Free Republic

A teacher in a Tacoma middle school kicked a ten-year-old student out of his remote learning chatroom and scolded him for responding to a question about a person he admires with the answer “Donald J. Trump.” According to a report by KTTH afternoon host Jason Rantz at mynorthwest.com, Brendan Stanton, a teacher at P.G. Keithley Middle school, poses a “question of the day” each day to his sixth grade students. On Friday, he asked them, “Who is the one person you admire and why?” Students could write their responses in the online chatroom. A screenshot in Rantz’s story shows Elsy...

Amazon is gauging how employees feel about moving away from the company's Seattle campus, largely because of the Covid-19 pandemic and Seattle’s new payroll tax. Amazon sent an email to workers asking if they’d be willing to work in Seattle’s suburbs and outlying areas, including Redmond and Tacoma. The story was reported by Bloomberg on Friday. **SNIP** Amazon employs about 50,000 workers at its Seattle headquarters, which includes more than 40 buildings - including the company’s landmark, greenhouse-like glass Spheres - sprawling across several blocks. **SNIP** Amazon has had a rocky relationship with the Seattle City Council since at least...

Don’t you dare compare the ideologically motivated mobs attacking and destroying shops and other property in Seattle with the ideologically motivated mobs that attacked and destroyed Jewish-owned shops in Nazi Germany during Kristallnacht in 1938! Not if you work for NPR affiliate KNKX in Tacoma, WA. KNKX has permanently booted University of Washington Professor Cliff Mass from his weekly weather segment for daring to make such a comparison on his personal blog. Reaction came swiftly from the left on social media accusing Mass of anti-Semitism and exaggerating what was going on in riots in Seattle. This led to KNKX removing...

A Tacoma, Washington, police officer and two of his colleagues are under investigation for commenting on “defund police” protesters after one video went viral and got 8.5 million hits on Tik Tok. Officer Sam Lopez said in the video: So I come in this morning and was informed there’s going to be a protest to defund the police. Well, that’s fine, I like protests. Except for they requested a police presence, you know, for their safety, at the defund the police event. I shit you not.

A 25-year-old Tacoma woman was arrested Thursday morning on five federal counts of arson after police say she burned five Seattle police vehicles on fire as protests turned violent in downtown Seattle on May 30. U.S. Attorney Brian T. Moran said in a news release that Margaret Aislinn Channon was taken into custody without incident at her Tacoma home. Channon is expected to appear in U.S. District Court in Seattle on Friday. Arson is punishable by up to 10 years in prison. “This defendant was captured by multiple cameras using an accelerant, lit like a blowtorch, to start fires in five vehicles...

Manuel Ellis, 33, yelled 'I can't breathe' as Tacoma Police Department officers restrained him on the ground while he was handcuffed on March 3... ...Two cops claim Ellis repeated banged on their patrol car so they called back up Officers claim Ellis slammed one of them to the ground so they restrained him Ellis was living at a clean-and-sober home, his good friend said at a vigil Contributing factors to the death included methamphetamine intoxication and dilated cardiomyopathy, commonly known as an enlarged heart

On 12 November 2019, the Tacoma City Council passed its controversial tax on guns and ammunition. The tax is based on a similar tax in Seattle.  The vote was unanimous, 8-0. 112 people were reported to have spoken on the issue. To an ordinary reader, the tax would seem to violate the Washington State preemption law. The Washington Supreme Court held differently in 2017. It voted that a tax was not a regulation. One judge dissented, writing it was obvious the tax was aimed specifically at firearms. From the opinion: That different inquiry centers on the language of the preemption...

In Tacoma, Washington, the City Council is proposing a special tax on guns and ammunition. From q13fox.com: Tacoma is considering implementing a tax that would add $25 to all firearms purchase. The tax would also add 2 cents per round to ammunition purchases that is .22 Caliber or less and add 5 cents per round to all other ammunition. Such a tax should be held unconstitutional because it chills the right to keep and bear arms, protected by both the U.S. Constitution and the Washington State Constitution. The proposed tax seems to violate the state preemption statute.  From leg.wa.gov: RCW...

TACOMA, Wash. - When Jamie Bisceglia met up with some fishermen who had hooked an octopus during a fishing derby in the Tacoma Narrows August 2, she saw an opportunity for an unusual picture. "It was a photo contest in the derby. So, crazy me, hindsight now and looking back, I probably made a big mistake," Bisceglia said. Bisceglia put the octopus on her face and posed. At first, it grabbed with her with its suckers, and then did something she didn't expect. It bit her on the face. "It had barreled its beak into my chin and then let...

