Free Republic

In October, the Seattle City Council floated legislation to provide an exemption from prosecution for misdemeanor crimes for any citizen who suffers from poverty, homelessness, addiction, or mental illness. Under the proposed ordinance, courts would have to dismiss all so-called “crimes of poverty”—which, according to the city’s former public-safety advisor, would cover more than 90 percent of all misdemeanor cases citywide. In effect, the legislation would create a new class of “untouchables,” protected from consequences by the city’s powerbrokers. This is the latest and most brazen effort in the city’s campaign to establish what might be called a “reverse hierarchy...

Federal authorities in Seattle on Monday charged two women with a terrorist attack on train tracks, suggesting they were working with an anarchist community to stand in solidarity with a Native American tribe to oppose the construction of a natural gas pipeline across the Canadian province of British Columbia by trying to derail trains in Washington state.Samantha Frances Brooks, 27, and Ellen Brennan Reiche, 23, were arrested Saturday night in Bellingham, located in Whatcom County, which borders Canada, as they allegedly placed “shunts” on Burlington Northern Santa Fe tracks, according to a complaint filed by the U.S. Attorney’s Office in...

Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan plans to sign a new city budget that will reduce the police budget by 18% despite homicides reaching record highs not seen in a decade. Council members overwhelmingly voted last week to cut funds for police training and overtime and to eliminate dozens of vacant positions within the Seattle Police Department after months of contentious talks. The reductions fall short of the 50% that local activists demanded amid nationwide protests against police brutality and racial injustice. The council also decided to transfer parking enforcement officers, mental health workers and 911 dispatchers out of the police department....

The Washington state auditor has accused the head of the state’s unemployment agency of allegedly hindering an investigation into massive fraud resulting in the theft of $576 million in taxpayer dollars. State Auditor Pat McCarthy says Employment Security Department Commissioner Suzi LeVine imposed significant constraints on auditors conducting the investigation, including limiting interviews with key employees and delaying access to important documents.

VANCOUVER, WA (KPTV) - Police are investigating a shooting in the parking lot of a Lowe’s store in Vancouver. A 911 caller told dispatchers he shot someone outside the store at 18801 S.E. Mill Plain Blvd. on Friday evening. Investigators said a 49-year-old man was in the parking lot getting ready to leave when he saw another man running out of the store’s east emergency door carrying merchandise and heading toward a waiting vehicle with a women in the driver’s seat. The witness drove closer to the other vehicle in an attempt to get the license plate information, according to...

SNOHOMISH COUNTY, Wash. — A group of people is walking up to families’ front doors in Snohomish County, saying they are the rightful owners of waterfront homes. The group has taken over homes in different parts of the country, claiming legal ownership of the land beneath it. In one case, they told a homeowner she was being evicted. Edmonds detectives say the group knocked on doors in the most upscale neighborhoods in Woodway and Edmonds, identifying themselves as Moorish Sovereign Citizens. They carry official-looking documents, say they own the property and announce they’re moving in. “They have basically come to...

King County Council members are calling out Seattle city leaders for not adequately protecting the downtown county courthouse as the council has found itself in the same predicament as many local businesses who are still reeling from recent protests, vandalism and street crime. “It’s gotten way worse again, unfortunately,” said presiding King County Superior Court Judge Jim Rogers, referring to the number of assaults and crime that have been reported near the courthouse, located at 516 3rd Ave. The Council approved $600,000 in 2019 so the King County Sheriff’s Department could provide added security along the courthouse’s perimeter. But when...

American cities are entering a period of chaos. Protests and riots have dominated headlines, but beneath the surface, activists are launching an unprecedented campaign to overthrow the traditional justice system and replace it with a new model based on a radical conception of social justice. In Seattle, where this campaign may be most advanced, activists have crafted a narrative about police brutality, mass incarceration, and punitive justice that leads to a natural sequence of solutions: “abolish the police,” “divest from prisons,” and “defund the courts.” Over the past three decades, the city’s radical-progressives have seized control of municipal government—with the...

Has COVID-19 cured the flu? Not exactly. In any given year, influenza claims approximately 250 lives in the state of Washington. 2020 is different, of course, because COVID-19 is here. In fact, this year’s flu season, which started in the beginning of October, has yielded zero flu deaths and zero lab-confirmed cases. Zero lab-confirmed influenza deaths have been reported for the 2020-2021 season to date. One WA influenza specimens reported to CDC, public health laboratories and commercial laboratories. Zero influenza-like illness outbreaks in long term care facilities have been reported for the 2020-2021 season to date. Does that mean the...

Do you ever want to order some food, but when you go to Uber Eats, DoorDash, or Postmates, you’re put off by the cost once fees are added? Well, Gov. Jay Inslee is here to help — both you and restaurants struggling during the pandemic. Inslee is placing a cap on fees charged by third-party delivery platforms, such as Uber Eats, DoorDash, GrubHub, Postmates and others. Taking effect at 12:01 a.m. Nov. 25, the cap on delivery fees will be set at 15% and total fees at 18% of the purchase price of an order. Since the rise of COVID-19,...

