From efforts to save salmon, which impacts the water supply reaching farmland, and the “astronomical” land costs, to business and gas tax hikes from Democrats, Washam would have to raise prices of his cider too high. It made running the business untenable, arguing the costs of doing business haven’t come down much since the start of the COVID pandemic.

“The people that live in the city can, they’re only going to pay so much for an apple. They’re only going to pay so much for a six pack, right? If everybody takes their beer and their cider, their wine, whatever, and it becomes $100 a package, pretty sure there’s going to be a whole lot less drinking going on because of just simply what we can afford,” Washam explained on “The Jason Rantz Show” on KTTH.

Washam says he didn’t go a day without a customer who said they were feeling financially pinched. But he fears that farmers are going to be hit the hardest.

Too expensive to operate

Cities are growing and development is going up in areas nearer to farmlands. That’s raising the price for farmers.

Some will sell their land to developers for housing and then set up their farms somewhere else but that takes time. Others will stay but raise their prices due to both land ²¹²Ō»åĢżlabor costs. Washington Democrats forced farmers into paying seasonal workers overtime. But that’s become too expensive, so they cut down on the labor hours, which impacts their crops.

“Well, 40% of the fruit, roughly, depending on the orchard, got left in the orchards because the juice quality, the low-quality Apple. That’s what we make juice and concentrate and all these products out of. You couldn’t afford to harvest them and sell them for a profit or even break even,” Washam explained. “So, the farmers went, ‘Well, I’m not going to spend money just so somebody else can have cheap juice,’ just like I can’t make cider and spend money just so somebody can have a buzz. It killed it. That was the final nail in the coffin, and it’s just made the costs too expensive. There’s no margin left in the ingredients that I can afford to have a facility now.”

Business owner warns farmers are being targeted

Washam is warning that cider makers, wineries, and breweries from the Pacific Northwest are closing up shop.

Locus Cider seven taprooms in Washington in January. The North Brewery, a craft brewer in Endicott, last September. Before the new year, Airways Brewing in Kent the entire company. Last week, Boss Rambler Beer Club it was closing its west Bend taproom.

Now, D’s Wicked Cider is closed. Washam and his wife are now moving “under duress.”

“We’re going to bail. All the research we did, we’re going to head to Tennessee and ranch cattle, go back, go back to my roots,” Washam explained.

He just wishes he didn’t have to give up on his dream because of poor policy choices.

Listen to The Jason Rantz Show on weekday afternoons from 3-7 p.m. on KTTH 770 AM (HD Radio 97.3 FM HD-Channel 3). Subscribe to theĀ podcast here. Follow Jason onĀ ,ĢżĀ ²¹²Ō»åĢż.

There were 276 in King County and Seattle, down fromĀ 302 during the same time period last year.

But at the same time, anecdotally, we could be seeing a rise in injected drug use. This may be due to a lower supply of fentanyl coming across the border with Mexico.

Less fentanyl leading to more needles?

Andrea Suarez, founder of We Heart Seattle, says she’s been finding more discarded needles around the homeless than she’s seen in the recent past. Similarly, “The Jason Rantz Show” on KTTH has seen more discarded needles near encampments and bus stops. Still, fentanyl and methamphetamines dominate the Seattle drug market.

“2021 and 2022 we picked up more than 60,000 needles and then started to see foil blowing down the road like Autum leaves. There was so much foil everywhere. Now weā€™re seeing a comeback of needles not at the same level but mainly because weā€™re picking them up versus letting them get accumulated as they had for years in our parks. Itā€™s a comeback, but not anywhere close to a replacement. Most people are still smoking fentanyl,” Suarez explained to “The Jason Rantz Show” on KTTH.

Public Health of Seattle and King County have not seen an uptick in needle use as judged by the needle exchange programs. A spokesperson says there number of syringes exchanged with the department is similar in Q1 2025 than in 2024.

“The overdose continues to be on the rise because fentanyl is pretty much in everything, including meth, crack-cocaine, and unpredictable amounts because of its illicit nature,” Suarez noted. “People who are using straight fentanyl or fetty powder are less likely or are not overdosing as much as the surprise fentanyl in people who smoke meth as well.”

Trump deserves some credit

Bidenā€™s ā€œopen borderā€ turned into a fentanyl firehose that devastated Seattle and much of the United States. President Trumpā€™s first 100 days shut that hose off to a trickle.

