Once again, Democrats demonstrate their belief that they are above the law and that they should not be held accountable for their actions.  Open government advocates are strongly criticizing Democrat legislators’ for using a broad interpretation of the state constitution to prevent citizens from obtaining public documents.  After the Democrat-appointed members of the Washington State Redistricting Commission played numerous games attempting to derail the public redistricting process (in order to allow the nine liberal members of the Washington State Supreme Court to redraw legislative and congressional boundaries behind closed doors), many journalists and citizens filed public record requests to obtain communications between commission members and Democrat legislative staff members.  Yet these requests have been denied by the Democrats due to “legislative privilege”, which an official from the Washington Coalition for Open Government (WCOG) says is a new classification designed by the Democrats to not be publicly held accountable for their actions. WCOG Secretary George Erb said, “Basically it’s a new gambit to make the Legislature work outside of the realm of the Public Records Act.”

This is the latest tactic used by Democrat redistricting commission members to deny the public and the media information on their partisan – and likely illegal – actions.  In December, attorneys for the commission admitted that commissioner April Sims (appointed by the House Democrat caucus) deleted many texts between herself and Democrat legislative staff members and commission staff members. (News Tribune, Seattle Times, and The Olympian)

The City of Marysville is fighting back against the liberal drug policies passed by state Democrat lawmakers by enacting laws which allow its city police officers to arrest individuals who publicly use drugs.  Marysville Police Sergeant Derek Carlile said, “The one thing that drives crime is drug addiction,” when he spoke in favor of the new city measure allowing authorities to arrest even first-time drug users with a misdemeanor including possible jail time.

In 2021, Democrat legislators passed (and Governor Inslee signed) a reckless drug possession law (SB 5476) which has contributed to a significant increase in public drug use, fatal drug overdoses, and, as Sergeant Carlile stated, an increase in drug-related crimes. The Democrats’ measure allows people to be caught two times possessing such lethal drugs as methamphetamines, fentanyl, and heroin before they face the possibility of serving time in jail. Despite repeated pleas from law enforcement and local officials to fix their destructive measure, Democrats in 2022 refused to admit they were wrong and change the reckless law.  Marysville Police Chief Erik Scairpon said, “We’re not trying to arrest ourselves out of a drug epidemic, but we do know when people are in our criminal justice system that it gives them an incentive to want to get better.” (KING5 News and Washington Legislature Bill Summary)

In the Inslee administration’s latest attempt to not have facts get in its way, the Washington State Department of Ecology (DOE) released a blog over the holidays stating that carbon reduction policies are “working as intended,” even as its own data shows that that CO2 emissions have actually increased under Inslee’s decade-long control.  Todd Myers of the Washington Policy Center responded to the DOE’s claim by using previous data released by the state.  He wrote, “Since 2012, Washington’s CO2 emissions have increased almost every year and total emissions increased about ten percent to 102.1 million metric tons (MMT).” (The Center Square and Washington Policy Center)

Democrat legislators continue their soft-on-criminal policies with the introduction of a bill to pay prisoners minimum wage for work they do while serving their sentences.  Democrat Representative Terra Simmons (Bremerton) introduced HB 1024 to pay inmates the state’s minimum wage (currently $15.74, the highest in the country for any state).  Representative Simmons says paying inmates $2.70 an hour amounts to “slavery.” So, if the state pays prisoners minimum wage, maybe the state should charge them for room and board while they serve their sentence for their own illegal behavior? (The Center Square and Washington Legislature Bill Summary)

Like a drunk driver fleeing the scene after causing a multiple car crash, another Seattle City Councilmember announces he will not be running for re-election this year.  Councilmember Alex Pederson joins his colleagues Debra Juarez  and Lisa Herbold in declaring they will not be placing their names on the ballot in 2023, when the seven district-based (as opposed to the two citywide) council positions are determined by Seattle voters.  Their radical agenda has led to more than 500 well-trained officers leaving the city’s police department, skyrocketing crime rates, multiple large and small businesses either closing locations and/or moving to other cities, a downtown retail core devoid of consumers, an unprecedented number of people living (and dying) in homeless encampments, skyrocketing housing costs, a severe reduction in rental units available, and a city budget hundreds of millions of dollars in the red.

Councilmember Pederson, a former council staffer, represents Northeast Seattle and has served for just one term. He received criticism in 2020 (before the protests and riots began) for firing his one black employee.  It is interesting to see the Puget Sound Business Journal label him as a “moderate,” for not being the nuttiest member of the Seattle City Council, but in the real world, Pederson beliefs and actions line up with such socialist extremists as Senator Bernie Sanders and Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.  (Seattle Times, PubliCola, and Puget Sound Business Journal)

New data from the Seattle Police Department reveals that 153 additional officers left the force in 2022, meaning that 509 well-trained and diverse police officers have left the department since the Seattle City Council irresponsibly caved into the demands of liberal rioters and voted to defund the police.  The city now has less than 1,000 officers, the lowest amount it has had in over 30 years.  There were 186 departures in 2020 and 170 in 2021. Even though the loss of police officers has resulted in skyrocketing crime rates, including murder which leaped 36% in the past two years (from 42 in 2020 to 57 in 2022), the council voted 7-2 in December to cut the budget for the department even further in 2023.  (MyNorthwest)

The normally very liberal 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the Evergreen School District (Vancouver) violated a teacher’s First Amendment rights when school officials told him he could not bring his “Make America Great Again” hat to a cultural sensitivity training class.  Middle school teacher Eric Dodge sued the school district after he was told by his principal that he could not wear the hat and verbally attacked the teacher as a “racist” and “homophobe.”  The 9^th Circuit judges overturned a lower court’s ruling in favor of the school district and said Dodge, “was engaged in speech protected by the First Amendment.” (OregonLive)

Two Puyallup men were arrested for four separate attacks on power substations in Pierce County, as they used the power outages to deactivate security systems to commit a business burglary during the Christmas holiday.  In early December, the Seattle Times irresponsibly posted a lengthy article in which they attempted to blame similar attacks on other power facilities in the Northwest on Right-wing extremists, even though they had no proof any conservative was involved in the crimes.  Not once in that story did the Times mention the numerous attacks on infrastructure conducted by liberal extremists, including the recent spiking of rail lines in Whatcom County, or the possibility that the attacks were committed by criminals seeking to disarm alarms to rob a small business. Guess it’s easier to repeat Democrat talking points, than do real reporting. (News Tribune, Seattle Times and Department of Justice media release)

Spokane-area foodbanks are struggling due to high demand and liberal inflationary economic and energy policies which are driving up the cost of food.  More people are also using the food banks due to their fixed incomes not being able to keep up with rising food costs and energy costs.  A Second Harvest spokesperson said the non-profit bought hundreds of thousands of pounds more food in previous years than it did this year due to rising prices. The group is now focusing most of its efforts on collecting more food and receiving more donations. (KXLY News)

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