Free Republic

Senator Murray voices support for federal workers, condemns President Trump’s executive orders targeting federal employees’ right to organize and ability to collectively bargainSenator Murray: “The federal government should be a model for employers—demonstrating how to treat their workers fairly and with respect.”Senator Murray criticized Judge Kavanaugh nomination to Supreme Court as latest step in President Trump’s anti-worker crusadeSenator Murray: “Judge Kavanaugh’s record proves he would not be the fair voice working families need. Throughout his long career, Judge Kavanaugh has sided with corporate special interests at the expense of workers and their rights.”

Fairfax, Va. - The National Rifle Association today filed a lawsuit challenging the Washington Secretary of State’s decision to certify the significantly flawed and inaccurate petition sheets for Initiative 1639. The petition certification paves the way for it to be placed on the November ballot. “Secretary of State Wyman has a legal and constitutional duty to reject all I-1639 signatures obtained using fraudulent copies of this initiative,” said Chris W. Cox, executive director of NRA-ILA. “It’s telling that the gun control lobby and their billionaire backers will break the rules and resort to dirty tricks in order to get their...

USGS reported 11 earthqaukes (the largest a magnitude 5.6) off the Oregon coastline today, right at the Oregon-CA border on the Juan de Fuca rise associated with the subduction zone of the Pacific plates and North American plates. This area, the Juan de Fuca fault subduction zone, has been quiet since 1700 - when a magnitude 9.0 quake occurred dropping land as much as 2 meters (9 feet) over the entire 800 mile Vancouver-Washington-Oregon coastline. That quake in 1700 caused documented 10 meter (30 foot) high tsunami's recorded in Japan that crushed many villages and towns. Many previous large earthquakes...

King County could require stores that sell guns to post signs at the door and cash register warning that owning a firearm increases the risk of suicide, homicide and other deaths. Metropolitan King County Council Chairman Joe McDermott is proposing the new regulation, which would be enacted and enforced by the King County Board of Health. The measure is the latest in a series advanced by local politicians and activists who say gun violence is a public-health crisis and should be dealt with as such.Washington State Initiative 1639, which is likely to appear on the November ballot, would require gun-purchase...

VideoA teenager in Seattle, Washington was harassed by a man and a woman on the street for wearing a "Make America Great Again" hat. In a YouTube video of the encounter, Ashton Hess told the man who allegedly spat on his hat, "That's my property, dude. Come on." The video then shows the man telling Hess to "get the f*** out [of] this city." Hess said that he was with his family waiting for a ride outside the Starbucks Reserve Roastery when the incident occurred.

Recordings and summaries of emergency calls show Washington wildlife officials at first objected to an air rescue of a woman treed by wolves, or help from the Okanogan County sheriff. Washington wildlife managers initially opposed sending a helicopter or a search-and-rescue team to save a woman treed by wolves in the Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, according to recordings and summaries of emergency calls. ... Notes from a call between DNR dispatcher Jill Jones and a wildlife officer summarized WDFW’s position, and her position, shortly before the helicopter launched. “No helicopter. Federally listed species. 3 WDFW personnel saying so,” according to DNR’s...

After almost a year of deliberation, Kitsap County has unveiled a draft of an ordinance that seeks to limit drone activity near the five Naval Base Kitsap installations in the county. “The Navy appreciates the effort in Kitsap County to develop this draft ordinance," said Naval Base Kitsap commanding officer Capt. Alan Schrader. "As the number of (drone) sightings increase in and around Naval Base Kitsap, this ordinance will allow the Navy and local officials to have the authorities needed enforce and comply with FAA and Department of Defense rules to ensure base security." The Federal Aviation Administration banned the...

Actual title: Democratic Congressmen Accuse Paul Ryan Of Political Stunt For Calling For Vote On THEIR ‘Abolish ICE’ Bill — Say They’ll Vote No Three Democratic congressmen declared on Thursday that they will vote “no” on their own legislation if House Speaker Paul Ryan puts their bill on the floor. Reps. Mark Pocan of Wisconsin, Pramila Jayapal of Washington and Adriano Espaillat of New York introduced the Establishing a Humane Immigration Enforcement Act earlier Thursday, which would abolish ICE within one year of enactment, and also assemble a commission tasked with setting up a new immigration enforcement agency. .... The...

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...

Starbucks, the nation's largest food and drink retailer, announced on Monday that it would be going strawless.... As is to be expected, Starbucks' decision was greeted with universal adulation.... Yet missing from this fanfare was the inconvenient fact that by ditching plastic straws, Starbucks will actually be increasing its plastic use. As it turns out, the new nitro lids that Starbucks is leaning on to replace straws are made up of more plastic than the company's current lid/straw combination.