In response to his tariff threats and pressure, Mexico 10,000 National Guard troops to its northern borderā€”yet U.S. agents still nabbed roughly 1,630 pounds of fentanyl between January and February 2025, a full 50 percent less than what was by the same point in 2024. Thatā€™s the result of a withering supply.

There were 26 fewer drug overdose deaths in Seattle. Trump doesn’t deserve ²¹±ō±ōĢżthe credit, but he deserves a large chunk of it. This is the direct or indirect result of a no-nonsense border crackdown.

Listen to The Jason Rantz Show on weekday afternoons from 3 p.m. -7 p.m. on KTTH 770 AM (HD Radio 97.3 FM HD-Channel 3). Subscribe to theĀ podcast here. Follow Jason Rantz onĀ ,Ģż,Ģż, ²¹²Ō»åĢż.

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Listen to the Jake and Spike Show every weekday from 12pm – 3pm on ³ÉČĖXÕ¾ Newsradio 97.3 FM. Listen to ³ÉČĖXÕ¾ Newsradio 97.3 FM or go to MyNorthwest.com to learn more!

Listen to The Jason Rantz Show weekdays from 3 p.m. – 7 p.m. on AM 770 KTTH or on-demand wherever you listen to podcast

Los Angeles-based writer and filmmaker Jason Kessler is the host of the YouTube Show ā€œJew or False.ā€ He has created that reveals the onslaught of anti-Jewish sentiment at the University of Washington.

Kessler says that the aftermath of the October 7^th terrorist attacks created a painful new reality for Jewish students. And he needed to cover it for the nation to see.

ā€œJewish students were terrified. They hid their Stars of David and took off their yarmulkes. They avoided campus and skipped class in the months that followed. Ā Swastikas spattered around campus like mushrooms after a rainstorm, and the hateful rallies continued,ā€ says Kessler in the documentary.

Has the University of Washington surrendered to extremists? Watch the full investigation here:

ā€” Jew or False (@jeworfalse)

Brazen antisemitism was accepted at UW

Kessler says one of the most jarring things about the antisemitic activism on campus is just how brazen it was.

ā€œThe attack on the was crazy. The fact that students went and slashed her tires and graffitied her home and put pro Hamas symbols,ā€ Kessler told ā€œThe Jason Rantz Showā€ on KTTH.

ā€œAnd I think the craziest thing about that is that they posted the whole thing on Instagram and had an explicit threat,ā€ he added.

To make matters worse, Kessler says these events are still going on.

ā€œThere’s a student group on campus called ā€˜SUPER UWā€™ and they’re supposedly suspended. But even as recently as last week, they’re still holding events on campus.ā€

And donā€™t let these radicals fool into believing that theyā€™re merely ā€œpro-Palestinianā€ and not pro-Hamas. Kessler says this student group once held an event that explicitly amplified terrorist propaganda.

ā€œThey celebrate Leila Khaled who was a terrorist who was involved in hijackings. They platformed another terrorist and showed a video of him, somebody who was affiliated with a known terrorist group,ā€ said Kessler.

ā€œThing that blew me away is one person in the crowd asked the person in charge how she responds when people bring up the violence of October 7, and people have to watch the video because you won’t believe how she responds so casually.ā€

Listen to the full conversation with Jason Kessler below.

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Ferguson has said would have a difficult time backing a budget plan that involves the level of taxes initially proposed by legislators.

“As we’re waiting for the Democrats, do you think that the governor has been putting a lot of pressure on them passively or behind the scenes?” State Senator Phil Fortunato (R-Auburn) was asked on “The Jason Rantz Show” on KTTH.

“Budget-wise, he’s not been too bad,” Fortunato answered. “He put the squash on a couple of things, sent them back during a little bit of turmoil. The (Democrats) won’t let his staff people into their wings without permission, so there’s a little bit of a fight with the governor’s office.”

House Democrats revoke rule regarding access for governor’s staff

In January, House Democrats changed a “longstanding rule” that previously granted automatic admission to the House of Representatives’ chambers for both the governor and their staff. During this current legislative period, a member of the governorā€™s office is not allowed in unless a House member invites them.

