As Democrats gather in Olympia to try and make hard drugs illegal again – by actually working with Republicans during this (special) session – it is difficult to review today’s headlines, and try to understand why the so-called progressives are fighting so hard to keep all drugs legal and keep the public fearful of venturing into public spaces.  As tech folks would say, and Shift has reported, the Democrats desire for drug legalization is not a “bug” left over from the regular legislative session, it’s a major “feature” of the Democrats’ plan for our public spaces.

Just consider one day of headlines (H/T WA House Republicans’ Capitol Buzz) from across Washington, after nearly 40 years of a Democrat signing every state budget and a generation of one-party control in Seattle:

• Homelessness agencies bypassed federal housing rules, now must adapt (The Seattle Times)
• Giving food, supplies, water in protest of Everett ‘no sit, no lie’ law (The Everett Herald)
• Sleeping on benches, pooping in planters. Kennewick considers new law for downtown (Tri-City Herald)
• COLUMN: Burien encampment disheartening local officials, business owners (Max Gross/MyNorthwest)

And that’s just a sampling from today. For a deeper dive, take a look at the Inlander’s coverage of Spokane police begging for the chance to do their jobs, and pass a law protecting public parks, with the paper noting that if “people knew the police had the power to arrest them, (Police Capt. Thomas) Hendren said, they’d be less likely to gather after hours in the first place. He added that actual arrests would rarely be necessary under the ordinance.” Of course, push back from the Left goes beyond Olympia, as Spokane lefty “Council President Breean Beggs worries that letting police pick and choose who faces arrest could be unconstitutional and lead to biased enforcement.” To read more about the public safety fight between progressives and the general public about drugs, read here… Capitol Buzz, Shift, Inlander.

Seattle’s Congresswoman-for-Life Pramila Jayapal certainly relishes her role as the chairperson of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, as it allows her to say silly things that really resonate among her really far-Left followers (if not among any remaining rational constituents in the Seventh District). The latest example comes from national website Politico, which captures Congresswoman Jayapal throwing a grenade into the debt limit debate by telling her president that “(We) did not elect Joe Biden of 1986. We elected Joe Biden of 2020” – all because he has the willingness to consider requiring some welfare recipients to go to work.

For Rep. Jayapal and her fellow “progressives”, the answer is simple: President Biden “just has to say, there’s no room for this. It’s against our democratic values.” You can find out more about such a strategic negotiating strategy here… POLITICO.

The outside perspective is certainly not treating Seattle kind this week, with U.S. News and World Report weighing in with its national rankings of best places to live, something that local elected officials and Chamber of Commerce types used to look forward to bragging about. Don’t expect any such press releases today, as Axios-Seattle reports that the “publication’s latest annual rankings rate Seattle as the 81st best place to live in the U.S., out of 150 metro areas analyzed. That’s a big drop from Seattle’s 36th-place ranking last year — and a far cry from the No. 19 position the Emerald City enjoyed the year before that.” To read more about Seattle’s Democrat-led descent in the rankings here… Axios Seattle.

One of the many other non-drug failures of the recent legislative session was officially declared by Governor Jay Inslee, who according to the (Tacoma) News Tribune, “signed a bill into law that called for ending the current search for the state’s next major airport as he expressed a desire for a deeper review of expanding existing facilities before contemplating a brand-new one.” That’s right, in signing a bill that killed the existing airport search for a needed SeaTac companion (it is projected to be at capacity by 2032), Gov. Inslee added a condition to narrow the search to existing airports as opposed to building a new one. You can read more about state government dithering here… Tacoma News Tribune

Evidently the legislature isn’t the job it’s cracked up to be – or it’s so easy that it makes you want a real full-time government job.  Either way, that’s the message picked up from the Cascadia Daily News coverage that State Representative “Alicia Rule (D-Blaine), a social worker and recently reelected state representative, wants to make the jump to Whatcom County executive.” You can read more about why she wants to take on Democrats in Bellingham instead of Olympia here… Cascadia Daily News.

The reality that reduced transit ridership might mean the need for cutting bus routes (or offering fewer rides) is dawning on King County Metro bureaucrats, though they want to obscure that reality by debating whether they should even bother charging anyone for riding the bus. That’s because, as MyNorthwest.com reports, “a proposed free or reduced fare system, which supporters say would encourage more ridership and helps King County reach its climate goals” is on the same agenda as the service cuts. You can read more about the bureaucrats’ bizarre priorities here… MyNorthwest.com.

ANOTHER BIG-PAYING JOB OPENING AT LOCAL HOMELESSNESS AGENCY

DEMOCRATS TRYING AGAIN FOR DRUG DEAL – WILL IT GO DOWN IN ONE DAY?

WILL UW STUDENTS FOLLOW CAL AND CORNELL STUDENTS IN DEMANDING UNBURNT COFFEE?

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