Free Republic

ABC This Week viewers were treated to a classic conservative versus liberal debate Sunday. When former Clinton labor secretary Robert Reich tried to blame the increase in poverty in the past five years on Republicans, former Speaker of the House and current CNN host Newt Gingrich called it "baloney" firing back, "Every major city which is a center of poverty is run by Democrats" (video follows with transcript and absolutely no need for additional commentary): Gingrich Schools Reich: 'Every Major City Which Is a Poverty Center Is Run By Democrats' JONATHAN KARL, SUBSTITUTE HOST: And let me ask you, Mr....

A secret subterranean heart, tinged with mystery and myth, beats beneath the streets in many of the world’s great cities. Tourists seek out the catacombs of Rome, the sewers of Paris and the subway tunnels of New York. Some people believe a den of interstellar aliens lurks beneath Denver International Airport. Now Seattle, at least for now, has joined that exclusive club. Something unknown, engineers say — and all the more intriguing to many residents for being unknown — has blocked the progress of the biggest-diameter tunnel-boring machine in use on the planet, a high-tech, largely automated wonder called Bertha....

The mother of a Ballard High School student is fuming after the health center on campus helped facilitate her daughter's abortion during school hours.

SEATTLE -- The mother of a Ballard High School student is fuming after the health center on campus helped facilitate her daughter's abortion during school hours. The mother, whom KOMO News has chosen to identify only as "Jill," says the clinic kept the information "confidential."

Wednesday March 24, 2010 Seattle Mom: School Sent My Daughter for Secret Abortion without Telling Me By Patrick B. CraineSEATTLE, Washington, March 24, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Seattle mother is furious after learning that her 15-year-old daughter was sent by her school's health center for a secret abortion, reports ABC-affiliate KOMO.The mother, identified only as “Jill,” says her daughter was given a pregnancy test at Ballard High School's Teen Health Center, which came back positive.  Rather than informing the parents, she said, the center gave the girl a pass and put her in a taxi for the abortuary, all...

Former ATF agent accused of embezzling SEATTLE — A former Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agent accused of embezzling nearly $20,000 when he worked for the federal agency was indicted Thursday. A federal grand jury in Seattle indicted James Contreras, 51, of Maple Valley, Wash., on an embezzlement count and 30 counts of making false statements, the U.S. attorney's office in San Francisco said. The U.S. attorney's office in Seattle is recused from the case. While Contreras worked as an agent and supervisor at the ATF office in Seattle, he's accused of embezzling money from a cash fund...

SEATTLE — Seattle City Councilmember-elect Kshama Sawant told Boeing machinists her idea of a radical option, should their jobs be moved out of state “The workers should take over the factories, and shut down Boeing’s profit-making machine,” Sawant announced to a cheering crowd of union supporters in Seattle’s Westlake Park Monday night.

SEATTLE – A woman who was nine months pregnant was attacked and rob by two teenagers wearing burqas last Tuesday in North Seattle. Now, police are asking for help finding the attackers. ... two female teens dressed in all black and wearing burqas approached the woman and asked if they could use her cell phone. The expectant mother said no, and that she would place the call for them. That’s when the girls, between the ages of 13 and 15, knocked the woman to the ground and tried to rob her before fleeing.

A dramatic showdown is underway in the State of Washington, pitting Boeing against its largest labor union, the International Association of Machinists (IAM). If the union, voting Wednesday, rejects a proposed contract that includes lower health care benefits, Boeing is threatening to move production of its next generation airliner, the 777X, out of the Puget Sound region, to such locations as Charleston, SC (where it is assembling the new 787) or Texas, right-to-work states where the union's demands would hold no sway. The Washington State Legislature takes Boeing's threats very seriously, indeed. Boeing has long complained about the tax burden...

Nearly 10 percent of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s anti-gun group Mayors Against Illegal Guns retired from their job or were sacked in Tuesday’s elections, including the organization’s two leaders: Bloomberg and Boston Mayor Thomas Menino. Some 95 key members of the group that targets and criticizes lawmakers backed by the National Rifle Association are losing their title of “mayor.” According to an election review of Bloomberg's membership list of about 1,000, three quit the group, 69 retired from their jobs, and 23 were rejected by voters.On the retirement list: Bloomberg and Menino.Among the defeated members of Mayors Against Illegal...

