Free Republic

Official results certified by King County Elections on Friday show Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant defeated an effort to recall her from office by 310 votes.

SEATTLE - Seattle police officers arrested 35 people in a downtown organized retail theft operation. Throughout Wednesday, police saw people stealing and walking out of a store on 2nd Avenue with tens of thousands of dollars worth of cutlery, kitchen sets, detergent and several bottles of liquor. Police said officers stopped the suspected thieves and recovered the items. They were given trespassing notices and banned them from returning to the store for a year.Police released the suspects, but one man was booked into the King County jail on a Department of Corrections warrant. The police department said it will continue...

The whereabouts and condition of a state senator from Washington state are unknown weeks after his location was last reported at a Florida hospital where he was being treated for COVID-19. The whereabouts and condition of a state senator from Washington state are unknown weeks after his location was last reported at a Florida hospital where he was being treated for COVID-19. State Sen. Doug Ericksen (R) sent an email to other state lawmakers on Nov. 11 saying he had tested positive for the coronavirus during a trip to El Salvador, according to a Seattle NBC affiliate. In the email,...

“This is a five-alarm fire,” said Jocelyn Benson, the Democratic secretary of state in Michigan, who presided over her state’s Trump-contested election in 2020 and may face a Trump-backed challenger next year. “If people in general, leaders and citizens, aren’t taking this as the most important issue of our time and acting accordingly, then we may not be able to ensure democracy prevails again in ’24.” In some areas, new political battlefields are opening up where none existed previously. Until this year, races for administrative positions such as judge of elections were noncompetitive to the point of being more or...

Washington state Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee likened people who have chosen not to take the experimental COVID-19 vaccines to domestic terrorists. "Thirty-four percent of Washingtonians are walking around with a time bomb in their backpack because they’re not vaccinated," he said at a press conference.

SEATTLE (AP) — Two artists are facing federal charges that they faked Native American heritage to sell works at downtown Seattle galleries. Lewis Anthony Rath, 52, of Maple Falls, and Jerry Chris Van Dyke, 67, also known as Jerry Witten, of Seattle, have been charged separately with violating the Indian Arts and Crafts Act, which prohibits misrepresentation in marketing American Indian or Alaska Native arts and crafts. The U.S. Attorney’s Office said Rath falsely claimed to be a member of the San Carlos Apache Tribe, and Van Dyke falsely claimed membership in the Nez Perce Tribe. The goods included masks,...

A married father of three in Washington state shot dead a burglar who had broken into the family's home and wounded another before telling cops, 'I have a right to defend myself.' Jerahme Smith, 31, said he was at home with his sister when the two alleged robbers kicked in the back door at around 4:20am on Thursday. Police in Spanaway, about 45 miles south of Seattle, arrived within 10 minutes of getting Smith's call about the home invasion and found a 24-year-old man unresponsive on the floor. The man, who has not been identified, was declared dead by medical...

Because they don't mention the party affiliation you can bet he's a dimocrat. An aide in the House of Representatives was arrested Thursday morning for allegedly carrying a gun inside of Congress. The individual has been detained, and Capitol Police stated that there is no threat. "This morning at approximately 7:40 a.m., our officers in the Longworth Building spotted the image of a handgun in a bag on the x-ray screen," said the Capitol Police in a statement. "The man was tracked down four minutes later and arrested." The alleged owner of the bag and firearm was identified as Jeffrey...

… As of Tuesday night, 53% of ballots were in favor of the recall and 47% were against it.

"It's worse than a war zone around here lately," police official said. At least 12 major U.S. cities have broken annual homicide records in 2021 -- and there's still three weeks to go in the year. Of the dozen cities that have already surpassed the grim milestones for killings, five topped records that were set or tied just last year. "It's terrible to every morning get up and have to go look at the numbers and then look at the news and see the stories. It's just crazy. It's just crazy and this needs to stop," Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney...

The Indian Bar Association (IBA) reports that murder charges were filed in India’s High Court The Indian Bar Association (IBA) reports that murder charges were filed in India’s High Court against two billionaires responsible for the AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine, Covishield. Bill Gates and Adar Poonawalla, the CEO of Serum Institute of India (SII), are being charged with the murder of a 23-year-old man who was injected with the shot. Serum Institute of India (SII), Adar Poonawalla’s company, produces Covishield, as well as over half of the entire world’s vaccines that are injected into babies. The criminal complaint also names “other...

