Democrat Senator Sam Hunt continues protecting Governor Jay Inslee’s one-man rule of Washington State through his strongarm chairmanship of a normally meaningless committee.  Democrat bosses in the legislature know they can send important legislation to the State Government and Elections Committee, because Chairman Hunt will do as he is told.  Senator Hunt will either limit public testimony or complete deny public input on important legislation, before allowing popular measures (that challenge Governor Inslee’s power) to die in committee.  As Shift reported last week, Senator Hunt only allowed one hour of testimony on the bi-partisan bill (SB 5114) that would move all regions of the state to Phase 2 of Inslee’s latest economic shutdown, despite more than 1,600 Washington residents registering to testify.  To compound this total disregard for the hardship that thousands of Washington residents are currently experiencing under Governor Inslee’s lockdown orders, Senator Hunt also instructed staff to cut off speakers at exactly one-minute into their testimony without notice.  Now we find out that Hunt is continuing his role as the legislative lapdog for the Democrat bosses by not allowing public testimony on a bipartisan bill (SB 5039) to limit the Governor’s emergency powers, despite the proposal receiving substantial support in newspaper editorials, from the public, and even from some Democrat legislators.  As Jason Mercier of the Washington Policy Center points out, Hunt’s committee is not allowing the public to speak on this important legislation, but he is allowing public comment on selecting a state dinosaur (which is usually the type of issue Senator Hunt is trusted to handle).  For most rational people, this is a sign of someone who would rather please his partisan bosses than someone who wants to serve the needs of the public. (Washington Policy Center, Shift Article, and Washington Legislature Bill Summary)

A national story in Education Week indicates that public opinion towards teachers and their unions appears to be changing due to their unreasonable demands to reopen schools.  When national schools were closed last Spring in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, most of the public was sympathetic towards schoolteachers who quickly needed to adapt to distance learning.  Yet things began to change last Autumn, when public health officials showed scientific data indicating it was safe for students to return to the classrooms, while teachers’ unions began making their demands to keep schools closed.  This made the teachers and their unions the targets of frustrated parents, who could see the poor education which most students were receiving, and the growing mental issues their children were experiencing.  The article states that many teachers are experiencing a change in the public’s perception of their profession and unions. While the article uses a national poll taken in early November to show the public attitude has not changed much, it is easy to believe that the negative perception towards teachers’ unions has grown in the past three months, and that these negative feelings would be greatest in the few areas of the country where schools have remained closed (which is the case for the vast majority of Washington State public school students).  It is easy to imagine current survey numbers in Washington State would be far different than the national poll taken last Fall. (Education Week)

Without providing a reason, the Washington Education Association (WEA) has suddenly canceled its virtual presentation from Dr. Vin Gupta scheduled for Wednesday evening.  As Shift reported yesterday, the Schools are Essential parents’ group found damaging KIRO News footage of Dr. Gupta stating that COVID-19 was “not as severe as the flu,” which certainly undermined his credibility in supporting the WEA’s unreasonable demands which are keeping most schools closed. (WEA Facebook post and KIRO News)

Governor Inslee’s moratorium on evictions is causing severe financial difficulties for some small property owners.  One example is a Blaine couple who partially live off of the income they receive from renting a duplex. The tenant has stopped paying rent and the couple has lost at least $10,000.  The local police say the renter is involved in criminal activity and the couple is concerned that he will leave the premises (without paying the back rent) when the moratorium has ended. (MyNorthwest)

You guessed it: Seattle’s law “enforcement” leaders are not on the same page in coping with liberal political violence. Yesterday we told you that Interim Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz announced that the City of Seattle would be more active in prosecuting liberal rioters than it was last year.  Yet, it appears that ultra-liberal City Attorney Pete Holmes is unwilling to make the same commitment to, um, enforce the law.  Despite Chief Diaz saying he had been working with the City Attorney’s office on this matter, Holmes stated, “The press conference itself was a bit of a surprise to me — actually a complete surprise. I think, having spoken to Chief Diaz afterward, I think he simply misspoke.” Holmes then stated his policies for (not) prosecuting those who commit misdemeanors while rioting has not changed.  Thus, at a time when Seattle residents are seeking an end to the on-going liberal political violence, and to start rebuilding portions of the city which have been severely impacted, Seattle’s top law enforcement officials are providing no leadership in assuring the public that the City of Seattle will protect its neighborhoods, businesses, and police officers from further attacks from liberal protestors.  (KUOW and Seattle Times)

There is a growing belief that Democrat King County Executive Dow Constantine might receive a serious challenger this year — because he is not liberal enough (yes, we are not making this up).  In the latest indication that Seattle’s political views are falling off the extreme Left end of the political spectrum, there are rumors that State Senator Joe Nguyen (D – West Seattle) is seriously considering taking on Constantine in this year’s election. Senator Nguyen is often considered among the most radically Left-wing members of the legislature, and lives in Constantine’s geographic base of West Seattle.  Apparently, Constantine’s slashing of the Sheriff’s budget, handing out facemasks to rioters, providing a safe haven for illegal immigrants, proposing expensive failed environmental policies, and having a transgender stripper perform at a homeless conference, are not liberal enough to satisfy the radical crowd in Seattle. (Washington Observer)

Due to the latest sewage spill into Puget Sound, the Environmental Protection Agency has provided a $96.8 million loan to King County to finally fix infrastructure that has caused repeated damage to the environment.  The latest spill occurred a couple of weeks ago, with 11 million gallons of sewage spewing out of the West Point Sewage Plant in Magnolia, causing Kitsap County to close its Seattle-facing beaches. (Bellevue Reporter and KUOW)

Democrat proposals to raise gas taxes in Washington State will impact residents in the Eastern half of the state the hardest, yet they will receive extraordinarily little of the benefit.  As Senator Mark Schoesler (R-Ritzville) points out, the 18-cent-a-gallon increase (which would make our state’s gas tax the highest in the country) will mainly go towards Governor Inslee’s pet projects of electrifying state ferries and building salmon culverts.  Schoesler says, “These aren’t improvements going to be seen to rural Washington, they are going to be urban improvements and we get the bill.” (Pacific NW AG Network)

Controversial comments on “white privilege” made by Pasco Education Association’s President Scott Wilson are evidently supported by more than 100 members of his union.  Wilson had stated at a January 12^th school board meeting that those behind the reopen schools movement are linked to a “culture of white supremacy and white privilege.” The comments have drawn considerable outrage in the Tri-Cities, with many calls for Wilson to resign and for teachers to leave the union. (Tri-City Herald)

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 willing to endure the shame of passing similar legislation. (Read the full article at ShiftWA)

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