The Schools are Essential organization (a parents group seeking to return students to the classroom) has uncovered contradictory video of Dr. Vin Gupta, the physician the Washington Education Association is using to promote its selfish position that schools remain closed and that Washington students continue to receive a second-rate education. In a March 3, 2020, KIRO News interview, Dr. Gupta proclaims, “Live your life. I think we’re overthinking the whole epidemic here. This is, frankly, not as severe as the flu, so we need to keep that in mind.” The WEA is heavily promoting an event this Wednesday in which Dr. Gupta (identified by the teachers’ union as a “nationally recognized medical and public health expert”) will be taking questions from WEA members.   We wonder if any WEA member will ask the doctor why people should believe him now, when at the start of the pandemic his incorrect public statements likely caused some to underestimate the danger of COVID-19.  We also wonder if any WEA member will ask their leadership why they can’t find a more accurate health expert to agree with its anti-scientific stance to deny proper education to our children. (Schools are Essential Facebook post, KIRO News, and Washington Education Association Facebook Post)

Governor Jay Inslee is “re-thinking” his strategy to force legislators to fund his goal of $726 million for fish passage culvert projects.  One the first day of the legislative session, the governor showed his desire to keep running the state by himself and paused numerous projects included in the $16- billion 2015 Connecting Washington plan – just to free up money for his culverts’ plan until legislators passed funding for Inslee’s projects.  This obviously angered both Democrat and Republican lawmakers, and the pressure has been felt within the governor’s office.  Democrat Senator Steve Hobbs stated, “Halting projects breaks the promises we all made six years ago.”   On Saturday, it appeared the governor has backed down from his flawed thinking, with a spokesperson stating, “We are reviewing all options that include restoring the paused projects, while working with legislators on assuring funding for required investments in culverts and other critical programs.”  (Cornfield Report/Everett Herald) and 2015 Connection Washington)

A broad coalition is strongly encouraging legislators to include 18^th Amendment protection on a Road Usage Charge (RUC) if it is implemented to replace the state’s gas tax.   The Washington State Constitution’s 18^th Amendment requires that money raised by the state’s gas tax must be “placed in a special fund to be used exclusively for highway purposes.”  The legislature has begun studying a RUC (a per-mile charge) due to less revenue being collected from the gas taxes as modern vehicles become more fuel efficient.  Some special interest groups have seen the RUC as new account that can be used to pay for their special projects, and steal the money from road maintenance and construction. Yet a coalition of business, labor groups, and professional associations is urging state lawmakers to place the same 18^th Amendment restrictions on the RUC’s revenue as are currently enforced on the state’s gas tax. (Washington Policy Center and Washington State Constitution’s 18^th Amendment)

From the Oops Department: The head of the Washington State Democrat Party unknowingly gives credit to the creativity of a Republican staffer.  Party Boss Tina Podlodowski reposted a tweet which superimposed the now famous picture of a mitten-clad Senator Bernie Sanders onto the office chair being stolen by Tim Eyman.  Podlodowski wrote “Please let me know who made this fabulous meme.”  We are pleased to inform Chair Podlodowski that the meme (which was featured in last Friday’s Daily Briefing) was created by a Republican who worked for former State Treasurer Duane Davidson.  While it is good to see Chair Podlodowski use Twitter to praise Republican work, we believe it would be a better use of her tweeting time if she (or any other Washington State Democrat official) condemned the on-going street violence by liberal activists. (Tina Podlodowski Twitter and Shift’s Daily Briefing)

Seattle’s interim Police Chief Adrian Diaz stated that the city will arrest and prosecute protestors who destroy property (now that Joe Biden is President), under a new, more law enforcement-like policy that he claims had been coordinated with the city attorney’s office.  Chief Diaz made the announcement over the weekend, yet it is not certain ultra-liberal (and ultra-ineffective) City Attorney Pete Holmes is on board with changes which might actually punish people breaking the law on his watch.  After repeated occasions of arrested rioters being released, Chief Diaz’ pronouncement was welcome news to the employers and workers of businesses which have been targeted by liberal thugs.  Yet, City Attorney Holmes was not at the announcement and his staff stated they were caught off-guard by Diaz’ statement.  And it is thus anyone’s guess whether Seattle laws will actually be enforced. (Seattle Times)

