Free Republic

The federal verdict is in, but the local fallout from Spokane’s June 2025 protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement is still playing out, with another trial set for August 10. A jury panel convicted Justice Forral, Jac Archer and Bajun Mavalwallla II on Thursday of conspiracy to impede or injure federal agents, nearly a year after protests at an ICE facility led to dozens of arrests. The three defendants were among nine protesters indicted by the Trump administration a month after the protest last year. The other six people have already pleaded guilty in exchange for deals that could reduce...

A Washington sheriff shocked the internet with a scathing comment on George Floyd just a day after the sixth anniversary of his murder. Pierce County Sheriff Keith Swank jumped on social media and declared that Floyd, who was murdered by a cop in May 2020, would be doing drugs if he was still alive. A post shared on X on May 19 saw four images of Floyd in different professions created with artificial intelligence. The images saw Floyd as a doctor, a priest, in a suit and a construction workers uniform, with the caption: 'If George Floyd were still alive...

Brent crude dropped below US$97 a barrel after both sides said talks had made progress.Oil prices fell nearly 7 per cent on Monday (May 25) as optimism grew that the United States and Iran were moving closer to a peace deal that would reopen the Strait of Hormuz, even though Washington and Tehran played down hopes for an imminent breakthrough. Brent crude futures LCOc1 were down US$7.24, or almost 7 per cent, at US$96.30 a barrel at 2:29pm ET (Tuesday, 2:29am, Singapore time) and US West Texas Intermediate CLc1 futures were down US$6.30, or 6.5 per cent, at US$90.88. Trading...

Washington state has agreed to a permanent injunction allowing religious families who refuse to promote gender ideology to serve as foster parents. This comes after the state refused to renew a full foster care license for Shane and Jennifer DeGross, a couple who rejected using a child's "preferred pronouns," citing religious objections to socially "transitioning" children. Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), which is representing the DeGrosses, announced the settlement in a press release. "Washington's policy failed to respect religious diversity because it singled out applicants with traditional religious beliefs on the sanctity of the human body," said ADF Senior Counsel Johannes...

Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson When voters in Seattle handed the mayor’s office to self-proclaimed socialist Katie Wilson, local Democrat Rob Saka celebrated the “change.” He praised her energy and looked forward to a city that would “uplift working families” while fighting the resurgent Trump agenda. Less than five months later, Saka is singing a different tune. Speaking to the New York Times, the council member admitted he is “gravely concerned” about the accelerating business exodus. “This is real,” he conceded. Wilson’s infamous response to fleeing millionaires—”like, bye”—has aged about as well as her economic vision. The mayor laughed off warnings...

The Washington State Attorney General’s Office staff has billed more than 34,000 hours working on lawsuits filed against the Trump Administration since November 2024, according to records obtained by The Center Square. More than two thirds of those hours billed within a six-month period. The 34,000 hours represents a combined 1,416 days or 3.9 years of billable work. “That's a significant amount of time even for an agency with 800 lawyers,” Citizen Action Defense Fund Executive Director Jackson Maynard told The Center Square. “For comparison a lot of private law firms have billable requirements for lawyers in the range of...

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...

Government auditors in Democrat-dominated Washington State say that more than $1.3 billion in spending through the state’s childcare subsidy system cannot be verified. The audit, covering 2021 through 2024, revealed that the Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) failed to maintain the necessary records to track federal childcare funds at the provider level, leaving a slew of expenditures and other payments unaccounted for. Concerningly, the financial review found in 2024 that $416 million was unauditable, with $356 million in 2023, $268.5 million in 2022, and $293 million in 2021. The State Auditor’s Office (SAO) described the situation as “serious...

Washington state moved one step closer Monday to creating a personal income tax two years after the Legislature said it wouldn’t. Majority Democrats in the Senate advanced legislation on a 27-22 vote to tax households earning more than a million dollars. Passage of the bill followed a three-and-a-half hour debate on whether this will make for a fairer tax code or harm the economy and incite an exodus of Washington’s wealthy residents. House Speaker Laurie Jinkins, D-Tacoma, who watched the vote from the wings of the Senate, was all smiles as she returned to her chamber. “This is a place...

A Washington state mother captured on video the moment she confronted her 16-year-old son, who ditched class to join an anti-ICE protest, and his refusal to get into her vehicle, claiming that the protest was school-sanctioned. The video, which has gone viral on social media, shows the frustrated mom, Rachel, pulling up to the protest site and ordering her son to get in the car, only for him to refuse, insisting it’s his “right” because the school permitted it. In the footage, the mother can be heard saying, “You’re not skipping school for this ----. Get in the car.” Her...

I am good at this sort of thing.