Several races where Democrats led on election night have since flipped to the GOP, leaving the overall balance of power in Olympia unchanged. Democrats were optimistic that they would pick up at least a seat or two in Washington's Legislature, based on early results on election night. Then, as sometimes happens in Washington’s vote-by-mail elections, things changed. Late ballots skewed Republican to an unusual degree, zeroing out the gains Democrats initially thought they might have made. While some state legislative seats changed from Republican to Democratic hands and vice versa, the final result is that Democrats will now have...

Oregon officials will make nearly $600,000 in federal funding available to local strippers and sex workers of color who have lost income because of the coronavirus pandemic, the Oregonian reported. The grant will provide up to $1,600 for rent, $500 for utilities and $150 for Internet services to 75 people. An additional 200 applicants will receive a mail-in coronavirus test and a test for sexually transmitted infections, as well as health products including face masks, hand sanitizer and pulse oximeters. Haymarket Pole Collective, a Portland-based organization that advocates for Black and Indigenous adult-entertainment workers, will administer the grant to people...

After months of searching, in October scientists located and destroyed the first nest of giant 'murder hornets' ever discovered in the US, eradicating a hidden enclave of the invasive insects concealed in a tree in Washington State, close to the Canadian border. While the discovery and elimination of the nest is considered a victory by state and federal authorities – who are striving to prevent the Asian giant hornet from establishing a foothold in North America – a post-mortem of the hornets' former home provides a sobering perspective on the scale of the bug threat we're up against. After tracking...

Wolves from game camera in Wisconsin, courtesy Dean Weingarten On 7 October 2020, a Coleville, Washington man was checking game cameras in the area near Rocky Creek Road. The sun had set seven minutes earlier, but the sky was clear. The fading glow from the sun, in a clear sky, illuminated the woods. There was no wind. As he approached a game camera in an area outside of cell phone coverage, he felt as if eyes were upon him. Looking ahead, he saw wolves 30 yards away. The pack showed members 30 yards ahead of him, to the sides, and...

I want to recall an experience of the Governor's race in Washington State that took place in 2004. And from that experience we should draw lessons and then bring those lessons learned forward to today where we see the Democrat's Achilles Heel that the President has already taken action on. I explain below and I'll keep it short. The 2004 gubernatorial race in Washington State pitted wildly popular Republican Dino Rossi against Democrat Christine Gregoire. Rossi's popularity was the only means to defeat the Democrat King County election fraud machine. Rossi won the first count and there were no more...

Former Washington gubernatorial candidate Dino Rossi won his election. He was certified the winner of the 2004 election. Twice. But the closest gubernatorial election in United States history was flipped through shenanigans during the recount. “On nine different occasions, King County found more ballots,” Rossi told show host Chris Widener. King County has one-third of the state’s voters and left-wing Seattle is one-third of King County. This is all relevant as we’re in the middle of a similar situation at the national level. Several instances of voter fraud have been reported in swing states across the country. As Rossi, who...

21-year-old man killed at an apartment near Tacoma last week was shot because he was “mean mugging” a family member’s acquaintance, according to court documents. On Monday, 27-year-old Xavier Black entered a not guilty plea after being charged with two counts of second-degree murder and one count of first-degree unlawful possession of a firearm in connection with Thursday’s death of Lino Shepard. Black was ordered jailed in lieu of $1 million. A man dating the victim’s sister called 911 about 11:30 a.m. Thursday to report the shooting, which occurred at his apartment in the 2400 block of 100th Street Court...

During CNN’s election coverage, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) said 2020 Democratic presidential nominee former Vice President Joe Biden will “re-energize the kind of personal, moral commitment of Americans” on coronavirus “that we need right now to get people to start wearing masks at home, reconsider their dinner plans at Thanksgiving, save ourselves.” Inslee said, “Look, we have been desperate for national leadership on this. This was like fighting World War II with a president who said, just let Connecticut fight the war and good luck

Tired of Democratic dominance in Oregon, some rural voters on Tuesday endorsed a plan to split off from the liberal state and join their conservative-friendly neighbor Idaho. Two conservative counties approved a non-binding ballot measure to "Move Oregon's Borders" as Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden easily carried the rest of the state, AFP reports. The measure failed in two other counties. "In the United States, the differences between liberal and conservative... there's hatred there," said Mike McCarter, the chief petitioner of the ballot measure in Union and Jefferson counties. "Populated urban areas are controlling the mass of everybody," he told...

A coalition of activists around the country has shifted gears after polls closed on Election Day to take to the streets to ensure every vote is counted in the presidential election that’s included a record number of mail-in ballots amid the coronavirus pandemic. The goal so far is to show a massive presence in the streets should President Trump fail to concede or challenge the election results in the event of a victory for Democratic candidate Joe Biden. Various groups led by Black Lives Matter and Shutdown DC have conducted training sessions for months leading up to this moment, and...