State Sen. Sam Hunt (D-Olympia) was fined $1,000 by the Legislative Ethics Board for allowing a liberal political training group to use state facilities for political purposes. Hunt’s legislative assistant helped Emerge Washington reserve and use a room in the John A. Cherberg building to host a training, allegedly unbeknownst to Sen. Hunt. Sen. Claire Wilson (D-Federal Way) was also under investigation for having reserved a room for the same group in a different building. The reservation she placed was cancelled before it was used so she was spared a fate similar to Hunt’s. There’s more to this story that we’ll be covering soon. But in short: The Democrat Leadership was perfectly fine with this until they were caught, and Sen. Hunt (an experienced legislator) did know what was done in his name – and it’s especially pathetic he is blaming staff. (The News Tribune)

Vancouver’s Charter Review Committee presented their proposed modifications to the city council with the two biggest being how the council is elected and paid. Unsurprisingly, the council was lukewarm at best to the idea of creating electoral districts and of a salary cap for elected officials. Since the council has final authority on what to do with committee recommendations, it’s likely they will let unpopular ideas just languish and die. (Columbian)

Seattle is penalizing Lime and Jump for not moving improperly parked bikes fast enough by cutting the number of bikes they can have deployed. Both can now only have 5,700 bikes throughout the city, but they won’t feel any less annoying to any of us since neither have more than 5,000 on streets currently. There has been increased scrutiny recently because of bikes being parked in hazardous areas for people with impaired vision or mobility limitations. We vote they just ban them all together! (Seattle Times)

Amazon is finally punching back against populist liberal firebreathers who blame them for all that is wrong in the world. So far, Amazon has “clapped back” (that’s a term, right?) at Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, VP Joe Biden, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren. For a long time, Amazon has been content to be kicked around by progressives, but something clicked after they were threatened with Seattle’s head tax. They’ve also contributed $200,000 to the Seattle Chamber’s Political Action Committee to get some not-so-crazy people elected to the council. (Geekwire)

The Spokane City Council voted to direct the city’s legal department to study the feasibility of bringing suit again opioid manufacturers and distributors. The suit would follow several already in progress in Washington state by AG Ferguson and several other cities and counties. Liberal City Council President (and Mayoral candidate) Ben Stuckart said the city needs to hold companies accountable for breaking the law. The suits stem mostly from the belief that the companies lied about how addictive the medication really is. (Spokesman-Review)

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