University of Washington Atmospheric Professor Cliff Mass was fired from his weekly segment on public radio station KNKX for his blog post in which he criticized individuals who have used recent protests to cover their violent and destructive actions. He also condemned the Seattle City Council’s “ineffective, weak and destructive city leadership.”  Professor Mass, who has often been ostracized by academia for standing up to the prevailing “let’s use climate change to raise taxes for more government control over our lives” mindset, has once again challenged the region’s liberal establishment and its selective support for free speech. Mass’ latest blog post reveals his thoughts after walking around a deserted (except for drug dealers) and boarded-up downtown Seattle.  He criticized the council’s “reckless and irresponsible” actions to defund the police.  Mass states, “Local political leaders such as the City Council and Mayor chose to downplay the violence, while the Governor acted like he didn’t know it was even occurring.   Amazingly, the City Council attempted to handcuff the police by removing non-lethal crowd control tools.   And even worse, a majority of the city council called for defunding the Seattle police by 50%.  Why 50%?  No rational reason is given–just an impressive sounding round number.  Stunningly, some of our political leadership provided emotional support to those participating in violence and intimidation.”  We encourage our readers to read Mass’ blog post in full and then ask why does the region’s liberal establishment and its social media mob want to silence this viewpoint. (KNKX Statement on firing Mass and Mass’ blog)

Among the many informative reports about the development of a coronavirus vaccine, we found this recent American Enterprise Institute podcast to be one of the most complete and instructive.  The podcast features an interview with Dr. Moncef Slaoui who is leading Operation Warp Speed, the U.S. government-led effort to develop and distribute a vaccine.  The interview covers the political atmosphere surrounding the effort and the challenges faced to both develop and distribute a vaccine. (What the Hell is Going On?)

California billionaire and mega-donor to liberal political schemes across the country (and unfortunately Washington), Tom Steyer, has been accused of violating state labor laws during his recent campaign for the Democrat presidential nomination.  Two former staffers have filed a lawsuit against Steyer, who has long been a major donor (and influencer) supporting Governor Jay Inslee’s expensive environmental schemes.  This is not the first time Steyer has been accused of poor working conditions. His American NextGen organization has had repeated complaints about the long hours with no time off, which caused many staffers to quit. (The Washington Free Beacon)

Gym owners are upset with the new state guidelines for their facilities, pointing out the rules are more stringent than what other states are requiring. The new rules require gym patrons to exercise and move around the gym in a 15ft x 20ft imaginary box (i.e. 300 square feet of distance).  Gym operators claim this is nearly impossible for it requires coordinating the movements of all individuals inside their facilities.  Fitness businesses are facing severe economic difficulties with many losing a significant number of memberships during the coronavirus pandemic.  (Seattle Times)

The Washington Policy Center (WPC) announced it is the organization behind the billboards that read “Free Markets Destroy.”  The campaign is aimed at reminding Washington residents that the free market system destroys society’s worst problems while it is improving lives.  WPC President Dann Mead Smith (who first gave Shift readers a glimpse at WPC’s anti-socialist effort in March) said, “We have a growing concern – young Americans are warming to the idea of socialism and they have a skeptical perception of our free enterprise system. That trend cannot go unchallenged. Younger Americans are the first to pursue new technology, new cures, and all of the things the free market system provides.”   (Washington Policy Center and Shift)

In an email to supporters, the Seattle Police Guild claims “nefarious individuals are attempting to attack our website to disrupt our campaign.” The website, StopDefunding.com, has thus far collected more than 160,000 online signatures opposing the actions of Democrat Seattle City Councilmembers who seek to slash police funding by 50%.  The Guild is also promoting its pro-police rally this Sunday at noon, at Seattle City Hall.  (Seattle Police Guild email)

Eight Yakima area gyms were fined for opening and for violating state orders.  Most of the fines were handed out to Anytime Fitness franchises owned by two separate entities. Each gym has been fined $9,639 by the Washington State Department of Labor and Industry.  (YakTriNews)

The agriculture community deserve a great deal of credit for keeping the food chain supply intact during the coronavirus outbreak, says the Washington State Department of Agriculture Director Derek Sandison.  Farmers have also worked hard to ensure that food assistance programs, which were suddenly inundated with new clients, had a steady supply of food.  Sandison stated the one area where the industry will need to be more flexible is being able to switch products destined for food service and have it enter the grocery chain where it is needed. (WashingtonAGNetwork)

3^rd Congressional District candidate Carolyn Long has seemingly forgotten that our state no longer nominates candidates by party and instead uses the Top Two format to select general election candidates.  In her latest fundraising email, Professor Long (tenured in public policy at Washington State University Vancouver) mistakenly claims she is “moving on to the general election this November as your Democratic nominee for U.S. Representative.”  We can understand Long not remembering that Washington adopted the Top Two system 16 years ago, for she is likely in shock from her extremely poor showing in Tuesday’s primary election.  Remember that in the 2018 general election, Long was defeated by Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler by a 52.7% – 47.3% margin.  Yet in this week’s primary election (featuring a higher-than-usual Democrat turnout) Herrera Beutler trounced Long by more than 15 percentage points (currently 55.8% to 40.2%). (Long Campaign’s email, Secretary of State 2018 vote results, and Secretary of State 2020 primary vote results)