Free Republic

Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson When voters in Seattle handed the mayor’s office to self-proclaimed socialist Katie Wilson, local Democrat Rob Saka celebrated the “change.” He praised her energy and looked forward to a city that would “uplift working families” while fighting the resurgent Trump agenda. Less than five months later, Saka is singing a different tune. Speaking to the New York Times, the council member admitted he is “gravely concerned” about the accelerating business exodus. “This is real,” he conceded. Wilson’s infamous response to fleeing millionaires—”like, bye”—has aged about as well as her economic vision. The mayor laughed off warnings...

Ifirst saw Seattle when I was a child. It was during the height of the hippie era, and I remember being struck by how clean Seattle was compared to San Francisco. My two or three subsequent trips to Seattle, all before 2012, didn’t change my mind. Now, though, Seattle has become a crazed left-wing bastion—but it turns out that even crazed left-wing bastions have their limits. In Seattle’s case, the problem is the massive number of migrants flooding the city. But don’t be fooled into thinking that these are the same third-world illegal aliens destroying cities across America. These aren’t...

A special education instructor placed on paid leave for allegedly abusing an autistic third-grader was elected president of the Seattle teachers’ union on Friday. Ibijoke Idowu-Holiday, a former Black Lives Matter organizer and special education teacher at Rising Star Elementary, won the election to lead the union representing 6,000 staffers in the Seattle Public Schools system. The educator rose to the top in spite of the disturbing accusations against her. Idowu-Holiday was accused of repeatedly abusing a disabled boy over the last school year by the student’s family, including one instance that was witnessed by his therapist. The child, who...

The union representing thousands of baristas at Starbucks has bailed on its attempt to bring employees at the Pike Place Market coffeehouse into its fold. ... The coffeehouse’s baristas filed for union election on April 3, according to Workers United. At the time, barista Nailah Diaz pointed to “unfair treatment and operational issues without the support needed to succeed.” Not every employee at the Pike Place store agreed. Barista Derika Muna, 27, told The Seattle Times on Tuesday that she unknowingly went to a union organizing meeting at the behest of a co-worker, believing it to be a casual meetup...

When her fellow travelers aren't smashing in Starbucks windows to stick it to the man, Mayor Katie Wilson is busy ridding the Emerald City of one of its most iconic Seattle brands. She's busy eating the rich and pontificating about forcing grocery stores to do her bidding. She's like Zohran Mamdani, New York City's mayor, but is less talented and much, much less likable. Seattle used to be a place where the arts were bigger than Antifa, food culture was bigger than fentanyl, and where hardworking citizens were prized above homeless addicts. With every utterance or move she makes, however,...

Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson laughed off what she termed "their futile effort to escape social justice. They think they will preserve their wealth and their income by relocating to states that respect private property and the so-called right to keep what they earn. At best, they will only temporarily spare themselves the retribution they so richly deserve." Wilson predicted "when Democrats sweep the November elections and achieve veto-proof majorities in Congress, the redistribution of wealth prescribed by Karl Marx in his "Communist Manifesto" of 1848 will go national. Everyone will be taxed based on the ability to pay. Everyone will...

Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson’s staff abruptly ended an interview with a local news reporter this week after he pressed her on rising gun violence and surveillance cameras in the city after a recent shooting. Chris Daniels of KOMO News asked Wilson about community concerns over increasing gun violence and whether additional surveillance measures might be reconsidered. The mayor was quickly cut off mid-response by a member of her staff. “I appreciate it, but let’s keep it on topic, OK?” the staffer told Daniels, stepping in as Wilson appeared poised to respond to a question about whether the shooting would change...

At the end of Ayn Rand's novel, Atlas Shrugged, the main characters are in an airplane, fleeing New York City, which is undergoing an economic collapse after the left took over and all of the producers fled. As they pass over the city, the lights go out; all of them, plunging the city into darkness. One of the protagonists, railroad mogul Dagny Taggart, sees this and says, "It's the end." The main character, inventor John Galt, corrects her: "No. It's the beginning." Seattle's new socialist mayor, Katie Wilson, seems determined to replicate the ending from Ayn Rand's novel. Her lunatic...

SEATTLE, WA - Thousands of demonstrators gathered in Seattle on Friday to mark May Day, continuing a 140-year tradition of advocating for American workers' rights.While the day is rooted in labor history, this year’s participants also focused on immigration reform and opposition to current federal policies including the US's involvement in multiple wars.Participants at the rally spoke on how modern workers' rights are inseparable from immigration issues and international concerns.Many demonstrators voiced specific opposition to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the current presidential administration’s handling of immigrant labor.

Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson laughed and seemed to encourage the notion that millionaires could leave the state of Washington while discussing her support for a progressive tax during an interview earlier this month. “I think the claims that millionaires are going to leave our state are, like, super overblown. And if — the ones that leave, like, bye,” she said, which prompted cheers and laughter from the audience at the Seattle University event, Seattle University Conversations, which took place on April 14. Wilson was asked if she believed progressive taxes were an “easy” and “promising” solution to the tax climate...

