Free Republic

The Mount Vernon Assembly – Indianapolis FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Skip Brown skip.brown@iga.in.gov 317-232-9521 The Mount Vernon Assembly to Meet at Indiana Statehouse June 12 and 13 INDIANAPOLIS (June 9, 2014) – More than 100 state legislators representing 33 states will meet at the Indiana Statehouse in Indianapolis on June 12 and 13 to continue establishing the rules and procedures needed for a future state-led convention for proposing amendments to the U.S. Constitution, as authorized by Article V of the Constitution. The meeting is a continuation of efforts that began in December 2013 at George Washington’s historic Mount Vernon estate...

A federal lawsuit filed Wednesday challenges Seattle’s adoption of what would be the nation’s highest minimum wage as unfair to small franchises. […] In a lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Seattle, the International Franchise Association, a Washington, D.C.-based business group, said the ordinance “unfairly and irrationally discriminates against interstate commerce generally, and small businesses that operate under the franchise business model specifically.” …

The anti-Israel movement has made academia its breeding ground, and new initiatives to boycott Israeli academics and research are frequently introduced to student and professorial bodies. But the BDS movement was dealt a crippling blow on Wednesday, after one college turned the tables - introducing the first anti-BDS resolution at an American university. The student government at Western Washington University (Associated Students WWU) voted unanimously Wednesday that it will not consider boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) based on national origin, according to Israel advocacy organization StandWithUs. The 7-0 vote represents the first time ever that a North American university’s student...

Sara Robinson of Seattle, Washington, is chatty, affable, and obviously liberal. For years the former writer for Alternet has been a member of a tight-knit community of activists who write and organize around progressive causes. Or at least she was a member, until her “tribe,” as she calls it, effectively banished her in the wake of the December 2012 Sandy Hook school shooting. “I was forced out,” she says. Robinson, a registered Democrat since the Reagan era, is also a life-long gun owner. And almost as soon as news of the massacre broke, her relationship with her left-leaning circle began...

Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling has pulled his support from a deal to sell the team to former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and will pursue his $1 billion federal lawsuit against the NBA, his attorney said Monday. "We have been instructed to prosecute the lawsuit," said attorney Maxwell Blecher. He said co-owner Donald Sterling would not be signing off on the deal to sell.

When school resumes in the fall in the Toppenish School District [near Yakima, WA], some administrators will be armed for an added level of security.

Government-hired survey teams will soon ask hundreds of Washington state motorists to answer questions and provide samples of breath, saliva and blood — all to give safety and police agencies a clearer sense of how many people drive impaired. The roadside surveys are voluntary, and participants will be paid up to $60, under the federally funded project this summer. National officials are collaborating with the Washington Traffic Safety Commission, which is hurrying to gather data before retail marijuana gains a foothold. That way, officials have a baseline from which to measure any safety effects of legalization, said commission spokeswoman Jonna...

The FBI was investigating Josh Powell for child pornography at least 17 months before he killed himself and his children, according to a published report based on FBI documents. The Salt Lake Tribune reported that the bureau was investigating Powell for possession of child pornography as well as for the death of his wife, Susan, who disappeared in 2009 and has never been found. Anne Bremner, an attorney for Susan Powell's parents, said the family was never told the FBI was investigating Josh Powell for child pornography.

Inside a windowless Sodo warehouse teeming with 1,143 pot plants, one of the state’s pioneering marijuana producers waited anxiously to “snap the lights.” To growers, that means putting the leafy stalks on a 12-hour cycle under the lights. The suddenly shorter “days” signal to the plants that fall is coming — in early June. “That’s when we play Mother Nature,” said Steve Elliott, an owner of one of Washington’s first licensed pot growers, AuricAG. “It puts the plants into hyper-drive.” To propagate the species, the all-female plants then start to flower, secreting resins, sticky with pot’s psychoactive chemicals, to attract...

It didn’t take long after yesterday’s shotgun attack by a non-student at Seattle Pacific University for word to get out that the brave actions of students ended the attack before far more people could be injured or killed. The friends of the first man to go after the armed suspect quickly identified the bashful hero to the world via Twitter.

