Free Republic

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...

New state and local increases are boosting paychecks in Alaska, California, Oregon, Washington, D.C., and other locations this week. Workers in about 15 locations nationwide are about to receive a boost in their paychecks, thanks to minimum wage increases that went into effect this week around the country. On Tuesday, July 1, minimum wage increases went into effect in Alaska, Oregon, and Washington D.C. Additionally, 12 cities, including Chicago and Los Angeles, are doing the same. The minimum wage hasn’t changed on a federal level since 2009. It remains stuck at $7.25. However, local governments have been moving the needle...

For years, radical gender ideology appeared unstoppable. The media framed transgender identity as the next frontier of liberation. Pride Month drew enthusiastic endorsements from nearly every university, corporation, and school district. Dissenters were often marginalized, and the prevailing narrative allowed little room for debate. No longer. Since the start of the second Trump administration, the movement has begun to retreat. The Supreme Court recently upheld a Tennessee law banning medical transition procedures for minors. Many corporations have withdrawn support for this year’s Pride events. An ideology that once seemed culturally dominant has lost significant ground in public opinion. In retrospect,...

[Catholic Caucus] Heterodox Jesuit parish publishes blasphemous image of Trinity as female with LGBT ‘pride’ flagThe bulletin for St. Joseph and St. Therese churches in Seattle featured a mockery of Andrei Rublev's 15th-century Holy Trinity icon depicting three women sitting by a 'pride' flag.A Jesuit-run Catholic parish marked Holy Trinity Sunday by publishing a blasphemous icon depicting the Blessed Trinity as women that included an LGBT “Pride” flag.The first page of the parish bulletin for St. Joseph and St. Therese churches, dated June 15, Holy Trinity Sunday, featured a mockery of Andrei Rublev’s 15th-century Holy Trinity icon depicting three women...

For many people, a trip to the airport is simply a means to an end. Whether you're traveling for vacation or business, you'll need to catch your flight in order to get there - and that's where the airport comes in. All airports have the same goal, but any traveler knows that all of them aren't created equally. Some airports are sprawling ecosystems with multiple terminals and acres of space, while others can be traversed entirely on foot. One airport may have more opportunities for scenic views, while others offer better food options. The Washington Post recently ranked the best...

"I think President Trump was wrong. He went against the Constitution." Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, joined Chris Jansing on MSNBC Reports to discuss the legality of President Trump’s move to launch military strikes on Iran.

The foreign ministers of the United Kingdom, France, and Germany met with their Iranian counterpart on Friday and after talks ended said discussions had been “serious” and that they’d urged Tehran to agree to talk to the Americans next. Initial peace talks between London, Paris, Berlin, and Tehran to open channels for negotiating an end to the Iran-Israel war lasted for around four and a half hours on Friday. Britain’s David Lammy, France’s Jean-Noël Barrot, and Germany’s Johann Wadephul met with Iran’s Abbas Araghchi in Geneva, Switzerland for face-to-face talks they said after the meeting broke should lead to further...

A Washington State school district is defending a teacher who posted a “This Teacher Kills Fascists” sign on social media the end of last month. In the since-deleted Instagram post, Olympia High School teacher Ryan Akiyama (pictured) noted he had planned on putting the sign on his hydration pack for an upcoming race. According to The Olympian, Akiyama also wrote “Might need to print it on a T-shirt next for all my fellow WOKE DEI educators still showing up with courage and care. Yes, I’m woke. Yes, I teach DEI. No, I’m not sorry if that triggers the willfully ignorant.”...

The sisters, 5-year-old Olivia, 8-year-old Evelyn and 9-year-old Paityn Decker, were found suffocated to death at an abandoned campsite in Washington state on Monday, police said, sparking an intense manhunt for their father, Travis Decker. Whitney had handed the girls over to Decker, 32, for their regularly scheduled custody visit on May 30, the Friday before the devastating discovery. (snip) Whitney told police that while he had a “good relationship” with his daughters and they enjoyed their time together, she believed he was experiencing mental health issues, according to the affidavit. “But he never displayed any sort of ‘red flags’...

Three young sisters have been found dead in Washington state after a tense weekend of searching. The sisters – Paityn Decker, 9, Evelyn Decker, 8, and Olivia Decker, 5 – failed to return from a “planned visitation” with their father on Friday, sparking a police canvass involving local detectives, federal officers and a Homeland Security helicopter in Chelan County, Washington. Authorities found their bodies near their father’s car on Monday at 3:45 p.m. around the Rock Island State Park campground in western Washington. The girls’ father, 32-year-old Travis Decker, remains missing and is wanted on suspicion of first-degree murder and...

