Governor Jay Inslee has agreed to keep future negotiations with government employee unions a secret even though there is growing support for more public transparency in these discussions on the use of taxpayer money.  As part of Inslee’s just-completed “negotiations” with the Washington Federation of State Employees (in which the governor agreed to give more of money, in two more large pay raises and increased health care benefits, to the major contributors to his political campaigns), the governor also fought hard to include language which will keep secret any future negotiations with the government employee unions.  This secrecy will cost taxpayers more money, but it will benefit both the unions and the liberal politicians like Inslee (whose campaigns the unions spend millions supporting) to keep the public away from the details of how their money is being spent during these discussions.  The proposed contract states, “Bargaining sessions will be closed to the press and the public unless agreed otherwise by the chief spokespersons.”  This is another example of how Washington Democrats have used their one-party rule to reduce the public’s knowledge and involvement in the political process, all to the benefit of Democrat politicians and special interests. As the Washington Post’s motto claims, “Democracy Dies in Darkness.” (Washington Policy Center, Shift, and Wikipedia)

Washington State’s minimum wage will be the highest in the country next year and will cause consumer prices to rise even higher, impacting lower income households and those on a fixed incomes the most.  The Washington State Department of Labor & Industries announced that the minimum wage will jump next year by $1.25, to $15.74 an hour.  This will also negatively impact the state’s ability to attract manufacturing jobs from companies with a customer base outside of Washington (which means almost everyone).  The state’s wage hike will even surpass California’s minimum wage of $15.50. (Axios)

Washington State Ferry riders experienced yet another weekend of being stranded or having to wait for hours on the docks as the Governor Inslee’s unscientific and politically motivated vaccine mandate caused more staff shortages and cancelled sailings.  At nearly midnight Friday evening (11:48 PM), the Washington State Department of Transportation released an alert saying that two of its vessels (M/V Yakima and M/V Samish) were going to out of service on Saturday due to staff shortages. A year ago, Governor Inslee essentially fired 132 ferry workers with his partisan vaccine mandate.

Instead of admitting that his COVID vaccine mandate for state workers has caused massive disruption to the once-dependable ferry system, the governor and his highly paid public relations staff have said the true culprit of staff shortages and cancelled sailing is the large number of retirements of ferry crew members.  If this is true (which it isn’t), this is also an indictment of the Inslee Administration for he’s been there since 2013 and has known for years that this wave of departures was going to hit the service. Why is Inslee not prepared for this entirely predictable event by having replacements ready to receive Coast Guard certification? And if this were true, why did the governor make the situation worse by imposing the mandate causing 130 more crew members to lose their jobs for only partisan reasons? (Washington State Department of Transportation Alert, KIRO Radio, and Crosscut)

Liberal public safety policies created more victims in Seattle over the weekend as violent crimes continue to rise in the city, even while such violence is declining in nearly all other urban areas across the country.  Three separate Seattle shooting events on Saturday night left five people injured.  Two of the shootings happened within minutes and blocks of each other in the Chinatown International District (where more than two dozen shots were fired) and in Pioneer Square.   Four people were injured in a shooting outside a bar in the University District.  In typical liberal fashion, University of Washington President Ana Mari Cauce attempted to blame the increase in violence on guns and not on the city’s disastrous policies which have empowered criminals and caused more than 400 police officers to flee the Seattle Police Department.  As is too frequently the case, no arrests have yet been made for these crimes. (Seattle Times)

University of Washington students who previously rioted to “Defund the Police,” are now calling for more police protection.  During and after the 2020 riots in Seattle, UW students were leaders in the call for the City of Seattle to reduce the police department’s funding by 50%.  Yet the on-going increase in violent crime (such as this weekend’s shooting outside the popular University Avenue Flowers Bar which left four people injured) has caused a reversal in how students react to police.  The UW Police department patrols the campus, but once students step off campus they are under the jurisdiction of the unfortunately short-staffed Seattle Police Department. Reality is often the best education. (MyNorthwest)

The City of Longview has been forced into hiring a private security firm to handle problems associated with a 100+ person homeless encampment.  The city hired Northwest Enforcement, which has done similar work in Portland.  The firm has been hired to provide 115 hours of security every week, with two or three unarmed security officers on patrol both inside and outside the encampment. Many of the residents are waiting for the arrival of 50 mini homes the city has purchased. (Longview Daily News)

