Governor Jay Inslee’s Department of Corrections continues to fail to adhere to basic safety and health guidelines, meaning more COVID outbreaks hit state-run residential facilities.  While the state has issued millions of dollars in fines to private businesses for failing to follow state COVID-related guidelines, every Washington State-run hospital and prison has experienced at least one major COVID outbreak and most have experienced several.  The problem has become so persistent that the Department of Corrections is now asking some prisoners to sign waivers freeing the state of liability for their failure to follow basic guidelines, such as allowing a large group of inmates to congregate for long periods of time without wearing masks and having staff shuttle back-and-forth between different units.

In the latest example of Gov. Inslee’s administrative malfeasance, recently 568 inmates and 41 staff members tested positive for COVID at the Stafford Creek Corrections Center in Grays Harbor. Inmates say staff constantly broke guideline rules and that it took more than two weeks to receive results of COVID tests. Thanks, Jay. (KUOW)

Washington State Senate Republican Leader John Braun (Centralia) writes in a Seattle Times op-ed that “The Democratic legislative majority has passed bill after bill seemingly to favor criminal rights over citizen rights” and he refutes many of the recent claims made by Democrat legislators attempting to defend their disastrous anti-police policies.  Senator Braun points out that Democrat Senator Manka Dhingra (Redmond) one of the Democrats’ leading proponents of their 2021 anti-police legislation, actually said on the Senate floor that we should not confine criminals due to their actions in their “worst moments.” Yet Senator Dhingra follows a double standard by wanting to restrict the crime-fighting actions of all police officers due to the “worst moments” of a very small number of officers.

Senator Braun discusses many changes he and his Republican colleagues would make if they controlled the legislature. Among them is allowing well-trained officers to determine when it is safe to pursue criminals, not politicians who have never sat in the front seat of a police car. Senator Braun writes he disagrees with Senator Dhingra on police pursuits, as “I do not agree that lawmakers should step in to enact blanket restrictions, removing the power of police in the field to make the decision to pursue or not.” (Seattle Times)

Attorney and Sammamish Water District Commissioner Ryika Hooshangi is among the new generation of impressive legislative candidates the Republicans have recruited for the 2022 election.  Commissioner Hooshangi is seeking to unseat anti-police Democrat Senator Manka Dhingra in the 45^th Legislative District (Kirkland, Redmond, Sammamish and “rural” east King County).  Hooshangi’s campaign is holding a kick-off breakfast ($45 entry fee) on Tuesday, June 21^st at the Bellevue Hilton.  (Ryika Hooshangi campaign website)

Washington State drivers continue to be hit hard by liberal energy policies, as gas prices are averaging $5.48 a gallon in Seattle, some 16 cents higher than last week. The gas price average could be 50 cents less per gallon if Democrat legislators and Governor Inslee had agreed with a Republican proposal to use a fraction of the state’s $15 billion surplus revenue during the last session to provide temporary relief from the state’s second-highest-in-the-nation gas tax. Instead Governor Inslee and the Democrats chose to use the money to increase the size and cost of state government and not to help lower-income workers who are hit the hardest by the increase in fuel prices.  Gas prices in Washington will continue to escalate in Washington State during the summer, especially as the financial impacts of the Democrats’ ineffective climate policies begin to take effect. (KOMO News and Washington Legislature Bill Summary)

It has taken nearly two years of growing crime rates and thousands of crime victims, but finally a few members of Seattle’s liberal media complex are reporting the obvious – Seattle’s unpopular “defund the police” policy has been a complete failure and the situation likely won’t get better.  The answer is obvious to those on the outside looking in at the city, but now Seattle’s liberal establishment is having to ask themselves who would have thought that allowing violent liberal rioters to determine the city’s public safety policies would cause so many problems?

Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat reports that the city’s administrative failure to provide newly reassigned parking enforcement officers with necessary ticketing authority may be far more costly than originally reported.  Last week it became public that it will cost the city (and taxpayers) at least $5 million to refund seven months’ worth of parking tickets because the city failed to perform the administrative task of giving parking enforcement officers the authority to issue the tickets after the council transferred them from the Seattle Police Department to the city’s Department of Transportation.

