Jay Inslee and his fellow Democrats won’t tell you in their campaign ads about their plans to raise taxes after the election, but industry and retail organizations have already begun efforts to save their products from higher taxes.   Representatives from labor, the hospitality industry, d beer brewers, and distributors just sent a letter to Governor Inslee and legislators providing reasons why beer and wine should not on the higher taxes target list when the legislature finally returns to address the state’s $4.2 billion revenue shortfall.  With Inslee already giving a second round of pay raises in one year to state workers (who, unlike many private sector employees, did not lose any wages due to the governor’s emergency orders), it does not appear the Democrats will consider reducing the growth of government to balance the budget,  despite the current budget being a record breaking 19% larger than the previous budget.  (NW News Network and Shift)

The Brookings Institute has given Washington State Secretary of State Kim Wyman an “A” for our state’s vote-by-mail system.  In fact, while seven states received an “A” grade, Washington State was the only one to receive a perfect scorecard from the independent national think tank.  We doubt seriously if Washington State Democrat Chair Tina Podlodowski, who lost to Wyman in 2016, is sharing this fact with her followers. Instead, she will keep pushing the false narrative that Washington State is not a leader in election competency, to try and help her Democrat Party take control of administrating our election systems by putting the very partisan Gael Tarleton into office.  There is another interesting item worth noting in the Brooking Institute’s report: while Democrats have been pushing for a national vote-by-mail system for the 2020 elections, a number of states (including the large swing states of Florida, Missouri, Virginia, and Wisconsin) barely have passing grades for their vote-by-mail systems. This strongly supports the argument that rushing to install a national vote-by-mail system would have needlessly caused significant credibility issues with the results in the hotly contested presidential election. (Brookings Institute)

ChangeWA has released a report that states Seattle City Councilmember Lisa Herbold is attempting to bypass public hearings to pass legislation that would “excuse and dismiss almost all misdemeanor crimes committed in Seattle by persons with symptoms of addiction or mental disorder.”  Knowing this radical proposal is too extreme even for liberal Seattle, Herbold is not having the legislation go through the Public Safety Committee (which she chairs), where the substance of the bill would require a public hearing.  Instead, Herbold has introduced the legislation in the council’s Budget Committee, where only the financial impact of the legislation is considered (since it will reduce jail costs with far fewer criminals being incarcerated). (ChangeWA)

Violent crime continues to climb, as the City of Seattle and King County continue in their efforts to defund the police and resist incarcerating criminals. King County reports that the number of fatal shootings has increased by 58% from last year, and that the number of shooting victims who survived has jumped 34%.  With the Seattle City Council reallocating police funds to fund their friends at liberal special interest groups and social service bureaucracies, are they really confident that future armed criminals will stop their violent activity knowing a social service worker is speeding to the scene? (Seattle Times)

Seattle’s Capitol Hill businesses have said the mayor and city council have doubled down on their abandonment of the neighborhood during last summer’s protests, by continuing to ignore their concerns.  Many businesses remain boarded up near the old Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ), and fewer customers are visiting Broadway area retailers as city hall has been unable to ease safety fears it helped create by abandoning the area to rioters over the summer.  Some of the neighborhood employers have joined the lawsuit which is seeking damages from the city for enabling (and, truly, celebrating) the creation of the CHAZ. (MyNorthwest)

Mariya Frost of the Washington Policy Center argues that given the workplace changes caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, “It is time for Sound Transit to reset.”  Many experts believed the light rail system was already antiquated when voters supported the $50+-billion ST3 expansion in 2016, and recent developments of more people working from home have only solidified this belief.  Frost contends, “Planners should stop developing 20-year transportation plans when our future is so unknown.  Instead, they should re-evaluate past plans in light of today’s landscape.  Meeting today’s needs through modernization and reducing the tax burden should be a top priority.” (Puget Sound Business Journal)

Both candidates for the Pierce County Sheriff position have said they would recuse themselves in the pending investigation involving a special drug unit filing false reports.  One of the candidates, Lt. Cynthia Fajardo, was leading the since-disbanded unit, while the other candidate, Ed Troyer, was in the department’s senior administration when the alleged violations occurred.  Currently the Clark County Sheriff’s Office is helping out, determining if violations occurred. (News Tribune)

What is it about the Northwest part of the state that seems to attract unwanted problems to our country?  First it was the country’s initial coronavirus patient earlier this year in Everett.  Now, the first nest of Asian giant hornets have finally been found (and eliminated) near Blaine, in Whatcom County near the Canadian border.  State agriculture officials were able to locate the nest of between 100 – 200 “murder” hornets by attaching radio transmitters to captured hornets, which returned to the hive after being released, allowing officials to determine where to exterminate. (Everett Herald)

As predicted, lawyers from wealthy environmental groups have announced that they will file even more lawsuits, because the federal government’s four-year study they demanded did not result in the silly suggestion of tearing down of the Snake River dams.  The greenies remain determined. Despite Snake River Chinook salmon experiencing a 40% increase in population in 2020, and despite National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientists stating Snake River salmon are insignificant to the food supply of the Puget Sound Orcas, environmental lawyers will continue to file expensive lawsuits advancing the claim that the federal government’s decision to keep the dams in place will hurt the Orcas.  This will be the sixth lawsuit the groups have filed asking courts to step in and remove the dams. (Tri-City Herald, Twitter, and Everett Herald)

The Kennewick School Board voted to delay returning middle and high school students to hybrid learning until February, causing over 100 parents and students to protest the decision at a local elementary school.  School officials made the decision due to the difficulties which could occur with secondary students going into multiple classrooms, with multiple different classmates. (YakTriNews)

“We now need to restore our movement around fundamental conservative principles.”  Shift’s Newsmaker Interview last week was with one of our favorite people in the media, Kirby Wilbur from KVI 570 (Weekdays 3:00PM – 6:00PM).  Kirby has been an insightful and steady voice for the conservative perspective for nearly 30 years.  Kirby shares with us the highlights of his career (including interviewing Richard Simmons live in the studio) and the local conservative movement (first gaining international coverage with a rally against “Hillarycare”).  He also shares his thoughts about what conservatives need to do to get elected in Washington State, the local liberal media, and the future of talk radio and the conservative movement. (Shift’s Newsmaker Interview and KVI AM)