The Mayor of Lakewood (Pierce County) believes Governor Inslee is not equally applying pandemic-related restrictions and this is due to political favoritism.  Mayor Don Anderson points out that King County currently has nearly identical infection and hospitalization rates as Pierce County had three weeks ago, when Governor Inslee moved his county back to Phase 2.  Yet, since King County (especially Seattle) is a liberal stronghold, Mayor Anderson believes the governor’s favoritism caused him to not punish Pierce County, and instead instituted an arbitrary “pause” in his latest unscientific “recovery” plan.  Mayor Anderson summed up his frustrations when he said, “You adapt and then the rules change, you adapt and then the goal post moves again. I think we need to get back to the ugliness of a representative democracy instead of one-person rule.”  Unfortunately for local residents and employers, the Democrat legislative members who were elected to represent Pierce County ignored the needs of their constituents by refusing to support bi-partisan legislation which would have permitted legislative oversite of Governor Inslee’s never-ending “emergency” powers. Now those same Democrat legislators are left to rant from the sidelines, as their governor’s unchecked one-man rule punishes their voters. (MyNorthwest and News Tribune)

Governor Inslee’s staff provided a typically weak response to the claim by even some Democrats that the governor used political favoritism instead of data to determine which counties were pushed back in his randomly applied “recovery” plan.  Multiple Pierce County community leaders are upset that three weeks ago their county was punished and moved back to Phase 2, while this week King County was allowed to “pause” its status in Phase 3, despite nearly equal infection and hospitalization rates.  Inslee’s current Inslee spokesperson Mike Faulk responded to this frustration by illogically stating, “The reason for the pause is that we are at a place in statewide COVID activity where maybe, just maybe, we can avoid more restrictions in more places if people follow the appropriate phased guidance.”  If this is true, then why hasn’t the same logic applied to Pierce County (as well as Cowlitz and Whitman counties)?  If a Phase 3 “pause” is good for liberal King County, should not the more Republican-leaning counties which were previously punished now rejoin the rest of the state in “pausing” at Phase 3?  Yet, since science has not been used much in the governor’s decision-making, maybe, just maybe, we are expecting too much to hope logic is involved as well. (News Tribune)

Brandy Kruse reports on Facebook that legislative Democrats from Pierce County have received overwhelming public pressure from their constituents over Governor Inslee’s unfair treatment of their county, so that they are now making the false threat of a special session unless the governor allows Pierce County to join the rest of the state in Phase 3.  House Speaker Laurie Jinkins and the rest of the meek Pierce County Democrat legislators are not exactly exhibiting profiles in courage, for these same Democrat legislators who were given an opportunity just a couple of weeks ago to support legislative oversight of the governor’s emergency powers (see story above), but chose instead to put the Democrat party ahead of those they were elected to serve. These lemming-like Democrats left Jay Inslee in charge of the state without any adult supervision, and they are now surprised that he is acting like the partisan hack he’s always been. (See “Overheard on the Internets” section below for a copy of the letter the Pierce County delegation sent to Governor Inslee.) (Brandy Kruse Facebook posts)

A new study finds that Washington State’s job creation rate is last in the country, and that Seattle is at the very bottom for job growth in U.S. cities. This study was conducted by the payroll service company Paychex.  The study also found that Seattle’s hourly earnings growth is dead last, with less than a 1% increase in April.  This is a predictable finding, since the current ruling politicians in both the state level and the city of Seattle have been more concerned about pushing their job-killing liberal political agendas than in encouraging economic opportunities for employers and workers. (KOMO News)

The City of Seattle has finally decided to remove a homeless encampment at Albert Davis Park in the Lake City neighborhood, after two shootings and a propane tank explosion which set trees and multiple tents on fire.  For six long months, hundreds of complaints from nearby residents (for prostitution, drug deals, trespassing, garbage, etc.) resulted in no significant actions by city officials. During that time, the Seattle Police Department responded to 47 incidents of domestic violence, theft, and public disturbance in the area, and the Seattle Fire Department has been called 44 times for illegal burns, tent fires, and emergency medical responses.  On multiple occasions the encampment’s inhabitants have refused city-financed housing because they would not accept the rules (usually regarding drug use) governing them, or did not want to give up their “freedom.” After the recent violence and public outcry, city workers posted notices saying people must remove all personal property by today, when the city will begin a one-week process of cleaning up the park. (KIRO-TV)

