City of Seattle and Washington State politicians refusing to even pretend to hold fellow liberal politicians accountable for illegally deleting text messages is just the latest example of how one-party rule threatens our democracy.  The Democrats have held control of both the city and state for over a generation, and this has resulted in a ruling class which no longer believes it should stand up for democratic principles.  Democrat politicians have even demonstrated that they are supportive of political violence as long as these illegal activities are performed by those who support their bigger government and higher taxes philosophy.

Remember, liberal and Democrat politicians not only supported the 2020 riots conducted by their far-Left activists, but they made sure that more violence will occur in the future by rushing to pass the irresponsible anti-police measures which rioters demanded at both the city and state level.  The resulting significant rise in crime rates is the direct result of Democrats believing they are no longer accountable for the excesses of their one-party rule.  The 2022 elections brings hope that this will change, as Republicans have put forth a strong slate of candidates demanding accountability which threatens the Democrats’ control of Washington State government. (Click to read full Shift article)

Fentanyl overdoses and deaths are now surpassing heroin in Washington State.  Last year drug overdose deaths rose to more than 70% in Washington State over 2019 levels, surpassing 2,000 for the first time.  More than half of these deaths involved fentanyl, which is often mixed with other drugs. Nationwide, teen overdose deaths have more than doubled since 2019.  As this trend was occurring, the Democrats in the Washington State Legislature decided against making it illegal to possess drugs like fentanyl, and instead passed Senator Manka Dhingra’s irresponsible pro-criminal legislation (SB 5476) which simply referred people to drug treatment classes (which few attend) for their first two offenses. Republican legislators offered bills which criminalized possession of deadly drugs, to provide incentives for those caught to actually attend drug treatment, but the Democrats following Sen. Dhingra’s lead just preferred to coddle the criminals this session. (Longview Daily News, Washington Legislature Bill Summary, and Republican Legislators’ Safe Washington plan)

New studies by both the University of Washington and University of California reveal that marijuana use by teenagers increased in states where selling cannabis is legal.  The UW study found, “teens may be more likely to use marijuana following legalization — with the proliferation of stores and increasing adult use of the drug — than they otherwise would have been.”  The University of California study of 6,900 youths and 15,000 adults revealed that in states where cannabis use was legal, young people (ages 12 – 20) were more likely to use marijuana.  The same is true with adults. (KIT Radio)

A new internal memo revealed that the Seattle Police Department no longer has the resources to assign officers to investigate sexual assaults against adults.  Due to the Seattle City Council’s decision to support the demands of liberal rioters in 2020 by “defunding” the police department, and the subsequent mass exodus of more than 400 law enforcement officers, the SPD’s sexual assault and child abuse unit does not have the ability to investigate all of the new cases it receives.  The unit’s leadership has decided to prioritize cases involving children and adult cases where the suspect is in custody.  (Seattle Times)

Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell says he deserves more credit for finally cleaning up some homeless encampments, even though it was liberal policies he supported (when he was on the City Council) which created the problems which are now costing taxpayers millions to address (with the only sure thing a permanently larger and more expensive bureaucracy).  Mayor Harrell served on the Seattle City Council from 2008 to 2020, and was president of the council immediately following disgraced ex-Seattle Mayor Ed Murray and King County Executive Dow Constantine declaring homelessness an emergency in November 2015.  For the next four years, Council President Harrell led the council as it passed liberal housing, criminal, drug, and homeless policies which only made the crisis worse.

Now that city, county, state, and federal governments have collectively spent billions of taxpayer dollars and hired thousands of new government employees and expensive consultants, and created a new independent agency (the King County Regional Homeless Authority), there is finally some action in removing a few of the large encampments which have taken over city parks.  Yet several critics assert that many of the encampment residents are not accepting the offer of free housing (due to restrictions on using illegal drugs and committing illegal activities in their new taxpayer-provided rooms) and thus they have simply found a new place to illegally pitch a tent.

On Tuesday Mayor Harrell released his plan for reducing homelessness in Seattle.  It basically amounted to spending even more money on the problem and creating a “dashboard” which will provide some statistics.  The city claims there are currently 763 tents and 225 RVs housing homeless individuals in Seattle. The plan states that the city is going to spend $173 million on the problem. Thus this math means the city is going to spend more than $175,100 for each currently existing homeless structure.  This does not include what other levels of government are also spending on homelessness in Seattle.

In leading up to yesterday’s announcement, the mayor stated he was frustrated over the lack of appreciation for the work he has done.  Mayor Harrell said, “When will the city recognize — because many people do — we are doing outstanding work?  But I have to spend countless hours on interviews like this, where people are questioning this or questioning that.” (Axios, Seattle Times, and One Seattle Homelessness Action Plan)

The Seattle Parks Department stated it supports spending $50 million on renovations of the Green Lake Community Center instead of spending more than $120 to build a brand new complex which would include a gymnasium and pool.  This decision was announced after the department spent $1 million on a surveys and design work. A parks department advisor David Graves said, “We have so many needs in our system that it’s hard to justify spending so much all in one place.” Yet Seattle City Councilmember Dan Strauss, whose district includes the Green Lake neighborhood, stated he was going to “fight for” the more expensive new community center which will cause Seattle property taxes to rise even further. After spending much of his first two years in office ignoring the concerns of Green Lake/Woodland Park area residents over the huge homeless encampments which made the park unfit for use, the councilmember is evidently seeking to have the taxpayers fund the effort to get him back in the voters’ good graces by delivering to them a shiny new community center. (Seattle Times)

The general manager of the Benton Public Utility District calls it “irresponsible and clearly political” for Governor Jay Inslee and Senator Patty Murray to ignore the recommendations of the comprehensive federal government’s 2020 Environmental Impact Statement to not breach the dams on the lower Snake River.  Rick Dunn writes In a Tri-City Herald op-ed that the wholesale price of energy will increase 50% and the risk of energy blackouts in the region will double if the dams (and the clean, renewable carbon-free energy they provide) are removed. The article was written in advance of a Murray-Inslee “draft report” on the future of the dams promised later this month.

It is expected that the Murray-Inslee findings will cave into the demands of the wealthy urban environmentalists who have long funded their campaigns and ignore the scientific findings of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists who found that removing the Snake River dams will have little or no impact on the number of Chinook salmon which Orca whales feed upon in Puget Sound. But, who cares about science when you have donor dollars to harvest! (Tri-City Herald)

Two Moses Lake area schools revised their team nicknames to comply with legislation passed in 2021 which banned the use of Native American symbols and images for public school mascots, logos, and team names.  The Moses Lake High School mascot will change from the Chiefs to the Mavericks and Frontier Middle School will change from the Warriors to the Spartans.  It is interesting to note that Moses Lake was named after Native leader Sulk-stalk-scosum who was given the Christian name “Moses” by a missionary who provided him with an education. (NCW Life and Wikipedia)

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