Governor Inslee was finally led kicking and screaming to announcing this afternoon that Washington will become the last mainland state in the country to provide a date for when most economic restrictions will be lifted.  With only isolated Hawaii trailing our state in re-opening, the governor announced that the state’s businesses  can open 100 percent on June 30.  He even decided to stop treating Pierce County like a second-class citizen – next Tuesday, after businesses have lost another weekend of business due to his random Phase 2 economic restrictions. This latest announcement move was made after many Republican legislators, business leaders, and media commentators have been calling on the governor to reopen the state’s economy. (TVW, Letter from Republican Legislators, and John Carlson’s Seattle Times column)

Even before Gov. Inslee announced he would be punishing Pierce County for a few more days, Pierce County Democrat legislators were backing away from their empty threat to call for a special session to amend Governor Jay Inslee’s “emergency” powers.  Representative Mari Leavitt (D – University Place) states that she no longer advocates for the legislature to take a small measure of oversight of the governor’s one-man rule (now on day 440), and now says, “I think we need to have conversations on what a plan would look like…and what specific proposal we would consider that would get passed.” Translation of her partisan-speak: “We sent that letter because we knew Governor Inslee unfairly punished our constituents, and we needed to act like we were fighting for them to cover our behinds.  We never had any real intention of calling for a special session. We don’t want to upset the party and union bosses who control the state, and our campaign treasuries, thanks to Governor Inslee’s dictatorial control.”

Representative Leavitt had pretended to show backbone by joining seven other Pierce County Democrat legislators last Friday in sending a letter to  Governor Inslee, threatening a legislative special session after he allowed liberal King County a “pause” in Phase 3 after previously banishing the  more conservative Pierce County to Phase 2 despite almost identical COVID-19 infection rates.  Since the governor laughed off doing anything to remove the restrictions he unfairly placed on Pierce County after receiving the letter, and the eight Pierce County Democrats have not joined Republican efforts to reign in the governor’s powers, it becomes even more obvious that the purpose of the letter was not to help their constituents, but to protect themselves from the political retribution of their governor and the power-hungry people who benefit from his favor.  (Brandi Kruse Twitter, Pierce County Legislators letter to Governor Inslee, Inslee May 4^th Media Release, and Inslee April 12^th Media Release)

Governor Inslee (or more likely his taxpayer-paid staff) used his official Washington State Twitter account to post a very partisan and hypocritical political attack on Republicans who removed Representative Lynn Cheney from a U.S. House leadership position.  Whether or not one agrees with the decision by the Republican caucus – and Jay never agreed with one in his 15 years in the Democrat caucus in the U.S. House –  it is laughable that the governor took time from his busy day of governing to tweet, “It is critical that every elected leader condemn what happened in the House Republican Caucus today.”  Remember, this is the same governor who said “That’s news to me” when asked about the violent riots and forced takeover of six blocks on Capitol Hill by liberal activists last summer, even though the takeover had led national news for a week.  This is the same governor who continues to remain quiet about the repeated physical attacks on police officers (including the arrest of the stepson of a former Democrat lawmaker, who swung a baseball bat at the back of an [helmet-clad] officer’s head), and even remained quiet about an attempted mass murder of police officers that was committed by Left-wing activists.  When Governor Inslee steps up to address the atrocities committed by members of his own party, then maybe his statements about his political opponents will not be so hypocritical. Though the ones this partisan are never appropriate for his state-funded account. (Governor Inslee’s Official Twitter account, Rebecca Perry Twitter, MyNorthwest, and KOMO News)

Representative Gina Mosbrucker (R – Goldendale) has proposed legislation she believes will reduce the number of unwanted and harassing “robocalls” Washington State residents are currently receiving.  Rep. Mosbrucker introduced HB 1497 during the 2021 legislative session, which would fine telemarketers who call outside of daytime hours or for refusing to provide the recipient with the option to end the call.  The legislation was not acted upon during the limited legislative calendar that Democrats’ allowed for non-tax-raising bills during the recent “virtual session.”  Rep. Mosbrucker stated she plans to push her bill again during the 2022 session. (KING5 News and Washington Legislature Bill Summary)