Gather round the dumpster to watch the flames flicker, as the liberal dysfunction at The Evergreen State College continues with all three finalists to become the school’s next president withdrawing from the process at the same time.  Evergreen, which has experienced a serious drop in enrollment (from 4,500 down to 2,300) since school administrators caved into radical student demands in 2017, is seeking a replacement for (caver-in-chief) President George Bridges, who announced last year that he was leaving the position.  All three of the finalists made their decision to withdraw after meeting with the college’s board of trustees.  The board refused to provide the reasons why the candidates removed themselves from the “honor” of running Evergreen.  Yet as we have seen at the City of Seattle and Seattle Public Schools, liberal-run organizations often have difficulties keeping serious leaders because they are nearly always undermined by the unreasonable, radical, and unbridled demands of the radical-Left. (The Olympian and Washington Examiner)

In a somewhat surprising article, a member of Seattle’s liberal media actually criticizes the liberal rioters who have continued to plague Seattle. KIRO radio host and one-time Democrat candidate for Congress Dave Ross, a longtime commentator who is actually far more moderate than nearly all of his fellow Democrats, is concerned that the city removed the concrete barriers around Seattle’s East Precinct too soon.  Ross points to last weekend’s destructive May Day riots to demonstrate that endless property damage and physical assaults from the Left are not done.  Ross hopes for a world in which the images of liberals protesting peacefully is contrasted with the Trump January 6^th rioters going on trial.  Yet, the sad reality for Ross and the few remaining reasonable Democrats in Seattle is that while most Republicans condemned that one day of political violence conducted by fringe Trump supporters, Democrats have refused to condemn the nearly year-long violent protests conducted by liberal activists. (MyNorthwest)

State Representative Alex Ybarra (R – Quincy) stood in line with farmworkers outside a Royal City clinic to get his COVID-19 vaccine.  The 2^nd term legislator said he did this to encourage his fellow Hispanics to obtain their shot. Representative Ybarra, who was infected with the virus in October said, “I’ve had COVID, so I know what people will go through if they get it. And it’s not fun.” The clinic was coordinated by former Superintendent of Public Instruction candidate Maia Espinoza and her Center for Latino Leadership organization. (Columbia Basin Herald)

The Washington State University Board of Regents is expected to approve the issue of $35.6 in bonds to pay off the remaining debt of its athletic department.  The department has learned from the Democrats running governments across the state and has often spent more money than it had in recent years, but a year of COVID has resulted in an estimated $31.1 million shortfall for the current year.  Along with other organizational changes, the school’s administration is hoping the department will run a surplus in the coming years to pay off the bonds and create a “savings account” for future financial setbacks. (Spokesman Review)

Governor Jay Inslee wants us to “trust” him when he says he does not plan to expand his just-passed state income tax (starting with capital gains) to include more taxpayers.  Unfortunately for the trusting kind, the governor has an extremely poor record of keeping his promises regarding taxes.  During his 2012 campaign for governor, candidate Inslee said he would veto any tax increases that came across his desk and that “new taxes are the wrong direction.”  Yet in his three months in office, Inslee was supporting and signing bills that raised taxes.  Since then he has repeatedly broken his promise to Washington State voters by constantly pushing for higher taxes, even as the state’s expanding economy was pushing more money into the state treasury. In Jay Inslee’s 8+ years in the governor’s office, the state budget has doubled, as new and higher taxes have paid for his greedy pursuit of a larger and more expensive state government. For Inslee, it’s a virtuous circle: more state employees mean more union dues, which means more contributions to Democrats’ campaigns. With this track record on taxes, should Washington State residents really trust the former 15-year Congressman when he says he will not expand the state income tax he fought so hard to create? (Click to read full Shift Article)

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