Free Republic

In the super-charged public debate on health care, many advocates are rightly calling attention to the importance of protecting the health needs of people with disabilities. But for many in Southwest Washington who are living with a disability — and for their families — having health insurance coverage is just one part of the struggle. Severe and chronic disabilities are often associated with a significant decline in earnings. For families with children who have disabilities, for example, parents are often forced to step back from work to care for their child — making it even more difficult to shoulder high...

It’s time for Republicans serving in Washington to get over obsession with reelection, get out of denial that business as usual is acceptable, and recognize that we are engaged in spiritual and political warfare to save the country Who would have ever thought that the United States could face a coup attempt against its duly elected President? But for all intents and purposes that’s what’s going down. It’s a derivative of an old-fashioned, third world banana republic mob-style coup that is brewing against Donald Trump. It matters not that there is a lack of substance to the charges of Russian...

President Trump is at least changing one thing in Washington DC. He is rolling back the regulatory state that has grown and grown over the eight years of the Obama administration. And this is indeed making America great again. Make no mistake. The Trump administration has claimed that it shelved 860 federal regulations its first six months in office, slowing new rules and finally reducing the government’s role in the economy. A new report released Thursday morning detailed how the administration has reduced economically reductive regulations by half, dropping by 40 percent other rules that would have had a significant...

Cannot post article because of copyright, but it is here. http://www.theolympian.com/news/local/article161874198.html The interesting part is the 3rd paragraph where you see they snuck in eating, drinking, smoking, grooming and reading as offenses that you can also be ticketed for. Subsequently found out that many municipalities here such as Seattle, Tacoma, and Redmond also have these laws going into effect next week, but as primary offenses.

An active shooter has been firing a gun from a boat toward the Bainbridge Island shoreline late Saturday, near Eagle Harbor. People are advised to avoid the shoreline area. No one has been injured, said Assistant Fire Chief Luke Carpenter. “He was just firing randomly,” Carpenter said. Washington State Ferries suspended Bainbridge Island-Seattle service until further notice. Law-enforcement officers were called to the area around 9 p.m., said city spokeswoman Kellie Stickney, though it’s unclear under what circumstances.

snip... Washington’s Immortals tells the story of a heroic regiment that saved the Continental Army from destruction at the Battle of Brooklyn by holding the British at bay. Despite the pivotal importance of their sacrifice, the regimental dead are buried in a mass grave with only the most minimal markings, their story largely unknown to the modern public. “About 2010, I was in New York City, and the regimental commander I was with in the Battle of Fallujah, Colonel Willie Buell, is assigned there. He’s part of the Council on Foreign Relations. He just called me up and he said,...

On this day in 1775, George Washington rides out in front of the American troops gathered at Cambridge common in Massachusetts and draws his sword, formally taking command of the Continental Army. Washington, a prominent Virginia planter and veteran of the French and Indian War, had been appointed commander in chief by the Continental Congress two weeks before. In agreeing to serve the American colonies in their war for independence, he declined to accept payment for his services beyond reimbursement of future expenses. George Washington was born in 1732 to a farm family in Westmoreland County, Virginia. His first direct...

WKI: Could you tell us about the status of Kurds in Iran?Arash Saleh: Let’s briefly view some information about Kurds. The majority of Kurds are residing in four western provinces of Iran. Sanandaj, Kermanshah, West Azerbaijan, and Ilam are the main Kurdish populated provinces in Western Iran. Kurds are 12% of Iranian population. Sometimes 14% have been mentioned which tells us that Kurds in Iran could be more than ten million. There are about two million Kurds in other places of Iran, Eastern Iran, Northeastern Iran and Northern Iran. So there have been Kurds that have historically immigrated.They still are...

Federal officials say nearly one out of six young men in Washington state are committing a felony, and they might not even know it. Their crime? Not registering for a nonexistent military draft. Despite the United States not having pressed anyone into military service since 1973, virtually all men ages 18 to 25 still are required to register with the Selective Service System. The agency keeps men’s information on file in case the country needs to mobilize a military force during a time of crisis. Not registering can cause men big problems down the road, officials say. For one, it...

