Free Republic

SEATTLE -- Amazon is flexing its muscles making its opposition known to a proposed Seattle tax by bringing a halt to all planning on a massive project scheduled for construction in Downtown Seattle, and may tweak its plans to occupy a new downtown skyscraper. “I can confirm that pending the outcome of the head tax vote by City Council, Amazon has paused all construction planning on our Block 18 project in downtown Seattle and is evaluating options to sub-lease all space in our recently leased Rainier Square building," says Amazon Vice President Drew Herdener. The proposed "head tax" would apply...

Seattle’s largest businesses such as Amazon and Starbucks will have to pay a new tax to help fund homeless services and affordable housing under a measure approved by city leaders. The City Council unanimously passed a compromise plan Monday that taxes businesses making at least $20 million in gross revenues about $275 per full-time worker each year — lower than the $500 per worker initially proposed. The so-called “head tax” would raise roughly $48 million a year to build new affordable housing units and provide emergency homeless services. Etc...

The Seattle city council just voted 9-0 on an expansive tax that would seek to tax the city’s businesses that make over 20 million dollars a year in gross revenues. An earlier proposal that passed last week would have taxed businesses around $500 per employee per year. That measure — which passed 5-4 — Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan threatened to veto if it reached her desk.

After a weekend of high-stakes negotiations between Seattle City Council members and Mayor Jenny Durkan, the council voted unanimously Monday to tax the city’s largest employers to help address homelessness. Starting next year, the tax will be $275 per employee, per year on for-profit companies that gross at least $20 million per year in the city — down from a $500-per-head proposal that Durkan threatened to veto. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Having paused construction planning on an office tower over the larger proposal, Amazon now will move ahead with it, a spokesman said after the vote. But the company’s plans to occupy a...

Hours after the Seattle City Council passed a head tax on the city’s largest businesses Monday, Amazon issued a statement in response. The online shopping giant is grateful that the city amended its head tax proposal to a lesser amount, but notes that it is wary of city leaders’ attitudes toward business. Amazon’s statement is attributed to Vice President Drew Herdener: "We are disappointed by today’s city council decision to introduce a tax on jobs. While we have resumed construction planning for Block 18, we remain very apprehensive about the future created by the council’s hostile approach and rhetoric toward...

The council approved a tax of $275 per employee, per year on for-profit companies that gross at least $20 million per year in the city — down from a $500-per-head tax Mayor Jenny Durkan had threatened to veto. The Seattle City Council voted unanimously Monday to adopt a new tax on the city’s largest employers to help address homelessness. The ordinance will impose a tax of $275 per employee, per year on for-profit companies that gross at least $20 million per year in the city — down from a $500-per-head tax that Mayor Jenny Durkan threatened to veto. -snip- The...

The Seattle City Council has approved a tax on large businesses such as Amazon and Starbucks to fight homelessness. The council on Monday unanimously backed a compromise tax plan that will charge large businesses about $275 per full-time worker a year. It’s lower than the $500-per-worker tax initially proposed. The tax would begin in 2019 and raise about $48 million a year to pay for affordable housing and homeless services. Some council members acknowledged it wasn’t enough to address urgent housing needs but conceded they couldn’t get the six votes needed to override a potential veto by the mayor. Other...

Kshama Sawant’s rally “March on Amazon! Tax Big Biz to Build Affordable Housing!” was planned well before a committee passed a head tax on big businesses, including Amazon. The full Seattle City Council is expected to vote on the proposal on Monday. ”Our message today for the council is to stay strong,” Kshama Sawant – one of the most vocal proponents of the tax – told KTTH’s Jason Rantz at the rally. The rally on Saturday began at Seattle Central College Plaza and preceded a march to Amazon’s headquarters in South Lake Union. This is extortion,” the events Facebook page...

The nation’s largest home builder is betting voice-activated digital assistants and smart devices will become as expected in a new home as garages now are. Lennar announced Wednesday that standard features in its new homes will include built-in Wi-Fi, smart locks, doorbells, thermostats and lights — all controlled by Alexa, Amazon’s voice-activated digital assistant. Each house will come with two Alexa-enabled smart speakers, an Echo Show and an Echo Dot. New homeowners will also get a free visit from an Amazon technician to help set everything up and teach them how to use it. ... The 3,600-square-foot model home in...

