Just when you thought your wallet might be safe after the legislature adjourned last month, the can’t-get-it-done-on-time Democrats are returning to Olympia for a 30-day special session called by Governor Jay Inslee. The mission is to make drugs illegal again, which the public and law enforcement really want and which a significant numbers of Left-wing Democrats are fighting hard not to do, as Shift has reported.

There should be some progress to report this week, mainly because Democrats have reportedly realized they can’t go it alone on the issue according to Republican Senate Leader John Braun. The Columbian reports that “Braun said Democratic and Republican caucuses in the House and Senate are finally working in good faith to hammer out the details ahead of the session. He said he expects the proposed legislation to pass with strong bipartisan support. ‘It will give law enforcement, the prosecutors, the cities and counties the tools they need to take control of the streets, get the folks the treatment they need and the treatment they deserve, and also keep good law and order across our communities.’”

Indeed, according to social media reports, a bi-partisan agreement has been reached this afternoon, and will be voted on when the session begins tomorrow.  You can read more about what it took to drag the Democrats kicking and screaming to making hard drugs illegal again here… Shift, Columbian.

Democrats actually could do some good this week when they return to Olympia for their 30-day special session to make drugs illegal in Washington state again. As the Seattle Times reports today, “(A)fter a two-year delay, premiums for Washington’s fledgling long-term care insurance program will resume in July, likely setting off another round of debate over the payroll tax.” Could Democrats be shamed into having that debate during this special session?

For those who blotted it from your memory (you can catch up from Shift here), this new tax is a “0.58% payroll deduction from nearly all workers in Washington (to) fund the first-in-the-nation long-term care insurance program.” The reality is, as Democrat State Senator Mark Mullet told the Times, “I think it’s pretty clear in its current form that the Washington voters don’t like the program. They don’t want the program. They don’t support the tax going live on July 1.” You can read more about how Democrats could choose to end this silly tax before it begins, again, here… Seattle Times, Shift.

If you want a glimpse of your automobile future, you need only check in with well-meaning liberals putting op-eds in Cascadia Daily, who are happy to tell you that “cars and pickups account for 15% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. If we are going to stop the warming, we simply must stop burning oil.” That’s all, we “simply must stop.”

And the reason these liberals think this is simple is because they think we’ve done it before. Just consider that “(W)hen petroleum replaced horses, we no longer fed our transportation at home. Now that electricity is replacing petroleum, we need to “feed” our transportation at home again.” You can read more about the “feed barn” near you coming soon, here… Cascadia Daily.

Sound Transit is used to telling the public one thing, and then doing whatever it actually wants, having done so throughout its history. The region’s massively bureaucratic (and massively wasteful) transit agency is used to getting its way, cost to the public be damned (as Shift has written).

So it is sadly no surprise to see the uproar coming out of the latest community – this time Lake Forest Park – that is facing a Sound Transit bait-and-switch, according to the Seattle Times. It turns out that an “exclusive 1.2-mile bus lane through Lake Forest Park should save two minutes and 20 seconds per northbound trip on average, and 10 minutes in severe congestion, transit staff say,” but the project “will remove 490 trees, deforesting Bothell Way in the city. Also it will widen the road, shifting it west, cutting into the properties of 110 residents, says the neighborhood group LFP CORE.”

Just trading a few minutes on the bus (which many fewer people are taking) for eliminating trees (and a neighborhood) that will never come back. You can read why Sound Transit and its Democrat boosters know which option they will always pick here… Shift, Seattle Times.

Jonathan Choe, a Senior Fellow for the Discovery Institute’s Fix Homelessness project, joined us for last week’s Newsmaker Interview. As many of you know, his reporting on the drug and homelessness crises in the Seattle area is unparalleled. Choe described how the Democrats’ efforts to decriminalize drug possession have led to an increase in drug use and overdoses. And he shared his experience with the “double-standard” local liberal politicians use to avoid answering tough questions from critical journalists. Read more.

TO MAKE SURE THERE ARE NO “CORPORATIONS” IN THERE, WILL BOB FERGUSON TELL THE TRUTH ABOUT THE $1 MILLION “LOOPHOLE” HE JUST USED TO HIDE THE NAMES OF HIS DONORS?

WILL JAY INSLEE AND OTHER WASHINGTON DEMOCRATS EVER ADMIT THEIR DESTRUCTIVE ROLE IN LEARNING LOSS?

TACOMA RUSHING TO CATCH UP TO SEATTLE – IN MURDERS

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