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SEATTLE (AP) - The owner of one of Seattle's few gun stores says he's moving his business to avoid paying a new tax. The Seattle Times reports (http://bit.ly/1TEelfU ) that the city tax on firearm and ammunition sales took effect January 1. Precise Shooter owner Sergey Solyanik says he stopped selling guns and ammo in Seattle and is already close to signing a lease in Lynnwood.

According to the 2015 National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) report released in October, the Detroit Public Schools system was rated the worst-performing urban district in the country for the fourth time since 2009. In contrast, the district’s own evaluations of its teachers for the 2014-15 school year indicate that 81 percent were given the top rating possible, or “highly effective.” This is nearly double the statewide average. The Detroit district had 2,388 teachers rated in the highest category. Another 467 teachers were rated “effective” (16 percent). Just 45 teachers were given the second-lowest rating of “minimally effective” and 43...

Santa Claus is banned. The Pledge of Allegiance is no longer recited. "Harvest festival" has replaced Thanksgiving, and "winter celebrations" substitute for Christmas parties. New principal Eujin Jaela Kim has given PS 169 in Sunset Park, Brooklyn, a politically correct scrub-down, to the dismay of teachers and parents. "We definitely can't say Christmas, nothing with Christmas on it, nothing with Santa,"PTA president Mimi Ferrer said administrators told her. "No angels. We can't even have a star because it can represent a religious system, like the Star of David." Kim, 33, did not return a call or e-mail seeking comment.

About 10:05 p.m., a 30-year-old man was wielding a brick during a fight with a female in the 2300 block of West Jackson, police said. The security guard attempted to intervene, and the man then attempted to strike the guard with the brick. The guard opened fire and shot the man in the chest.

Dayton Mayor Nan Whaley joined mayors from Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and 14 other U.S. cities who said they were willing to take in even more refugees than proposed by the Obama Administration. The letter was written Thursday. “We will welcome the Syrian families to make homes and new lives in our cities,” wrote the mayors, all of whom are part of the Cities United for Immigration Action coalition. “Indeed, we are writing to say that we stand ready to work with your Administration to do much more and to urge you to increase still further the number of...

In an experiment, social critic Mark Dice asks beachgoers in San Diego to sign a petition he said would rename the Capital of the United States to something else because Washington D.C. is named after George Washington, a slave owner. (c) 2015 by Mark Dice.

It has been 20 years since Baltimore was a city of 700,000 people. It has been shrinking ever since. We've lost about 80,000 residents since 1995. For that reason — the trend toward a smaller city — I started to believe that we'd never again see 300 homicides in a single year. There just can't be that much anger, stupidity and hatred in this city.And certainly fewer people could only mean fewer chances for the conflicts that lead to the senseless shootings and the premature deaths.In fact, until Saturday, we had not experienced 300 homicides since 1999, the last year...

Jackie Biskupski, the openly gay mayor-elect of Salt Lake City, isn't happy that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a group better known as the Mormons, clarified its stance on its membership requirements. Under policies disclosed last week, the LDS Church won't accept as members or missionaries children of same-sex couples. She now wants a meeting with church leaders to discuss "policies." The move evoked echoes of Houston's Mayor Annise Parker who, in a two-year battle over a human rights bill, at one point subpoenaed sermons from local pastors opposed to the measure and sought a public vote....

A new analysis by WalletHub has compared and classified 1,268 of America's small cities in the U.S. to find the ones where residents don’t have to give up much by avoiding the "bright lights" and the soaring rent. Its data set include a total of 22 metrics, ranging from housing costs to school-system quality to the number of restaurants per capita. Why live in a small city? Inevitably, life in a small city demands some tradeoffs such as shorter business hours, a heavier reliance on cars and fewer dating opportunities.  It does bring benefits - tighter communities, less competition,...

 Presidential candidate Ted Cruz (R-TX), along with several other senators, helped introduce the Stop Sanctuary Policies and Protect Americans Act this week as a means to crack down on illegal immigration. “In light of the threat criminal aliens pose to the safety and security of our communities, we can no longer allow states and municipalities to take federal taxpayer money while turning a blind eye to the illegal aliens in their midst,” Cruz said in a statement. Earlier this year, Cruz introduced Kate’s Law to bring attention to the tragic case of Kate Steinle. Steinle was shot and killed...

