Free Republic

Two high-profile Democrats on Sunday called for Rep. Eric Swalwell to exit Congress as controversy continues to grow after sexual assault allegations surfaced against the California candidate for governor. Eugene Vindman said Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union" that Swalwell should resign from Congress and drop out of California's gubernatorial race. "The accusations are absolutely heinous, and his admissions betraying his family are deplorable," Vindman said to host Dana Bash. "So Eric Swalwell needs to resign. He needs to drop out of the race… we should not tolerate this behavior, and Representative Swalwell needs to go." Vindman made the...

A Palo Alto father who has filed multiple lawsuits against major university systems over his son's college rejections says artificial intelligence has become the key to pursuing the cases after no law firm agreed to represent them. The legal fight stems from a 2023 ABC7 News story about Stanley Zhong, then an 18-year-old Gunn High School student with a 4.4 GPA and a near-perfect 1590 SAT score who was rejected by 16 out of the 18 colleges he applied to. Despite the rejections, he was later hired as a software engineer at Google. Two and a half years later, his...

A sickening discovery is under investigation after 20 dead “canines” — apparently skinned and with their front paws removed — washed ashore on a Washington State island in less than two weeks. The Skagit County Sheriff’s Office said deputies responded to the disturbing sight on March 26 when beachgoers discovered six carcasses on Guemes Island, about 85 miles north of Seattle, according to officials. --- Cole said she believes the carcasses may have been dumped from a boat with cinder blocks attached, noting that “the way that they all landed here on our beaches was such that they kind of...

Thirty-three people are now facing criminal trespass charges in connection with a pro-Palestine demonstration last year that caused an estimated $1 million in damage to a University of Washington engineering building. The 33 individuals arrested during the demonstration have been charged with criminal trespass, a gross misdemeanor. However, they are not facing felony charges tied to the property damage, as prosecutors say there is not enough evidence specifically linking any of them to that crime. Nearly a year after the demonstration, the defendants appeared before a judge to answer for their alleged actions, pleading not guilty to the charges. By...

The Thurston County Board of County Commissioners passed an ordinance requiring home sellers to conduct Home Energy Score assessments when listing a house for sale. The decision makes the county the first in the nation to mandate such a program, said Ashley Arai, Director of the county’s Community Planning and Economic Development Department. The board voted 4-0-1 to pass the ordinance on Tuesday, March 17, with Commissioner Wayne Fournier abstaining due to concerns about the county's legal authority to implement the program. A Home Energy Score is a U.S. Department of Energy standardized rating system that evaluates a home's energy...

Washington state Democrats are magicians! In the time it takes to say abracadabra, they made millions upon millions of dollars disappear just like that!As if it weren’t bad enough that Seattle is under the reign of a communist mayor, statewide radical Democrats passed a bill masquerading as a “millionaire tax,” ushering in the state’s first-ever income tax.As I reported in a recent West Coast, Messed Coast™ report, this "millionaire tax" was always going to change — POOF! — into a thousandaire income tax, and the Washington Policy Center has the email receipts. But now, as night follows day, as thunder...

Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz is ditching his longtime residence in Seattle for Florida, just as Washington Democrats are nearing the finish line on a proposed "millionaires tax." Schultz, who served as board director of the coffee chain until 2023, said in a statement on social media that he and his wife are moving to Miami as part of the "retirement phase" of their lives. Schultz, who has lived in Seattle for more than four decades, purchased a $44 million penthouse in Surfside, Fla., according to reports, and will relocate his private family office to Miami. Schultz, who owns roughly...

Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez, a self-styled "working class" Washington Democrat, claims she worked in an "iPhone case factory" in college to pay her tuition after her father cut her off because she wouldn’t go to church. But the shop was actually a boutique artisanal workshop that made wooden, hand-crafted cases, according to her former roommate. Gluesenkamp Perez has repeatedly said she juggled the "factory" gig alongside her jobs as a nanny and a barista while attending Reed College, an elite and expensive private school in Portland, Ore. But no major phone case manufacturers operated in the area at the time—as...

