Shift’s Newsmaker Interview is with Washington State Representative Kelly Chambers (R – Puyallup).  The second-term legislator was recently honored at the 2022 Roanoke Conference with the prestigious Slade Gorton Rising Star Award.  Representative Chambers is a lifelong Pierce County resident, former schoolteacher, and current business owner of a home care and senior care business in Pierce County. During this very busy time in Olympia, the representative took time to provide her thoughts on winning the Slade Gorton award,  the frustration expressed by her constituents over the Democrats’ “police reform” package, the need for Washington residents to have affordable options for long-term care insurance, and the failure of the Democrats to support meaningful reform of the governor’s emergency authority. (Click to read full Newsmaker Interview)

The latest data breach at Governor Jay Inslee’s administration’s Washington State Department of Licensing (DOL) is much larger than earlier admitted to by state officials.  It is another Friday afternoon, when once again members of the governor’s communication team is again slowly releasing more news regarding hackers successfully navigating through the lax security safeguards the Inslee Administration had placed on the personal information of Washington State residents.  Previously the DOL said that only limited information from approximately 257,000 state residents might have been compromised.  Today this number jumped to 650,000, and it is believed social security numbers were obtained by the hackers and that this information is now for sale on the “dark web.”

As was the case with the 2020 successful hacking of Inslee’s Employment Security Department (which resulted in foreign criminals stealing $650 million in one of the largest thefts in American history), the governor is nowhere to be found.  He hides in the Governor Mansion while his staff slowly releases more information on the state’s latest failure to protect personal financial information of state residents.  And if history is repeated, no one within Inslee’s team will take responsibility for this latest failure or will be fired. Also, the Democrats in charge of the legislature will enable this lack of accountability and transparency by refusing to hold substantive hearings on why the administration fails to protect such sensitive information which will leave hundreds of thousands of Washington residents vulnerable to identity theft. (Seattle Times)

As we watch the Super Bowl this Sunday, we wonder if either coach of the Cincinnati Bengals or the Los Angeles Rams will seek out the cameras at half time to prematurely brag that due only to his own efforts his team has won the big game, just like Governor Inslee notoriously did last July.   If you recall, last summer the governor took a victory lap around the state and when he was asked if it was time to include legislators, locally elected officials, and local health officials into the decision-making process (as has been done effectively in nearly every other state) the governor boasted, “I’m not sure I want to reform a system that won the Super Bowl.” Yet just weeks later COVID rates again increased, and his statement became the governor’s embarrassing “Mission Accomplished” moment. (Brandi Kruse Twitter)

Republican Legislative leaders sent Governor Inslee a letter asking him to lift his mask mandate as nearly all other Democrat governors have done across the country, and which many well-respected health officials have encouraged.  Senate Republican Leader John Braun and House Republican Leader JT Wilcox sent the letter following the governor’s statement on Wednesday that he wants to wait at least another week before unilaterally deciding whether to lift the mandate. They wrote, “What we have concerns with is your reluctance to tell Washingtonians when you will lift the statewide indoor and school mask mandates. It should not take another week to make this decision. The time is now. Providing this certainty would be uplifting for so many people who have had to endure some of the strictest orders in the nation.” (Senator Braun’s and Representative Wilcox’ letter to Governor Inslee)

Five private sector trade unions came out against Governor Inslee’s latest costly and ineffective climate bills stating the legislation would “will increase energy costs for homes and businesses, eliminate family-wage jobs, restrict energy choice, and put electric reliability at risk.”  The coalition of building trade unions oppose HB 1767 and HB 1770 which are the governor’s latest attempts to please his wealthy environmentalist special interest groups by placing more restrictions on the use of natural gas and by allowing an unelected board of governor appointees (the State Building Codes Council) to set costly new construction requirements.  The trade unions state that while these bills will increase the cost of housing in our state, “these measures do not produce any additional benefit to what is already mandated by the Climate Commitment Act,” (the 2021 cap-and-trade bill). HB 1767 has been passed by the House Committee on Environment & Energy and is currently before the House Rules Committee and HB 1770 was passed out of the Rules Committee on Thursday and is now waiting for action in the House floor.  (Washington State Wire op-ed and Washington Legislature Bill Summary)

Despite growth in the state’s population, the Washington State Caseload Forecast Council (CFC) has determined that public school enrollment has decreased by 42,633 students, which is a 3.8% decline, since the start of 2020.   State enrollment is currently below 2016 levels. Prior to the recent exodus, the state’s public schools were generally experiencing a yearly enrollment increase of 10,000 or more students. The CFC states that “Some families opted for home-based instruction, private school instruction, and delayed their child’s enrollment in kindergarten.”  Further state analysts believe that nearly all of these students will not be returning to public schools. This enrollment decline is the result of the state public school system being totally unprepared for distance learning and parents’ reactions to teachers’ unions unreasonable demands before they would allow in-person instruction to resume.  (Washington State Caseload Forecast Council and TVW – 9:27 mark)

Newly appointed Senator Simon Sefzik (R – Ferndale) passed his first bill in the Washington State Senate and was recognized as being the youngest person to ever serve in the chamber.  Senator Sefzik, who is 22 years old, was appointed to replace Senator Doug Ericksen who died in December. The Senate unanimously passed SB 5961 which seeks to increase the use of biochar, a fine-grained charcoal which, we are told, can help to reduce carbon emissions. (Lynden Tribune, Shift Newsmaker Interview, and Washington Legislature Bill Summary)

Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell has decided that two years of not paying rent is long enough as the city’s eviction moratorium will finally end on February 28^th.  The moratorium, which began in March 2020, and had previously been extended eight times, was supposed to end next Monday before Mayor Harrell extended it for an additional two weeks.  The federal government estimates that 12% of the renters (approximately 124,000 households) in King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties are behind on rent.  As we reported earlier this week, many economists believe that the long-term effect of the eviction moratorium is that there will be a reduce the number of rental units available in the city, and thus rent will increase due to the dwindling supply.  (Seattle Times and MyNorthwest)

Once again we were reminded of the dangerous situations our law enforcement officers face nearly every day when two Whatcom County deputies were shot and injured while responding to a dispute between two neighbors on Thursday afternoon.  Fortunately both deputies are in stable condition at St. Joseph Medical Center in Bellingham and the suspect has been arrested. (Bellingham Herald)

A new report from Todd Myers of the Washington Policy Center challenges many of the false and deceptive statements wealthy environmental groups are making (including to schoolchildren) to promote their desire to destroy the economy of Southeast Washington (and much of the region) by tearing down the four lower Snake River dams.  Myers points out that the environmental groups ignore the scientific findings of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration which assert that removing the dams would not increase the salmon food source for the declining Southern Resident Orca.

Among the many other deceptive practices used by environmental groups is that they often cherry pick the few rivers (among the dozens in the Pacific Northwest) where there has been a slight decline in salmon but fail to mention that nearly all other rivers have experienced an increase.  Environmental groups also falsely state that “salmon can’t migrate back and forth due to dams.” Yet the Army Corps of Engineers determined that more than 96% of the smolt pass through each of the four Snake River dams. (Washington Policy Center)

BABYLON BEE FRIDAY!

Do you like The Daily Briefing?

Please consider making a contribution to ensure Shift continues to provide daily updates on the shenanigans of the liberal establishment.

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].