Seattle’s city council voted unanimously Monday to use eminent domain to take private property. They say they must seize the private property, which is currently being used as a parking lot, in order to turn it into … a parking lot. In this case, they decided it was critically important to seize a parking lot from its 103-year-old owner so that it can be a parking lot. At least this is their stated justification.

An active duty combat veteran is dead, a victim of black mob violence. The soldier, who has yet to be identified, had been celebrating his safe return from combat and his imminent release from the military. He was walking to his hotel early Saturday morning near a Seattle area military base where KOMO-TV news picks up the story: A group of men in a car drove by and someone inside shouted a racial comment toward the white soldiers, the Lakewood Police Department said. “One of the soldiers yelled back something about the suspects treating combat soldiers with disrespect,” Lt. Chris...

At a Seattle city meeting Tuesday night, Amazon presented plans for a futuristic, greenhouse-like sphere of a building in the middle of its new Seattle campus. According to the proposal, the five-story, tri-domed structure will be large enough to accommodate mature trees, allowing employees to “work and socialize in a more natural, park-like setting.” From the plans: In addition to a variety of workplace environments, the facility will incorporate dining, meeting and lounge spaces, as well as a variety of botanical zones modeled on montane ecologies found around the globe.

Health enrollment campaign will spread the word to every neighborhood in King County Wednesday, September 18, 2013 An ambitious effort hits high gear this week, aiming to enroll 180,000 King County residents in a new health insurance program.On Friday, September 20, more than 100 volunteers and staff members from Public Health – Seattle & King County will spread out across the county to share information about low-cost health insurance options made possible by the Affordable Care Act and available through Washington Healthplanfinder.This on-the-ground outreach launches a six-month enrollment campaign, a central part of King County Executive Dow Constantine's initiative for...

FULL TITLE: Seattle's Green River killer confesses to slaying nearly DOUBLE the 49 women he's convicted of killing in first ever interview A Seattle-area truck painter who was unmasked as the Green River serial killer has claimed he murdered up to 80 women over two decades - nearly double the number he was convicted of killing. Gary Ridgway is currently serving 49 consecutive life sentences in a Washington state prison. But in a series of interviews conducted over the past five months, he is now claiming there are significantly more victims and he says he is coming clean to help...

A Catholic university in Washington has invited communist and abortion supporter Angela Davis to speak on campus, raising concerns among those who say her views are anathema to Catholic teaching. Davis will give a lecture on October 17th at Seattle University, a Jesuit institution. Her talk is sponsored by the Center for the Study of Justice in Society, and will ostensibly be about prison reform. Davis is a controversial choice for a Catholic university, however. She is a former leader of the U.S. Communist Party, and ran for vice president twice in the 1980s on the Communist ticket. She holds...

Aaron Alexis, the man identified by Washington D.C. police as a suspect in this morning’s tragic attack on a US Navy Yard, was previously arrested by Seattle police in 2004 for shooting out the tires of another man’s vehicle in what Alexis later described to detectives as an anger-fueled “blackout.” Because Seattle police have received numerous inquiries about the incident, we are posting the details, detective logs, and the original report for the May 6, 2004 case. At about 8 am that morning, two construction workers had parked their 1986 Honda Accord in the driveway of their worksite, next to...

<p>A 22-year-old man apparently high on drugs and naked from the waist down went on a rampage with a 35-foot boat he stole at the Queen City Yacht Club on Portage Bay in Seattle last night, ramming other boats and docks.</p>

A Shoreline Community College professor died Saturday from an apparently unprovoked and random stabbing that also severely injured his 30-year-old partner after the pair left a Seattle Sounders game Friday night. A 46-year-old college English professor died Saturday from an apparently unprovoked and random stabbing that also severely injured his 30-year-old partner after the pair left a Sounders game Friday night. Troy Wolff, chair of the English department at Shoreline Community College and a resident of the Beacon Hill neighborhood, died from multiple stab wounds. His partner, Kristin Ito, who was also stabbed repeatedly, was in serious condition at Harborview...

RENTON, Wash. (CBS Seattle/AP) — The Seattle Seahawks announced that the organization has hired undercover cops to wear San Francisco 49ers gear and patrol Sunday’s game in order to curb unruly behavior. “We have great fans,” said Seahawks president Peter McLoughlin. “Our goal is to ensure a safe environment for all in attendance, including visiting team fans.” The Seahawks announced Wednesday they will have the undercover police officers wearing opposing team apparel