State Commissioner of Public Lands Hilary Franz says wildfire season could be arriving sooner than usual this year. “We’ve never had 54 fires in the second week of March — 53 of them west of the Cascades,” Franz says. With a lower than usual rainfall this year, Franz worries that Western Washington forestland’s dryness will be a major issue. (Seattle Times)

After the council’s steps to drive out businesses, Seattle’s Chamber of Commerce began planning for how they can reclaim the city from Lefty extremists. Between the jobs tax and the city’s failure to address homelessness (despite spending millions), the business community feels like this could be the year of the common sense candidate. A poll showed that just 23 percent of voters believed “city government needs more taxes for programs to effectively address the homeless problem,” with roughly 70 percent who said the city needed to spend existing funds “more effectively.” (Seattle Times)

“A slate of candidates willing to say the word “failure” and pledge to do something different could swing this city back from the left-wing fringes to simple sensibility.” John Carlson wrote in Crosscut that he thinks the taxes, homelessness, and crime could lead to a voter led revolt from extreme lefties littering the city council. “Voter frustration is on their side,” Carlson added. We can only hope. (Crosscut)

Sounds Transit said the Dick’s Drive-In site in Kent could be removed from the list of places where they are considering to build a maintenance facility. “The impact to transit-oriented development near a light rail station was a serious flaw,” said King County Councilman and Sound Transit board member Dave Upthegrove. “It also would have displaced a low-income mobile home community, raising social justice and equity concerns.” Sound Transit will make their final decision May 23. (The News Tribune)

Spokane Mayor David Condon is making a pitch to the countless disgruntled Seattleites – come east. “We call it ‘Hacking Washington,’ because to hack Washington you need to choose Spokane,” he said. “You can have a 19-minute commute, you can buy a house for $270,000.” (MyNorthwest)

Yakima and Sunnyside school districts say they have no plans for layoffs, despite West Valley facing a tough decision over how to tackle its $2.7 million deficit. “We’re not in a situation that we’ve read about in other districts, who have said that the reason they’re making the cuts is financial in nature,” said Yakima Superintendent Jack Irion. (Yakima Herald)

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