“And that is due, in large part, to the governor, unlike the previous governor Jay Inslee, has been more involved and more vocal on not just allowing Democratic leadership to do whatever they want and then propose something. He’s actually being responsible,” Fortunato noted.

House Majority Leader Joe Fitzgibbon (D-West Seattle) has denied that there is any “friction” between the Democrat caucus and the governor, and that the alleged “friction” was the reason for the limiting access for the governor’s staff.

Listen to the full conversation below.

Listen to The Jason Rantz Show on weekday afternoons from 3-7 p.m. on KTTH 770 AM (HD Radio 97.3 FM HD-Channel 3). Subscribe to theĀ podcast here. Follow Jason Rantz onĀ ,Ģż,Ģż, ²¹²Ō»åĢż.

Patrick M. Mahoney, a 34-year-old graduate student and instructor, was ā€œrelieved of all teaching responsibilities” following the alleged assault, according to a statement toĀ The Seattle Times. Mahoney admitted to police that he grabbed student Jay Sani’s Trump hat. After Sani appeared to defend himself, police said WSU staff member Gerald Hoff, 24, joined his friend Mahoney in taking Sani down to the ground.

ā€œHe essentially grabbed my head, crushed my head on the concrete, that reminded me of some of the posts; all these weapons people would make,ā€ Sani, in an exclusive interview with “The Jason Rantz Show” on KTTH, explained of Mahoney. ā€œSome of these posts, they would say, ā€˜Crush the head of the opposition.ā€™ And actually, what they would really say was, ā€˜Crush the head of the fascist.ā€™ And when he did that, it gave me that flashback of those propaganda posts I would see. And I was like, ā€˜Oh my god,ā€™ this is serious.ā€

WSU terminates two staffers over alleged assault

Both Mahoney and Hoff have been charged with misdemeanor fourth-degree assault.

ā€œWhile WSU remains committed to the freedom of speech and expression for all members of our university community, we will not tolerate acts of violence or hate speech,ā€ Phil Weiler, WSU vice president of marketing and communications, wrote to The Seattle Times.

While Mahoney was relieved of his instructor position, he is still enrolled as a student.

Mahoney told police what happened

An investigating officer with Pullman Police said he contacted Mahoney and asked him what had happened.

Mahoney referred to Sani as ā€œolā€™ boy,ā€ according to the officer. The police report stated that Mahoney admitted to grabbing the hat and throwing it in the street, telling the officer, ā€œYou know, youā€™re f**king wearing that hat, you wanted someone to f**king look at it, right?ā€

ā€œI asked Mahoney what happened tonight. Mahoney said that he saw ā€˜olā€™ boyā€™ walking around. Mahoney did not name Sani by name but said ā€˜Iā€™ve seen this guy, f**king, on campus before. I know heā€™s like f**king Right Wing dude. Heā€™s got a f**king, like, Make America Great Again
³ó²¹³Ł.’ā€

Mahoney told police that Sani responded with a ā€œbody checkā€ or ā€œgrab,ā€ and thatā€™s when he took Sani to the ground, before he ā€œpunched Sani and specified that the punch was to Saniā€™s jaw.ā€

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On the bus ride into work, I heard King County Metro dispatch warn bus drivers not to allow an “extremely unsanitary man” onto the bus. He was last seen at Mercer Way and 5th in Seattle, according to the dispatcher. The tone of his voice was urgent. He repeated that the man was “extremely unsanitary” ³¾³Ü±ō³Ł¾±±č±ō±šĢżtimes, but didn’t explain anything more specific. We’ll have to use our imaginations.

King County Metro confirmed the disturbance was a man “with apparent mental health issues who left one of our coaches in an unsanitary condition in that area” on Wednesday morning.

“That coach was removed from service for cleaning, and another bus was brought in to replace it on the route, and service was maintained for riders. There is no police report, and we donā€™t have any information that security was contacted or involved,” a King County Metro spokesperson explained to “The Jason Rantz Show” on KTTH.

So, they just let him walk away?

A missed opportunity to help someone

That there was no security contact or police involved is the biggest problem. And it only ensures this kind of incident continues to occur.

King County Metro says it started fare enforcement a month ago. Does anyone think the “extremely unsanitary man” paid his fare? Of course not. So why weren’t they called? Why wasn’t anyone called who could at least help get this man the help he so obviously and desperately needs? If not Metro staff, the Seattle Police Department could have perhaps connected this man with the .

