Free Republic

A group of Democratic members of Congress are calling on the Internal Revenue Service to investigate the national Christian conservative advocacy organization Family Research Council's official status as an "association of churches." Reps. Jared Huffman of California and Suzan DelBene of Washington sent the letter on Tuesday, with 11 other lawmakers joining. The correspondence is addressed to U.S. Treasury Department Secretary Janet Yellen and IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel. The Democrats conveyed "continued concerns about the tax-exempt status of certain organizations" such as the FRC, claiming that said groups "are self-identifying as 'churches' or 'associations of churches' to receive more favorable...

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.

Washington, Arizona, Colorado, California, and Oregon would see the biggest number of stores flipped to C&S.. Kroger and Albertsons have released a list of hundreds of stores that would be divested to C&S Wholesale Grocers if federal regulators approve its proposed $24.6 billion merger deal, and the states with the largest numbers include Washington, Arizona, and Colorado. Under the proposal, Kroger and Albertsons would divest stores in Washington (124), Arizona (101), Colorado (91), California (63), Oregon (62), Illinois (35), Texas (28), Nevada (16), and Alaska (18). Several states would see 10 or fewer stores divested, including: Idaho (10), New Mexico...

Extensive delays to the mid-life refueling and complex overhauls of two nuclear-powered aircraft carriers were due to damage to the steam turbines that power the ship, USNI News has learned. According to Naval Sea Systems Command, “significant damage” to the generators aboard both USS George Washington (CVN-73) and USS John C. Stennis (CVN-74) added unplanned work that was discovered after both carriers arrived at HII’s Newport News Shipbuilding for maintenance. Every mid-life refueling and overhaul, “work package has planned inspections and routine refurbishment of the eight [turbine generators]; however, inspections for both George Washington and John C. Stennis revealed one...

The state of Washington has effectively abolished its long-standing residency requirement for voter registration. The decision, led by Washington Secretary of State Steve Hobbs (D) and Attorney General Bob Ferguson (D), is another attempt by Democrats to cheat on the presidential election. The Center Square reports that through agency rulemaking, Hobbs’ office has removed a provision that has been a part of Washington’s electoral framework since the state’s original 1889 Constitution. This move follows a consent decree earlier this year, settling a 2023 lawsuit that claimed the residency requirement violated federal law, due to a 2018 state law. Article VI,...

Verónica Garcia did not hear the boos when the race started last weekend. When she took the lead in the State 2A girls 400-meter run at the track and field championships in Tacoma, they grew in volume and became unmistakable as she reached the finish line to become the first transgender high school athlete to place first in state. Such victories are typically a time for celebration but the East Valley High School junior’s win has sparked controversy. People criticized Garcia all season for participating on the girls track team. Yet the jeers at Saturday’s meet were “a bit...

Seattle officials have opened up city police jobs to illegal aliens in the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program. With the Seattle Police Department (SPD) at its lowest staffing level in decades, officials in city hall are looking to take advantage of a recently passed state law that allows jurisdictions to hire non-citizens as police officers. The Democrat-dominated state legislature recently passed Senate Bill 6157, a law that allows jurisdictions to give DACA recipients police powers. One reason the bill was needed is because so many liberal cities have wiped out their police departments with Black Lives Matter (BLM)...

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...

A Seattle police officer was fired for calling his Chinese American neighbor racist and sexist slurs while off duty in 2022, according to a news report. Officer Burton Hill was fired in May, The Seattle Times reported. The termination stemmed from an altercation with his neighbor, Zhen Jin, over the disposal of dog bones at the condominium complex where they lived in suburban Seattle. The Seattle Office of Police Accountability had recommended a range of disciplinary actions, from a 30-day suspension to termination of employment. Hill was fired by then-police Chief Adrian Diaz on May 2, police spokesperson Eric Muñoz...

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...

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...

Washington Governor Jay Inslee has announced that state law will require hospitals to commit abortions in emergency situations, in advance of an upcoming Supreme Court decision. The Supreme Court is expected to give a decision in the Moyle v. United States and Idaho v. United States cases in June, which will determine whether or not Idaho emergency room doctors can intentionally end the lives of preborn children by abortion for allegedly “medically necessary” reasons. The Biden Department of Justice (DOJ) previously sued the state of Idaho, arguing that Idaho’s Defense of Life Act violates the Emergency Medical Treatment and Active...

SEATTLE — Seattle Police are investigating after a man was found shot in a stairwell in the Mount Baker neighborhood. A 911 caller alerted police to the shooting in the 3600 block of 34th Avenue South at around 2 a.m. on Sunday. When police arrived, they found a 22-year-old man alive but seriously injured. Despite aid from officers and the Seattle Fire Department, the victim later died at Harborview Medical Center. According to Detective Brian Pritchard, there was an altercation that occurred before the shooting, but detectives couldn’t share more information about the circumstances as the homicide investigation is still...

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...

Three Washington teens could face ten years in jail after being arrested for making skid marks on an LGBT rainbow road mural while riding e-scooters.

Bill Anders has died, apparently piloting his own plane. He was the astronaut who took the iconic photo of the whole Earth from the Moon on his trip around it on Apollo 8, which was the actual moment when we won the space race. And it became the icon for the environmental movement, for good or ill. I consider myself privileged to consider him a friend, and I’ll explain why anon, but for now, farewell, yet another hero of that era, who (unlike many of his Apollo cohorts) understood how important commercial space was. I was at AIAA SciTech Forum...

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...

Retired American astronaut William Anders, who was part of the Apollo 8 mission in 1968, has died after his small plane crashed into Puget Sound in Washington State. The 90-year-old died after the small aircraft he was piloting crashed near Orcas Island on Friday, resulting in a fireball as the plane hit the water. Officials with the United States Coast Guard Pacific Northwest said the crash happened just before 11:45am on Friday. Video footage shot on the Sound shows the plane flying high in the sky before it plummets as it begins a dive. Just before the plane began to...

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