Free Republic

Microsoft’s virtual conference Ignite 2021 was all about hybrid work, metaverse and the cloud, but it opened with “land acknowledgments” to local native tribes and featured speakers describing their race and preferred pronouns. ... Before any of that could happen, however, senior program manager Allison Weins had a ritual to perform. “We need to acknowledge that the land where the Microsoft campus is situated was is traditionally occupied by the Sammamish, Duwamish, Snoqualmie, Suquamish, Muckleshoot, Snohomish, Tulalip, and other coast Salish people since time immemorial,” Weins said, “a people who are still continuing to honor and bring to light their...

Put simply, “your words were akin to yelling ‘Fire’ in a crowded theatre.” That’s how Snohomish County Prosecutor Adam Cornell closed out a letter to Sheriff Adam Fortney, refusing to defend him against a recall effort over his public criticism and refusal to enforce the Gov. Inslee’s stay-at-home order. Fortney made the comments in an April 21 Facebook post following a statewide address from Inslee outlining a path forward to reopening the economy, that critics complained lacked specific details on benchmarks. Among other things, Fortney repeatedly questioned the constitutionality of the governor’s order, and reiterated his position that he would...

Authorities say they have identified a group of teenagers suspected of swimming in a water tower after video surfaced. The Snohomish Police Department says the suspects hopped a fence, cut through two locks, scaled the 80-foot (24-meter) tower and jumped inside Snohomish's water reservoirs. Authorities say a YouTube video shows at least one suspect jumping in the water, and charges are expected to be filed against the group... Officials say water quality tests have been conducted and the water is considered safe to drink.

...Among the more than a dozen other named defendants are David L. Nelson of Stanwood... are accused of not only initially bankrolling the Goodridge family’s illegal smoke shop operation, but also arranging numerous land and business deals that were unfair to the tribes.Nelson didn’t return a phone call. He told The Herald last fall that he was given direction to pursue buying almost any piece of land within the tribe’s historic boundaries. The plan was to build an entire city, he said. But the tribes broke ties with Nelson and insisted his businesses move off tribal land after the Goodridges...

Earl Averill Jr., a Snohomish High School graduate and a seven-year major league veteran, died Wednesday in Tacoma. He was 83. The Mariners scheduled a moment of silence in Averill’s honor just before the start of Thursday’s game against the Red Sox. Averill is the son of Baseball Hall of Famer Earl Averill.

...Obama, on his way to a weeklong trip to Asia, is headed to Washington state Tuesday to survey damage from the landslide and meet with survivors, first responders and local officials one month after the tragedy....

A mudslide in Washington state turned a square mile of Snohomish County into complete devastation and claimed the lives of at least eight people and destroyed dozens of homes. The slide, which occurred around 11 a.m. PT Saturday, turned land that spanned neighborhoods into "quicksand." [18 more "missing"]

ARLINGTON, Wash. (AP) — The search for survivors of a deadly Washington state mudslide grew Monday to include 108 names of people who were reported missing or were unaccounted for, but authorities cautioned the figure likely would decline dramatically. Still, the size of the list raised concerns the death toll would rise far above the eight people who have been confirmed dead after the 1-square-mile slide Saturday swept through part of a former fishing village about 55 miles northeast of Seattle. Several people also were critically injured. About 30 homes were destroyed, and the debris blocked a 1-mile stretch of...

ARLINGTON, Wash. (AP) — About 18 people are still unaccounted for after a massive mudslide in rural northwest Washington state killed at least three people and forced evacuations because of fears of flooding, authorities said Sunday. Snohomish County Fire District 21 Chief Travis Hots said at a news briefing that "we suspect that people are out there, but it's far too dangerous to get responders out there on that mudflow." Searchers in helicopters will be flying over the area of the square-mile mudslide Sunday to find people who may have been able to get out on their own, as well...

