Somebody should call a trial lawyer because there are some Washington State Democrats who are suffering a severe case of whiplash after reading the Seattle Times today. That’s because an op-ed from their own liberal legislative leaders features the headline: “Why we are voting to pass WA’s parental-rights initiative,” even though all good liberals (like the chair of the state Democrat Party) demanded just last month this initiative be killed.

It is laughable that the tables have turned, and Senator Jamie Pedersen and House Speaker Laurie Jinkins are now promising to “work closely with the state Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction and the State Board of Education to ensure students are protected, and the initiative is implemented correctly.” Read on to see if you think this is a sham to allow the Democrats to amend this initiative next year to better reflect what they think needs to be done “correctly”… Seattle Times.

Democrats have been very conflicted on how to treat the six initiatives submitted by citizens this year. They refused to hold any hearings on any of the initiatives for most of the session, before relenting under media/public pressure and allowing three short hearings this week while refusing to permit the other three to be heard.

However, no hearing might have been better than the rude treatment that Center Square reported the Democrats provided yesterday, where one Senator charged that this “whole thing was staged, and then we finally got to hear from the public, and we go to remote testimony. We’ve got a room full of people who drove from all over the place to be here, and we go to someone in New York City.” You can read on to see how the Democrats must agree with the New Yorker, who compared Washington’s initiative to “basically a death sentence for people on the roads because police started chasing everything.”… Center Square.

Shift hopes that commuters enjoyed their last day of maximum $10 tolls on Interstate 405 and Highway 167, as that price goes up 50% tomorrow thanks to the Democrats mismanagement of the state’s transportation system.  That’s the underlying message provided by the Seattle Times, while pointing out that “commuters might want to look up more often while driving on I-405 and Highway 167 starting Friday morning, when the highest possible charge to use the express-toll lanes increases to $15 a trip.”

The state tries to claim that this tolling increase will help improve the 405/167 commute, but the Times points out the reality that “most of the state’s $2.5 billion menu of projects along the 405/167 corridor will be financed by gas taxes, driver or vehicle fees, or other subsidies such as federal infrastructure grants.” Read on to see that the Democrats are just pleased to be able to raise the minimum and maximum toll charge on suburban folks, and extend the hours of charging commuters for the privilege of driving, here… Seattle Times.

Shift will leave with little comment this Crosscut story about the latest Seattle City Council controversy, over whether to fund a pilot project to track gun shots, other than to note that if your city has to debate the need to locate random gun shots, maybe your city leaders are doing the whole public safety thing wrong.  Read how very wrong a city can go here, thanks to people like ex-Councilwoman Lisa Herbold… Crosscut.

The final obituary for the King County Regional Homeless agency has yet to be published, but some publications are getting a head start on the rough draft. That appears to be the reasoning behind the Axios-Seattle report that with “the high-profile resignation of its leader last year and the announcement this month of the loss of $11.7 million in annual funding from Seattle, the fate of the King County Regional Homelessness Authority is in the air.”

The fate of the agency, which “was created in 2019 as a multimillion-dollar experiment that sought to craft a unique approach to addressing regional homelessness”, was probably sealed when the last CEO submitted “a budget request of $25 billion over five years” at a time when auditors were finding out that no one was actually paying attention to how money was being spent in that budget. Read on to see how some liberals never learn, as King County is moving “forward with recruitment for a new CEO (with an advertised salary of $250,000 to $300,000).”… Axios-Seattle.

It is never a good sign when the Washington State Democrats are making national news, as it generally indicates something embarrassing.  That’s why it hurts to learn from ABC News that after “Listen to Michigan, one of the groups behind the push to cast “uncommitted” votes in the state’s Democratic primary to protest President Joe Biden’s stance on the Israel-Hamas war” succeeded in securing more than 100,000 votes, they said “advocates from Minnesota and Washington state have reached out, seeking support for similar efforts in their states.”

The Washington Presidential primary is March 12, and votes are already being case after ballots were mailed last week. Learn from “one of the 20 Washington state volunteers” that was part of the Michigan effort that the “war in Gaza convinced her that Biden did not deserve her vote” here…ABC News.

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