Washington State is in a serious money crisis that is only going to get worse. The cost of everything like schools, roads and healthcare keeps going up, but the way the state collects money hasn’t kept up. Lawmakers in Olympia, the people elected to run the state, refuse to fix the root of the problem instead protecting a tax system that helps the rich and puts more of the burden on regular working people.
Tom Schmerer

This week’s conversation is a three way with two people who know a lot about elections — which I don’t. I do know that Democrats have been outperforming in special elections, but don’t feel remotely competent to tell you what that implies. So here’s a discussion with guys who have studied these things.
Paul Krugman

Regenerative ag is the theme of the day, or decade, actually. It means everything thought to be good about farming and soil management. It comes down to four recommended practices: 1) reduce tillage, 2) integrate livestock with cropping, 3) rotate crops, and 4) utilize cover cropping. (We have already talked about #2, holistic livestock management, along with virtual fencing.)

This month, we will discuss cover cropping. The idea is to keep a crop on the ground. Around here, this does not happen much in summer, fallow between wheat crops, or in spring crops following wheat harvest.
Don Schwerin, Ag & Rural Caucus

The immigration arrests this past week in Spokane, in retrospect, seem almost perfectly designed to provoke backlash.

The young migrants who got detained came into the country legally and had filed all the proper paperwork for asylum. So they weren’t skirting the law. They weren’t living in the shadows, either. They had work permits and jobs at Walmart.

One also has a judge-appointed legal guardian — who happens to be past president of the Spokane City Council.
Danny Westneat, Seattle Times

The man who launched an attempted coup on the United States in 2020 and instigated an insurrection at the Capitol that resulted in five deaths now claims that people in Los Angeles are launching an insurrection. They’re not.

Yesterday, the Pentagon activated 700 Marines out of the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, California, to join the 4,000 federalized National Guard’s military occupation of parts of Los Angeles.

Trump doesn’t give a damn whether the troops are necessary. Nor does he care how many people are injured or even killed in his raid on Los Angeles. The show of military force is the point. It gives him the appearance of power.
Robert Reich

There are two disastrously wrong ways to read the news from Los Angeles right now, and the rest of America over the next few days. The first is to believe that there is actually anything resembling an insurrection underway. The second is to believe that the Trump administration’s response to the nonexistent insurrection is simply cynical politics, an attempt to gain Donald Trump a few points in the polls.
Paul Krugman

Earlier this month, journalist Scott Pelley delivered what should have been a fairly standard commencement address at Wake Forest University. The 60 Minutes correspondent spoke about seeking truth, defending democracy, and the importance of courage in difficult times—the kind of boilerplate inspiration you’d expect from a veteran journalist addressing graduates.
The New Republic and Parker Malloy

In a democracy, the balance of power is essential—but what happens when the scales begin to tip? In this PBS special, How Much Executive Power Is Too Much?, we explore one of the most pressing questions in American government today: how much authority should be concentrated in the hands of a single individual?
Public Broadcasting System