Pt. 1: Brad Dacus talks with PJI staff attorney, Jorge Ramos, about a shocking story of an unjust arrest of a pastor who was leading a peaceful protest against a drag queen story hour in a public library. Jorge gives the legal case that PJI is taking on. Pt. 2 Brad Dacus interviews Pastor Afhsin Yaghtin, the pastor arrested and jailed for praying and preaching, about his experience with aggressive SWAT team officers including a sniper who blocked him from carrying out his free speech rights outside of a public library where a drag queen story hour was taking place

MARYSVILLE, Wash. — We're taking a look at the worst of the worst traffic spots in western Washington – and some of the solutions to the problem. Marysville A problem spot in Marysville has city and state transportation officials working to come up with a fix. Interstate 5 traffic between Everett and Marysville gets congested during rush hour. According to the Washington State Department of Transportation, between 1980 and 2017, the population of Snohomish County increased 137%. It's expected to gain another 200,000 residents by 2035. This explosive growth increased the number of vehicles using I-5 between Everett and Marysville,...

Democrat Rep. Debra Haaland (NM) proclaimed on Sunday that far-left extremist group Antifa consists of "peaceful protesters" who are just trying to protect Portland from "domestic terrorism." ... "It's not surprising that Trump would side away from the folks who are the peaceful protesters working to safeguard their city from domestic terrorism," Haaland continued. "Just not surprised at all that the president sides with the white nationalists. That's been his mode of operation since before he was elected president." Haaland seemed unaware of the fact that a self-described member of Antifa carried out a domestic terror attack against an ICE...

The Democratic Party that my grandfather belonged to no longer exists in any meaningful sense. Today, the Democratic Party is run, financed and driven by radical, hate-filled people who love socialism and hate conservatives, Christians, men, white people and America itself. Those are mainstream beliefs among the Party elite. Yes, there are plenty of Democrats who don’t believe in these things, but they still support and vote for the hate-filled radicals who want to destroy everything good about this country so they can build some never-before-seen Utopia that will never exist anywhere except in their own minds. Read these quotes...

Borat director Larry Charles took to Twitter Monday and compared Trump supporters — or as he described them, “Maga people” — to the violent, pro-China “triad” mob who attacked peaceful pro-democracy protesters Sunday night and essentially encouraged far-left agitators to arm themselves for “war.” “After reading about armed #Triad thugs attacking pro-democracy protestors In #HongKong and the white supremacists/Proud Boys/Maga people embracing violence here I’m glad to see the left arming itself. This is war,” the longtime Curb Your Enthusiasm producer declared. Charles, a prolific producer, writer, and director, linked to a Guardian article that detailed the desires of left-wing...

On his Monday night program, Fox News’ Tucker Carlson discussed the recent attack by an armed Antifa supporter against an ICE detention facility in Tacoma, Wash., noting that members of the group now have the support of the “respectable Left” in America as elements call for more “direct action” against “fascist” government facilities. Willem Van Spronsen, 68, allegedly released a manifesto stating “I am Anfita” before taking an AR-15 with him on Saturday to firebomb the facility, which he believed was a “concentration camp.” The attack was celebrated by many on the left and Spronsen was hailed as a hero...

Willem Van Spronsen, 69, of Vashon Island, Washington, attacked an ICE Detention Center in Tacoma earlier today with incendiary devices and while armed with a rifle. He was killed in a shootout with police. The Seattle Times reports that Van Spronsen was involved in previous protests and violence at the center, and was described by a friend as : Deb Bartley, a friend of Van Spronsen’s for about 20 years, described him as an anarchist and antifascist, and believes his attack on the detention center intending to provoke a fatal conflict. “He was ready to end it,” Bartley said. “I...

The proof is in the pee. A federally funded study has confirmed, not surprisingly, that marijuana use went up in Washington state after its first legal pot stores opened in 2014. In fact, consumption appeared to double, at least in one major city, over three years — a conclusion scientists reached by way of the unglamorous work of analyzing raw sewage. “It’s stinky,” said lead author Dan Burgard, a chemist at the University of Puget Sound. “But we’ve worked with urine, we’ve worked with wastewater, and we’ve worked with port-a-potties. It’s not as bad a port-a-potties.” The research entailed driving...

A former officer with the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency was arrested over the weekend for allegedly trying to spy on the United States for China, the Justice Department said on Monday. The department said the suspect is accused of trying to transmit national defense information to China and with receiving “hundreds of thousands of dollars” while acting illegally as an agent for the Chinese government. He was taken into custody while he was on his way to the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport ...

Today on the way home on an 85 degree or so day, my 16 Tacoma's air temp sensor kept dropping steadily until it hit -34 outside. The truck runs fine, no errors on the dash, performance seemed the same. In the last few miles, it started registering a little above 0 degrees. I got home no problem and changed the sensor out since I had a spare on hand. I did unhook the battery first. After swapping and powering back up, air temp was a steady 20 something degrees. No warning lights. Normal sounding and running. I found a default...

A billboard that went up Tuesday on Pacific Avenue in Tacoma doesn’t mince words. “There are NAZIS in our neighborhood,” it reads against a black background. Tacoma Against Nazis paid for the sign, which hovers over a bank just north of South 72nd Street. The same group held a protest outside a tattoo parlor in the 1100 block of South 72nd Street on June 22. The group contends the parlor’s owners and staff are white supremacists. The parlor is less than a mile from the billboard. “We wanted something close to the tattoo parlor but we also wanted something in...