crash, which is expected to cost taxpayers millions (even before the expected lawsuits).  (KING5 News)

King County Councilmember and Sound Transit Board of Directors Member Claudia Balducci fails to mention that the light rail link to Bellevue is already running three years behind schedule as she pushes for an “on-time opening” of an Eastside-only link.  The “Balducci scheme” would allow the agency (and board members like her) to save face by actually opening something next year in Bellevue, but it would not be connected to the rest of Sound Transit’s lines because the agency is facing more cost overruns and construction delays in building/repairing/replacing rail supports on the I-90 bridge. Engineers have said these construction problems will delay connecting across Lake Washington to the Eastside by “at least another year.”

Councilmember Balducci uses Orwellian Ministry of Truth techniques in her Seattle Times op-ed, as she attempts to rewrite history by stating that the Eastside link was scheduled to open in 2023.  The reality is the voters in 2008 were promised that the Eastside link (including the I-90 portion) “to be open to Bellevue by 2020.” Three years late might mean “on-time” to those at Sound Transit, where every portion of the light rail project has resulted in massive construction delays and cost overruns (the promised $53 billion ST3 is now expected to cost at least $135 billion), but to taxpayers the project is already very late in delivering what was promised to them. (Seattle Times and Sound Transit 2 Mass Transit Guide, Page 7 )

A split 2 – 2 vote of the Kent School Board halted the efforted of administrators to take the teachers’ union to court to end its illegal strike against the students of the district, which has now caused the cancellation of four school days.  There is currently one vacant position on the board, and the one member who is a teacher was joined by the board’s president to block the legal action.  While President Leslie Hamada’s vote upset many parents, she did warn that her “patience is close to an end” on the inability to come to an agreement. (Kent Reporter)

A generation of liberal housing policies have severely reduced the number of affordable rental units in Seattle, and thus a new expensive government bureaucracy has been proposed to build rent-controlled properties in which rates would not be subject to market conditions. The new Seattle Housing Authority would also expand the eligibility for rent-controlled properties.  King County Elections confirmed that Initiative 135 has enough valid signatures to appear on the ballot and could be voted on by the public next February, if the Seattle City Council does not enact the “government-first” measure first.  The initiative has already drawn opposition from other taxpayer-funded housing bureaucracies which are concerned the proposed housing authority would take money away from their pet projects. The Seattle Times article on the initiative does not contain any information on how much the new authority would cost or if taxpayers would be forced to fund its development and operations (and always to be expected cost overruns).

Multiple liberal anti-landlord measures passed by the Seattle City Council in recent years have caused a rapid disappearance of rental properties in the city and have caused rental rates to skyrocket.  Between May 2021 and January 2022, more than 10,000 rental units were removed from the Seattle market as property managers decided it was better to sell their properties then abide by the radical laws governing their private properties. The reduction in available rental units has predictably increased the cost of rent in Seattle.  Similar to liberal homeless and drug policies causing a rapid increase in the number of homeless individuals and addicts, which created conditions “requiring” the creation of the expensive King County Regional Homelessness Authority, liberal housing policies have made it difficult for renters, and thus the need for another expensive housing authority. But give credit where it’s due, liberal policies are often successful in doing one thing – creating more government jobs.  (Seattle Times and MyNorthwest)

Seattle was featured in a national NPR news report that the increase in violent crime may be ”the new normal” and not just a pandemic blip. Liberal public safety measures at the state, county, and city level have caused a mass exodus of well-trained police officers and an increase in the number of violent crime victims.  Homicides and assault figures are not going down as life returns to normal following the COVID pandemic. Authorities claim that criminal activity in Seattle today is far different than what was experienced during the 1990’s, which was more gang related. Current violent crimes are now more often related to petty offenses and reckless shootings.

It was not too long ago (when diversity of views was still allowed) that Seattle used to be featured in national news stories for being the country’s “most livable city” and for its high-tech innovations. Today it is featured for its homelessness and crime problems, both of which are a result of failed liberal public policies. (NPR)

A number of agricultural trade associations have been allowed by the federal courts to intervene in a lawsuit brought by an environmental group over the possible delisting of the gray wolves.  The extreme environmental group Defenders of the Wildlife filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife over its decision to remove the wolf from the endangered list.  The Cattleman’s Association, the Farm Bureau, and other agricultural groups have now been allowed by 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals to intervene in the case as they seek to defend the delisting of the wolf by the federal government.  A spokesperson for the Public Lands Council applauded the court’s decision stating, “The decision to allow the coalition to intervene in the case demonstrates what we’ve always known: livestock producers deserve to have their voice heard on the delisting of the gray wolf.” (Pacific Northwest AG Network)

The Inslee Administration finally admitted that its vaccine mandate is a major factor for why the Washington State Ferry (WSF) system is severely understaffed and why hundreds of thousands of commuters have been stuck at Puget Sound docks due to last-minute cancelations of sailings, due to vessels not having enough certified workers.  The Inslee administration finally was forced to admit this obvious truth in a backhanded manner last week, as not even the governor’s team could deny the negative impact resulting from 132 Washington State Ferry workers being “separated’ from their jobs due to Inslee’s politically motivated and unscientific mandate.

The governor’s spin machine still continues to reach for other excuses for the massive service disruptions, but even if these explanations are true, they would demonstrate a different disturbing management failure for the governor. The administration has been pushing the narrative that an aging workforce has caused the WSF to not have enough certified workers. If this is true, then why didn’t the state prepare for this by having enough new trained and certified workers ready to replace these expected-to-retire employees? (Click to read full Shift Article)

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