This is yet another missed opportunity to help someone who needs it. But it’s also a reminder of how rotten a service King County Metro can be for riders. And letting this man go without any kind of meaningful intervention just means it’ll happen again.

Listen to The Jason Rantz Show on weekday afternoons from 3 p.m. -7 p.m. on KTTH 770 AM (HD Radio 97.3 FM HD-Channel 3). Subscribe to theĀ podcast here. Follow Jason Rantz onĀ ,Ģż,Ģż, ²¹²Ō»åĢż.

Listen to The Jason Rantz Show weekdays from 3 p.m. – 7 p.m. on AM 770 KTTH or on-demand wherever you listen to podcast

Listen to The Jason Rantz Show weekdays from 3 p.m. – 7 p.m. on AM 770 KTTH or on-demand wherever you listen to podcast

According to the , a judge would be granted the power to “dismiss any criminal prosecution due to arbitrary action or governmental misconduct.” It would allow them to use their personal judgment on “the seriousness and circumstances of the offense” and “the impact of a dismissal on the safety or welfare of the community (the defendant is part of the community).” The change amends the current rule CrR 8.3(b).

The rule change was proposed by the far-left King County Department of Defense, the Washington State Office of Public Defense, the Washington Defender Association, and the Snohomish County Office of Public Defense.Ģż

Why is this rule change necessary?Ā 

The rule change proponents argue that judges stop viewing themselves as “passive instruments of prosecutorial policies,” citing State v.ĢżStarrish.Ģż

That case imposed a “narrow reading” of CrR 8.3(b), holding that courts lacked inherent authority to dismiss charges ā€œin the furtherance of justiceā€ and effectively reducing judges to ā€œpassive instruments of prosecutorial policies.” The proposed amendment directly rebuts Starrish by expressly empowering trial courts to dismiss cases for reasons of “justice” and prescribing specific factors to guide that discretion.

What’s particularly galling is that a similar, but less severe change, failed to gain momentum in this year’s legislative session. House Bill 1125 would have allowed judges to reduce sentences for convicted felons, based on nothing more than their own subjective judgments. It failed to advance, only to be upended by a more extremist version that wouldn’t go through the state legislature at all.

Significant push back

The public has until April 30 to provide commentary, though, as is usually the case, almost no one outside of those in the legal profession even knew this rule was being considered. But those who work in the system are deeply alarmed.

Colin Hayes, a Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney for the Clark County Prosecutor’s Office, told the Washington Supreme Court justices that “this proposal should be rejected.”

“First, it is not necessary. The proponents fail to identify any particular problem under the current rule that calls for this ‘fix,'” he wrote. “Second, it could lead to disparate outcomes in different jurisdictions based on similar facts. Third, allowing for dismissal without a showing of prejudice will lead to reduced public confidence in the justice system.”

Lucy Pippin, a Senior Deputy Prosecuting Attorney in the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, echoes those concerns.

“Because the proposed amendment does not require the action or misconduct to prejudice the accused in any manner, it untethers the rule from due process,” she . “As a result, defendants would benefitā€”and victims and public safety would sufferā€”even when the Stateā€™s action has in no way interfered with a defendantā€™s right to a fair trial. This significant broadening of the rule and trial courtā€™s discretion would lead to unequitable application of the law.”

Why is this being proposed?

The rule change isnā€™t reformā€”itā€™s a back-door power grab. And it’s driven by radical ideology.

If judges need new ā€œdiscretionā€ to toss out prosecutions, maybe they should run for legislative office instead of hiding behind their black robes. The legislature already debated and rejected a milder version of this proposal, so the only reason to sneak it in through court rulemaking is that the architects knew it could never survive a straight-up vote of the peopleā€™s representatives. That ought to set off every alarm bell about judicial overreach and unchecked activist judges deciding on public safety policy, not to mention the slap in the face to crime victims who will be left wondering whether their suffering even matters.

If you care about accountability, community safety, or the simple principle that laws should be made by elected officials, now is the time to speak up. Write, call, tweet or carrier-pigeon your objections to the Supreme Court clerk, and your local legislatorsā€”just make sure your voice is heard before radical judges rewrite the rules behind your backs.

