A Spokane Superior Court Judge ruled that the voters can decide a commonsense initiative, which makes liberals very unhappy.

After Spokane liberals turned a small homeless protest into a mega crime-ridden homeless encampment (the misnamed “Camp Hope,” which one of the 600+ residents described as “The Lord of the Flies on drugs” due to the rapes and beatings which regularly took place), the residents of the state’s second-largest city said they wanted to have a say regarding the location of any possible future encampments. They collected signatures and placed Citizen Initiative 2023-4 on the ballot to restrict encampments from being within 1,000 feet of a school or playground. The irresponsible liberals (led by the ethically challenged Ben Stuckart) filed a lawsuit to remove the initiative from the ballot. Yesterday, Spokane Superior Court Judge Tony Hazel shot down the liberals’ undemocratic efforts. A spokesperson for the group behind the initiative (Clean and Safe Spokane) said, “This is a big win for the safety of Spokane’s children.”

Mayor Nadine Woodward, who strongly supports Initiative 2023-4, released the following statement on her campaign website, “I am pleased with the Court’s decision that has protected the choice of voters to decide on the safety of our citizens, especially children.” The campaign website for Woodward’s challenger, Lisa Brown, does not mention the failed legal action that her liberal supporters mounted to keep the initiative off the ballot. (Clean & Safe Spokane, KXLY-TV, Shift, Woodward Campaign, and Brown Campaign)

Despite more than doubling the state’s budget during the past decade, the Inslee Administration cannot complete the basic tasks it is required by law to perform. This caused 22 counties to take legal action to force the state to do its job. The lawsuit was filed Wednesday in Pierce County Superior Court against Governor Inslee’s Department of Social and Health Services for not performing competency treatment for charged suspects so they can stand trial. Under state law, DSHS is supposed to perform this task, yet the state’s failure to do so has cost counties money due to overcrowded jails, and local judges have imposed millions in daily fines against the state.

With the huge increase in the state budget (funded by multiple new taxes and increases in state taxes and fees), money is not the problem. It is yet another administrative and management error by the Inslee team and can be added to the many recent performance lapses of state government. These other failures include:

• Reducing security protocols, which allowed $600 million to be stolen from the Employment Security Department (one of the largest heists in U.S. history) and then delayed much-needed payments to Washington residents who suddenly lost their jobs at the start of the COVID pandemic.
• Not providing a safe place for nurses to work at state hospitals, causing taxpayers to pay nurses millions in damages.
• Failure to have enough crew members (because of Governor Inslee’s unscientific vaccine mandate) to run the state’s ferry system, leaving passengers stranded at the dock for hours, even days, due to canceled sailings.

(Washington Policy Center yearly budget chart and Seattle Times)

On Wednesday, the governor’s office announced that career bureaucrat Megan Matthews has been named the new director of the Washington State Office of Equity. Matthews had been the “acting director” since last spring when the previous director was fired for making multiple insensitive comments, including several racist remarks against Hispanics and “fat shaming” an employee.

Dr. Karen Johnson was fired in May after a 2,600 page report from a six-month-long investigation confirmed allegations that the state’s top “equity” employee wasn’t exactly abiding by the same rules she was imposing on others. The report revealed that Dr. Johnson told a Hispanic employee that she “did not trust Hispanic people” and that they did not face the same level of discrimination as others because they could “pretend to be White.” Dr. Johnson also told an overweight employee that her weight was keeping her from being married and having children.

The report also noted there was an extremely high turnover rate within the office and that departing employee “attributed their decision to leave, at least in part, to a chaotic, overburdened, and disrespectful workplace culture created by Dr. Johnson.” (Governor’s Office Press Release, CenterSquare, and FOX News)

While most moderates and conservatives would disagree with many of Seattle City Councilmember Sara Nelson’s liberal policies, she has pushed for responsible actions to correct the city’s disastrous drug, crime, and homelessness policies.

The at-large councilmember took a moment from her recent presentation to the Seattle 4 Rotary Club to recognize Andrea Suarez, the executive director of We Heart Seattle, who also attended the event. Councilmember Nelson said, “We must celebrate the models for addiction and homelessness THAT ARE WORKING.”

We Heart Seattle “organizes trash cleanups in our public spaces and offers resources to those in need.” Progressive protestors often target the non-profit because the volunteers simply get the job done of providing housing assistance to those who want it and cleaning up the mess the encampments leave behind in city parks, greenspaces, and sidewalks. The protestors don’t want this success to occur because they want to use the people’s suffering to selfishly increase the size and costs of the region’s homelessness bureaucracy. (Twitter and We Heart Seattle)

Evidently, liberals believe a “part-time” city council can’t work fast enough to increase the size and cost of the City of Tacoma’s government; thus, they are moving forward to make it a full-time job to be a city councilmember. On Wednesday, a government-appointed Citizen Commission on Elected Salaries released recommendations to increase council members’ pay by 20%. They admitted they did so to “incentivize City Council to take steps to becoming a full-time council.” With all that extra time, the council members can come up with all sorts of creative methods to raise taxes and impose their will on Tacoma businesses and residents. (News Tribune)

On Wednesday, a 14 and 15-year-old were arrested for the attempted murder of a Tacoma police officer. The suspects fled a car that was pulled over for driving erratically. They shot at the officers, striking one in the shoulder. The 27-year veteran of the department was in stable condition at a local hospital.

There is a growing trend of juveniles becoming involved in violent crimes, especially those involved with stolen vehicles. This should not be a surprise after Democrats passed state laws that allowed suspects to flee police pursuit and allowed youths to legally carry such lethal drugs as fentanyl, heroin, and methamphetamine. And even when youths are caught committing a crime, we have permitted the juveniles to keep a clean record with “diversion” programs the youths don’t actually have to attend. We have taught a generation that crime pays, and there are no repercussions for their actions. (MyNorthwest)

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