Free Republic

... “In 2016, a lot of us assumed we knew what would happen in Michigan and Wisconsin,” Salvanto told The Post. “It was a great lesson for us pollsters: Even if you think you know what will happen, poll it if you can.” Blame it on the Blue Wall. Since 1992, in six consecutive presidential elections, a solid block of 18 states had voted for the Democrat every single time. They would have given Clinton 239 electoral votes — 89 percent of the way to victory — if she had held on to them all.Few bothered to ask those states’...

BY THE OREGONIAN/OREGONLIVE (Compiled from news accounts, court records, public notices) Last week's arrest of a long-sought accused eco-saboteur pushed the spotlight back on a tight-knit cell of radical environmentalists responsible for a $48 million run of firebombings and other crimes across the West in the 1990s and early 2000s. Six men and five women prosecuted in Oregon received sentences ranging from three years to 13 years. They were arrested starting in 2005 in what the FBI called "Operation Backfire," a task force that tracked down the suspects with the help of an informant deep within the underground group....

Organizers behind gun control Initiative 1639 did not comply with state signature gathering rules, according to a Thurston County superior court judge who ruled in favor of the NRA Friday. I-1639 will now be removed from the November ballot. “The National Rifle Association is glad to see the court today recognized how negligent, if not worse, gun control advocates were in their signature-gathering for this ill-advised ballot initiative,” said Chris W. Cox, executive director, NRA-ILA.Gun rights advocates protested the manner in which I-1639 collected signatures in Washington state. Secretary of State Kim Wyman even commented that her office has never...

Cruel: A spokesman for a prominent Native American tribe is blasting uber-Left-wing politicians in deep blue coastal states for using onerous EPA regulations to deny his people the opportunity to coal, gas, and other forms of energy. The Daily Caller reports that officials in a small number of coastal states led by Washington are essentially denying Crow Tribal members the opportunity to earn a much better living. CJ Stewart, a Crow Tribal member and co-founder of the National Tribe Energy Association, told the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works Thursday that his people are dependent on producing energy to...

President Donald Trump sought to cast blame Friday for the cancellation of his planned military parade on Washington city council officials, saying they had inflated the cost. Soon after the President tweeted, Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser claimed she "got thru" to Trump about costs for the parade, which at one point was calculated to run about $12 million but more recent estimates said could run as high as $92 million by the time Trump canceled the event. "The local politicians who run Washington, D.C. (poorly) know a windfall when they see it. When asked to give us a price for...

Seattle’s anti-Trump mayor, Jenny Durkan, may be on track for a political backlash: Her city’s $52 million money splash on public transit appears doomed because new taxpayer-funded streetcars apparently won’t fit the existing tracks. Durkan’s office has braced city residents for the possibility, the Seattle Times reported. The Seattle Department of Transportation (SDOT) reportedly ordered 10 new streetcars last year, to help expand the Seattle Streetcar system by linking the two existing streetcar lines. But the new streetcars also are reportedly heavier and longer than the ones currently in use, raising concerns about whether they'll be used at all. “It...

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is moving two agencies and roughly 700 federal employees out of Washington, D.C., to save money and improve the department’s service to taxpayers. Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue announced Thursday that the Economic Research Service and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture will be fully moved out of the nation’s capital by 2020, according to the USDA.

A Massachusetts bill that recommended teaching children as young as 12 about oral and anal sex failed in the state House last week amid growing public outrage. The College Fix reports state Senate Bill 2128 passed the state Senate but died in the House last week when the legislative session ended. The bill seemed harmless enough at first. It would have required public schools to provide “comprehensive” sex education that is medically accurate and age-appropriate. This included “the benefits of abstinence and delaying sexual activity” and “the effective use of contraceptives and barrier methods.” However, Andrew Beckwith, president of the...

Richard Russell, who dreamed of being in the military and once ran a bakery with his wife, was identified as the suicidal airport mechanic who stole an airplane from Sea-Tac International Airport and took it on a dramatic unauthorized flight, where it was chased by fighter planes as he attempted “stunts” in the air before the plane crashed. The man known as “Rich” in air traffic control audio and dubbed the “skyking” on Twitter broke hearts on social media as people followed the unauthorized flight because it came to a fatal end. The incident led to a dramatic and tragic...

A Horizon Air passenger plane crashed on an island in Puget Sound Friday night, not long after a suspect conducted an "unauthorized take-off" from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in Washington state, officials said. Witnesses reported seeing a large plume of smoke in the air above Ketron Island after the plane went down. No passengers were believed to be aboard the Q400 aircraft, airport officials said. No one on the sparsely inhabited island was believed to have been injured, the Pierce County Sheriff's Department said on Twitter.The unidentified pilot was a 29-year-old "suicidal male," the sheriff's department said. The Seattle Times reported...