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Former Republican Senate candidate Tiffany Smiley has founded Endeavor PAC, which supports conservative candidates in both blue and swing states. SheĀ believes that even deep blue states like Washington are not too far gone.

ā€œThe only way for things to change is to continue to stand up and raise your voice,” Smiley told ā€œThe Jason Rantz Showā€ on KTTH.Ģżā€œI think the far-left policies are outnumbered. It’s not what the majority of Americans want, and Washington state is continuing to run down that line, and we have to expose it.ā€

A simple message to conservatives: vote!

It may sound obvious, but Smiley says one of the best things conservatives can do to effectuate change is to actually vote.

ā€œA lot of voters feel like their vote won’t matter, so why even bother? I’m born and raised in the 4th Congressional District, one of the most conservative districts in the West Coast, and the voting turnout there is abysmal,ā€ lamented Smiley.

Smiley believes another way Republicans can continue to build a bigger tent is by putting an emphasis on issues that most sensible people (even many Democrats) agree with. She cites the Democratsā€™ radical positions on immigration as an area where Republicans can capitalize.

ā€œIt’s an interesting hill to die on for the Democrats, and as long as they’re on the wrong side of these 80-20 issues I think we have a real opportunity in the next several cycles to win and hold majorities,ā€ said a hopeful Smiley.

Listen to the full conversation below.

Listen to The Jason Rantz Show on weekday afternoons from 3 p.m.-7 p.m. on KTTH 770 AM (HD Radio 97.3 FM HD-Channel 3). Subscribe to the podcast here. Follow Jason onĀ ,ĢżĀ ²¹²Ō»åĢż.

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The neighborhood group Denny Blaine Park for All is filing a complaint against the city of Seattle and its Department of Parks and Recreation “to abate public nuisance and for breach of fiduciary duty” in King County Superior Court. The legal complaint hits the city for its “failure and refusal…to protect the public interest.”

The park drew attention statewide after neighbors were angered that the park has become a nudist attraction. But it was politically tricky for the city because it became favored by Seattle’s LGBT community. Last May, the city announced a plan to build a playground at the park as a way to deter the nudity that upset local neighbors. The playground was donated by a neighbor. After the city was accused of targeting the LGBT community by seeking to alter the park from what it had become, Mayor Bruce Harrell backtracked and did not intervene.

Neighbors allege the park attracted public masturbation; city hoped to deter the behavior with ‘public masturbation deterrent infrastructure’?

Neighbors said there’s a new problem: because of all the news coverage, voyeurs from around the area, primarily men, have come by to stare at the nude beach and parkgoers while masturbating publicly.

“It is now a regional venue for criminal and uncivil behavior that includes public masturbation, public sex and other types of indecent exposure, drug use, unlawful public nudity, environmental damage to the shoreline, and scofflaw parking that prevents fire trucks and ambulances from reaching neighborhood homes,” the legal complaint, obtained by “The Jason Rantz Show” on KTTH, alleges.

The city of Seattle has been aware of the complaints from neighbors for at least the last year.

In May 2024, the Parks Department for “Access improvements and Plan for Denny Blaine Park.” According to the city document, it asked for plans to build “public masturbation deterrent infrastructure.” It’s unclear what that means. The total project budget is $500,000.

“We have scoped the project from the initial Park CommUNITY Fund submission and will begin broader public engagement effort for the project in late 2025. We anticipate improvements occurring in 2027,” a Seattle Parks spokesperson explained in a statement. “Currently, there is a stair improvement project at the park, which involves installing a railing and landings on the south stairs.”

The spokesperson says the city removed the “public masturbation deterrent infrastructure” from city project documents, but left on the submission online “to show how the projects developed into more informed scoped proposals.”

Ongoing indecent exposure

The complaint details several incidentsā€”caught on videoā€”of “public masturbation, public sex, and other acts of indecent exposure (that) are happening not just in good weather but year-round.” It also says a naked man, who drives a red truck, repeatedly visits the park to masturbate with his car door open.

“In the past 15 months, a woman who works near the Park has witnessed 13 different men masturbating in the Park, with several of these men repeatedly visiting the park to do so,” the complaint reads before detailing several incidents in March 2025 showing that public masturbation is “increasing in frequency as the weather improves.”

There’s plenty of video evidence

“The Jason Rantz Show” on KTTH obtained video evidence compiled by neighbors. It includes nine minutes of footage and photos of indecent exposures. The faces of the people in the video and photos have been blurred.

