Washington Democrats bent unemployment rules to benefit their union allies—and now the federal government is forcing the state to clean up the mess.

Democrats passed SB 5041 allowing striking workers to collect unemployment benefits from a fund traditionally meant for workers who lose their jobs through no fault of their own. But Washington’s Employment Security Department went further, exempting strikers receiving benefits from the normal requirement to actively look for work.

According to Washington Policy Center’s Elizabeth New, the U.S. Department of Labor warned that policy violates federal law. Faced with potentially losing federal administrative funding and jeopardizing employers’ federal unemployment tax credits, ESD suddenly discovered the virtues of following the rules and issued an emergency fix.

More than $500,000 has already reportedly been paid from the unemployment trust fund to striking workers since the Democrat-backed law took effect in January. And the sweetheart treatment isn’t entirely gone: some union members can satisfy job-search requirements through union referral programs, while strike pay still doesn’t have to be reported as income against unemployment benefits.

The timing couldn’t be more appropriate. Seattle teachers—whose union says average pay is around $117,000—just authorized a strike that could keep roughly 50,000 students home beginning Sept. 2.

Democrats created a system where workers can voluntarily walk off the job and have the unemployment fund help finance the decision. It apparently took Washington getting threatened with the loss of federal money for Olympia to acknowledge that strikers should at least follow the same job-search rules as everyone else. Read more at Seattle Red.

Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce CEO and former Democrat state Sen. Joe Nguyen is saying out loud what Seattle residents and businesses have watched for years: City Hall has become very good at listening to activists and remarkably bad at actually governing.

Nguyen says elected officials routinely dismiss concerns about policies with the excuse, “That’s what the advocates want.” Instead of weighing data, unintended consequences or whether an idea can even work, politicians hide behind activists and move along.

The result is the familiar Seattle formula: announce a plan, convene a coalition, spend money, commission another study and make sure nobody is actually responsible when nothing improves.

Nguyen also pointed out the obvious flaw in Seattle’s obsession with activist-driven public comment. The people filling a Tuesday morning council hearing aren’t necessarily representative of the city. Parents, nurses and small-business owners are busy working and raising families while professional activists dominate the microphone—and politicians mistake volume for consensus.

It’s an especially notable indictment coming from Nguyen, who spent six years as a Democratic state legislator before taking over the Chamber.

After years of one-party progressive rule, Seattle doesn’t suffer from a shortage of task forces, engagement sessions or activist input. It suffers from elected officials unwilling to make decisions, accept responsibility and deliver results. Read more at Seattle Red.

Democrat state Rep. Tarra Simmons won’t face an ethics violation for trying to discourage fellow Democrat Daria Ilgen from challenging her—but the details offer quite a glimpse into Democratic politics in the 23rd Legislative District.

After learning Ilgen might run, Simmons texted that she hoped he would challenge “one of the men instead,” suggested other offices he could pursue and apparently enlisted a collection of Democratic power players to contact him. At one point, Simmons asked: “If Bob Ferguson calls you will you stop doing this?”

The Legislative Ethics Board concluded that was politics, not an ethics violation. Unfortunately for Simmons, voters weren’t nearly as cooperative: Ilgen entered the race anyway and then soundly defeated her in the August primary. They’ll meet again in November.

And while Simmons dismissed this complaint as “frivolous,” there’s an important footnote. In a completely separate case, the Ethics Board fined Simmons $15,000 after finding she improperly used her legislative position to steer public money toward a nonprofit where she worked and attempted to retaliate against the person who complained. Simmons denies wrongdoing and plans to appeal.

So, yes, Simmons was cleared in the case involving her efforts to keep a fellow Democrat off the ballot. It just happened almost simultaneously with a $15,000 ethics penalty in another case. Read more at the Washington State Standard.

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