King County has handed $266,000 of taxpayer money to a convicted sex offender awaiting trial for insurance fraud.  Executive Dow Constantine has given more than a quarter million dollars to Saleem Robinson for his Renegades for Life Youth Outreach program.  Evidently the county did this without running a criminal background check on Robinson, who has been convicted of two separate sexual indecency crimes.  The county also did not check Robinson’s credentials, for he does not hold a master’s degree in social work from Seattle University, or a psychology degree from the University of Washington as he claimed he did in his application.  The taxpayer money being wasted was part of the fund Executive Constantine approved to reduce gun crime (and likely to buy future votes). (NPR/KUOW)

The Director of Governor Inslee’s Department of Commerce, longtime political operative Lisa Brown, is going on a “dark money” spending spree to collect pollical favors before her expected campaign for Spokane mayor next year.  Spokane County Commissioner Josh Kern issued a media release today in which he used Federal Election Commission reports to show that Brown is using money left over from her failed 2018 campaign for Congress to spend more than $70,000 on local liberal candidates and organizations. Commissioner Kerns notes, “I find it incredibly ironic that during her failed Congressional campaign, Lisa Brown campaigned on keeping ‘dark money’ out of the campaign, yet Lisa is now dolling out her campaign slush fund to the tune of nearly $60,000 this election cycle alone.”

Director Brown is already receiving well-deserved criticism for moving her office back to Spokane, even though nearly all of the employees of the Commerce Department remain in Olympia.  She has also sought taxpayer reimbursements for whenever she travels to Olympia. The unusual move of a cabinet officer to reside 300 miles away in Spokane was approved by the governor’s office and was done in preparation for Director Brown’s expected 2023 mayoral campaign. (Josh Kearn Campaign media release Part 1, Part 2, Lisa Brown 2018 Congressional Campaign Federal Election Commission Report, and Concerned Taxpayers Accountability Center media release)

Memorial Services for U.S. Attorney, community leader, and Republican leader Bill Hyslop will take place this Saturday at 1:00 PM at the Spokane First Presbyterian Church (318 S Cedar St, Spokane).  Hyslop, who served as U.S. Attorney for Eastern Washington under Presidents George H.W. Bush and Donald Trump, passed away after unexpected medical complications on September 11^th at the age of 71. (Spokesman-Review)

Shift’s Newsmaker Interview was with Stephanie McClintock, the GOP candidate for the open State House of Representatives Position 1 seat in the 18^th Legislative District (Clark County).  In the August primary, McClintock won the “test run” against her Democrat opponent (who is heavily financed by government employee union money) by over 5%.  She is a mother of two college-aged sons and a former Battle Ground School Board Member. McClintock currently works as a public relations specialist for a grain export company, and she and her husband previously operated their own small business.

In her interview, McClintock, who is the daughter of a police detective, states that the legislature needs to repeal the Democrats’ anti-police laws which were jammed through in 2021.  She states her opposition to the Democrats’ poorly conceived and expensive Long Term Care payroll tax and her frustrations with Governor Inslee’s secret negotiations with his political contributors in the government employee unions. McClintock shares her thoughts on a new I-5 Columbia River bridge and on Governor Inslee’s attempt to remove the clean energy provided by the Snake River dams (it would remove barge traffic and force thousands of large semi-trucks onto already crowded roadways). She concludes the interview by providing an excellent book from Erik Larson as her current favorite. (Click to read full Newsmaker Interview)

Unknowingly, Seattle City Councilmember Tammy Morales posted a tweet last week which supports the argument that liberal housing policies have actually made it more difficult for people of color to purchase a home.  The extremely liberal councilmember referenced a new study on housing in Washington State and she proclaimed that the “housing gap is BIGGER today than in the 1960s.”  She went on to assert that housing opportunities for those in minority communities are actually worse than 60 years ago when “housing discrimination & redlining were legal.” Since liberals have controlled the Seattle City Council for two generations, Councilmember Morales is saying the housing policies passed by her liberal predecessors and contemporaries have failed those in BIPOC communities who are seeking to purchase a home.  If what the councilmember is saying is true, then wouldn’t it be racist for councilmembers to continue to support liberal housing policies which are hurting people of color? (Click to read full Shift Article)

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