The Biden Administration is currently reviewing a waiver of the Jones Act, and a similar waiver could be used to help the Seattle-based Alaska cruise industry.  The Biden administration is looking into a waiver of the maritime Jones Act to help provide fuel needed as the result of the temporary shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline on the East Coast.  The Jones Act (named after a former U.S. Senator from Washington) requires all cargo shipped between two U.S. ports be on a U.S. owned, crewed, and built vessel.  If the Democrat members of the Washington State congressional delegation were interested in helping the local cruise industry, they would be seeking a similar waiver of the Passenger Services Act (PSA), which has similar domestic restrictions.  Since all of the large cruise ships that sail between Seattle and Alaska are foreign owned and crewed, they must stop in a British Columbia port on their trip to Alaska.  Yet the Canadian government has shut down all cruise traffic in its ports until February of next year, citing COVID-19 concerns.  Thus, a waiver of the PSA to bypass foreign ports from Congress (and the Biden Administration) would allow cruise ships to sail again – bringing much needed tourism dollars to local hospitality businesses. (Bloomberg and Seattle Times/AP)

Centralia Police Chief Stacy Denham has recommended to the Centralia City Council that it allocate funds to purchase and operate cameras on their vehicles and police officers.  The chief estimates that it will cost between $300,000 to $350,000 to equip and maintain cameras for the city’s 27 police officers for five years. (Centralia Chronicle)

King County Prosecutor Dan Satterberg revealed that it could cost county taxpayers $10 million to reimburse the fines and fees of 50,000 offenders previously convicted of drug possession laws.  The reimbursement is due to the recent overturning of the state’s drug possession laws by the Washington State Supreme Court in the Washington State v. Blake case.  Satterberg also stated that 750 to 1,200 offenders convicted in King County will need to have their sentences re-calculated, and some could be set free sooner than scheduled. (KOMO News)

An investigation by the Washington State Board of Health found that Dr. Bob Lutz might have been fired illegally, last October, as the Spokane County Health Officer. The investigation concluded that Dr. Lutz had not been given proper notice or the opportunity to be heard before Spokane Regional Health District (SRHD) Board prior to being fired by SRHD Commissioner Amelia Clark over contentious issues related to the county’s response to COVID-19. The Washington State Board of Health plans to review the information and vote on possible action at its next virtual meeting on May 27^th. (KREM TV)

Governor Inslee continues to raise money to push his ineffective and costly “climate” agenda, which primarily benefits liberal special interest groups (with our tax dollars) and does little to protect the environment.  As we mentioned previously in Shift’s Daily Briefing, the governor’s campaign spent more than $150,000 on “digital advertising.” While the Inslee campaign refused to reveal the purpose for the expenditure, many speculate it was spent to promote Governor Inslee’s expensive Low Carbon Fuel Standard and Cap-and-Trade legislation.  With the end of the legislative session, state elected officials are again allowed to raise money and Inslee’s team blasted out a fundraising email seeking funds to build a “statewide — and national — climate movement.” (Don’t his wealthy environmental special interest group friends already do this?)  Since the governor continues to insist on raising money during his third term in office (likely to keep his fundraising consultants employed creating a slush fund for him to use), wouldn’t raising funds to repay Washington State taxpayers for the millions he selfishly forced them to pay for the extra security cost during his failed presidential campaign be a more noble cause?  Remember, Democrat Montana Governor Steve Bullock agreed to have his campaign reimburse the cost of his extra security during his failed presidential campaign.  Apparently our governor does not feel he has the same obligation to the residents of his state as Governor Bullock had with his taxpayers.   (Inslee campaign fundraising email, Governor Zero section of May 7^th Shift’s Daily Briefing, Inslee Campaign Public Disclosure Commission report, Washington Policy Center, Washington Observer, Seattle Times, and KTVQ News)

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