Free Republic

Farm equipment maker John Deere says it will no longer sponsor “social or cultural awareness” events, becoming the latest major U.S. company to distance itself from diversity and inclusion measures after being targeted by conservative backlash... John Deere also said it would audit all training materials “to ensure the absence of socially-motivated messages” in compliance with federal and local laws. It did not specify what those messages would include... John Deere added “the existence of diversity quotas and pronoun identification have never been and are not company policy.” But it noted that it would still continue to “track and advance”...

A larger Mag 6.4 earthquake tripped offshore of Seattle WA last night. It is the latest in a small swarm of Mag 4, Mag 5, and now Mag 6 earthquakes that began two days in the Cascadia Fault Zone that runs from British Columbia south to Northern California. The Cascadia Fault is regularly hit with Mag 8 (average interval 350 years) and occainsional Mag 9 (interval about 580 years) earthquakes. The last very large killed thousands of native Indians up and down the Washington and Oregon coastline in January 1700, and hundreds more in Japan from its tsunami waves.

A Washington state man found guilty of murder for his role in the 2022 death of a police officer who was mistakenly shot by a sheriff’s deputy was sentenced Friday to 29 years in prison. A Clark County Superior Court judge sentenced Julio Segura of Yakima in the death of Vancouver police officer Donald Sahota, The Columbian reported. More than a dozen people gave statements about Sahota in court before the sentencing. A Clark County jury last month convicted Segura, 23, of first-degree murder, second-degree murder, robbery, possession of a stolen vehicle and eluding police. He was acquitted of attempted...

Many Seattle-area rideshare drivers plan to shut down their services Wednesday because they say safety demands aren’t being met. This comes after investigators say a driver was assaulted in a case where’s he’s been charged with kidnapping and raping a woman. The Seattle Rideshare Drivers Association is demanding a "fair and just trial." On top of shutting down operations, the drivers will protest starting at a Tukwila mosque and end at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The SRDA is a group that advocates for gig workers in the area. Thurston County investigators claim driver Ahmed Hassan Ali, 58, marked a woman’s ride...

Four protesters who were jailed for writing anti-police graffiti in chalk on a temporary barricade near a Seattle police precinct have been awarded nearly $700,000 after a federal court jury decided their civil rights were violated. The Jan. 1, 2021, arrests of the four followed the intense Black Lives Matter protests that rocked Seattle and numerous other cities throughout the world the previous summer in the wake of the death of George Floyd, a Black man. He was killed when a white Minneapolis police officer pressed his knee on Floyd’s neck for about 9 1/2 minutes while Floyd was handcuffed...

Seattle has become the latest Dem-run city trying to replace an exodus of police officers with illegal migrants. Washington's largest city has just 913 cops to serve its 750,000 people after losing 725 officers in the last five years. Now its police department has tweaked the rules to allow applications from migrants who crossed the border illegally as children and are registered on the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), or 'Dreamers', program. And under a law change signed by Democrat Governor Jay Inslee in February they can be chosen above an equally qualified candidate if they speak more than...

Colorado Governor Gary Polis signed Senate Bill 24-068 on June 5 to expand their state assisted suicide law. Nearly every state that has legalized assisted suicide has expanded their law. Senate Bill 24-068 expanded the Colorado assisted suicide law by: allowing advanced practice registered nurses to approve and prescribe lethal poison, reducing the waiting period from 15 days to 7 days, allowing the doctor or advanced practice registered nurse to waive the waiting period if the person is near to death, Adding language specifying that if any end-of-life options conflict with requirements to receive federal money, the conflicting part is...

Before we get into this abysmal segment, let’s not forget that this network is doing its job: keeping liberal blood pressures low by feeding the sheep grade-A liberal propaganda. It’s not a shock that MSNBC host Joy Reid and Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) would label the rape of a minor by an illegal alien as “fearmongering.” I’m not sure it is, given that it’s true. An illegal alien was busted for raping a 13-year-old in Queens, New York, this week (via ABC 7 NY): A 25-year-old Ecuadorian has been arrested in connection with the "horrific" rape of a 13-year-old girl...

Prosecutors in Thurston County filed charges Tuesday against an Uber driver who is accused of driving an intoxicated female passenger to a secluded area and raping her over the weekend. Ahmed Hassan Ali, 58, of Seattle, faces one count of rape in the second degree and one count of kidnapping in the first degree with sexual motivation aggravating circumstance. According to the arrest report, Ali was driving for Uber Saturday morning when he gave a ride to an intoxicated woman who was at a bar in Olympia. Investigators allege Ali marked the woman’s ride as complete in the Uber app...

Pre-recorded emergency announcement was automatically played on the Boeing 777 flight... Chaos ensued on a recent United Airlines flight following an automated emergency announcement that instructed passengers to put on their oxygen masks, which inadvertently deployed in spite of no danger present. The unusual incident occurred on a Boeing 777-200 from Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris to Dulles International Airport in Washington, D.C., last Wednesday. While passengers were instructed to wear the oxygen masks, only a few were actually deployed. ... One person had a panic attack and ran to the aircraft door, presumably to open it," Pitman shared....

