The Inslee Administration believes it does NOT have the responsibility to inform taxpayers of the financial impact that liberal environmental programs have on the state’s taxpayers.   In demonstrating their belief that taxpayers don’t deserve to be informed, the Department of Ecology (DOE) said it will not provide any analysis on the state’s cost from adopting the California ban on the sale of new gas and diesel cars by 2035. That matters because Governor Jay Inslee and Democrat legislators enacted in 2020 a measure requiring our state to blindly follow whatever California decides to do regarding vehicle emissions – thus allowing California politicians to decide our state’s laws and not allowing Washington State residents to have any input unless they are willing to travel to Sacramento to voice their opinions. The DOE announcement is the latest attack on transparency being waged during the one-party rule of Democrats in Washington State.

Normally a cost-benefit analysis is conducted by the state to allow the public and lawmakers to evaluate how a program is working and to consider alternatives. But the Inslee Administration believes that since Californian lawmakers are deciding our laws, there is no need for our state to provide that information to Washington taxpayers. (Capital Press)

Governor Inslee is holding a media availability tomorrow at 2:00 PM.  It will be interesting to see if he is asked about the impact his vaccine mandate has had in making the Washington Ferry System an unreliable transportation method due to suddenly canceled sailings, or about whether or not he supports the illegal strikes by teachers, or if he will accept the small wager offered by Washington Policy Center’s Todd Myers about the actual cost of his climate policies on the price of gas. (Jason Mercier Twitter, Shift, Peninsula Daily News, and Washington Policy Center)

Tickets can still be purchased for House Republican Leader JT Wilcox’s 10^th Annual Salmon Bake this Saturday evening, held at his family farm in Roy (East Pierce County). Tickets are $25 and children under 12 are free. (Wilcox Facebook post)

The Seattle Education Association’s (SEA) labor bosses have led their members into an illegal strike and have again placed the union’s financial desires over the needs of 50,000 students. These same students education severely suffered when they were forced to endure the inadequacy of distance learning for longer than nearly all students in the country during the pandemic due to the union’s demands.  The union is illegally striking now for the district to hire more dues paying union members and for even higher wages and more benefits for members, whose annual average pay/benefits package is already over $131,000 (for working just ten months).

The SEA is demanding that administrators hire more union members even after nearly 10% of the Seattle Public School’s students have left the district in the past two years, mostly because parents are dissatisfied with the subpar education their children are receiving from a district that is seemingly controlled by the teachers union. This strike will likely cause even more parents to seek alternative education methods outside of the Seattle Public Schools.

It is interesting to note that Democrat State Senator Reuven Carlyle posted on Facebook his belief that students and parents have suffered greatly during the past two years and this “is not the year for an adult fight.” He encouraged the union to quickly settle on a one-year contract and continue to negotiate for a longer deal. Because Senator Carlyle is retiring, he is not as beholden to the teachers union’s money as current Democrats officials, who are afraid to stand up for students and their parents.  Also worth noting is that the union was so determined to go on strike the bosses had already prepared an expensive ad campaign stating their demands. (Seattle Times, Senator Reuven Carlyle Facebook post, and SEA front page Seattle Times digital ad)

Criminals in King County are allowed to continue their illegal activities due to outdated COVID-related orders from King County Executive Dow Constantine.  The King County jail system continues to refuse booking criminals for such crimes as car theft, illegal use of drugs, shoplifting, and destruction of property due to Executive Constantine’s pandemic-related orders on which suspects can be forced to spend time in custody.  According to KTTH’s Jason Rantz this has forced officers to release many repeat offenders.

Rantz also notes that many felony suspects have learned a way to avoid serving any time in King County – they simply state they have swallowed some drugs or they are having trouble breathing, and they are immediately taken to Harborview Hospital where they must remain under supervision for at least six hours.  Both King County and Seattle officers say their departments do not have the personnel resources to allow them to be off the streets for this amount of time and the suspect is simply let go by the hospital staff. (MyNorthwest)

Senator Simon Sefzik (R – Ferndale) argues that last year’s destructive flood of the Nooksack River (in Whatcom County) and the federal government’s slow response demonstrate to him that the river needs to be better managed and that local governments should have more power to respond to emergencies. Senator Sefzik agrees with local farmers that future floods could be avoided if the river were better managed by removing sediment, improving levees, and increasing water storage abilities.  The Senator was also critical of the federal response to the flood and that it took President Biden 51 days to finally declare an emergency which then allowed the Federal Emergency Management Agency to take a more active role in providing assistance to local residents. (The Center Square)

A recent Seattle Times’ opinion piece provided a possible clue as to why the paper refuses to print anything negative about U.S. Representative Pramila Jayapal despite her receiving negative national attention for her actions.  Times columnist Brier Dudley points out the Representative Jayapal is the only member of the Washington State congressional delegation to co-sponsor the Journalism Competition and Preservation Act (JCPA), which is a classic special interest scheme developed by newspaper companies to provide them with financial advantages as they negotiate with online companies over content. It was originally developed in 2018 and it has gone through several versions as both Democrat and Republican lawmakers are skeptical of its reach.

Dudley’s article is typical of special interest messaging, as it describes the JCPA as being as American as mom and apple pie, while assigning its opponents with all sorts of evil intentions.  It is not a secret that the Seattle Times is struggling financially, and the paper is becoming dependent on government handouts to survive.

This raises questions about the paper’s reporting on Representative Jayapal and possibly its reporting on other far-left organizations and individuals. When Buzzfeed posted a national story about 14 former employees stating that Representative Jayapal mistreated her employees and ran a dysfunctional office, the Seattle Times never mentioned the allegations (instead the paper wrote a puff piece about how she was becoming a “power player” in the nation’s capital). Yet the same staff mistreatment allegations were made against Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler and the Times ran several front-page stories on those claims.  Recently, Fox News ran a national story on how, after Representative Jayapal voted against providing additional security to U.S. Supreme Court justices who were receiving multiple death threats, she accepted enhanced security when she received similar death threats.  Representative Jayapal’s hypocrisy has yet to be mentioned in the Times.

There is no proof to support any quid pro quo arrangement between the paper and its own U.S. Representative. Yet the paper would certainly take a skeptical eye if similar conditions were evident between a special interest group seeking financial assistance from the government and a politician who can help make it happen. (Seattle Times, Congress.gov, Buzzfeed, and FOX News)

Washington State University has instituted a permanent COVID vaccine mandate on all first-year students who attend in-person classes.  The rule goes into effect in the fall of 2023.  Students can request a religious exemption to avoid the vaccination.  Former WSU football coach Nick Rolovich requested a religious exemption from Governor Inslee’s unilateral imposed vaccine mandate last year, and it was ignored before he was fired from his position. Last month Rolovich filed a $25 million wrongful termination lawsuit against the state. (KQQQ Radio and ESPN)

The East Wenatchee City Council unanimously approved providing a second “resource” officer to roam the halls of schools in the Eastmont School District. The district will provide 60% of the funding for the city to provide commissioned police officers to protect the students and investigate crimes.  (Wenatchee World)

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