The Kennedy Center began the month of June by debuting the Angel Studios hit film “The King of Kings,” an animated movie that goes through the life of Jesus. It comes after a week’s worth of events celebrating LGBTQ+ rights ahead the World Pride festival in Washington, D.C. were canceled. The Center held two showings of the film on June 1 as part of its effort to revamp its family-focused programming to include more faith-based content. Both shows were a “huge success” and the event’s prayer wall was “completely full,” a spokesperson for The Kennedy Center told Breitbart News. “Both...

A boy competing under the name “Veronica” Garcia just won the state title in the girls’ 400m at the 2A Washington State Championship meet

If it be true that it takes a great man to interpret the life of a great man then Bushrod Washington made no mistake in the selection of a biographer. For Marshall, under the influence of Washington, came to be nearly as great a man as the character whose life and achievement held his deepest thought for nearly a quarter of a century. . . . Marshall's sympathetic understanding of his subject, his firsthand knowledge of events with his remarkable powers of expression qualified him to produce the masterpiece that has come down to us.

Seattle’s transportation system will fundamentally change on Jan. 11 when the Alaskan Way Viaduct closes permanently. For more than 60 years, drivers have skirted downtown while enjoying a scenic, waterfront view of Elliott Bay. But the elevated highway is vulnerable to collapse in an earthquake, so after years of debate, planning and construction, a new Highway 99 tunnel will open in its place. We’ve reported on all the twists and turns that have led to this point. Here’s a look back on that coverage. 1911 — 1969: The viaduct gets built Seattle streets grew more crowded after the turn of...

SEATTLE — A legally armed civilian shot and killed a 16-year-old boy Wednesday night after the teen allegedly opened fire on two people in downtown Seattle, according to police. The shooting happened just after 10 p.m. near First Avenue and Union Street. Police said the teen shot two people before he encountered a 57-year-old man licensed to carry a firearm, who then shot the teen. “One individual produced a weapon, fired on the two individuals and then began to flee the scene,” said Seattle Police Chief Shon Barnes. “When he did, he encountered a private citizen that was licensed to...

Shawn Kemp, who spent the majority of his NBA career with the Seattle SuperSonics, entered a guilty plea in the 2023 shooting outside the Tacoma Mall in Washington state. The Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office confirmed that Kemp admitted to second-degree assault in the incident. The six-time NBA All-Star initially faced charges for first-degree assault with a firearm. Prosecutors later tacked on a second count of first-degree assault and a charge of drive-by shooting. If he had been convicted on the original charges, the 55-year-old could have been up against a considerably longer prison sentence. Tacoma police received a call...

The gunman suspected of wounding five people at a Connecticut mall is a teenager who was out on bond on separate charges, officials said Wednesday. Tajuan Washington, 19, opened fire after confronting another man he “had a history” of “beef” with at the Brass Mill Center in Waterbury Tuesday afternoon, striking the man and four women he was with, Mayor Paul K. Pernerewski, Jr., said during a news conference. The mayor and police officials said that the shooting, which happened near the shopping center’s main entrance just before 5 p.m., was not a random act of violence. “This was a...

Conservative and pro-life groups are again asking the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate five fetuses found near a Washington, D.C. clinic in 2022 now that President Donald Trump is back in office. Nine organizations sent a letter Tuesday to U.S. Attorney Jeanine Ferris Pirro sounding the alarm about pro-life activists’ discovery of the bodies in containers from the Washington Surgi-Clinic. Some of the babies discovered were so large that they brought suspicion of illegal partial-birth or post-birth abortions, and the Biden administration only prosecuted those who protested at the clinic in 2020. “In 2022, pro-life activists in Washington, D.C.,...

In deep blue Washington state, where state leaders say men in women’s sports is just fine and dandy, one tiny school district is defying that policy. In early May, the Quilcene School Board passed a resolution requiring that student-athletes participate in the gender of their birth, according to the Seattle Times. The 3-2 vote bucks state law and the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association rule book. ... However, it is in keeping with the Trump administration’s definition of Title IX, which says women’s sports are only open to those born female. Chris Reykdal, Washington state superintendent of public instruction, has said...

The point of gay marriage from the viewpoint of liberal social engineers is to desecrate the concept of holy matrimony and to render it ludicrous so that it can no longer serve as the backbone of civilization. Progressives continue to progress on this front: The president of Whitman College late last month presided over the marriage between a senior at the school and her Whitman alum “wusband.” The “wusband” is the one who wears the pants in a lesbian parody of a family. President Sarah Bolton officiated the nuptials of Lita Bacus and “nonbinary lesbian” Fi Black at which “I...