FULL MEASURE W/ SHARYL ATTKISSON: Just a couple of months ago, we profiled Congressman Jason Chaffetz, the Republican chairman of the powerful House Oversight Committee which was poised to dig deep on wide-ranging investigations into government mischief, waste, fraud and abuse. A few weeks later, Chaffetz abruptly resigned from Congress. We asked the Oversight Man what changed his mind about being a lead watchdog with not only a GOP majority in Congress, but also a Republican in the White House. He told me it’s more a matter of what hasn’t changed. We started the interview with me asking how he...

THURSTON COUNTY, WASHINGTON A female wolf that bit off part of a 3-year-old Thurston County boy’s arm in April has been relocated to an out-of-state wildlife sanctuary, along with her pups and her Alaskan malamute mate. {snip} “She’s not aggressive in a mean way,” Miracle said. “She just liked food.” He believes that the boy was trying to feed Cheyenne a piece of pizza when he was attacked. {snip}He said he gave Angel, Zoe and Lakota to Wolf Haven “because they really wanted them.” But why breed wolf-dogs? Miracle said he had one as a boy, and it was a...

... Evergreen faces a deeper, and more long-term threat. It is the only state four-year higher education institution to see enrollment drop steeply since 2011 despite wide-open admission standards. At about 4,080 students, it is about 300 students short of the Legislature’s funded enrollment target.

Government of the lawyers, by the lawyers and for the lawyers was on full display at the Comey Congressional Hearing as an illustration of just how far removed our highly paid, elected officials really are from the issues which are truly interesting to we the governed. Clearly, Congress is discriminating against the employment demographics of our country! Just how many lawyers are in Congress? And more importantly, how many of them "rule" us via their committees? All I could think of, as a daughter and niece of a lawyer, judge and cousin of a law professor as I watched this...

Of 65 public comments over more than two hours, only a handful were against the income tax. At a public hearing on a proposed income tax on high earnings at Seattle City Council chambers Wednesday night, a near-unanimous consensus emerged from the sometimes soaring, sometimes stammering oratory: pass it. After a presentation from a council central staffer, the council’s Affordable Housing, Neighborhoods and Finance Committee heard from 65 commenters in total. Of these, only a handful spoke against the measure. I counted three. One identified himself as a Republican, another as a libertarian before saying that “taxation is theft,” and...

.......Tom Banse Retweeted Will James @OtherWillJames 33m Patriot Prayer leader Joey Gibson escorted away by medics after someone threw something at his head. He was bleeding, but walking #Evergreen........

Eliminating the Problem How difficult is it to test autonomous vehicles (AVs) on public roads? Uber can probably tell you all about it. Much of the difficulty in obtaining the permits necessary for such tests comes from fear. Because self-driving technology is new, because the systems have been involved in incidents in the past, and so on, people aren’t quite ready to trust the tech. The governor of Washington state, however, has a different perspective. Governor Jay Inslee signed an order on Wednesday that would allow for autonomous vehicle tests without a human driver behind the wheel. According to the...

Tacoma Washington is likely to do away with its ban on electric weapons. The Supreme Court decision in Caetano PER CURIAM decision (pdf) is the reason why.  From Caetano: The Court has held that “the Second Amendment extends, prima facie, to all instruments that constitute bearable arms, even those that were not in existence at the time of the founding,” District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U. S. 570, 582 (2008), and that this “Second Amendment right is fully applicable to the States,” McDonald v.Chicago, 561 U. S. 742, 750 (2010). Caetano was directly about electronic weapons.  Lawsuits against...

Can we just get along? This question is being asked more and more, what with the bitter polarization of the nation. The answer, right now, would appear to be a resounding no. It’s not because we can’t. We don’t want to. I had that thought the other day when I was listening to the Seattle City Council. Many council meetings of late involve left-wingers shouting at other left-wingers for not being left-wing enough. But on this day, a new purity test of left-wingedness was revealed. The council was debating the juvenile-justice issue. Not everyone agrees whether a new jail should...

Students at Evergreen State College are furious that a video documenting their anarchic behavior has been made public, The College Fix reports. The footage shows students going berserk, swearing like your mother never heard and screaming about “racist white teachers,” “white-assed administrators,” and the obligatory “black power” slogans during what was supposed to be a “meeting” between the malcontent students, college president George Bridges and other college administrators. Activists are not pleased that the embarrassing video can now be seen by the world on the internet, and they they are demanding that the “stolen” document be “taken down” by this...

Link only due to copyright issues: http://www.theolympian.com/news/business/article152624419.html