Every December, as Shift has highlighted for the last decade, Governor Jay Inslee has rolled out a budget wish list for the next legislative session, along with the tax increases he wants so he can further increase the size of government. And despite the whistleblower scandal currently distracting his administration, this year is proving no different, with the Seattle Times reporting on this year’s budget tour launch with an “ask for an additional $50 million in the current state budget to fight the opioid crisis.”

The staged-for-TV event in Everett allowed the governor to issue a press release and escape without answering any questions. So, Shift’s Whistleblower Follow-up #4 is this – will the local media allow the Inslee administration to dictate what is covered, or will reporters demand the governor answer questions beyond his press releases? We’re waiting… Shift, Seattle Times.

The Democrats’ new carbon tax is less than a year old, and has already proven (as Shift has highlighted) both expensive and ineffective at doing what was promised to voters – but quite effective at raising their gas prices. Now some Democrats are trying to pretend that their misguided law can be fixed with a few tweaks, though the Washington State Standard reports that “a ballot measure to repeal the Climate Commitment Act may slow their pursuit – unless they are willing to see changes they make to the law in the upcoming legislative session also go before voters.”

We all realize the last thing Democrats want is for voters to actually have a vote on the far-Left policies draining their wallets, leaving legislative leaders waiting for “an (attorney’s) interpretation of what is and isn’t allowed” at this point. You can read on to see whether Olympia Democrats will try to inflict more carbon tax-related pain this year here… Shift, Washington State Standard.

Just in case you missed it over the weekend, the Seattle Times editorial board wanted to let you know that “Washington legislative leaders are tugging a new veil of secrecy over the public’s business, under the banner of ‘legislative privilege’.” Hopefully the editors will get around to fact-checking their own editorial, and will update it to “Democrat legislative leaders” making the secrecy rules they hate.

Since the Times is aware that the “genesis of this cynical effort is traced to the House of Representatives Democratic caucus”, its editorial writers should drop the charade that Republicans are the ones in the keeping secrets caucus. As one open government advocate reminds us, Democrats are sending “a message to the people who elect legislators that the legislative process is not their business” here… Seattle Times.

A story that the mainstream media seems to have missed so far, what with all the other scandals swirling around the Democrat-run state capital, may be getting ready to emerge, thanks to the Washington State Republican Party. The story is a usual one for Democrats, involving spying and secrecy, though the source is not, with Center Square reporting that “Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs is facing a complaint filed with the Washington State Executive Ethics Board.”

The complaint relates to the accidental Secretary of State using “a contract with an international cybersecurity firm to monitor private citizens’ communications on social media.” Perhaps some reporters will check in on this case as it works its way through the legal system, maybe even talking to the citizens who received public records including “bi-weekly reports from U.K.-based Logically AI Inc. to Hobbs and his colleagues” to find out what extremists were so interesting to the Democrats here… Center Square.

It can be nasty when leftists turn on each other, but that is what the Capital Press reports the regulatory process for the state’s largest windmill project is doing to the environmental community. The latest fissure on the Left is the reality that a “quarter-mile buffer between wind turbines and nests won’t keep raptors from being killed by the proposed Horse Heaven wind project in southeast Washington, state wildlife biologists say.”

The state’s own testimony that a “buffer would only minimize disturbance to nesting raptors” comes on top of other problems, as “staff (also) has produced a report acknowledging the turbines would dominate the landscape and that the project would impact cultural resources important to the Yakama Nation.” Read on to see whether you think Seattle liberals would want to jam through such a massive project if it was blocking their views for a distance from Seattle to Tacoma, with the energy just being sent to California, here… Capital Press.

Shift’s Newsmaker Interview last week was with author, filmmaker, and former Levi Strauss & Co. executive Jennifer Sey, who will be one of the featured speakers at the 2024 Roanoke Conference (January 26 – 28 in Ocean Shores). Her new book. “Levi’s Unbuttoned: The Woke Mob Took My Job but Gave Me My Voice” details her experience fighting liberal activists over her concerns distance learning was having on student’s education and social development.

In her interview, Sey described her concerns with isolating children during COVID and her fight with activists who attempted to silence her concerns. She detailed her experience within Levi’s where members of the management team (whose children went to private schools which continued in-person learning) told her that she must stop advocating for re-opening public schools. Finally, Sey talked about her upcoming documentary, “GENERATION COVID,” which focuses on the long-term damage the lockdown will have on our children… Shift.

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