Free Republic

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...

A Seattle woman who shot and killed a rideshare driver, then stole his car and drove to get her haircut, has pleaded guilty to murder. Ne'Iani Allen-Bailey, 20, faces between 15 and 23 years in prison when she is sentenced later this month for her plea to second-degree murder with a firearm enhancement, according to filings in King County Superior Court. In August 2023, Allen-Bailey killed Amare Geda, 52, as he was parked on 1st Avenue South in the SODO neighborhood. Geda was driving for a rideshare service and had a "Lyft" jacket on at the time he was killed....

Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain’s 1994 death has been declared a homicide by a Seattle Police captain who was ordered to probe the “botched” investigation in 2005.

A 21-year-old man with German-Iranian citizenship has been charged in Germany with allegedly targeting dozens of children and teenagers online over several years, encouraging them to harm themselves and, in some cases, to take their own lives. The charges relate to actions said to have taken place between 2021 and 2023. Prosecutors allege that the suspect, identified as Shehriar J. under German privacy regulations, contacted more than 30 minors, most of them between the ages of 11 and 15. Using the online alias “the White Tiger," he is accused of hiding his true identity while building relationships with the young...

A man who was jailed for trying to gouge a Seattle shop owner's eyes after brutally beating his girlfriend with a liquor bottle has been freed from jail just eight months after he carried out the horrific attacks. Jibri Kambui, 28, attacked Jennafah Dawn Singer outside her art and jewelry shop on June 15 last year during a pop-up event. He approached her after he was seen screaming at event attendees and trying to break into people's cars, KIRO reported. Singer turned away from him and tried to go inside to call 911, but Kambui quickly grabbed her from behind...

A new report claims that the death of Nirvana lead singer Kurt Cobain was not by suicide, rather he was a victim of homicide. But police in Seattle are standing by their original findings. According to a report in The Daily Mail, a private forensic team compiled by independent forensic specialist Brian Burnett said that Cobain’s death was a homicide. Burnett’s team looked at the evidence and came to that conclusion. But the Seattle Police Department disagrees, saying the suicide ruling is correct. “Our detective concluded that he died by suicide, and this continues to be the position held by...

Seattle has become so liberal (socialist) that a glitch in their armor is so different up here. Here's an article from the times that I thought was hilarious in it's reason and I applaud The Seattle Police Officers Guild: https://www.fox13seattle.com/news/seattle-mayor-police-guild-ice-directives You go cops! wy69

Americans remain bitterly divided over the chaos that’s engulfed Minneapolis as President Donald Trump seeks to deport illegal-immigrant criminals. Some see the protesters thwarting the enforcement of immigration law as “protecting friends and neighbors” — a form of righteous vigilantism.Others contend Trump’s efforts are legal and necessary — despite the tragic deaths of two civilians who unlawfully interfered with federal enforcement action.The tactics and behavior of Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers are under deserved scrutiny in the cases of Renee Good and Alex Pretti.But what about the anti-ICE provocateurs, agitators and instigators hell-bent on disrupting and impeding...

Seattle's soft-on-crime mayor is under the spotlight for her crime policies after two teenagers were shot dead outside a PreK-8 school in broad daylight. Residents slammed Mayor Katie Wilson for failing to address spiraling youth crime in the Washington city after she issued condolences to the families of the students. The two boys, who have not been named, were fatally gunned down at a bus stop beside South Shore PreK-8 school around 4pm on Friday in front of horrified children and teens.

Seattle’s communist Mayor Katie Wilson has announced plans to mobilize the city’s police force to gather intelligence on ICE agents conducting immigration enforcement operations and share that information with “community partners” on the streets. Wilson said she will also bar federal immigration officers from utilizing city-controlled property, “including parks, parking lots, plazas, vacant lots, garages, and Seattle Center – for civil immigration enforcement.” The mayor urged other local government entities, including the Seattle School District and Seattle Municipal Court, to adopt similar restrictions. “Whoever you are, and wherever you come from: if Seattle is your home, then this is your...

Steven Tyler's attorneys can claim partial victory in a new court ruling as arguments continue in a child sex-abuse lawsuit brought by the former Julia Holcomb. Los Angeles County Judge Patricia A. Young has dismissed claims of alleged abuse in Oregon, Washington and Massachusetts, citing laws governing the age of consent and the statute of limitations. Crucially, however, the California-based charges against Aerosmith's frontman can go forward. In terminating the other claims, Judge Young would apparently stop them from being refiled again. She promised a written decision soon. "I have clearly signaled how I intend" to rule, Young said from...