Westneat reports that these same unauthorized parking enforcement officers also approved the towing of more than 10,000 cars during these seven months. Will the city be responsible for refunding the fines these vehicle owners paid to get their cars out of impound?  Will the city have to provide cars to the 1,700 individuals who had their cars auctioned off because they failed to pay the impound fees in time?

It was interesting to read the quote from Councilmember Alex Pederson on this costly error: “This reinforces that rearranging our public safety systems is complicated and can result in unintended consequences unless implemented with the utmost care.” This observation was actually expressed by many individuals (including former Police Chief Carmen Best, who resigned due to the council’s actions) back in 2020, yet Councilmember Pederson and his colleagues chose to ignore such advice as they rushed to appease their liberal supporters who were destroying parts of the city. (Seattle Times and NPR)

One of the latest heartbreaking victims of Seattle’s soft-on-criminals policies is a Portland family which had their rented U-Haul stolen which was full of the personal items of their cancer-fighting daughter.  The parents moved to Seattle for a year to be close to the medical facility where their 28-year-old daughter was receiving cancer treatments. After the family had spent all day loading the U-Haul truck, criminals stole the vehicle overnight. The stolen truck has been located, but all of the items were removed.  Among the objects stolen were the daughter’s personal souvenirs and diaries from her battle with breast cancer. (KING5 News)

The failure of a Seattle elementary school principal to cooperate with police allowed a criminal suspect to flee and then commit additional crimes.  Seattle Police responded to a call of an intruder at a Sand Point Elementary School classroom last Thursday, who was suspected of being under the influence of drugs.  The suspect stole items from students and was “under observation” by the school’s principal and two teachers when police arrived.  Police could not make an arrest because the principal refused to cooperate with police to outline what crimes might have been committed. The suspect then ran from the scene and jumped onto a bus.  Only after the suspect had left the scene did the principal inform the police of the various crimes which had been committed.  The suspect was soon after involved in another crime incident where he assaulted a delivery driver and attempted to steal his vehicle.

Police say they are encountering an increasing number of Seattle Public School (SPS) personnel who are refusing to cooperate when they respond to incidents. Neither the school principal nor SPS responded to many media inquiries over the principal’s uncooperative behavior. Is it any wonder that SPS enrollment has dropped more than 6% in the past two years (from 53,627 in early 2020 to 50,250 today) after school personnel prioritize such a liberal anti-police practices over the safety and welfare of the students? (MyNorthwest, SPS 2020 enrollment report, and KING5 News)

A Spokane business leader says it is time to “take back our city from irresponsible public officials” who have supported soft-on-crime and drugs policies enacted by the Washington State Legislature and supported by liberal local leaders.  Sheldon Jackson, owner of Selkirk Development, made these comments during an online monthly forum held by the Spokane Business & Commercial Property Owners Council.  He says that an increase in violent crime and property theft are hurting the city and costing local businesses thousands of dollars.  He believes the thefts are increasing to generate money to feed drug addictions. (CenterSquare)

Shift’s Newsmaker Interview was with Republican House candidate Karen Lesetmoe, who is challenging two-term Democrat Dave Paul, who barely won re-election in 2020 by just 738 votes. The 10^th Legislative District (Island County, NW Snohomish County, and SW Skagit County) race is pivotal if Republicans are to take control of the Washington State House of Representatives by picking up nine seats this November. Lesetmoe is the mother of six, U.S. Navy veteran, and a real estate professional who is running for office to “fight for the American Dream” which she has experienced herself.  She came to the United States from the Philippines when she was six years old with just her family and a suitcase.  If elected she pledges to support law enforcement because “communities cannot thrive without safety.” In her Shift interview Lesetmoe also discusses what the state should have done with the $15 billion it had in surplus revenue this year, long term health care, and how Governor Inslee’s abuse of emergency powers has hurt the most vulnerable in our state. (Click to read full Newsmaker Interview)

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