“Nudity at the Park is often aggressively directed at other Park users and neighbors so that it constitutes the crime of indecent exposure. For example, a naked man was seen confronting and attempting to intimidate a middle-aged woman, a Department employee, who was collecting garbage after a busy weekend,” the complaint alleges. “A man was seen alternatively lying naked on his back and kneeling naked on the hood of his car exposing his genitals to passersby for at least six hours.”

The complaint says the behavior is conducted in front of kids, as well. It says two teen girls who live with their family nearby “were accosted by a man coming from the Park who exposed himself and started to urinate on the street in front of them.”

“When he got into his car, which was illegally parked so as to block the driveway of this family, he spit in the face of a family friend who had seen his behavior and attempted to talk to him about it,” the complaint alleges.

The complaint alleges the city and Seattle Parks have known about the issue since 2017 but have declined to act, forcing the group of neighbors to file the complaint. They are represented by Foster Garvey PC in Seattle.

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Seattle Times columnist Naomi Ishisaka is the claim that racism explains why some neighborhoodsā€”like those in south Seattleā€”lack the highā€‘quality and plentiful grocery stores that predominantly white areas enjoy.

“While ‘food desert’ might lead people to think thereā€™s something inevitable about certain communities lacking access to healthful food, ‘food apartheid’ argues that these inequities are the result of intentional choices, and can be changed,” Ishisaka writes.

‘Food apartheid’ over facts

Ishisaka, who hasnā€™t abandoned her dogmatic loyalty to the Black Lives Matter grift, insists that every disparity is proof of racism. Fewer grocery stores in soā€‘called Black neighborhoods? Racism!

“These inequities, part of what are called social determinants of health, contribute to health disparities that fall along racial and socio-economic lines. They result in poorer health outcomes for Black, Native American and some Hispanic people,” she claimsā€”blaming an antiā€‘Black, antiā€‘Native American, and even antiā€‘(some) Hispanic conspiracy that somehow spares Asians and poor whites.

Eschewing Occamā€™s Razor, she posits an orchestrated effortā€”ā€œpolicies such as redlining and urban renewalā€ā€”to starve these areas of investment and amenities. Yet she glosses over the obvious reason Seattleā€™s black neighborhoods have fewer grocery options: crime.

Near her own house in Rainier Beach, she admits, ā€œwe have two Safeways, the closest of which has been the site of numerous incidents of gun violenceā€ā€”ironically pinpointing the culprit herself.

Naomi Ishisaka already has the answer

Grocery stores run on razorā€‘thin margins and will avoid neighborhoods where customers and staff face deadly risks. Perhaps that nuance escaped her ideologically blinded gaze.

Granted, the Radical Left did try to turnĀ ²¹±ō±ōĢżof Seattle into dangerous neighborhoods when they stopped prosecuting criminals and fought to keep them out of jail. Still, that Ishisaka doesn’t realize that a grocery store that doubles as a criminal’s outdoor shooting range is not a great business model shows you the extend of her ideological blind spots.

Oh the irony

It’s amusing to parse through the inconsistency coming from the Radical Left when they reflexively blame racism on everything. It’s particularly fun when that “everything is racist” mentality intersects with their anti-corporation talking points.

The irony is that the same activists who demand recognition of ā€œfood apartheidā€ also oppose proactive policing, screeching ā€œACABā€ on every street corner. Itā€™s almost as if they champion policies that keep crime thriving, just so they can keep declaring neighborhoods victimizedā€”while lecturing businesses for daring to turn a profit while staying away from violence.

Listen to The Jason Rantz Show on weekday afternoons from 3-7 p.m. on KTTH 770 AM (HD Radio 97.3 FM HD-Channel 3). Subscribe to theĀ podcast here. Follow Jason Rantz onĀ ,Ģż,Ģż, ²¹²Ō»åĢż.

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Harvardā€”just like most elite universitiesā€”jumped at every woke demand from Black Lives Matter activists and gender extremists. It amplified every lie about police brutality and now pretends gender is an endless buffet of identities you can switch on a dime. But the moment someone dares defend Jewish students from discrimination, Harvard suddenly morphs into a crusader for ā€œacademic freedom.ā€ Donā€™t buy it.