I’ve covered Washington government for years. I understand rounding errors. I get that numbers shift, estimates change, projections don’t always pan out. That’s bureaucracy. That’s life. And then the Department of Commerce dropped a bombshell. Washington drivers are paying billions more at the pump. For what, exactly? The national average for gas is $2.82 a gallon. Idaho is $2.80. Oregon is $3.39. Washington? We’re at $3.82 statewide. In Seattle, it’s $4.12. We have the third-highest gas prices in the entire country. Washington families have paid billions more at the pump since the Climate Commitment Act (CCA) took effect. Before the...

The sprawling fraud scandal tied to taxpayer-funded childcare and welfare programs is no longer confined to Minnesota. New evidence suggests the same red flags are now flashing in Washington State, where hundreds of Somali-run childcare centers allegedly operate without even listing a physical address. The Gateway Pundit previously reported on independent journalist Nick Shirley and his explosive investigation into alleged large-scale fraud involving Somali-run daycare centers in Minnesota. Shirley shared clips from his reporting on X, including footage of a childcare facility that claimed to serve 102 children—yet appeared completely empty—before staff abruptly slammed the door in his face. Shirley...

A far-left anarchist website has published a seven-step tactical guide to “stop ICE” and “create no-go zones for federal forces.” The website, CrimethInc., is a shadowy, anonymous, anarchist collective born in the 1990s punk scene, which pushes an anti-capitalist, anti-cop, and anti-American agenda. The website glorifies “direct action,” riots, looting, shoplifting, and black bloc tactics. On Friday, CrimethInc. posted a guide on how to stop ICE apprehensions of illegal aliens. The anarchist group is encouraging the formation of “tight-knit resistance groups” to map ICE’s infrastructure, publicize its vulnerabilities, and impose “consequences” on communities cooperating with federal agents. They advocate setting...

The Washington State Office of the Attorney General has launched a taxpayer-funded hotline in three counties that would allow residents, including foreign nationals and illegal immigrants, to report U.S. citizens for engaging in legally protected speech and activity, in addition to hate crimes. The launch of the hate crimes and bias incidents hotline in King, Clark and Spokane counties occurred almost exactly a year after The Center Square reported that Oregon’s hate crime and bias incident hotline mostly tracks legal activities. Referring to both legal crimes and protected speech, the hotline’s website says “these incidents have a devastating and long-lasting...

Two nationals of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) made their initial appearances in federal court in Portland, Oregon, and Houston, Texas, yesterday to face charges issued out of the Northern District of California for acting as agents of the Government of the PRC without prior notification to the Attorney General. The defendants, Yuance Chen, 38, a PRC national and legal permanent resident who resides in Happy Valley, Oregon, and Liren “Ryan” Lai, 39, a PRC national who traveled from the PRC to Houston, Texas, on a tourist visa in April 2025, were arrested Friday on a criminal complaint charging...

A man attacked a woman with a knife and then fatally stabbed a man before another man shot and killed the knife-wielding suspect in self-defense Tuesday at a South Hill apartment complex, according to the Spokane Police Department. Officers were called about 5:15 p.m. to an altercation at the Hart Terrace apartment building, 3308 E. 11th Ave., police said in a news release. Lt. Jay Kernkamp told reporters Tuesday that officers found two people injured in the parking lot of the complex. Police and other emergency personnel tried to save them, but both died, according to the release. Detectives believe...

The University of Washington reported pro-Palestinian protesters caused more than $1 million in damage to the university’s Interdisciplinary Engineering Building during a violent demonstration Monday night. The self-described pro-Palestinian protesters barricaded themselves inside the nearly brand new Interdisciplinary Engineering Building on campus Monday evening. The building, which just opened with a "soft launch" to students in March, was funded in part with $50 million from the Washington state legislature. Yet, the University of Washington was reluctant to discuss any of it on Tuesday. The UW Police referred questions to University spokesperson Victor Balta, who told KOMO News no interviews would...

Representative Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) said Monday on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show” that she was training Americans to help take down a potential “dictatorship” of President Donald Trump. At her resistance lab training, Jayapal said, “It appears that the Trump administration is willing to ignore judicial decisions and so that brings us to you in this room. It brings us to the people that is really, the bulwark, the wall against the crumbling of democracy.” Maddow said, “Help me understand this idea of the resistance lab and what you’re talking about in practical terms at these events.” Jayapal said, “Yeah...

A federal appeals court has ruled that a church cannot sue Washington state over a law that requires most employers to have healthcare insurance plans that cover abortions. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 last Thursday against a lawsuit brought by Cedar Park Assembly of God of Kirkland against former Gov. Jay Inslee and Washington Insurance Commissioner Myron Kreidler over Washington's Reproductive Parity Act. Circuit Judge Susan Graber, a Clinton appointee, authored the majority opinion, writing that the church lacked the standing to sue because "Washington's conscientious objection statute exempts employers like Plaintiff...