A recent editorial from The Columbian highlights something that’s become routine in Washington: the Legislature drowning us in laws while pretending they’re fixing problems. In 2025 alone, Democrats passed 333 new laws in just 105 days — that’s over three laws a day. If you’ve felt like the government is everywhere lately, it’s because it is — literally codified, sectioned, and enforced.

Governor Bob Ferguson signed 422 of 423 bills, and the one he vetoed? A bipartisan study to figure out what’s really driving up the cost of housing. You’d think, with housing in crisis, studying the root causes would be a priority. Instead, Olympia would rather keep piling on regulations than face the uncomfortable truth that their policies might be the problem.

And some of these new laws? Pure comedy. RCW 70A.388.190 makes it illegal to X-ray your foot to check shoe size. RCW 9.61.190 protects racing pigeons with ID tags from being “molested” (yes, that’s the word they used). And reporters are out here investigating whether lollipops are banned in Washington — seriously.

The Columbian points out that every law is “meaningful to somebody.” But that somebody is usually a lobbyist, a commission, or a bureaucracy looking for more taxpayer money. Like the new law allowing the Women’s Commission to raise funds from private donors — a nice gesture, but not exactly helping the average family afford groceries.

With every new legislative session, Washington’s Revised Code gets more bloated, more confusing, and more detached from real life. Democrats aren’t streamlining government — they’re turning it into a tangled mess of micromanagement and mission creep.

If you’re wondering why things aren’t getting better despite all the governing, maybe it’s because the people writing the rules are more interested in quantity than quality. After all, why fix housing, crime, or education when you can ban shoe-fitting X-rays and regulate pigeon protection? Read more at The Columbian.

A new study from the Mountain States Policy Center makes it crystal clear: Democrats have turned Washington’s roads into a cash cow for their pet projects — and drivers are getting milked.

Gas taxes? Sky high. Washington’s is $0.554 per gallon, one of the highest in the region — and that doesn’t even includeBob Ferguson’s climate tax, which slaps on another $0.43 per gallon. That brings the total tax burden at the pump to nearly a full dollar per gallon.

And while gas tax revenue has soared past inflation, Democrats keep demanding more — piling on registration fees, license fees, tolls, and even annual electric vehicle fees up to $225 in Washington. That’s right, they tax you for driving less, too.

But here’s the kicker: that money isn’t even going to the roads. Despite constitutional protections, Washington lawmakers routinely divert “driver user fees” to fund public transit, bike lanes, and feel-good “multimodal” projects pushed by left-wing lobbyists like the Transportation Choices Coalition. Forget fixing potholes or decaying bridges — Democrats would rather spend your gas taxes on virtue-signaling rail lines and traffic-slowing “road diets.”

And just when you thought it couldn’t get worse, they want to track how far you drive — literally. The push for a vehicle miles traveled (VMT) tax, complete with GPS tracking, is being sold as “equitable.” Translation: a new way to soak suburban and rural drivers while funding expensive urban transit that most people don’t use.

Democrats have raised Washington’s gas tax 14 times since 1980, and they’re still whining that it’s not enough. The truth is, they don’t have a revenue problem — they have a spending addiction and a mismanagement problem.

It’s not about fixing roads. It’s about punishing drivers for daring to live outside city limits, and redirecting funds to projects that win political points with their activist base. Meanwhile, $100 billion in deferred road maintenance nationwide keeps growing — because priorities, right? Read more at Center Square.

Another day, another public safety disaster under Washington Democrats’ soft-on-crime regime. This time, King County Superior Court accidentally released a convicted rapist, Noel D. Stepney — a man with a rap sheet so long it needs its own filing cabinet: 33 prior charges and convictions, including domestic violence, drug dealing, and attempted escape.

As KTTH’s Jason Rantz reports, Stepney was convicted of second-degree rape on June 11. That alone should have guaranteed an immediate no-bail hold— you know, because he’s a violent sex offender facing over 13 years behind bars. But nope. Thanks to a complete meltdown in courtroom responsibility, Stepney was allowed to post his original $75,000 bail and walk right out of custody.

Who dropped the ball? Pretty much everyone. The prosecutor didn’t present the no-bail order. The judge didn’t catch it. The defense sure wasn’t going to say anything. So the “progressive” criminal justice system did what it does best under Democrat rule: failed the victim and endangered the public.

And let’s not forget the Washington Supreme Court’s latest little trick — rewriting Rule 8.3(b) to let judges throw out criminal cases based on vague, subjective notions of “community impact.” Translation: if your case makes someone uncomfortable or doesn’t vibe with Seattle values, it might just disappear.

This isn’t just a paperwork error. It’s what happens when the Democratic obsession with offender rights and “equity”outweighs any concern for public safety. You get a system where a man raped a woman in her own home, threatened to kill her dog, and still walks free because nobody in charge could be bothered to follow the law.

Stepney’s now got a bench warrant and is being hunted by police — because we only lock up violent criminals after they vanish, apparently.

This is King County justice under Democrat leadership: protect the predators, abandon the victims, and hope the public forgets by the next election. Read more at KTTH.

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