Now, Harvard is suing to unfreeze those funds, insisting itā€™s owed tax dollars with zero oversight. Newsflash: No institution gets a blank check.

Yes, academic freedom matters. No, the federal government shouldnā€™t script curricula. I agree. But when billions of taxpayer dollars are on the line, we deserved some guardrails. Critics of this move arenā€™t upset because itā€™s a slippery slopeā€”theyā€™re clinging to misinformation, ignorance, or outright lies.

CNN panel claims Trump demanding Harvard stop teaching Middle Eastern history

Consider CNNā€™s panel claiming the administration wants Harvard to stop teaching Africanā€‘American or Middle Eastern history. When a fellow panelist corrected them, leftā€‘wing author Alencia Johnson doubled down, “Thatā€™s what the demands say.” Except they donā€™t.

The from the Trump administration to Harvard is public.

Harvard must commission an independent audit of programs “that most fuel antisemitic harassment or reflect ideological capture.” It should also identify faculty who “discriminated against Jewish or Israeli students or incited students to violate Harvard’s rules following October 7.” If thereā€™s nothing to hide, why block a neutral audit?

Stop fueling antisemitism

The other faux concern from the left involves the Trump administration demanding Harvard promote viewpoint diversity in hiring, the very thing universities used to strive for.

Instead, they push groupthink and actively discriminate against or silence conservative viewpoints. Or, in the case of the Center for Middle Eastern Studies (CMES), the school promotes antisemitism, according to many. And apparently, the Trump administration was right to specifically call out CMES.

Last month,ĢżThe Harvard CrimsonĀ  that the university “dismissed the faculty leaders” of CMES after the program had “come under fire for its programming on Israel and Palestine.”

Former Harvard President Lawrence H. Summers wrote in a March post on X that a February panel at CMES about “Israelā€™s war in Lebanon” was “very likely” antisemitic under the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance definition of antisemitism, which Harvard adopted as part of a settlement agreement in January.

A report from the Harvard Jewish Alumni Alliance, an alumni advocacy group, in May accused the CMES of demonizing Israel as the ā€œlast remaining colonial settler power embodying the worldā€™s worst evils: racism, apartheid, and genocide.ā€

Harvard is actively fighting the Trump administration. They did not have to make this change, but did anyway.Ģż°Õ³ó²¹³Ł’²õĢżhow bad the alleged antisemitism was.

Trump administration can save Harvard

Did Harvard really demand CMES teachā€”or ignoreā€”some particular topic? No. The Trump administration isnā€™t dictating course syllabi; itā€™s insisting Harvard stop turning its Center for Middle Eastern Studies into an antisemitic echo chamber. In plain English: teach, donā€™t indoctrinate.

If CNN panels or leftā€‘wing activists canā€™t fathom a Middle Eastern Studies department that doesnā€™t villainize or call for the destruction of Israel, thatā€™s their problemā€”not the White Houseā€™s. The Trump administrationā€™s real goal is, perhaps ironically, to rescue Harvardā€™s reputation. Once a worldā€‘class university, itā€™s devolved into a leftā€‘wing circus that graduates activist warriors, not thoughtful citizens.

You can argue the White House shouldnā€™t play dean of Harvard. Fair. But taxpayers shouldnā€™t underwrite a truly awful investment.

Taxpayers deserve guardrails

Billions in federal support deserve guardrailsā€”especially when programs have ā€œegregious records of antisemitism or other bias,ā€ per the public letter. Harvard can either submit to an independent audit and restore viewpoint diversity, or keep begging for blankā€‘check funding from George Soros.

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House Bill 2050 is supposed to save funds for K-12 schools. State Rep. Travis Couture (R-Allyn) offered one amendment that would cap the severance agreement for the superintendent at $50,000.

Predictably, Democrats said no to both amendments.

Washington Democrats argue for excessive severance

Couture, arguing for a severance cap, argued that “there are some superintendents who are in charge of the performance of a lot of the school districts in our districts and across the state, who aren’t up to snuff.” Yet, he argued, it’s expensive to get rid of them, essentially rewarding failure with hundreds of thousands of dollars.

“When we when the school board, and therefore the community through their elected school board, wants to discharge a school superintendent, what we often see is this very frustrating severance payout to those school superintendents,” Couture argued. “Sometimes it’s $100,000, $200,000, $300,000 or even more than $350,000 to pay out a school superintendent employee who has failed to manage their school or their employees, or even… sometimes fail to even show up to work.”