The former head of Chicago Public Schools (CPS) was indicted Thursday for allegedly participating in a bribery scheme that illegally influenced more than $20 million in city spending. According to the charges against her, ex-CPS CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett steered a no-bid $20.5 million contract to the consulting company SUPES Academy in return for bribes and the promise of a job after she left her post. Prosecutors claim that Byrd-Bennett’s corrupt dealings began in April 2012, when she first arrived in Chicago to work as chief education adviser, and continued for the next three years. U.S. Attorney Zachary Fardon said Byrd-Bennett...

The former CEO of Chicago Public Schools was indicted on corruption charges Thursday in an alleged bribery and kickback scheme to steer $20 million worth of no-bid contracts to education companies. Barbara Byrd-Bennett was indicted about four months after she resigned amid the investigation into the contract was between the district and SUPES Academy, a training academy where she once worked as a consultant. She was appointed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel to lead the nation' third-largest school district in 2012

New York City public schools are closed to observe the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha. Thursday was the first time the schools serving 1.1 million pupils closed for a Muslim holiday. Mayor Bill de Blasio announced this year that the city’s public schools would observe the two Muslim holy days of Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha.

Things are getting bloody in America’s cities. Homicide rates are spiking in many U.S. cities. There are different factors that are contributing to the violence, one of them being stringent anti-gun laws, which keep law-abiding citizens disarmed and vulnerable while the criminal element’s access remains unmolested. Yet, The New York Times reported that one of the demographics driving the spike in murder rates isn’t out of the ordinary. It’s young men relying on violence to settle disputes: Cities across the nation are seeing a startling rise in murders after years of declines, and few places have witnessed a shift...

The boos began as soon as Washington's mayor said she was putting more police officers on the streets in neighborhoods affected by violent crime. They didn't let up for the next 18 minutes as Democrat Muriel Bowser laid out her plans to address an increase in homicides in the nation's capital. Bowser was repeatedly heckled and interrupted by a few dozen protesters affiliated with the Black Lives Matter movement during her address Thursday inside the sweltering gymnasium of a long-shuttered school in southeast Washington. Shouting "Jobs, not jails!" and "More police is not the answer!," the protesters accused the mayor...

The attorney general is slated to announce today settlements with five retailers, including some industry giants, for selling toy guns that don’t fit state appearance requirements. Walmart, which sold 149 illegal toy guns throughout the state, including 20 in New York City, also agreed to pay a $225,000 penalty. Eric Schneiderman says Walmart, Amazon, Kmart, Sears, and online retailer ACTA agreed to the settlement. Rice was shot and killed by patrol officers who said they thought the boy’s toy gun, which did not have the brightly colored markings indicating it was a toy, was real. All told, the attorney general...

A house party in Brooklyn was cut short Sunday morning when as many as nine people were shot and four others were injured, police officials said. At least one victim was in critical condition and clinging to life early Sunday, law enforcement sources told The Post. The gunfire erupted at a building at the intersection of Stanley Avenue and Crescent Street around 2:30 a.m. The carnage spilled out into the streets; one of the victims was found a block away at Loring Avenue and Crescent. At least four of the victims were at Brookdale Hospital, two of them with injuries...

An older couple walking on Sawyer Avenue in the Little Village neighborhood slowed as they approached the red police tape, and their eyes met those of two young officers standing inside the crime scene. "Pasale, pasale," the officers said to the couple. "Pass." They ducked under the tape and stayed on the sidewalk, away from a cluster of shell casings and shattered glass. A 21-year-old man had been gunned down there. He was the 32nd person shot -- and the sixth killed -- over the weekend. In all, 10 were shot between Sunday afternoon and early Monday morning, nine more...

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee is the latest to weigh in on the immigration debate centered around Kathryn Steinle’s fatal shooting at Pier 14. In a statement released Monday, Lee described feeling "deeply saddened" by the "tragic and senseless death," adding that his "thoughts and prayers" are with the 32-year-old Pleasanton woman's family. "I have spoken with Kathryn’s family, and they would like everyone to remember their daughter for the wonderful person that she was," he said....

At least eight people have died and 41 others were wounded in shootings across Chicago this Fourth of July weekend.