For some in Washington, the Memorial Day weekend lasted a bit longer, thanks in part to the arrogance and ego of Governor Jay Inslee. That’s because, as reported by Seattle Times, “(J)ust as Washington State Ferries was returning to reliability, the system faltered over the Memorial Day weekend, when four of the current nine routes were depleted by boat breakdowns or crew shortages.”

And those “crew shortages” are attributed to “a wave of retirements, resignations and firings in 2020 and 2021 (which) left the system in a hole it’s still trying to dig out of.” And Governor Inslee refuses, as Shift has highlighted, to help fill that hole by re-hiring people he arrogantly fired for not getting vaccinated just for the privilege of working for him.

People were warned of the brewing troubles, as KOMO had reported on Memorial Day that “The state started canceling sailings on Saturday on Anacortes-San Juan Islands routes, with a shortage of crew, and that issue continued through Monday.” You can read more about a situation one state senator called “hopeless” here… Seattle Times, Shift, KOMO.

Just as the state Department of Ecology is preparing to preside over its second carbon-tax auction tomorrow increasing the state’s gas prices, news come from the Washington Policy Center’s Todd Myers that the department is having some transparency issues over … telling the truth about the state’s gas prices. As Myers writes, “After repeatedly claiming that the impact of Washington’s new climate policies would be small, the Department of Ecology has quietly scrubbed their web page of those claims. Perhaps more significantly, Ecology staff dramatically increased the estimated impact of the state’s climate policies on Washington’s economy. It once again calls into question the veracity of Ecology’s claims about its approach to CO2 emissions.”

Remember, “last year, when asked about the impact on gas and diesel, Governor Inslee claimed, ‘This is going to have a minimal impact, if any. Pennies. We are talking about pennies.’” You can read more about how little Jay Inslee thinks about your tax “pennies” here…Washington Policy Center.

The fact that public safety is a problem seemingly has still not sunk in for some Seattle City Council candidates, despite breaking news about broken laws on a daily basis. That certainly can be gleaned from the candidate questionnaires reviewed by local radio host Jason Rantz, who highlights that “(O)f the 38 non-incumbent candidates who answered a local newspaper’s questionnaire, nearly 45% would not commit to fully staffing the Seattle Police Department (SPD). Just shy of 40% of the candidates either support fully defunding the SPD or cutting the budget. When it comes to enforcing drug laws, a shocking 37% say drug use should go unpunished.”

You can read more about the options voters will have when filling four open council seats (and potentially moving on from three incumbents) here… MyNorthwest.

When you read about the next progressive Seattle politician pitching the next necessary tax to solve the next pressing social need, keep in mind this Urbanist story about how the city will cut “pedestrian safety and Safe Routes to Schools projects” first when facing budget problems caused by their own incompetence. That incompetence, and a shortage of police officers which is likely to plague the city for years to come.

The sad but true reality is that the “City is citing a lack of sworn police officers to verify and issue tickets before the camera citations expire as a primary cause of the shortfall.” The whole tawdry tale of government greed, bad economic estimates, and a willingness to turn a blind eye to public safety is available here… The Urbanist.

Sometimes the state does want parents (and the public) to know when teenage runaways are found, though as Shift highlighted during the last legislative session that was not the case with SB 5599. However, over Memorial Day weekend, attention was focused on some runaways/escapees from Echo Glen juvenile detention center, with KIRO reporting “that just after midnight on Sunday, the youth assaulted a staff member who was working the night shift during routine checks, and stole her personal belongings, including the keys to her car, a white 2018 Chevrolet Equinox.”

Freedom lasted only a few hours as “three of the seven escaped juveniles were caught in Burien — about 30 miles from the detention center” later Sunday. But the rest of those on the run almost made it to Oregon. You can read how a “family member of one of the escapees called 911” to set up the capture here… Shift, KIRO 7.

You can tell it is a slow news day when reporters are left writing about the dead-end projects that litter downtown Seattle’s transportation dreams, and that post-Memorial Day weekend reality allowed Mayor Bruce Harrell to pine about completing the little-used and much-maligned Seattle street car system. As the Times writes, the “should-we, shouldn’t-we of whether and how to build a third line through downtown has dogged City Hall for close to a decade, bedeviled by changing leadership, disputes over operating costs, blown budgets and cars that turned out to be too big and heavy to fit the tracks and stations already built.”

But all those errors don’t mean that Mayor Harrell can’t add a few layers of wasteful spending of his own, and you can read more about that here… Seattle Times.

Kyle Mann, the editor-in-chief of the conservative satirical website The Babylon Bee, joined us for last week’s Newsmaker Interview. In his interview, Mann described how the Twitter ban before Elon Musk’s takeover increased the circulation of The Babylon Bee’s material. He also shared his thoughts on Elon Musk, the liberals’ constant attack on free speech, and how he decides what issues are appropriate targets for The Babylon Bee’s satire. Mann concluded the interview by humorously stating future plans for the website. Read more.

JAY INSLEE HOPES YOU WON’T NOTICE THOSE HIGHER GAS PRICES HE SAID WOULD NOT HAPPEN

MEDIA JUST NOTICING SEATTLE CITY COUNCIL IS ‘DYSFUNCTIONAL’

REMINDER: DEMOCRATS’ NEW TAX COMING JULY 1!

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