This week’s Newsmaker Interview is with Mariya Frost, the Director of the Coles Center for Transportation at the Washington Policy Center.  Ms. Frost provides timely insight on Governor Jay Inslee holding previously approved transportation projects hostage to try to get his fellow Democrats to approve funding for his pet “green” projects, the gas tax (will Washington have the highest gas tax in the country?), Sound Transit’s massive cost overruns, the “Road Usage Charge,” and how the COVID-19 pandemic will impact our transportation needs.  We also ask Frost, whose family fled a socialist system, her perspective on the disturbing blasé attitude regarding socialism in the U.S. today. (Click to read full Newsmaker Interview)

Governor Jay Inslee has a “road rage” issue.  One of the governor’s first acts of the 2021 legislative session was to announce that he was “pausing” construction projects (that were negotiated and approved in the 2015 Connecting Washington package) in order to obtain funding for his own favorite projects.  This helps put the governor’s priorities into perspective. He wants to spend 100 times more on helping salmon go upstream (through his fish culverts) than he is on helping Washington residents who have faced severe financial hardship due his random (and unscientific) actions that have devastated many small businesses during the pandemic. (Click to read full Shift Article)

The foreign criminals who stole more than $600,000,000 from Washington taxpayers must be jumping for joy at the news that inept Washington State Employment Security Department (ESD) Commissioner Suzi LeVine will be taking her dysfunctional management “skills” to become the “interim political head” of the federal Employment and Training Administration.  Still reeling from last week’s announcement that Democrat political fundraiser Suzi LeVine would be leaving the ESD for a position in the Biden Administration, we found out today exactly where she is going to inflict more damage.  We also learned that while LeVine’s administrative decisions allowed criminals to hack into our state’s computer system and become very wealthy, LeVine and her husband were investing $400,000 in helping Joe Biden become president and in other Democrat causes (like creating employment opportunities for herself). LeVine has experience in this field, becoming Ambassador to Switzerland after she raised millions for the first Obama campaign.  She became ESD Commissioner because she raised money for Inslee’s campaigns. And now she has a federal job because she donated hundreds of thousands to help Biden become president.  Talk about “privilege.” Most people need qualifications for a job, LeVine just buys into the job pipeline created by Democrat politicians. (Seattle Times)

As Suzi LeVine moves onto another government position she invested in, her sad legacy remains. Jim Brunner of the Seattle Times outlines the serious delay waiting for LeVine’s Employment Security Department to release public documents he had requested last spring.  Brunner writes that it has taken 219 days to receive most of the material – mainly LeVine’s daily calendar – he requested.  Shift readers will remember that investigative whistle-blower Lynn Brewer had to take the ESD to court to get a judge to order the dysfunctional department to turn over documents – which she has still yet to receive. (Seattle Times and Shift Newsmaker Interview)

The School is Essential group held an informative town hall meeting on Thursday evening, to provide the scientific data supporting the belief that it is important and safe to return students to in-person instruction.  Dr, Kimberly Brockenbrough provided startling figures showing there has been an 100% increase in suicide-related cases in emergency rooms involving teenage patients.  Dr. Eric Shipley stated, “COVID-19 transmission rates are identical in communities that have opened schools and those that have remained closed,” and “We do not need to wait until teachers are immunized to reopen schools.” While those who want to return students to classrooms held their town meeting to provide the data to support their position, those who want to keep schools closed (the Washington Education Association) had to abruptly cancel their town meeting on Wednesday due to it being revealed that their expert had erroneously stated last March that COVID-19 is “not as severe as the flu.” (School is Essential/Washington Alliance 4 Kids Facebook, Washington Education Association Facebook post, and KIRO News)

While controversial Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal announced with great fanfare plans to immunize educators, the reality is that his too little, too late program will likely not improve the timetable to reopen schools.  The plan does not alter the state’s criteria (i.e., age, health condition, profession) for when residents receive their vaccine, it simply sets up a special provider and locations for how 80% of the school employees will receive their shot.  Thus, it makes Reykdal’s (and other Democrat’s) major contributors at the Washington Education Association a privileged class, yet provides little or no relief to the students who want to return to the classroom. (Patch)

