It’s a good thing Jay Inslee is such an optimist, because it’s difficult to look at his presidential campaign as anything other than a snooze fest so far. After months of traveling the country, putting this responsibilities on hold as governor to garner support in key primary states, Inslee finds himself polling at…1%. John Carlson wrote of Inslee’s campaign: ”The bad news is that he doesn’t have much support to lose. There is time to recover and grow. But as a political startup, he is underperforming and missing his benchmarks.” (Crosscut)

You may have seen some online comments focused on Senator Maureen Walsh’s (R-Walla Walla) amendment to limit nursing shifts to 8 hours. Aside from the fact that much of those comments were pushed out by the union and Democrats, the ire is incorrectly being entirely directed at Walsh. Go through TVW footage you’ll see DEMOCRATS stumping for the amendment. Some Democrats even laughed through the debate! (KING 5)

Governor Inslee is expected to sign a bill that will place restrictions on non-compete agreements in the state of Washington. If it passes into law, non-compete agreements will be void in the state unless they meet certain standards. “We remain concerned that the compromise language reached creates an advantage for large corporations over startups in the war for talent,” said Michael Schutzler, CEO of the Washington Technology Industry Association. (GeekWire)

Representative Drew Stokesbary (R-Auburn) passed an amendment to a bill addressing opioid addiction that would remove taxpayer dollars from drug injection sites. “If it’s true that these really are a necessary part of an opioid response plan, then it should be easy for these amendments to be voted down,” Stokesbary said. “But we’ve got to have the debate on whether they are a good idea or not in the first place.” Democrats made the impressive observation that this could just be an attempt to stop drug injection sites. “What he’s basically trying to do is stop them [Seattle] from doing a safe injection site,” said Rep. Eileen Cody (D-Seattle). All we can say is, good. (Crosscut)

“This is Seattle’s own attorney telling the City Council this is illegal, you don’t have the authority to do this, and yet they did it anyway,” said Jason Mercier with the Washington Policy Center. “It’s pretty shocking.” In a 2014 memo, Assistant City Attorney Kent Meyer, advised the city council that their income tax was illegal. They of course went forward with it anyway. (Seattle Times)

After complaints surfaced about dropping inmates off in a parking lot, a Yakima County corrections official said King County prisoners being released from the North Front Street jail will be taken to a state office in Seattle. “Our contracts tell us where to drop them off,” said Yakima County Department of Corrections Director Ed Campbell. “We have problems in Seattle in that they tell us to drop them off somewhere else. We have dropped them off at the bus station and then we have complaints.” (Yakima Herald)

Spokane Public Schools are considering shorter school days every Friday to provide teachers more preparation time during the week. Spokane Public Schools Superintendent Shelley Redinger said the decision was based on feedback from the community and would offer “a more consistent weekly schedule for families.” The amount of time missed each week adds up to about 24 hours of missed instructional time per year. (Spokesman Review)

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