Despite interim police Chief Diaz’ statement that those responsible for street violence will be prosecuted, others at City Hall continue to pretend the violence by liberal activists is not taking place.  Not one member of the Seattle City Council issued a statement following the violent riots last week, which damaged more of the city’s small businesses and government buildings.  The councilmembers’ silence is again joined by the hypocrisy of Democrat officials like Governor Inslee and Attorney General Bob Ferguson, who continue to remain quiet over violence committed by liberal activists, but quickly blasted out tweets and fundraising emails when fringe Trump supporters committed violence.  Liberal politicians have had eight months to condemn street violence by their supporters, and they have chosen not to.  Instead, they have chosen to allow liberal violence to continue, and become a normal part of our state’s political discourse. (MyNorthwest)

In the latest example of liberal politicians believing they should decide how much private sector employees should be paid, the Seattle City Council is “fast-tracking” its proposal to force grocery stores to pay employees $4 an hour more.  Union bosses told councilmembers to call this “hazard pay” to impose this pay raise for union grocery workers.  AN analysis of this measure shows that while this wage increase will benefit a few grocery workers, it will increase the cost of groceries, likely result in staff reductions, and could lead to the closure of some stores.  Also, it is important to note that while grocery businesses increased revenue during the pandemic, they did not increase profits, due to several increased costs of operating under new government rules (and their own decisions to temporarily increase salaries for employees).  (SCCInsight)

The Spokesman Review printed a comment from an environmental spokesperson that was inaccurate and dishonest.  In the latest example of the media rarely fact-checking statements by far-Left environmentalists, the newspaper quoted a spokesperson from The Lands Council falsely stating facts about what occurred during the Trump Administration.  They said, “We saw logging projects in Colville National Forest being done in a way that they hadn’t been done in over two decades. Large clear cuts were done without looking into the environmental impacts.”  As Washington Policy Center’s Todd Myers points out, there were no large timber harvest in the Colville National Forest during the Trump Administration, with the last harvest beginning in 2016 and was approved by the Obama Administration).  (Spokesman-Review and Todd Myers Twitter)

Chewelah Mayor Dorothy Knauss said she signed up to testify remotely on SB 5114, but gave up after 40 minutes when it became obvious Senator Sam Hunt (D – Olympia) was mostly calling on the same people who had testified on other bills during the very brief public hearing which he was allowing.  Last Wednesday, while President Joe Biden’s Inauguration was consuming the attention of most folks interested in public policy, Senator Hunt’s State Government and Election Committee allowed just one hour of public testimony on the bipartisan SB 5114, which would open up the state’s economy quicker than many of the Left would like. Sen. Hunt took this minimalist approach despite more than 1,600 people signing up to testify remotely on it. Mayor Knauss said that this bill was especially important to small communities like hers, and that “with these (current) restrictions it is almost impossible” to keep a business open.  Sen. Hunt’s decision to hold a remarkably short public hearing on an issue that financially impacts hundreds of thousands of Washington residents is the latest insult to local officials from Governor Inslee and Democrat state officials.  Remember, Sen. Hunt has scheduled the same length of time (one hour) this week for a public hearing on naming our state dinosaur. Making the Democrats’ arrogance even more disappointing is that not only are local officials not allowed to testify on important issues, but Democrat lawmakers have also repeatedly failed to even reply to letters and phone calls from local officials.  (Mayor Knauss email and Washington Legislature Bill Summary)

Last week’s Newsmaker Interview was with Greg Lane, the Executive Vice President of the Building Industry of Washington (BIAW), who leads the largest trade organization in the state.  Lane shared with Shift readers the successful strategy the builders deployed last Spring to convince Governor Jay Inslee to lift his nonsensical ban on private construction, which enabled thousands of Washington workers to resume earning a paycheck.  Lane also discussed the 2021 legislative session and some of the problems he sees with the “virtual” session designed by Democrats. He also provides his views on what needs to be done to reduce the cost of housing and eliminate the state’s severe shortage of housing units. (Read the full Newsmaker Interview at ShiftWA)

Democrat Senator Patty Kuderer is once again pushing her extreme bill in the Washington State Legislature to allow felons to vote BEFORE they have paid their debt to society and their victims.  During the 2020 legislative session, Republican legislators were able to expose on the Senate floor the many flaws of the legislation, and Sen. Kuderer’s fellow Democrats were embarrassed enough to kill the bill. We wonder if during this 2021 session Democrat lawmakers will prove to be so desperate for votes that they are now willing to endure the shame of passing similar legislation. (Read the full article at ShiftWA)

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