CDC Update: Tularemia Outbreak in Prairie Dogs in Texas Tuesday, August 06, 2002 4:15 PM Eastern US http://www.videonewswire.com/CDC/080602/event.html?id=7237

A Washington state special needs student who graduated with a padded 3.78 GPA is suing her school district, claiming her diploma was a “participation trophy” that propelled her into financial strain. Makena Simonsen claimed she graduated from the Edmonds School District in Lynwood reading at first-grade level — and was handed a high school diploma that blocked her from entering a free vocational program that helps special needs grads transition to independent life, King 5 reported. “I should have earned that diploma,” the 22-year-old former student charged. “Not just something that really got me nowhere.” Makena Simonsen claimed she graduated...

A 68-year-old man has been charged with second-degree murder after authorities say he deliberately drove his car into a woman in a Bellevue YMCA parking lot, killing her, and then struck two more pedestrians in Tacoma later the same day. Mark A. Adams, 68, is charged in King County Superior Court with second-degree murder and hit-and-run resulting in death in connection with the Feb. 28 killing of Shinko Oshino, 88, according to a certification of probable cause. Prosecutors allege Adams used his vehicle “as a weapon” and are seeking $5 million bail, citing what they described in court documents as...

(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....

Democratic Rep. Marie Gluesenkamp Perez—whose Washington swing district makes her one of the most endangered members of Congress—has repeatedly claimed she was forced to work three jobs after her father cut her off financially because she stopped going to church. She says she struggled to pay her tuition at Reed College, a prestigious private institution in Portland, Ore., and resorted to unorthodox living arrangements to avoid paying rent. But documents reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon cast doubt on Gluesenkamp Perez's tale of woe. Her father, Jose Perez, whom she describes as a volunteer evangelical pastor in Houston, loaned Gluesenkamp...

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 father who posted a video of himself pulling his son out of a "walkout" protesting operations by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) tore into the Highline School Board in Washington state on Wednesday. Hundreds of students in the Seattle-area school district took part in the Feb. 2 walkout, some of whose parents backed the protest, according to the Seattle Times. Vance Glawe, who drove to the protest to pull his son, a seventh-grade student at Cascade Middle School, out of the event, confronted members of the school board with fiery remarks during his two-minute address. "My name...

A female high school wrestler is accusing a transgender opponent of trying to push his fingers into her vagina during an official wrestling match in Washington State. Kallie Keeler, 16, a sophomore wrestler at Rogers High School in Puyallup, Washington, claims that the assault occurred during a December 6 girls wrestling match against Emerald Ridge High School. The teen says that when she was on the mat, face down, and her opponent — who is a male who identifies as female — was on top of her. Keeler says her opponent put his hand between her legs and then began...

House Democrats proposed a sugar tax on Thursday that would impose another 3-cent charge per fluid ounce of applicable beverages, amounting to a 72-cent tax on a 24-ounce coffee. The sugar tax would be in addition to other state and local taxes, including Seattle's sugar tax, which amounts to a 1.75-cent-per-ounce tax on distributors of "sweetened beverages." The money would go toward expanding food assistance programs, despite studies showing that it could decrease sales. Rep. Chipalo Street, D-Seattle, and Rep. Alex Ramel, D-Bellingham, recognized this potential outcome when filing House Bill 2734, citing Seattle and other cities with sugar taxes...

SANTA CLARA, Calif. — When the Seattle Seahawks hired Mike Macdonald to be their head coach two years ago, it came at a time when most teams were looking for the next young offensive genius to lead their team. But Macdonald had a reputation. The “defensive Sean McVay” was mentioned a few times about Macdonald, who was the Baltimore Ravens’ defensive coordinator before he was hired by Seattle. In Super Bowl LX, Macdonald proved the Seahawks right. Betting on coaches who know how to slow down the NFL’s best offenses can also be a championship formula. The Seahawks won the...

A former Bothell City Council member, James McNeal, has been sentenced to 125 months in prison for the death of Liliya Guyvoronsky. Court records indicate that McNeal initially called his attorney to report the crime in April 2024. He was found at the scene covered in blood with self-inflicted wounds, and Guyvoronsky was found suffocated in a bedroom. Friends shared that McNeal and Guyvoronsky met at a strip club where she worked and had been dating on and off. Though McNeal was initially charged with murder, he pleaded guilty to the less serious charges of manslaughter and assault in January....