....Our Decision America California Tour has concluded, and the entire tour was an incredible story of God at work. We had prayed that many souls would get saved, and we saw that happen. To Him be the glory! I preached the Gospel to thousands at each stop, presenting Jesus Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection....I’ll return to the West Coast in August and resume heading northward, this time through Oregon and Washington on the Decision America Pacific Northwest Tour. I will preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ in seven cities, ending up not far from the Canadian border. As in California,...

Starbucks is going strawless. The coffee company announced Monday that it will phase out plastic straws from all of its stores by 2020. The changes will help Starbucks (SBUX) eliminate more than 1 billion plastic straws per year, the company said. Plastic straws contribute to ocean pollution and pose a danger to marine life. Some governments have begun banning them. To eliminate straws, Starbucks is transitioning from the flat, plastic lids that require them, to ones that feature a raised lip you can drink from. The new designs have drawn comparisons to an adult "sippy cup." Frappuccino drinks will still...

The removal of offensive monuments took a unique turn in Seattle. Mayor Ed Murray asked a cemetery to remove a Confederate monument erected in 1926 but also requested the removal of a large statue of Vladimir Lenin. From the Seattle Times: The monument, erected in 1926 by the United Daughters of the Confederacy, and the Lenin statue are both on private property. Still, Murray said, he believes they should be removed. “Not only do these kinds of symbols represent historic injustices, their existence causes pain among those who themselves or whose family members have been impacted by these atrocities,” Murray...

Behind tall brick walls and secure windows, hundreds of patients at Washington state's largest psychiatric hospital live in conditions that fail U.S. health and safety standards, while overworked nurses and psychiatrists say they are navigating a system that punishes employees who speak out despite critical staffing shortages. "They don't have enough staff to protect patients, or provide them with the bare minimum of care," said Lisa Bowser, whose mother spent two years at Western State Hospital and suffered dozens of falls and assaults. "Going there was like going into hell," said Bowser, who has sued the state-run facility. "I honestly...

For the past 100 years, Keyport has been home to one of Navy's primary efforts to research, develop and test torpedoes, which earned the small, waterfront community the moniker of "Torpedo Town, U.S.A." Now, Keyport's Naval Undersea Warfare Center is becoming the modern testing ground for a new type of technology that silently operates in the depths — unmanned undersea vehicles, which are known as UUVs. Those unmanned undersea vehicles are essentially "pre-programmed, small submarines," said Cmdr. Scott Smith, commanding officer of the Navy's newly formed Unmanned Undersea Vehicle Squadron 1. The squadron's UUVs range from 10-inch torpedo-shaped tubes to large submersibles more than 80 inches in diameter. Many of...

The "race-faker" known as Rachel Dolezal has been booked on welfare fraud charges after reporting to a Washington jail on Monday. Dolezal, who stepped down as head of Spokane, Washington's NAACP chapter in 2015 after she was revealed to be a white woman posing as black, has been accused of stealing more than $8,000 in food and child care assistance. She was ordered to turn herself in by Monday on charges of first-degree theft by welfare fraud, second-degree perjury and false verification for public assistance. KREM reports she was booked and released from the Spokane County Jail at 3:30 p.m....

At least 41 cops have left the Seattle Police Department this year, many of them reportedly citing frustration with the city's politics and a perceived lack of support from local officials. Though documents showed some officers left the force due to retirement, a source in the department told Q13 FOX some 20 officers left and sought employment at other law enforcement agencies. The source also said younger officers "don’t feel appreciated" and the number of those leaving who felt “frustrated over city politics is higher than usual.” “Worker bees on the street, they don't feel appreciated. I’ve never seen anything...

News Releases VIDEO: Senator Murray Sounds the Alarm on Supreme Court Justice Kennedy’s Retirement: “I share the deep concern of so many families across this country who…fear further erosion of the progress we have made”(Washington, D.C.) – Today in her first public comments after Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his retirement from the nation’s highest court, handing President Trump a second Supreme Court nomination opportunity, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) voiced the concerns of millions of people across the country about considering a nomination from a president who has spent every day in office testing the limits of the...

On May 22, 2018, the U. S. House of Representatives Government Reform and Oversight Committee examined the free speech crisis on college campuses. Since few universities do not receive federal funding, their interest is not inconsequential. One of the three academic witnesses they called--Brett Weinstein--identified himself as a "professor in exile" from Evergreen State College. Weinstein--like the other two witnesses the committee called on from academe--could distinctly be described as on the left of the political spectrum. Nevertheless, only one member of the trio—Shaun Harper of the University of Southern California—downplayed the free speech crisis. The other--Allison Stranger of Middlebury...

A wild rampage at a Walmart in Tumwater, Washington was stopped when three concealed handgun permit holders confronted and killed the attacker.