Jon Meis became an instant icon of courage on Thursday when he and fellow students helped subdue a gunman who was on a rampage inside Seattle Pacific University. It turns out that the 22-year-old is also planning to get married. His newfound fans discovered the student’s wedding registry and have been buying up presents for Meis and his future wife."There are a number of heroes in this. The people around (the gunman) stepped up," Assistant Police Chief Paul McDonagh said Thursday. "But for the great response by the people of Seattle Pacific, this incident might have been much more tragic."Meis,...

The gun lovers who preach that arming American citizens to stop even more violence always ignore the fact that Wayne LaPierre was wrong. “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun,” LaPierre, the National Rifle Association’s executive vice president, infamously said after a gunman in 2012 killed 20 schoolchildren and six adults in Newtown, Conn. Yet looked what happened Thursday. According to police, a student building monitor named Jon Meis used pepper spray to subdue a shooter who had already killed one student and wounded a couple others at Seattle...

News Print Article | Email Friend | Reprint Permissions Planned Parenthood affiliate has lost more than a quarter of its customers since 2012 by Ben Johnson Thu Jun 05, 2014 12:03 EST Tags: oregon, planned parenthood, planned parenthood columbia willamette, washington state VANCOUVER, WA, June 5, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Planned Parenthood affiliate has revealed that it has had to dramatically downsize – including closing one-third of its offices in its two-state territory – because it had lost a quarter of its business in two years. Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette announced yesterday that it is closing three of its offices...

Today should have been a day of celebration at the end of the school year here at Seattle Pacific University; instead it's a day of tragedy and of loss. Once again, the epidemic of gun violence has come to Seattle – the epidemic of gun violence that is haunting this nation.

Quick Facts: - At least six people shot at Seattle Pacific University. - At least one suspect in custody. Police initially said two. - School is about 10 min. from downtown Seattle with about 4,000 students. - This is the first Seattle school shooting since April 2007. At least six people were shot Thursday afternoon at Seattle Pacific University in Seattle and police have at least one person in custody. The shooting happened about 3:30 p.m. in Otto Miller Hall, 3rd Avenue West and West Nickerson Street. The campus was on lockdown and traffic around the school was blocked. It...

Seattle police are investigating a shooting at Otto Miller Hall on the Seattle Pacific University Campus. Officials say there appears to be seven victims; no fatalities.

Yesterday’s latest “kickoff” of the Initiative 594 campaign in Seattle reportedly brought in a $1 million pledge from Nick and Leslie Hanauer – prime bank-rollers of the gun control effort so far – along with what the Seattle P-I.com reported was “a six-figure pledge from an anonymous donor,” and that is troubling to gun rights activists. When an issue threatens to erode what they consider are not only firearms rights but privacy rights, “six-figure” pledges to that campaign should not be anonymous. It’s an age-old principle held dear by the press: The public has a right to know.

CLACKAMAS, OR, June 4, 2014 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Planned Parenthood affiliate has announced that, in order to remain financially viable, it is closing three offices in the Pacific Northwest and laying off employees at its remaining locations. Stacy Cross, CEO of Planned Parenthood Columbia Willamette, which covers Oregon and part of Washington State, said in a press release that the action is "necessary in order to maintain a fiscally solvent operation that continues to keep our doors open to patients in our region for the long-term.”

Hippie infestation. Seattle’s city council on Monday unanimously approved an increase in the city’s minimum wage to $15 an hour, making it the nation’s highest by far. The increase was formally proposed by Seattle Mayor Ed Murray, and his spokesman said he intends to sign the ordinance on Tuesday. Apparently unaware that it doesn’t have the weather advantages that other places pricing themselves out of existence do (Los Angeles, anyone?), Seattle seems to be ready to set a record for how many businesses it can ruin. The earnest idiots who whip up this minimum wage frenzy always use big corporations...

<p>The Vancouver City Council has voted to oppose what would be the Pacific Northwest’s largest crude oil train terminal.</p> <p>The vote came well after midnight on Tuesday in council chambers packed with hundreds of people, many of them opposed to the project.</p>