Washington state’s Department of Health has launched the “Teen Health Hub” to help teens find resources for “gender-affirming care,” abortion, and sex-related health content. The hub’s website provides resources for minors to learn about health-related services they can obtain without a parent's or guardian's consent and helps the children navigate the process. According to Conservative Ladies of Washington, the hub guides minors through getting Apple Care insurance and finding a provider. The site even provides resources for free transportation. Services linked through the hub include providers such as AMAZE, Planned Parenthood, and The Trevor Project. The Washington State Department of...

(WASHINGTON) — Sen. Richard Blumenthal’s office on Tuesday said a current Boeing employee has come forward as a whistleblower, an announcement that comes hours before the airplane manufacturer’s chief executive is scheduled to testify on Capitol Hill. The senator’s office identified the employee as Sam Mohawk, a quality assurance inspector for Boeing in Renton, Washington. Mohawk alleges that Boeing is cutting corners by losing track of parts that have been labeled as non-conforming or not up to design standards, according to Blumenthal. Sometimes these parts get a second chance because they can be fixed or were mislabeled, but often they...

The Libertarian Party of Florida’s Executive Committee approved a motion over the weekend calling for the Libertarian National Committee to investigate allegations concerning the validity of votes cast for the presidential ticket during the party’s recent national convention. The resolution, first shared via X on Sunday, urges the LNC to investigate claims that the presidential and vice-presidential nominations at the party’s recent national convention may have been compromised by ineligible votes. While the party states that it remains committed to supporting its 2024 presidential ticket and will place it on the ballot, the resolution highlights concerns about potential legal and...

As Democrats make their case to voters around the country this fall, one challenge is that some of the bluest parts of the country — cities on the West Coast — are a mess. Centrist voters can reasonably ask: Why put liberals in charge nationally when the places where they have greatest control are plagued by homelessness, crime and dysfunction? I’ll try to answer that question in a moment, but liberals like me do need to face the painful fact that something has gone badly wrong where we’re in charge, from San Diego to Seattle. ...the truth is that too...

The King County, Washington, Prosecuting Attorney's Office has charged a man with second-degree murder and assault, both felony counts, for allegedly shooting a teen he thought was holding a gun and who he believed was about to rob a sporting goods store. Aaron Brown Myers, 51, told police he believed the 17-year-old victim had a gun and was going to rob a Big 5 Sporting Goods store in the Seattle suburb of Renton last Wednesday as the teen headed toward the retailer with two others, according to court documents filed by the prosecutor, Leesa Manion. The boy was holding an...

SEATTLE (AP) — Retired Maj. Gen. William Anders, the former Apollo 8 astronaut who took the iconic “Earthrise” photo showing the planet as a shadowed blue marble from space in 1968, was killed Friday when the plane he was piloting alone plummeted into the waters off the San Juan Islands in Washington state. He was 90. His son, retired Air Force Lt. Col. Greg Anders, confirmed the death to The Associated Press. “The family is devastated,” Greg Anders said. “He was a great pilot and we will miss him terribly.” William Anders has said the photo was his most significant...

Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders' plane crashes northwest of Seattle. Search and rescue underway

Teachers’ grading practices have changed and students’ grades have drifted up in recent years, a pandemic-era legacy that is being met with mixed reaction from educators across the country. Dating back to 2020, when the pandemic upended American education overnight, many schools have adopted a more lenient approach to grading. Some eliminated zeros or removed penalties for late work. Many teachers report “giving grace” to struggling students. Others say they have felt pressure from administrators to limit failure rates. Higher grades have come even as students’ test scores and attendance rates have dropped. A study in Washington state found that...

District actively promoted non-religious groups, including a Pride Club and Green Team... A school district that just weeks ago had refused students permission to begin an interfaith prayer club – even though a wide range of other special interest organizations like a Pride club and a Green club were approved – abruptly has reversed itself. "We are very pleased that the Issaquah School District is allowing our clients to start a prayer club at their school this spring," explained Kayla Toney, associate counsel at First Liberty Institute,.. "Schools should always respect the religious beliefs of their students. This is a...

Tiffany Smiley, the former triage nurse and veterans’ advocate who ran unsuccessfully against Democratic senator Patty Murray (D., Wash.) in 2022, will announce today that she’s challenging Representative Dan Newhouse (R., Wash.) this cycle, National Review has exclusively learned, setting up a potentially bruising reelection fight for one of two remaining pro-impeachment House Republicans. A crowded jungle primary in 2022 helped Newhouse (R., Wash.) — one of ten House Republicans who voted to impeach former president Donald Trump three years ago — easily fend off his primary challengers. But his path to reelection may look a bit more complicated in...