A federal jury in Portland, Oregon found FBI Agent Joseph Astarita not guilty of lying about firing two shots during a deadly law enforcement operation..... A California jury has ordered the chemical company Monsanto to pay a California man 289 million dollars in damages for causing his cancer..... Late word tonight that a turboprop aircraft was stolen by an airline employee at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The plane was intercepted by fighter aircraft and did some acrobatic maneuvers before crashing on an island in southern Puget Sound..... The Syrian government launched dozens of airstrikes and shelling attacks across three northern provinces...

PPlanes were reportedly grounded at the SeaTac International Airport as reports flew from passengers on Twitter that someone might have stolen an airplane and taken it on an unauthorized flight. Nothing was confirmed yet from authorities, but live aviation audio from the tower said authorities were urging a man to try “to land that airplane safely and not hurt anybody.” Other audio reported a ground stop was underway at SeaTac, the airport that services Seattle and Tacoma.

Did anyone in America, the USA, take notice of the Mid-Term election primary held in Democrat, liberal, Progressive, Socialist, Communist State of Washington, yesterday? Shucks, why the ever effective Media has acted like Washington was not there. Lots of press coverage for Ohio, Kansas, Missouri & Michigan...but, alas, barely a word spoken about the wonder land of the Democrat, Liberal. Progressive, Socialist, Communist state of "Washington" and its adored heroes, Bernie Sanders & Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, last night & today. Wonder why? Answer...no one in heartland America cares & they say, let these fools and idiots destroy their state...and, California, and,...

Several Washington state employees are suing for the right to break ties with their union, claiming the Supreme Court's landmark Janus decision should allow them to cancel their membership immediately. That June ruling said state government workers could not be forced to pay so-called “fair share” fees to support collective bargaining and other union activities. The decision delivered a blow to public-employee unions. But the lawsuit filed Thursday, if successful, could point to further repercussions. The six plaintiffs have all attempted to leave the Washington Federation of State Employees (WFSE) since the Supreme Court decision, but say they've been told...

Ever want to be a longshore worker? Now’s your chance. The workers load and unload ships and move cargo around ports. Full-time jobs pay an average of $175,000 a year and include a benefits package costing more than $110,000, according to the Pacific Maritime Association. But to get to that point you have to start somewhere. The Pacific Maritime Association, which represents shipping lines and terminal operators at West Coast ports, is hiring part-time workers in Tacoma — the first time in several years. Shipping traffic, and the associated work, ebbs and flows. During high traffic times, the shipping lines...

Alt-right provocateur James Allsup, whose views have been widely condemned as racist, is introduced by Cecily Wright, the chairwoman of the Spokane County Republican Party, during a July 11 meeting of Northwest Grassroots, a group of local tea party conservatives. (Northwest Grassroots)

SPOKANE, Wash. – Effective immediately, Cecily Wright resigns as Chair of the Spokane County Republican Central Committee. Vice Chair Isaiah Paine becomes Acting Chair. Cecily Wright issued the following statement: “I profoundly apologize for giving James Allsup a platform to speak at the Northwest Grassroots meeting in July. I consider this a serious mistake in my judgment and I deeply regret that decision. “The Spokane County GOP remains committed to standing against white supremacy, racism, and bigotry in all forms. We will always support a free society where individuals are judged on the content of their character rather than the...

Once again, the oh-so progressive, oh-so enlightened Seattle City Council is showing the rest of the country what not to do. The idealistic leftists who control the Council are wasting millions of hard-earned taxpayer dollars in failed attempts to solve problems the Council members created. All this is turning Seattle into the poster city for the failure of Big Government. The city best known for fish markets, coffee stores, rain and flannel-wearing musicians is now becoming legendary for its incompetent leadership and its financial boondoggles. The latest example of Seattle senselessness is the Council’s costly and deeply flawed efforts to...

RedWolf Pope is a well-known native activist. He hosted a TedxSeattle talk about his experience at Standing Rock and spent time with KING 5 journalists, discussing issues in his community. He has now been arrested and is facing a slew of charges, including rape, battery and false imprisonment. The case against him involves both his apartments in Santa Fe, New Mexico and on Boylston Avenue in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood.

Russian President Vladimir Putin says has invited President Donald Trump to visit him in Moscow and also said he is ready to go to the White House. Putin told reporters in South Africa that phone calls were not sufficient, and the two men needed to talk about the Iran nuclear deal and other topics. Trump took heat from members of both parties after his July 16 meeting with Putin, where the president said he found Putin's denial of election interference 'powerful.' Trump is to meet with his national security team today to discuss election security, following a report of a...