Senator Chris Gildon (R – Puyallup) provides a helpful “how to” video on remote testimony, and some opinions on pending legislative measures.  The tutorial demonstrates how easy it is to look up bills and provide lawmakers with your opinion.  Unfortunately, the video does not educate citizens on how to overcome the rude and dismissive actions by Senator Sam Hunt (D – Olympia) when he does not want to hear from Washington residents  – especially when it is testimony on how Governor Inslee’s unscientific orders continue to impose hardships on families and small businesses. (YouTube/Senator Gildon Video and Shift Article)

As Democrat legislators continue to try and spread the failed policies of Seattle onto the rest of the state, Democrat lawmakers have introduced legislation to tax all of the state’s residents who purchase sweetened beverages.  The bill (SB 5371) is the latest measure from the Democrats to make it more expensive to live in Washington State.  And, just like a similar measure in the City of Seattle, the tax will hurt low-income individuals the most. It’s too bad Democrats want to make the tax code more unfair just to please anti-sugar zealots.  (Law360 and Washington Legislature Bill Summary)

As Seattle shows its disregard for job creators,  the latest requiring grocery stores to pay employees $4.00 more an hour for the rest of the COVID-19  pandemic (as defined by government regulators), liberal Seattle Times business columnist Jon Talton points out that no one on the city council has run a business.  Talton writes that this latest anti-employer measure from the council passed 8-0 (as have many anti-business council proposals), and this reveals that “Seattle politics has become one flavor, never a healthy situation whoever is in charge.” Talton goes on to state, “Council members have only the thinnest private-sector experience. And what they do have is cast as “woke” moral superiority.” Near the conclusion of Talton’s column, he condemns the city’s liberal leadership by writing, “So it’s no wonder this council is so deaf to pleas from the private sector or blind to the dangers facing Seattle’s economic future. No wonder that the council and Durkan abandoned part of Capitol Hill to the lawless CHAZ. No wonder they love hating Amazon, whose headquarters is a priceless asset. This isn’t advancing social justice. It’s civic malpractice.”  (Seattle Times)

People waited in line overnight at the University of Washington Medical Center to receive a COVID-19 dose that was set to expire at 5:30 AM.  A refrigeration failure caused the doses to become at-risk of spoiling. Approximately 500 doses were available to any member of the general public. (MyNorthwest)

Spokane Mayor Nadine Woodward expressed frustration that once again Governor Inslee has altered his “Roadmap to Recovery” plan, and that this attack on her constituents will likely result in much of Eastern Washington waiting an additional week to reopen many of its small businesses.  The mayor was upset that the governor switched from using a one-week window of data to a two-week window in determining when regions were meeting his four somewhat-random benchmarks in the governor’s latest plan.  The mayor believes that if a one-week window were still being used, Eastern Washington could be reopened next week.  Woodward said, “Here we are, so close, and the plan has changed. The goal posts have been moved. And now we have to wait two weeks.”  The mayor also expressed her frustration in not being able to talk with Governor Inslee (the same frustration that has been repeated by a large number of local elected officials). Woodward said, “I would welcome that. It has not happened yet.” Maybe if she put in a call for maggot-infested apples, then Inslee would come a callin’. (KREM-TV and Shift)

Governor Inslee’s argument that his Low Carbon Fuel Standard is good for the Washington State agriculture community is not factually correct.  In a Tri-City Herald editorial, the paper recommends that the governor actually talk to a farmer before making such claims.  The governor argues that his LCFS would increase the demand for corn, which is used to make biofuels, and that this is good for Washington farmers.  The problem is, Washington farmers do not grow much corn, except for what is used to feed livestock.  Thus, despite Governor Inslee’s false claims, the reality is his LCFS would hurt Washington State farmers by imposing higher transportation costs for delivering their commodities to market. (Tri-City Herald)

We Told You So: From yesterday, a new report reveals that the Inslee Administration is using old data to determine when regions can advance to Phase 2.  The Washington Policy Center also determined that one of the criteria (“percent of COVID-19 tests that are positive”) the state is using in Governor Jay Inslee’s “Roadmap to Recovery” is meaningless, for it can be easily manipulated and is not a scientific indicator of the infection rate in a community.  If the state used current data and eliminated meaningless criteria, then King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties, and nearly all of Eastern Washington, would be advanced to Phase 2.  This would result in the reopening of many restaurants, bars, theaters, and other businesses. (Click to Read Full Shift Article)

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