The harsh reality is that the Democrats in the Washington State legislature are still supporting a law, jammed through on a party-line vote in 2021, which is causing innocent people to die in this state. All while claiming to be protecting innocent people from being harmed, based on a false study. So very sad.

As the Yakima Herald reports, the driver in a recent high-profile incident now faces murder charges for his actions, and the “murder charges do not require prosecutors to show an intent to kill but demonstrate that while eluding police Goings caused the deaths of Delilah Minshew, 8, and Timothy Escamilla, 6.” Right now, however, eluding police is not enough for Democrats to let suspects like this be pulled over. It’s up the House Speaker Laurie Jinkins and her fellow Democrats to fix this, as Senate Bill 5352 is in the House awaiting her to allow it to be heard – and amended to its original version (from bi-partisan companion bill HB 1363), which would allow police to use “reasonable suspicion” when deciding whether to pursue a stolen vehicle. Will they act? (Yakima Herald)

In what we can only hope is a preview for the unconstitutional state income tax case being considered by the Supreme Court, a King County Superior Court struck down a 2019 tax which the City of Seattle illegally created as being “arbitrary and capricious”, and ordered the city to return the tax dollars it had confiscated. Sometime sanity does reign.  (Washington Policy Center)

A Seattle Times op-ed today lays out the details behind the upcoming attempted theft from our state’s highway budgets of constitutionally protected gas tax dollars by the state’s transit zealots – aided and abetted by their usual partners, Democrat legislators. The op-ed points out what should be obvious: “If the Road Usage Charge (RUC), which would charge drivers a per-mile fee, is to be a viable long-term gas tax replacement, it must be constitutionally required to be used for highway spending only, like the current gas tax.” But, transit bureaucrats see the RUC opportunity as yet another way to get around the state’s constitution and grab more money to transport fewer people. (The Seattle Times)

Seems like “a 10-fold increase in impact fees” for homebuilding is the type of City Council action which could do just that, and since the Spokane Council did just yesterday according to KHQ, local REALTORS are sounding the alarm. “March 13th will forever be remembered at the day housing died in Spokane,” said Spokane REALTOR® President, Tom Hormel, following the emergency ordinance vote. Maybe the sound of hammers will not be heard much this summer in Spokane, if the politicians succeed in jacking up fees. (KHQ)

A commonsense bill to make catalytic converter theft less lucrative and more painful for criminals in Washington State was finally heard today in the Senate Law and Justice Committee, suffering from the fate of being supported by too many Republicans and not enough downtown Seattle activists. But Senate Bill 5740 may yet make it, as it could be deemed “necessary-to-implement-the-budget”, a long term for we can pass this whenever we want. (Columbia Basin Herald)

Leave it to State Representative Joel Kretz to drop the legislative niceties when it came to laying the fault for the death of a bi-partisan agriculture bill on Governor Jay Inslee, as opposed to the governor’s bureaucrats, who deny any such thing. Rep. Kretz was actually involved in the negotiations to create a workable “riparian” bill (HB 1720) this session, and told KONA radio, “The Governor was in complete kill mode from day one, I think it was mostly personal. I think his worst fear was that it would have passed and worked really well, which tells you [that] most of these things aren’t about the environment, they’re about taking credit and posturing.” Yep, that sounds like Jay. (610 KONA)

Press releases from the Public Disclosure Commission (PDC) don’t always pop to the top of the in-box, but when one brags about 20% inflation, well that’s worth reading. So visit the PDC website to check out the latest news about the need to raise the limits on how much campaigns can grab from individual donors, and why it will soon be legal to give your favorite state legislator $1,200 for every election, not the measly, uninflated current limit of $1,000 (and double that for your statewide favorites).  Who says Joe Biden’s policies aren’t working for ya? (Washington State Public Disclosure Commission (PDC)

Not the milestones we should be passing if liberal drug and public safety policies were actually working in King County

So does this mean premiums are going up because of yet another rule proposal by Insurance Commissioner-for-Life Mike Kreidler?

Once again media, why not say it’s *DEMOCRATS* hiding their legislative actions “in the dark”, not the more gentile “lawmakers”?

Many traditions were curtailed by COVID lockdowns, among them the in-person meeting of the state legislature, so it was nice to see this reminder from The (Everett) Herald’s Jerry Cornfield that, for the first time since 2019, the legislature will hold a memorial service for legislators who have passed. The list is unusually and unfortunately a long one, led by the distinguished Slade Gorton. The House and Senate will hold a joint session at 10:30 a.m. Wednesday to remember the 61 former lawmakers who have died since 2019. You can watch live on TVW. (The Herald)