Governor Jay Inslee wants people to believe that the only reason why any Washington State resident received a COVID vaccine during the past few weeks was due to the extreme remote possibility that they would win a prize from his $2 million vaccine lottery.  Despite 40% of the lottery prizes going unclaimed, and that one of the $250,000 prize winners admitted he had never heard of Inslee’s lottery, the governor wants us to believe that all other non-Inslee sponsored vaccine promotions and incentives failed, while only his lottery succeeded in encouraging residents to become vaccinated. He backs this outlandish claim by using very unscientific data analyzing methods. (Click to read full Shift article)

More examples of poor management within Governor Inslee’s administration were revealed during a hearing on how one state agency mistreated children who were under its care.  Former state workers at the Washington Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) assert that Secretary Ross Hunter is either clueless about what is occurring within his department or that he is not telling the truth when he claims he did not know of the severe conditions some children were forced to endure while DCYF staff were supervising.  Recent news stories revealed that some children were punished by not allowing them to fall asleep, while others were forced to sleep on the DCYF’s floor or in state motor pool cars.  Secretary Hunter, who is a former Democrat state legislator and Governor Inslee’s handpicked selection to lead the department, did accept blame for the mistreatment of children during a DCYF oversight committee hearing yesterday. But when he was asked if he was aware of the mistreatment, the secretary stated that he first became aware of the problems after hearing about them in media reports. (KING5 News)

Senate Republican Leader John Braun (R – Centralia) believes Governor Inslee’s comments about how he “won the Super Bowl” with his pandemic related decisions was an example of a politician who says “something so flippant and insulting, out of total disregard for those who are suffering, that even supporters’ eyebrows are raised.”  In an op-ed in the Centralia Chronicle, Senator Braun wrote that the governor completely misses the point about why so many local leaders and legislators want to reform the governor’s emergency powers.  Sen. Braun stresses that the desire to reform the law are not meant as a punishment to the governor, but more to provide clarity in future emergencies.  Braun labeled it “a stunningly tone-deaf dismissal of all the hardships experienced by people across the state” when Inslee compared his actions to those who had just won a major sports event.  Senator Braun concluded his article by writing, “the governor should apologize for equating a pandemic with a game and dismissing the suffering that continues across Washington. His ‘Super Bowl’ reference was thoughtless.” (Centralia Chronicle)

Federal Way Police Chief Andy Hwang wrote a column to inform his community of how recent liberal law enforcement reforms will hamper his officers ability to detain possible criminals and respond to dangerous situations.  The police chief explained, in an op-ed in the Federal Way Mirror, that since the Democrat legislators hastily raised the standard for officers to either pursue or detain a suspect from “reasonable suspicion” to “probable cause,” more suspects will not be detained, and thus more crimes will go unpunished.  How police respond to those in a mental health crisis will also change. The new regulations will prohibit officers from detaining those in a mental health episode, to help them receive necessary treatment, unless a crime is being committed. The officers must now leave the area and leave dangerous situations unresolved. These are among the many changes made by Democrat lawmakers as they hastily passed several criminal “reform” measures during the 2021 legislative session to placate (some say “reward”) the violent liberal rioters who unlawfully took over portions of Seattle’s Capitol Hill last summer. (Federal Way Mirror)

House Republican Leader JT Wilcox announced the return of his annual Salmon Bake at Wilcox Farms in Roy (East Pierce County).  After a year’s hiatus, the annual event (this year will be the tenth) will return, and Representative Wilcox is hoping to attract more than 600 attendees.  Funds collected help to promote and elect Republican candidates across the state. This year’s Salmon Bake will take place on Saturday, September 18^th, at 5:00 PM. (Click here for more information)

The Seattle Times 2021 endorsements in City of Seattle races strongly indicate that the newspaper’s editorial board has finally recognized the utter failure of the region’s liberal establishment.  Earlier this week, the Times gave a rare “no endorsement” in one city council race featuring incumbent Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda, who has led the council’s efforts to impose more taxes on successful employers. And now the paper has endorsed Ann Davison over the incumbent Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes, who more than anyone represents the failed liberal criminal justice policies which have made the city a less safe place to live, work, and visit. The Times blasted Holmes for significantly increasing the budget for his office, while at the same time bringing fewer charges against criminals. The newspaper also criticized “Holmes leniency” in allowing repeat offenders to be set free “after brief, if any, punishment” to commit even more crimes. (Seattle Times)

Washington Policy Center’s Todd Myers states that the Spokesman Review’s Shawn Vestal’s recent column on the Snake River dams, where he attacked Myers’ data-driven views on how to best to increase salmon populations, “is misinformed, hypocritical, and contradictory.”  Myers first reiterates his own views on salmon recovery, and he agrees that that something most be done, but argues that proponents of dam removal have not considered more cost-efficient methods which do not severally impact the region’s power supply. Myers claims Vestal never bothered to learn Myers’ position before writing his column.

Vestal then went on put Myers’ previous comments about recent increase in salmon population into the wrong context.  While Myers was stating facts about the recent salmon runs to respond to comments from dam opponents, Vestal inaccurately wrote that Myers was picking data from a short time period to predict long term trends.  Vestal then committed a very unprofessional error by implying in his column that Myers refused to respond to criticism of his comments, by not responding to an email Vestal claimed he had sent. Problem is, Vestal never sent the email.  Myers confronted Vestal and asked for proof of sending an email.  When Vestal failed to provide proof (because he never sent the email), the Spokesman posted a retraction, and removed Vestal’s erroneous comments about Myers. (Washington Policy Center and Spokesman Review)

One of the crazy and expensive government projects which is seriously being promoted by Seattle’s Left-wing loonies is to construct a lid over I-5 through downtown Seattle.  It is the latest incremental proposal in progressives’ long-term goal of closing I-5 through the city and rid everybody of the freedom to drive their own cars, while forcing everyone to ride government-controlled mass transit.  While proponents of this extremely expensive proposal (even before the predictable massive cost overruns which occur in nearly every single massive government construction project) assert the positives of having a large park (which will cover the lid) in the center of the city, we can strongly suspect it will simply become another large encampment due to Seattle’s liberal homeless policies. (Click to read full Shift article)

BABYLON BEE FRIDAY

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