Shift’s Newsmaker Interview is with GOP 44^th Legislative District (Central Snohomish County) House candidate Dr. Ryne Rohla, who is challenging first-term Democrat Representative April Berg.  The Snohomish County native and father of two daughters is a state economist (a PhD in Economics from Washington State University) running to reduce the cost of living for Washington State residents, and he opposes the mindset of current state leaders who believe “you can subsidize and regulate your way to affordability.”

In his interview Dr. Rohla describes how a family tragedy strongly influenced his decision to run for state representative.  He believes that by bringing his economics expertise to the state legislature he can help shape state policies to assist those pursuing the American Dream.  Dr. Rohla supports reducing the B&O tax to lower consumer costs.  Like 70% of his district, he does not support the Democrats’ poorly developed Long-Term care tax and would support repealing the already insolvent and badly named WACares plan.  Dr. Rohla states he is frustrated by the daily stories of crime in his community and will work to reverse Democrat policies which he believes “played a significant role is our state’s crime increase.” He adds that he enjoys reading books which “intellectually tackle theology” as well as “realistic science fiction.” (Click to read full Newsmaker Interview)

Those under the age of 19 will no longer have to pay for riding on mass transit in Washington State, as Democrat and liberal officials continue their quest to force taxpayers to shoulder the burden of cost overruns, underperforming routes, and the high salaries of transit officials.   Free transit rides for minors is due to legislative Democrats imposing higher fees on Washington residents as part of their $19 billion transportation package jammed through during the 2022 legislative session.  Many believe this is the next step in the liberals’ scheme to have taxpayers shoulder all of the burden of mass transit cost.  Sound Transit is already leading the way by recently passing a “fare enforcement” plan which essentially allows anyone to ride free on the system (after promising voters that commuter fares would fund 40% of the system’s operations).

It is easy to imagine many people over the age of 18 will take advantage of this new statewide youth free-fare program. It is unlikely that many bus drivers will challenge those who claim to be under 18, for no identification is required and drivers certainly won’t want to create a disturbance on their bus. (Seattle Times)

Jonathan Choe of the Discovery Institute’s Fix Homelessness project reveals how the liberal elected officials who run King County have pushed through an “enhancement” of a homeless shelter located in Seattle’s International District without any meaningful public involvement.  Once “enhancement” is complete, the shelter will be a 24/7 facility capable of housing approximately 500 individuals, a “sobering center,” places to park broken-down RVs, and social workers to provide a wide array of government services.

A virtual hearing on the $22 million SoDo enhanced shelter (which Choe describes as a “homeless megaplex”) was held by the King County Council last May, at which only one member of the public spoke.  The speaker mostly expressed his concern that there was no serious outreach to the members of the International District who are already troubled about the negative impact of homeless individuals in their neighborhood.  King County Councilmember Joe McDermott seemed unconcerned about the lack of public outreach, as he followed the speaker to encourage his fellow councilmembers to support the shelter’s expansion.

Now members of the International District are outraged and claim that the liberals on the King County Council and the Seattle City Council (which is also providing funding) are conducting “institutional racism” in keeping the Asian community out of the process. They assert that their neighborhood already has five homeless shelters and that they attract those who prey on those who are suffering (such as drug dealers and sex workers).  Some Asian leaders believes that due to the polite nature of the neighborhood’s residents, they are being taken advantage of by liberal politicians who keep burdening them with even more homeless. (Discovery Institute’s Fix Homeless Project and KING5 News)

Seven days of school have now been postponed thanks to the illegal strike conducted by the Kent Education Association/teachers’ union.  The union is striking for higher wages, more benefits, and smaller class sizes.  They are also seeking what the union describes as “more mental health resources for students.”  It has interesting to watch the local media cave into the union’s terminology on “student mental health resources” without challenging or even accurately describing what it means.

Simply stated, teachers’ unions are using the rise of mental health problems, which occurred in younger people during the pandemic, to force school districts to permanently hire more dues-paying union members who they claim will help the students. (These mental health workers will still be employed by the school districts long after those students impacted by the pandemic have graduated.)  It is worth noting that these mental problems in students, caused by isolation during remote learning, were often downplayed by teachers’ unions as they stubbornly refused to return to in-person learning. Thus the unions are now seeking to profit (from collecting more dues) from the mental health problems they helped to create. (KING5 News)

Fortunately there does not appear to be plans for teachers in the Washougal School District to strike, even though a contract agreement has yet to be reached. School started in the Clark County district last Tuesday as negotiations continued.  District Superintendent Mary Templeton stated that “Things are moving forward, and we’re progressing.”  Cost of living adjustments appear to be the remaining sticking point between the two sides. (Vancouver Columbian)

 Washington State Department of Commerce Director Lisa Brown will likely run for Spokane mayor next year, and some observers are wondering what impact this is having in the controversy over the placement of a homeless shelter in the West Hills neighborhood.  Lisa Brown and her Department of Commerce are providing the funding to Catholic Services to purchase an old hotel in the residential neighborhood, which has many neighbors concerned, especially since there has been little public involvement in the process.

To many individuals it appears that the department is playing partisan politics, as its media releases and actions appear to be divisive and place blame on everyone from Mayor Nadine Woodward (who Brown is planning to challenge) to the County Council, instead of working to solve the problem.  Mayor Woodward held a town meeting with West Hill residents earlier this week and Director Brown was a no-show.  Recently Director Brown made the very unusual decision to move back to Spokane while still drawing a state paycheck for managing a state agency 300 miles away in Olympia. (KREM – TV)

Liberal Spokane City Council President Breean Beggs is now in a serious dispute with Spokane Police Chief Craig Mendl over the use of money obtained from the sale of items in drug seizures, while at the same time still clashing with Mayor Nadine Woodward over homeless and policy jurisdiction issues.  President Beggs wants to divert drug seizure funds to city-run programs designed to prevent children from using drugs.  Chief Mendl maintains that money by law must be used by police to fund undercover drug operations and to pay informants. Mendl also states that if President Beggs is successful the fund will be bankrupt within two years. Both sides claim their legal representatives assert they are correct. (The Center Square)

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