Free Republic

A former officer with the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency was arrested over the weekend for allegedly trying to spy on the United States for China, the Justice Department said on Monday. The Federal Bureau of Investigation took Ron Rockwell Hansen, 58, into custody on Saturday while he was on his way to the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to get a connecting flight to China. The department said he has been accused of trying to transmit national defense information to China and with receiving "hundreds of thousands of dollars" while acting illegally as an agent for the Chinese government.

SEATTLE - A longtime activist for illegal immigrants in the Northwest says she herself is now facing deportation. Maru Mora-Villalpando, a native of Mexico City who has been in the U.S. for more than 25 years, said Tuesday that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has given her a notice to appear before an immigration judge. She says she believes ICE is targeting her because of her activism. She leads an organization called Northwest Detention Center Resistance, which was created in 2014 when detainees at the privately run immigration detention facility in Tacoma began a series of hunger strikes to protest...

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- An initial review of the data recorders and cameras on board the Amtrak train that derailed in DuPont on Monday suggests the train was going 78 mph in the moments before impact -- nearly 50 miles over the speed limit at that location -- and that the crew realized the speed was too high moments before, the NTSB announced Friday. Among the preliminary review, investigators concluded that the crew was not observed to be using any electronic devices before the crash, and that six seconds before impact, the engineer made a comment about going too fast. Investigators...

On Monday morning, an Amtrak train derailed while crossing an overpass in Dupont, Washington. Law enforcement say at least six people are dead and 78 others were injured. Independent journalist Mike Cernovich tweeted an archived link to a now deleted article from “prominent,” far-left website It’s Going Down, on an ANTIFA group bragging about pouring concrete on train tracks in Olympia, WA.

An Amtrak train derailed this morning off a bridge over I5 near Dupont, Washington. Details pending...

(KOMO) — PIERCE COUNTY, Wash. - All southbound lanes of Interstate 5 are closed south of Joint Base Lewis-McChord after an Amtrak train derailed and fell off an overpass onto the freeway. Some injuries have been reported. View image on Twitter View image on Twitter Chris Karnes 🌹 @TacomaTransit The train has derailed. Emergency crews are on the scene. Massive damage. People are hurt. 10:01 AM - Dec 18, 2017 24 24 Replies 119 119 Retweets 30 30 likes Twitter Ads info and privacy Motorists are being warned to avoid the area. "I was just shocked," said Peter Zimmerman of...

Tacoma Washington is likely to do away with its ban on electric weapons. The Supreme Court decision in Caetano PER CURIAM decision (pdf) is the reason why.  From Caetano: The Court has held that “the Second Amendment extends, prima facie, to all instruments that constitute bearable arms, even those that were not in existence at the time of the founding,” District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U. S. 570, 582 (2008), and that this “Second Amendment right is fully applicable to the States,” McDonald v.Chicago, 561 U. S. 742, 750 (2010). Caetano was directly about electronic weapons.  Lawsuits against...

Hundreds of detainees at an immigration holding center in Washington state began refusing meals in a hunger strike to protest conditions at the facility and delayed immigration hearings, activists said on Tuesday. A group of about 100 detainees at the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington, refused their lunches on Monday, with 300 others joining the protest that night and the following morning, according to Maru Mora Villalpando, an activist in touch with the detainees.

The chief writing instructor at the University of Washington, Tacoma, is trying to dismantle the rules of grammar because he believes they are racist—and the college has given its endorsement to his campaign. Posters that appeared this week in the college’s writing center are part of a new effort to teach students that the conventional rules on how to structure sentences and form ideas in written language are perpetuating inequality and “white supremacy.” “Racism is the normal condition of things. Racism is pervasive. It is in the systems, structures, rules, languages, expectations and guidelines that make up our classes, school,...