Amazon wants to show you how much you can rely on its Alexa voice assistant to control everything in your home, from thermostats to TVs. The company announced Wednesday it's partnering with homebuilder Lennar to create "Amazon Experience Centers" — model homes containing built-in Alexa-controlled appliances — in hopes of persuading homeowners and homebuyers to embed Amazon services into their houses

The soggy spring and delays in obtaining the necessary environmental permits may push back the completion date of work to reconstruct Interstate 70 between Beau Street and the Route 519/Eighty Four interchanges. “We are behind schedule,” Scott Faieta, assistant construction engineer for the state Department of Transportation, said Tuesday. “We met last week with the contractor, and it may be necessary to push it back to summer of 2021. It was supposed to be done November 2020.” The contractor for the $117 million project is Lane Construction Co. The work includes widening the highway to three lanes in each direction...

Connecticut’s legislature has passed a bill that would give the state’s Electoral College votes to the presidential candidate who wins the popular vote nationally. The state Senate voted 21-14 on Saturday to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, which includes 10 states and the District of Columbia. The state House passed the measure last week, 77 to 73. The compact requires its members to cast their Electoral College ballots for the presidential candidate who wins the national popular vote. The agreement goes into effect once states representing at least 270 electoral votes — the number needed for a candidate...

IT'S TIME. We need to stop talking and act. A march on Washington DC by We the People, the Trumpers, those of us that voted for him! I'm thinking in Early September--Labor day or there abouts.

From CNN’s wall-to-wall coverage of every leak - real or imagined - out of the Mueller investigation to the East Coast elite media’s obsession with trying to turn President Trump’s bull-in-a-china shop approach into obstruction of justice, the media would have you believe that their top concern is the rule-of-law and rooting out corruption in government. But if that were really so, they would be equally interested in investigating the corrupt collusion between Democratic politicians and left wing interest groups that is happening out in the open in blue states on our nation’s coasts. The state and local governments have essentially...

Twenty-nine of the top 30 areas with the most million-dollar homes are in California or NYC's Tri-State Area. Eight of the ten wealthiest towns are in California and New York State. Forty percent of the nation's billionaires live in California, New York State, and Connecticut. But the Washington, D.C., area dominates the list of highest-earning counties, claiming six of the top ten and 13 of the top 30. Why?

Few words needed for the POTUS, Trump rally, held last evening in Washington, Michigan with 35,000 people in attendance...and they all were loving every blooming minute. Being at a Trump rallyt with everyday hard working. patriotic, Americans of all stripes, is truly the happening of a lifetime. On the other hand, the typical boring, lie telling, hate filled, White House Correspondents Dinner was held last evening...but, this time, folks the outcome was different. The Democrat Party, left-wing progressive, America haters, that support and present this farce, every year, outdid themselves in winning the low life award of all time. Their...

Over the past decade, more than 3.5 million Americans have left high-tax blue states like California, New York, and many others in the Northeast, for low-tax red states like Arizona, Florida, and Texas. While the migration has been happening for years, conservative economists Arthur Laffer and Stephen Moore are forecasting the next significant movement out of blue states could be right around the corner. Earlier this week, in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal titled “So Long, California. Sayonara, New York,” Laffer and Moore spoke about a provision within the brand-new tax bill that could create a mass migration...

Info: POTUS, Donald J. Trump public political rally this coming Saturday, April 28, 2019, in Washington. Michigan. Starts, 7:00 PM (EST). Being held at: Total Sports Park 65665 Powell Road, Washington, Michigan Free Tickets (2) available through Trump POTUS Web Site. Be there to support & help our great POTUS, Donald J. Trump "Make America, Great Again" (MAGA)!!

A University of Washington student was arrested Wednesday for throwing paint on College Republicans members who were promoting a pro-gun panel the club was hosting that night. Diodato Boucsieguez, the CR group’s director of outreach, told Campus Reform that several local Antifa supporters were filming his group for about 20 minutes earlier that day for doxing purposes. He also recalled seeing an individual with bright orange hair watching him through the grass behind the table for several minutes before approaching and dousing the students with paint.

SEATTLE -- Bertha finished boring the path for a new tunnel under Seattle nearly one year ago. Since then, construction crews have finished installing a double-deck highway end-to-end inside the tunnel. That leaves crews to finish installing and testing the $3.2 billion tunnel's advanced operational and safety systems. So when will the tunnel open? How much will tolls cost? And what happens to the Alaskan Way Viaduct? When will the tunnel open and what happens to the viaduct? After the tunnel is finished, crews will close the Alaskan Way Viaduct for several weeks to realign the highway to the tunnel....