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Seattle officials said barriers around the "Capitol Hill Organized Protest" zone (CHOP) would be dismantled on Sunday morning, but the scene remains intact as of Sunday night. Durkan said last week that police will begin returning to the East Precinct in the CHOP, although a timeline wasn't provided. Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant joined a large group of protesters outside the CHOP zone who marched to Durkan's house on Sunday afternoon. One of the demonstrators said, "We came down to Jenny Durkan's mansion to bring the demands of the movement and of the families who have been impacted by police...

Not to count our chickens before they hatch, but Seattle is poised to actually follow through on a progressive revenue option. Or three. As long as the council doesn't pull some of that 2018 head tax nonsense. There are multiple tax options that the Seattle City Council is considering: Councilmembers Kshama Sawant's and Tammy Morales' Tax Amazon package or Councilmember Teresa Mosqueda's JumpStart Seattle plan. And, it looks like Councilmember Andrew Lewis just introduced a capital gains tax proposal: Councilmember Andrew J. Lewis @CMAndrewJLewis 1/ We live in a time of enormous inequity and our regressive tax system isn't helping....

An software engineer turned firebrand socialist has been named as the leader of a movement which has pushed police out of six-block area of central Seattle, known as the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ). Indian-born Kshama Sawant, 46, who now serves on the Seattle City Council, is encouraging activists in the CHAZ 'to hold out on giving back the precinct to cops or allowing officers inside the barricaded region', according to Fox News. **SNIP** Sawant tweeted Friday: 'Our movement needs to urgently ensure East Precinct is not handed back to police, but is turned over permanently into community control. My...

The Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ) in downtown Seattle may become a permanent feature of the community going forward. City council member Kshama Sawant (Socialist Alternative Party) is drafting legislation that would establish the six-block enclave as a "self-governing, police-free micro-community." "This ground was conquered by a multi-racial junta of woke youths despite opposition from Mayor Durkan's horrifically violent police," Sawant claimed. "This small victory against the forces of racist capitalism must not be thrown away. Forging a new socialist utopia in our midst won't be easy. Mistakes will be made and atrocities committed. Still, we cannot allow white squeamishness...

The first night in the so-called Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone that has formed in the wake of police giving up the week-long blockade of the East Precinct was rainy and peaceful and full of speeches from activists, agitators, poets, and socialist city council members.“I guess whatever the fuck we’re doing is effective,” one organizer identified as Magik said over a megaphone early in the night as police were still clearing the area. “They are going to move up. They are going to get everybody out of here and we are free to move through these streets and protest and march.”“Yesterday...

A Seattle council member said she will bring impeachment articles against the city’s mayor over the conduct of the police. Kshama Sawant, a socialist, also demanded that the police budget be slashed in half and said Mayor Jenny Durkan is responsible for the “violence and brutality” in the city response to “overwhelmingly peaceful” protests. “Jenny Durkan must go. If not, I’ll bring forward articles of impeachment on behalf of our movement,” Ms. Sawant said Sunday. She said in another tweet that she will introduce two bills Monday that would “ban chemical weapons & ‘crowd control devices’ & ban chokeholds on...

Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant issued a statement Saturday calling on Mayor Jenny Durkan to resign, describing her as responsible for “violence and brutality” in the city’s response to “overwhelmingly peaceful” protests against institutional racism and police killings of Black people. A harsh Durkan critic long before the current demonstrations, Sawant also called on her council colleagues Saturday to remove the mayor, if necessary. Durkan didn’t immediately return a request for comment Saturday. In the past week, “Durkan has repeatedly unleashed Seattle police to use ever-escalating violence against ordinary people protesting the police murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and...

SEATTLE — Seattle Councilmember Kshama Sawant is facing charges over allegedly violating city law after using her official website to promote a ballot initiative that's part of the "Tax Amazon" campaign. Sawant broke two laws, according to charging documents filed by Wayne Barnett, Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission's executive director. That includes using city resources for a non-city purpose and using city resources to promote a ballot proposal. Three specific examples from Sawant's city council website are used to support the charges: - A link to a Facebook page promoting a January 25, 2020, "Tax Amazon Action Conference" in which...

In general, it sucks to get fired. Seldom do I celebrate someone getting their job torched—oftentimes liberal media outlets bring it upon themselves, but it’s still never a good thing, especially around the holidays. And it’s maddening to a certain extent when you know jobs will be lost because Democrats keep peddling trash economic policies. The minimum wage hike is the mecca of all things bad. These jobs aren’t meant to support families, but Democrats seem keen on peddling this policy that will lead to job losses, cut hours, and smaller paychecks. It’s already happened in New York. In Seattle,...

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.

Reaction to a proposed Seattle business tax for housing and homeless services jolted elected officials this week as flare-ups of opposition revealed deep frustration with the city’s handling of its homelessness crisis. If Seattle City Council members were surprised by the reaction — including a raucous town-hall meeting in Ballard and an unexpected protest by construction workers — the response of many residents and business owners seemed to be, what took you so long? “They’re hearing the whole story now,” said Erin Goodman, executive director of the Sodo Business Improvement Alliance, which is holding its own town hall on the...

Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant teamed up with some labor unions and her activist organization, 15 Now, to buy King County Metro Transit bus advertisements publicizing the city’s new minimum-wage law. She hoped the group’s nearly $10,000 payment would secure 32 ad spaces along the sides of buses for an entire month, starting Wednesday when the law went into effect. But Metro rejected the design, which included Sawant’s name and title, citing a ban on bus ads with political content. Sawant is currently running for re-election, and the transit agency’s ad policy prohibits “advertising that promotes or opposes a political...

Kshama Sawant, Seattle’s Socialist Alternative City Councilmember, was captured on video entering a February 21 fundraiser and birthday celebration for a local leader of the Democratic Party, King County Councilmember Larry Gossett. The video was posted online, but has subsequently been removed. Sawant and the organization to which she belongs have not yet sought to explain why a self-proclaimed socialist would spend an evening rubbing elbows and clinking glasses with the political elite in a major American city. Nor did Socialist Alternative announce beforehand that Sawant would be appearing at an event sponsored by the Democratic Party establishment. That’s because...

SEATAC, Wash. — Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant told a SeaTac municipal court judge Thursday that she will represent herself in an upcoming trial for disorderly conduct prompted by her arrest in November during a protest. On Nov. 19, Sawant and three others were arrested for not leaving a roadway during a protest against big airlines for not paying their workers a living wage. Of those arrested, Sawant, Socrates Bravo and John Helmiere appeared together before a judge for a pretrial hearing. A judge exonerated their bail amounts.

In light of record breaking ticket prices for this weekend’s NFC championship game between the Seattle Seahawks and the Green Bay Packers, Seattle City Councilmember and Socialist Alternative member Kshama Sawant is calling for the creation of the “13th Man Now” initiative. “$500 for a ticket is an injustice to all the working Seahawks fans out there,” Sawant said at a rally on Capitol Hill Tuesday. “The dream of seeing a game in the Clink as a member of the 12th class is a false hope, attainable only by heirs of season ticket-holders.” “Not all of us were born with...

**SNIP** The Seattle City Council member, a member of the Socialist Alternative movement, has been collaborating with ex-Stranger writer and blogger (Horsesass.org) David Goldstein, often in the past a defender and advocate for the Democratic Party. The Stranger has been a non-stop advocate for Sawant. It promoted her as a challenger to House Speaker Frank Chopp in 2012. It boosted her 2013 City Council race with a Madonna like cover photo, and Dominic Holden’s acid attacks on her opponent, Seattle City Council incumbent Richard Conlin. If it keeps to the schedule listed on Amazon, “The Most Dangerous Woman in America”...

Strange thing about Flood Wall Street, the financial-district protest that followed the People’s Climate March: Nobody had much to say about the climate — what they came to talk about was capitalism. “Stop Capitalism,” “End Capitalism,” “Capitalism Kills,” the placards read. Kshama Sawant, the socialist Seattle city-council member who funds her crusade against capitalism by being married to a man with Microsoft money, called for a “radical, militant” movement linking environmental concerns to such traditional socialist enterprises as heavy government intervention into targeted industries, including energy and transportation. Question: What happened to the environment the last time people with radically...

**SNIP** "If stimulating the economy were just as easy as taking from Jim and giving to Joe, don't you think communism would've worked out? Thanks progressive lefties, I'm sure this is making businesses feel secure about moving into Seattle. "Silliness," Shapiro concluded. Boze wondered why Seattle didn't just force the $15 wage immediately, if 70 percent of voters like it. In fact, Thursday's committee compromise is a disaster for the $15 Now group, which is pushing a ballot initiative for November that would enact the $15 wage on Jan. 1, 2015. "They're not interested in income equality," Boze said. "They're...

**SNIP** Sawant said the 15 Now campaign continues to unite low-wage workers and raise awareness for the UW’s unequal wages. In a recent New York Times article, “Student Debt Grows Faster at Universities with Highest Paid Leaders,” the UW was cited as one of the “most unequal” of public universities. The report defines “unequal” as universities that not only have high executive pay, but also high levels of student debt, as well as low-wage and contingent faculty labor. “It’s important for workers to be in solidarity. UW gets state funding, but it’s run like a corporation,” Sawant said. “It’s shameful...

SEATTLE — Seattle Mayor Ed Murray has scheduled a news conference for Thursday to announce a plan to raise the city’s minimum wage to $15 an hour. **SNIP** Committee members representing business and labor could not agree on issues like crediting tips and benefits against the $15 minimum. And council member Kshama Sawant revealed another hurdle -- she said there has been little talk of automatically increasing the minimum wage with inflation. “If going forward the new minimum wage does not have a cost of living increase attached to it every year of the phase in it's not going to...