SEATTLE — City advocates say they are struggling to find solutions as homelessness and open-air drug use spread across Seattle’s streets, amid growing concerns about the direction of socialist Mayor Katie Wilson’s new administration.

Seattle is ramping up cleanup efforts as it prepares to welcome tens of thousands of visitors for the FIFA World Cup this summer, with a new report highlighting millions of pounds of waste removed, hundreds of thousands of sharps collected, and growing community participation across neighborhoods. The Seattle Clean City 2025 Community Impact Report, released April 14, outlines what the city calls a year of major milestones, stronger partnerships, and expanded, data-driven strategies aimed at keeping streets and public spaces cleaner and safer. In 2025, Seattle Clean City and its partners collected and removed 5.3 million pounds of waste from...

Wife and I will be in Seattle in June for an Alaskan cruise. We've got an AirBnB reserved in the 400 block of Vine Street. Any concerns with the location as we'll be flying in around 7:00 a.m. and will need to kill some time before we can get in around 3:00. Plan is to take an Uber from the airport to a Bounce luggage storage area a couple minutes from the AirBnB. What's good to eat around there for all three meals? Is the area we're staying in "safe," or would you avoid? An touristy things in walking distance?...

A monument honoring Indian spiritual leader Swami Vivekananda was unveiled Saturday at Westlake Park in downtown Seattle, marking a milestone event for the city and its growing Indian American community. The ceremony took place Saturday afternoon at the park along 1900 Westlake Ave., across from the Westin Seattle. The statue is a gift from the Government of India to the City of Seattle. Swami Vivekananda, who lived from 1863 to 1902, is widely recognized for introducing the philosophies of Vedanta and Yoga to Western audiences. His address at the 1893 Parliament of Religions in Chicago, where he spoke on universal...

The initial wave of a massive bloodbath at Oracle has begun to show up in public filings — with 700 workers expected to lose their jobs by June 1, according to California state records. The software giant headed by billionaire Larry Ellison will cut 310 workers in Redwood City, 184 in Santa Clara, 158 in Pleasanton and 50 in Santa Monica. The statewide tally of roughly 700 job cuts, in addition to 491 firings in Seattle, is part of the software maker’s recently announced bloodbath that is reportedly in the thousands of jobs. Analysts at investment bank TD Cowen predicted...

An Iraqi Kurd who federal authorities say tried to help a senior al-Qaida operative gain entry to the United States was ordered deported today. Immigration Judge Kenneth Josephson found that Sam Malkandi, of Kirkland, lied on his 1998 asylum application when he said he had been imprisoned in Iran for possessing forbidden political materials. Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigators say that in 2003, Malkandi tried to help Tawfiq bin Attash obtain a U.S. visa. The one-legged bin Attash, a former bodyguard of Osama bin Laden, also known as Khallad, is suspected of helping plan the attack on the USS Cole...

All those empty office buildings in downtown Seattle are dragging down property values, according to newly-released King County Assessor data. According to the King County Assessor’s Office, the city’s most valuable skyscrapers have lost $3.7 billion in value since 2022. Approximately a third of downtown commercial space remains vacant. Among the biggest decreases in value are the Amazon Doppler Tower and Meeting Center (62% drop), Amazon’s Day One Tower and Spheres (59% drop), the DocuSign Tower on 999 Third Street (56% drop), Amazon’s Re-Invent Towers (55% drop), and the US Bank Centre (53% drop). The three Amazon office buildings listed...

President Donald Trump, who is in the midst of pressuring senators to curb the use of mail-in voting, voted by mail ballot in Tuesday’s special election in Palm Beach County, Fla. The Palm Beach County Supervisor of Elections website indicates that Trump, who is registered to vote at his Mar-a-Lago estate on Palm Beach, “voted by Mail Ballot” in a special election between Democrat Emily Gregory and Republican Jon Maples for a seat in the state legislature. A spokesperson for the office confirmed to The Washington Post that the “information [on the site] is accurate.” Trump’s decision to vote by...

Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes has made it official. If you wear the badge in this city and you don’t surveil federal immigration agents on the job, you could be fired. Barnes told the Seattle City Council’s Select Committee on Federal Administration and Policy last Thursday that officers who fail to comply with the city’s new ICE documentation mandate will face discipline. “This would be a violation of our policy, a violation of the law,” Barnes said. “They could be placed on administrative leave per the [Seattle Police Officers Guild] collective bargaining agreement.” It’s hard to believe, but the far-left...

(The Center Square) – Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes says that any police officer who violates the city’s new policy requiring documentation of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions, including video recording, will be subject to disciplinary proceedings.“This would be a violation of our policy, a violation of the law,” Barnes told the Seattle City Council’s Select Committee on Federal Administration and Policy on Thursday. “They could be placed on administrative leave per the [Seattle Police Officers Guild] collective bargaining agreement.”Barnes said what would happen to the officer ultimately would be based on a recommendation by the city Office of...