It’s been a while since I filed a new dispatch from the cesspool that the Seattle area has become.  Each day’s news is filled with new stories of shootings, home invasions, homeless-camp proliferation, and many other declines in the quality of life in our formerly beautiful area.  You literally cannot go anywhere without seeing tents on the public sidewalks and in wooded areas.  This past weekend, I went to a local strip mall to a fabric store, and there was someone camped out right by their front door.  So here are some stories from the local press.

First is the story called: Study: Tacoma, Seattle among the nation’s worst-run cities  A publication did a study of various aspects of how cities are run, and our local big cities scored poorly, due to rampant crime, homelessness, and high taxes.

Next, we have the sordid tale of a small city, Burien, which is south of Seattle.  They recently fired their head of City Planning, after he was seen and heard, at a local homeless camp which was slated for removal, advising the squatters how to simply move their tents up the block.  Not only was he thwarting city policy, but mis-using his position.  In solidarity, most of the rest of the City Planning department resigned.  In SUPPORT of that behavior!  The City Manager was heard to state that they would be hiring a new group of employees who would do the jobs they were hired for, and not act like activists.

Most everyone has now heard the big news that Washington is Number One!  However, this is a dubious distinction, as we now have the nation’s highest gas prices, even surpassing California.  It seems that the huge cap-and-tax system imposed by the state Democrats, has led to a rapid pass-through of the higher operating costs of oil companies in our state.  And the way the tax is structured, it can only increase every year, ensuring that market forces will cease to operate in our state, and our gas prices will always increase, and never decrease, essentially forever if the tax is not repealed.