A measure allowing state and local law enforcement and firefighters to hire legal permanent residents, HB 1182, passed in the House of Representatives yesterday. Sponsored by Rep. Drew Stokesbary (R-Auburn), the bill opens up the hiring pool for these departments and allows the agencies to “build departments more reflective of the communities they protect,” as they would allow the hiring of all legal residents. 260,000 more Washington State residents will be able to apply to these departments if the measure is passed through the Senate.

Shoreline school district’s $250 million construction bond appears likely to pass, as trends show 74% of the vote in its favor with 33% of the vote calculated. Trends are trends, and if this one continues as expected there will be more money directed towards constructing different buildings for early learning, head start, childhood education, elementary and middle school buildings in the district. If passed, property taxes would increase by around $1.19 a year for every $1,000 of registered property value over 20 years.

Seattle Public Schools are blocking Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from accessing school records to determine immigration status, as approved through a resolution by the Seattle School Board yesterday. Board members claim students in the district are from 147 different countries, collectively, and that they are trying to protect students. Spoiler alert: “ICE officials have long said they don’t conduct raids at schools.” Therefore, the resolution is moot point. But hey – whatever makes the Democrats look good while simultaneously wasting time and raising fanfare is a win in their eyes. Maybe now they can get back to work…

50 million gallons of raw sewage is being dumped into our sound – every day – because our King County sewage plants aren’t able to operate during heavy rain. Seems odd, as we live in the Pacific Northwest, that the West Point Treatment Plant hasn’t figured out a way to plan around the impact of heavy rain on their plant. It also seems that in the private sector, someone would be losing their job over this – how hard is it to predict high tides and rain in February, and to create a backup plan to prevent dumping raw sewage into Puget Sound? Pretty difficult, it appears, as the plant failed on February 9th and still hasn’t been fixed. A private company would be paying huge fines to the state for this.

After 12 years of productivity, analysts are predicting “the great boom in the aerospace industry is over.” This means the Boeing plant in Everett might be hitting more cuts in their production line – despite public plans to raise production by two Dreamliners more a month. However, the demand for single-aisle jets has been rising and is still predicted to boom until 2019 in Renton. Only time will tell.

Many King County dams “are potentially at risk,” according to King County Councilmember Reagan Dunn. “On virtually every major river system in King County, you’ve got a dam, most of them built in the 1960s. There’s a lot of people who live in those valleys… all of which are potentially at risk,” Dunn explained recently to The Seattle Times. With reports showing 122 dams in King County that are at risk, as they hold at least 10 acre-feet of water, Dunn is calling for an intervention before an emergency hits when a dam fails in a natural disaster – or even a heavy storm. Four of the dams have the potential to be incredibly destructive if knocked into failure due to a storm.

Richland florist has been cited by the Washington State Supreme Court for violating an anti-discrimination law when Barronelle Stutzman declined floral services to two men in their 2013 wedding. Stutzman recommended different florists in the Richland area, but was sued by the couple and Attorney General Bob Ferguson. Stutzman and her attorneys have argued her right to refuse floral arrangements for a same-sex marriage is in-line with her religious beliefs and that a floral arrangement is akin to a form of speech, meaning her refusal would have been protected under the First Amendment. The final ruling came against Stutzman, claiming her argument to be invalid and ruling that her refusal was in violation of state anti-discrimination laws.

Freedom overcame regulation when 74% of the 3,000 union-eligible Boeing workers in South Carolina bucked management by rejecting the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers – the very union controlling the Boeing work force in our state. South Carolina is a right-to-work state. Unions in Washington state stopping work amid protests and bargaining may have been one of the original reasons Boeing sent work on their latest Dreamliner to the South Carolina facility. This decision comes two years after the very same vote was called off amid “an atmosphere of threats, harassment and unprecedented political interference.”

A Day Without Immigrants is slated to occur today, with organizers calling for a protest across the nation – encouraging immigrants to miss class, miss work and essentially skip out on all aspects of the life they are fighting to keep. The protest is scheduled to occur in many cities pledging to maintain their “sanctuary city” status, such as Philadelphia. This means protesters are asking students to miss class and face punishment, asking workers to skip work and face strikes and asking people to stand for an issue that has already been settled in their city. Another case of liberals acting out without a real solution in mind, but rather a desire to make noise simply for the sake of attention – despite the ramifications.