Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz sent out an email blast asking contributors what her priorities should be in the 2020 legislative session. The message states “She wants to make sure she’s addressing your priorities this session. That’s why we’re coming to you today.” The email concludes, “Hilary will be looking over your responses on Sunday.” The message is somewhat insincere considering Franz came out earlier this week stating her legislative priority this session is to raise taxes on car and home insurance since she has failed to convince Democrats in the legislature that it should be a priority to fund fighting forest fires with current revenue. Maybe if she had been doing the job taxpayers pay her for, instead of preparing to run for governor most of this year, she would have made sure money was available to fight wildfires. (Franz Campaign email)

Radio talk show host suggests we could pay for the additional forest fire funding sought by Franz in eliminating the public money going to The Evergreen State College.  KIRO’s Dori Monson suggests that we pay for the additional $63 million proposed by the Public Lands Commissioner by selling the college which receives $60 million in state funding.  The ultra-liberal campus has seen a significant drop in enrollment following misguided student protests which consumed the school in 2017. (MyNorthwest)

The Washington State Supreme Court rejected an emergency motion from Attorney General Bob Ferguson to strike down the injunction from a King County court stopping the enactment of I-976, which was to go into effect today.  The split decision from the court means the voter approved measure will not go into effect until legal questions are answered by the courts. (Spokesman Review)

Innovation is often the best method to improve our environment.  The Sammamish Plateau Water district unveiled a new app that allows residents to receive updates on their water usage and to track if they are wasting water (and money).  It is believed that 10% of water usage is unnecessary and this app will instantaneously inform customers if they are wasting water. (Washington Policy Center)

To go along with King County dramatically failing to meet its greenhouse gas emissions goals, the county is now admitting that it is also failing to meet court-imposed improvements for water treatment, resulting in the continued polluting of Puget Sound.  As previously reported by Shift, with great fanfare King County set a goal in 2015 to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 2020.  Yet with only weeks to go before that deadline, the county has fallen considerably short, reducing emissions with just over by 1%.  Now the county admits that it is also failing to meet court-ordered requirements to improve water treatment procedures and thus allowing more untreated water to flow into Puget Sound.  Meanwhile, the cost to the taxpayers of these improvements continues to skyrocket.  Dow Constantine and his huge liberal bureaucracy are finding it is easier to be self-righteous in their environmental proclamations than it is to accomplish them. (Seattle Times and Shift)

Following a National Transportation Safety Board report last May, Sound Transit conducted its own investigation which also determined its significant role in causing the fatal 2017 Amtrak crash over I-5.  Both reports stated that Sound Transit did not follow proper safety procedures and did not understand its role as owners of the railroad.  Thus, after two years and numerous studies and reports finding faults with the agency, Sound Transit demoted its chief safety officer, Salah Al-Tamimi, though he may continue to stay on the agency’s payroll. (News Tribune)

The Southwest Regional Transportation Council endorses plan to replace the I-5 bridge between Vancouver and Portland.  Although, the council also stated that a new bridge will not be enough to relieve congestion and said many other projects will also need to be funded. (Vancouver Columbian)

Report finds that half of the bike-share bicycles that are parked on Seattle’s sidewalks are inoperable.  An audit by the City of Seattle determined that 51% were not rentable due to broken parts or low battery levels. (Seattle Times)

By a 5-1 vote, the Everett City Council reversed its previous moratorium on low-income housing in single-family neighborhoods.  The council will now allow the construction of low-income housing on “surplus lands” owned by government entities. (Everett Herald)

Due to a state mandated change in health insurance benefits, the Kennewick School District is cutting hours of many substitute teachers.  Many substitutes will no longer be able to work more than eight days in a month to avoid the school district from having to pay medical insurance bills for part-time employees. (Tri-City Herald)

Three local races in Yakima County will come down to hand recounts. Individual council races in Sunnyside, Wapato, and Union Gap currently have a one or two vote margins. (Sunnyside Sun)

Do you like The Daily Briefing? Forward this to a friend! It helps us grow our community and serve you better.

You can also follow ShiftWA on social media by liking us on Facebook and following us on Twitter.

If you feel we missed something that should be covered, email us at [email protected].

If you don’t want to receive this email each morning, click here to opt-out of The Daily Briefing.