The state’s journalistic voice for the agriculture community is the latest one to weigh in on the misleading public relations campaign being led by Governor Jay Inslee to blame others, especially private industry, for the fact his own policies have caused Washington’ gas prices to surge to the highest in the nation. The Capital Press editorial board started with, “Washington Gov. Jay Inslee made a show last week of blaming oil company price gouging for making gas prices in the Evergreen State the highest in the nation.” They then rightly pointed out, “That’s a bunch of codswallop meant to draw attention away from the impact the state’s carbon-emission allowance auctions are having on the price of gas and diesel fuel.”

You can follow the paper deep into the weeds of Inslee’s carbon tax policy, but the editorial board concludes with a simple fact: “The whole point of the allowances was to drive up fossil fuel prices to stem consumption. Inslee is trying to run away from the intended consequences of the program he championed.” You can read more about how Inslee still keeps on running away from the truth here… Capital Press.

Primaries are about choices, and Spokane’s voters certainly have a big one to make in the re-election race of Mayor Nadine Woodward.  But before the next mayor can be chosen, the field first needs to be reduced to two candidates by next Tuesday’s primary. You can decide for yourself which candidate might reduce homelessness in Spokane by taking a look at this Spokesman-Review overview of the most recent candidate debate here… Spokesman-Review.

No one would suggest that it would be easy to recruit new police officers to Seattle after the abuse and lack of support provided by the Seattle City Council to its own first responders over the past few years. But it doesn’t get easier if you don’t even try. Unfortunately, that’s what Seattle voters are getting from Mayor Bruce Harrell, with KTTH reporting that “Of the 38 (police recruitment/retention) programs or initiatives Harrell said his administration would tackle by the end of 2022, roughly 70% either haven’t been completed or even started.”

This type of story (big promises/little results) is a familiar one for those familiar with Seattle city government, as it was just last July that “Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell announced to the community and press his ‘robust and multi-pronged approach’ to officer recruitment and retention. He’s accomplished almost nothing, despite a controversial move giving his office control over recruitment and retention efforts from the Seattle Police Department (SPD).” You can find out more about how “SPD staff continues to dwindle this year, with 61 total separations as of June 30, with just 41 hires” here… KTTH.

The Blake decision by the Democrat-inspired State Supreme Court has caused plenty of ongoing pain for Washington citizens, who have been plagued by increasing crime rates attributed to these drug decriminalization efforts. Now the financial pain will get turned up a notch, as according to Axios-Seattle, it “will soon be easier for Washingtonians with past drug convictions to get reimbursed for fees and fines they paid under the state’s now-overturned drug law.”

And we are not talking “pennies” as Governor Jay Inslee likes to do, as the “state recently set aside $47 million to help process the vacating of convictions and another $50 million for providing the actual refunds”. You can find out why it might cost almost as much to process this legal abomination as it will be to re-imburse old fines here… Axios Seattle.

First-time political candidates sometimes make silly mistakes, and sometimes it goes – as Shift highlighted last year – all the way to lying about much of their past (Democrat Clyde Shavers, 10th Legislative District) in their quest to get elected. For now, we can chalk this error down to sloppiness, but it seems that Nick Brown, in his first fundraising email for his State Attorney General race, should actually know his address and not just default to one in D.C. out of habit.

Nick brown
to be determined
washington, DC 20009
United States

You can see for yourself if Mr. Brown might be an improvement upon Mr. Ferguson in the attached email here… Shift, Nick Brown campaign email.

You have to ask yourself, if a major homelessness advocate agency is this sloppy with private information, how careful are they with taxpayer dollars? That’s a question that arises from this Crosscut piece about how a “few clicks through online data dashboards run by A Way Home Washington, one of the state’s most prominent homeless youth advocacy and support organizations, allowed unrestricted access to dozens of different fields of private information on hundreds of young clients who were homeless or close to becoming so.”

The fact it took a reporter to inform this homelessness behemoth that it was publishing such sensitive material is troubling. You can find out more about the lack of transparency around this semi-public organization here… Crosscut.

Are you attending the 2023 Summer Freedom Fest hosted by Let’s Go Washington? This year’s hosts include KVI 570 Radio’s John Carlson and [un]Divided’s Brandi Kruse. Learn more here.

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