Free Republic

SEATTLE - Washington governor-elect Bob Ferguson announced on Monday that he is creating a subcommittee in his transition team with the sole aim of fighting Project 2025, which they expect will be put into motion by the Trump Administration. Ferguson's committee will be co-chaired by Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates CEO Jennifer Allen and King County Councilmember Jorge L. Barón, who formerly served as executive director of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project from 2008 to 2023. "We are preparing in case President Trump attacks Washingtonians’ core freedoms," Governor-elect Ferguson said. "We will keep Washington moving forward no matter what happens at...

"The Ways and Means Committee is committed to holding accountable any tax-exempt organization found to have ties to foreign terrorist organizations, engaged in activity that contradicts tax-exempt purposes, or participated in other illegal activity." The US House Ways and Means Committee has referred US tax-exempt organizations that have suspected ties to foreign terrorist organizations and fuel antisemitism to the Attorneys General of six states where those nonprofits are organized for investigation. On Tuesday, letters were sent by Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith (R -MO), who had previously demanded that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) revoke the tax-exempt status...

The state of Washington has effectively abolished its long-standing residency requirement for voter registration. The decision, led by Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs (D) and Attorney General Bob Ferguson (D), is another attempt by Democrats to cheat on the presidential election. The Center Square reports that through agency rulemaking, Hobbs’ office has removed a provision that has been a part of Washington’s electoral framework since the state’s original 1889 Constitution. This move follows a consent decree earlier this year, settling a 2023 lawsuit that claimed the residency requirement violated federal law, due to a 2018 state law. Article VI,...

The state of Washington has secured a three-year supply of abortion pills in anticipation of a nationwide ban. The Democratic-run state has received a shipment of 30,000 doses of generic mifepristone, one of two drugs used to induce an abortion at home. The move is a direct response to a pending lawsuit in Texas overseen by federal judge Matthew Kacsmaryk, who is considering whether to revoke the FDA's approval of the drugs in an unprecedented move. If he does move to revoke the approval, it would effectively end the ability of providers or pharmacists nationwide to purchase the medication and...

Washington’s Democrat Attorney General, Bob Ferguson, wants to be governor. He thinks the best way to accomplish his goal is to build gulags & psych hospitals, much like in Soviet Russia, and populate them with Christians, Conservatives and Republicans. If House Bill 1333 passes and Democrat Governor Jay Inslee signs it (he will), Ferguson’s office will have the power to arrest and/or civilly commit anyone for uttering “wrong” facts. This is a terrifying plan to redefine “domestic terrorism” to punish “conservative” speech. Ferguson seems especially afraid of “older” Americans because they have more knowledge of and respect for the Bill...

SEATTLE (AP) — A federal jury is deciding whether one of the nation's biggest private prison companies must pay minimum wage — instead of $1 a day — to immigration detainees who perform tasks like cooking and cleaning at its jail in Washington state.... ...GEO's response is that the detainees simply aren't employees. Even if they were, the company says, it would be unlawfully discriminatory for Washington to require GEO to pay them minimum wage — now $13.69 an hour — when the state doesn't pay minimum wage to inmates who work at its own prisons or other detention facilities....

With the Senate impeachment trial dominating the headlines lately, there hasn’t been much room for other news to break through. Consider, for example, the Trump administration’s publication last week of the final rules that change which agency and which regulations oversee the export of firearms and ammunition. This is newsworthy because the change was initially proposed by the Obama administration and modernizes a Cold War-era export control regime that treated a small-caliber single shot hunting rifle the same as a military tank or jet fighter. These rules still subject the export of sporting firearms and ammunition products to stringent scrutiny...

Washington State has been the battleground over gun control, especially over the last year. Back in November, 60 percent of voters passed I-1639 , a ballot initiative that: • Raised the age someone can purchase a rifle to 21. • Created an "enhanced background check system similar to what is used for handguns." • Required a person to complete a firearms safety training course. • Created a common stand for secure gun storage. Sheriffs across the state refused to enforce the law, saying they believe it violates residents' Second Amendment rights. Spokane Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich even received death threats over...

The state of Washington has filed a consumer protection and civil rights lawsuit against the Motel 6 chain for violating customers' privacy. In September, Phoenix New Times revealed that employees at two Phoenix-area Motel 6s had been regularly sharing guest information with ICE. After our story was picked up by national news outlets, Motel 6 pledged to discontinue the practice and claimed that it had been "undertaken at the local level without the knowledge of senior management." We now have evidence that the same thing was happening in Washington. "It was not isolated to two hotels in Phoenix, not by...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Oct 9 2017 Ferguson asks court in Seattle to declare new rules unlawfulSEATTLE — Attorney General Bob Ferguson today filed a lawsuit in federal court to block the Trump Administration’s new rules undermining women’s access to contraception.The new rules would allow any company to deny coverage for contraceptive services to its female employees based on religious grounds. Additionally, certain types of organizations would also be able to deny this coverage on moral grounds. If allowed to go forward, President Trump’s rules could have a significant impact on the more than 1.5 million Washington workers and their dependents who receive...

I’ve been a florist in Richmond, Wash., for more than 30 years. In that time, I’ve developed close relationships with many of my clients. One of my favorites was Rob Ingersoll. Ingersoll came in often and we’d talk. Like me, he had an artistic eye. I’d try to create really special arrangements for him. I knew he was gay, but it didn’t matter — I enjoyed his company and his creativity. Then he asked me to create the floral arrangements for his wedding. I love Rob, and I’d always been happy to design for his special days. But there’s something...