An “antiracist” poster in a college writing center insists American grammar is “racist” and an “unjust language structure,” promising to prioritize rhetoric over “grammatical ‘correctness.'” The poster, written by the director, staff, and tutors of the University of Washington, Tacoma’s Writing Center, states “racism is the normal condition of things,” declaring that it permeates rules, systems, expectations, in courses, school and society. “Linguistic and writing research has shown clearly for many decades that there is no inherent ‘standard’ of English,” proclaims the writing center’s statement. “Language is constantly changing. These two facts make it very difficult to justify placing people...

responded to a DV. Shot multiple times. died in surgery. Suspect still barricaded in a house

 Tacoma Drug Disposal Box.  Officials are considering a version for guns. In Tacoma, Washington, officials are considering the idea of a gun drop box where people can turn in guns for destruction without any interaction with police.  The theory is that there are people in poor, crime ridden neighborhoods who want to get rid of a gun, but do not want interaction with police. The working theory  is that the box would be in a place without surveillance, and the guns dropped off would be checked out by police, then destroyed.  From mynorthwest.com: The city is investigating how to...

Emerald Queen Casino will cancel two Ted Nugent concerts that were scheduled August 2 and 3 over allegations of racist remarks by the singer. Puyallup Tribe officials said the decision came after learning that Nugent has said racist remarks. The tribal council said they also received threats from community members wanting the casino to cancel his shows. The cancellation comes days after the Coeur d'Alene Tribe cancelled Nugent’s August 4 shows at its Idaho casino because of what it called the rocker's "racist and hate-filled remarks."

The FBI was investigating Josh Powell for child pornography at least 17 months before he killed himself and his children, according to a published report based on FBI documents. The Salt Lake Tribune reported that the bureau was investigating Powell for possession of child pornography as well as for the death of his wife, Susan, who disappeared in 2009 and has never been found. Anne Bremner, an attorney for Susan Powell's parents, said the family was never told the FBI was investigating Josh Powell for child pornography.

There were naked photographs in the bathtub, sexual text messages and furtive kisses exchanged during a Lincoln High School assembly. Those are among the accusations leveled against Meredith Powell, a 24-year-old math teacher who pleaded not guilty Friday to two counts of third-degree child rape and one count of communication with a minor for immoral purposes for alleged inappropriate conduct with three students.

A man accused of shooting a woman and man with a blow dart in two separate attacks in Washington state has made his first court appearance on assault charges. KREM-TV reports 18-year-old Joseph Gillies of Tacoma appeared in court Thursday in Whitman County. […] Gillies told KREM he’s sorry for the dart attacks but offered no explanation other than saying, “I’m a moron.” …

A teen who landed in federal immigration detention following a minor drug arrest now faces several months in federal prison for fighting guards at the Tacoma facility. Brought to the United States by his parents at age 4 or 5, Jose Jesus Villa-Chairez was 17 when police in Texas caught him with three tabs of Xanax, an anti-anxiety drug. Convicted of a misdemeanor, Villa-Chairez had been locked up for more than a year on immigration-related charges when he fought with guards at the Northwest Detention Center. Federal prosecutors in Seattle contend Villa-Chairez deserves 1½ years in federal prison for scratching...

Detectives are trying to track down the men who robbed and murdered a Tacoma man last Saturday in a downtown parking garage. Witnesses told police they saw 54-year-old Lawrence Howse pull his black BMW into the gated parking garage at the Sky Terrace Condominiums just before 10 p.m. on Saturday night. The witnesses say two men followed the car into the garage. In what police believe was a random attack, Howse was robbed and shot dead inside the garage. Howse's friends say they're devastated by the murder. "To happen to somebody that you know and to happen to someone so...

Tacoma police said a fatal shooting in a Stadium District parking garage last weekend was a random robbery gone wrong and are asking anyone who might have seen two suspicious men in the area to call in tips. Lawrence Howse, 54, arrived home at the Sky Terrace Condominiums shortly after 10 p.m. Saturday. He entered his code to open the door to the private garage and pulled his black BMW inside. That’s when detectives believe two men slid under the door to gain access to the garage. It’s unclear whether Howse saw them. “He was confronted in the secure parking...

(Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp <7203.T> is recalling about 160,000 Tacoma mid-size pickup trucks from the model years 2001 to 2004 in cold-weather U.S. states and in Canada because the spare tire could fall off. The spare tire in these Tacoma models is stored beneath the trucks' bed. When the trucks were made, the metal plate that keeps the spare tire in place was not coated with sufficient amounts of phosphate to retard rust, Toyota said. Two accidents have been reported to Toyota involving vehicles following a Tacoma truck, but they did not result in injuries, a Toyota spokesman said....