According to King County Elections, about 38.5% of voters eligible to participate in the potential recall of the District 3 council member had already cast ballots as of a midday count Monday. Only those registered in District 3 are eligible to vote. On Friday, Kendall Hodson, King County Elections chief of staff, said the office was projecting roughly a 50% turnout by the ballot return deadline of 8 p.m. Tuesday. Projections for this election — a December election in an off year and the first recall election of a Seattle City Council member — lack historical precedent. Sawant, who was...

**SNIP** The Times’ editorial board took issue with Sawant’s denial of the charge related to the protest at Durkan’s house. “This denial rings hollow,” the board said. “During Sawant’s onstage speech in front of Durkan’s house, she reportedly spoke critically of the ‘Richie Rich’ neighborhood. Shortly afterward, Sawant’s council Twitter account retweeted notes of gratitude ‘for speaking @MayorJenny’s rich house,’ as one put it. Curiously, those notes appear to have vanished from Sawant’s timeline.” The alternative biweekly newspaper The Stranger has a much more sympathetic view of Sawant and opposes the recall election. In a colorfully-written Nov. 17 piece, “Vote...

Diverse Sample Shows the Power of President Trump's Endorsement Nationwide Today the Las Vegas polling firm SoCo Strategies announced the results of a multi-state poll, focused on a diverse sampling to look for current trends in the Republican primary landscape. The results demonstrate two emerging narratives. Our polling showed that President Trump is a dominant force in Congressional Primaries across the country. Trump endorsed candidates Joe Kent and Harriet Hageman lead their anti-Trump incumbent opponents and Pro-Trump candidates Mike Collins and Anthony Sabatini lead their open primaries by double digits while another Pro-Trump candidate, Graham Allen, was tied in South...

After supporting Seattle's CHOP and declaring it a "summer of love," Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan had no choice but to bow out of it, given that it had become a killing zone and police were obstructed from tending the gunfire victims bleeding in the streets. The lawsuits from destroyed businesses were looming, plus there was President Trump, a man she rabidly hated herself, threatening to come in and hose that hellhole out if she wouldn't.

Mayor Cheryl Selby of Olympia, Washington just got her consciousness raised. Her hometown newspaper, The Olympian, reported last Friday: On Friday night, two groups converged in downtown Olympia, and some became destructive, burning flags, smashing windows, and spray painting businesses and Olympia Mayor Cheryl Selby’s home. Selby and her family were not home last night, but her neighbors began texting her when the protesters arrived at her house. “I’m really trying to process this,” she told The Olympian over the phone Saturday. “It’s like domestic terrorism. It’s unfair. “It hurts when you’re giving so much to your community,” she said

SEATTLE (AP) — At first, Henry Bridger II supported Kshama Sawant, Seattle’s combative socialist city councilmember. A liberal voter in one of the most liberal neighborhoods in an extremely liberal city, he liked her fresh outlook and support for a $15 minimum wage. Seven years later, Bridger is leading an effort to recall Sawant. With ballots due Tuesday night in Seattle’s Third District, the results could further shift power in the Northwest’s largest city and deal another setback to leftist activists who saw business-friendly candidates win a council seat and the mayor’s office in last month’s general election. At stake...

Voters in Seattle’s third city council district are turning out early to cast their ballots in this month’s special election, which will determine whether Kshama Sawant, one of Seattle’s most polarizing elected officials, will remain in office. With just five days left before polls close on Tuesday, roughly 33% of voters have returned their ballot, according to King County election data. On Oct. 29 - five days before last month’s general election - roughly 20% of District 3 voters had returned their ballots. That means about 10,000 more people have voted now than at this time during the last election....

Since the 2016 election, there has been no question about Donald Trump’s stranglehold on the Republican Party. But generally speaking, we’ve learned about that through attrition — party members who run afoul of him voluntarily heading for the exits, rather than trying their luck with GOP primary voters. 1. GA - Brian Kemp 2. GA - Secretary of State Raffensperger vs Jodi Hice 3. WY - Liz Cheney vs Harriet Hageman 4. ID - Governor Little vs Lt. Governor McGeachin 5. AK - Lisa Murkowski vs Kelly Tshibaka 6. MI - Rep. Peter Meijer vs John Gibbs 7. WV -...

A lot has been made of Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s stock sales, but Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recently sold a chunk of stock that is a much larger portion of his total holdings. Nadella sold about half his stake in Microsoft (ticker: MSFT), according to recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The CEO unloaded 838,584 shares on Nov. 22 and 23, netting him about $285 million. He has about 831,000 Microsoft shares left, worth roughly $280 million. It isn’t clear why he sold. Microsoft didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the sales or to make...