But Democrats claimed this was unreasonable, voting it down.

State Rep. Monica Stonier (D-Vancouver), who took a lead role in undercutting parents’ rights by dismantling the Parents’ Bill of Rights, argued that the amendment would “undercut the responsibility that local school board directors have and the relationship that they have with their communities” in negotiating for a new superintendent. Her argument didn’t really make much sense.

Washington Democrats suddenly okay with high-paid failures

But Republicans were not done trying to save school districts’ money.ĢżCouture offered a second amendment. It would cap superintendent salary at $250,000.

The Allyn Republican explained that over 85 superintendents make more than $250,000 a year, which is far higher than the average salary for the district they represent. The Chehalis superintendent makes $545,00 and Renton superintendent brings in $428,000, for example.

“And what are we getting for it? Like you heard previously, we have a stunning crisis in our academic outcomes, some of the worst outcomes in three decades in Washington state for reading, writing, math, and science. That’s unacceptable. These people are the superintendents. Are the captains of the school district ships,” Couture explained.

Again, Democrats pushed back and shot down the amendment.

State Rep. Steve Bergquist (D-Renton) argued, again, that the amendment “take[s] away local control of our school board directors.” He said allowing for high salaries will bring in the best candidates for the job, though he did not explain why so many of them are failing to perform with the current limitless salary opportunities.

Suddenly Washington Democrats want total control of their districts?

Washington Democrats have never been champions of local control. Under their farā€‘left, Democratā€‘run legislature, lawmakers have bent over backwards to strip school boards of the power to keep pornographic, leftā€‘wing propaganda off library shelves.

Last year, Democrats sponsored and passed House Bill 2331 (HB 2331). It prohibited school boards from refusing to approve books and other educational materials, including library books, if the subject ā€œrelates to or includes the study of the role and contributions of individuals or groups that are part of a protected class as established in public school nondiscrimination provisions.ā€ While it applied to all protected classes, the intent of the bill was around LGBT-themed books.

But the Democratsā€™ effort didn’t stop all so-called LGBT ā€œbook bans.ā€ A school may still ban books or other materials if it expressly criticizes progressive political movements, such as the one proclaiming gender a ā€œsocial constructā€ that is fluid or that we ā€œassign gender at birth.ā€

What happened to Washington Democrats’ support in maintaining local control in school districts? They never had that priority. Instead, it’s about supporting educators, no matter the cost, and no matter the results. Ideologically, they feel mandated into it.

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This move is wiseā€”and long overdue. Girls deserve a chance to play football safely, and thereā€™s clearly enough interest for programs to flourish (the grants to help schools get started). But you canā€™t ignore the elephant in the end zone: the WIAAā€™s decision to let biological boys compete against girls.

Theyā€™re quick to acknowledge football can be dangerous for girlsā€”yet they wonā€™t admit that their redefinition of ā€œgirlā€ creates that very danger.

WIAA sends mixed messages on gendered sports

Flag football removes tackling to make the game safer.

That change makes sense, especially when girls might face faster, stronger boys. Weā€™ve already seen transgender females causing injuries to girls both here and nationwide. And itā€™s obvious why nobody objects to transgender boys (biological girls) playing against boys: they donā€™t have any physical advantage.

Biological girls donā€™t suit up for tackle football against boys because theyā€™d risk serious harmā€”or worse. Yet the WIAA tiptoes around that reality without ever saying it out loud.

It’s about safety and reality

Why girls’ flag football and not just flag football for all? This was an easy opportunity to open the sport to both genders and embrace the idea of gender-free sports. However, that approach would undermine the WIAAā€™s political stance that ā€œfeelingsā€ can override biology.

But it accepts the premise that athletic boys perform betterā€”or at a minimum, differentlyā€”than girls. Would there be as many girls getting time on the field when competing against boys who are faster or have stronger throwing arms?

They’re willing to acceptĀ ³Ł³ó²¹³ŁĢżreality, quietly accepting that boys typically outperform girls athletically. But politically, they canā€™t admit that transgender girls enjoy a competitive edge. So they send mixed messages: acknowledging the danger but pretending it doesnā€™t exist.

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