(CNN) -- A devastating landslide in Washington state killed three people Saturday and sent rescuers desperately digging for people crying for help underneath debris, authorities in Washington state said. The landslide cut off a small town and a river and prompted an evacuation notice for fear of a potentially "catastrophic flood event," authorities said. The Snohomish County Sheriff's Office said, in addition to those dead, seven adults and a 6-month-old boy were rescued and sent to local hospitals. Harborview Medical Center in Seattle reported that five patients had been airlifted there and were in its care. Three of those --...

EVERETT— Enrique Sanchez-Leon, who pleaded guilty May to eight counts of child rape, child molestation, and sexual exploitation of a minor, was sentenced Tuesday to 35 years in prison without the possibility of parole. Sanchez-Leon, 39, an illegal immigrant, was arrested in January for expoiting a "multitude of children," ranging from ages 3 to 16 in his Snohomish County apartment. . . According to court documents, Sanchez-Leon would lure his victims with candy and chocolate milk. Over time he groomed their parents, who trusted him and his ex-girlfriend as baby-sitters. . . The eight counts Sanchez-Leon pleaded guilty to include...

The Snohomish County Executive Office and the Diversity Council has invited the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) to conduct diversity training on Nov 14th from Noon to 1:00 pm in Public Meeting Room 1, Drewel Building in Everett. (hat tip Rose via Lynda) The idea that a Muslim Brotherhood hate group that was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the largest terror funding trial, the Holy Land Foundation trial, will conduct "training" to government officials is indicative of how co-opted and compromised we are. The Snohomish County Council Members scheduled CAIR to teach diversity training in order to help...

The Snohomish County prosecutors office says that an 18-year-old Monroe woman stabbed a 19-year-old man after he teased her that her feet smelled. The Herald of Everett reports that the man was found by police with a steak knife sticking out of his back, buried a few inches in. His lung had collapsed. Officials say he'll recover from his injuries. Charging papers say that trouble started when Dallas Amber Smith was drinking and hanging out with friends and was challenged to do a back flip. When she took off her shoes to do the back flip, she was teased. Smith...

 It took a Snohomish County Juvenile Court judge about 35 seconds Tuesday to decide he didn't believe Aiesha Steward-Baker's story. After about two hours of testimony, Judge George N. Bowden convicted the 16-year-old of second-degree robbery, saying her testimony lacked credibility, and that she had lied either to police or to the court. Either way, he said, he wasn't inclined to take her word over that of the victim, whose testimony he found "exceptionally credible." Steward-Baker, whose videotaped beating in Seattle's downtown transit tunnel made headlines earlier this year, had been accused of attacking and robbing a 50-year-old Shoreline...

Community members have threatened a Snohomish, Wash., boy who nearly lost his leg when a cannon exploded at a football game.

$400 million stock loss by California government retirement funds and the mask of our parasitic courts The California Public Employee Retirement System (Cal-PERS) seeks to recover a $400 million stock loss by suing AIG for alleged accounting "improprieties." Suing the private sector for losses sustained on bad investments or during price bubbles and using the redistributionist courts to demonize and shake down the private sector for their losses has become an all-too-frequent tactic of government. The legalized leaching of the private sector by our court system masks as cases of fraud, white collar crime, tort claims, etc. The ancient Greek...

National manhunt on for Seattle teen in Snohomish robbery By Scott North Herald Writer A Seattle teen who is charged with first-degree robbery in connection with a violent April 12 holdup of a Snohomish jewelry store is now the focus of a nationwide manhunt. Adrian E. Gordon, 18, who was shot during the holdup and later set free on bail, has left his home and broken off contact with his attorney, Snohomish County deputy prosecutor Mark Roe said Sunday. "I don't know for certain that he is running, but it sure looks that way," Roe said. Gordon and co-defendant Carlo...

SNOHOMISH — Police yesterday questioned the actions of an armed citizen who opened fire on suspects in a robbery of a neighborhood jewelry store. They said prosecutors will consider charges against him. Neighbors and the owner of the store praised the man as a hero and good Samaritan. One of the suspects was wounded when the man, identified by witnesses as Brian Wyatt Haynes, 51, the owner of a nearby antiques and watch-repair store, shot out the tire of the getaway car and then fired at least one round through the rear window of the fleeing vehicle. -------SNIP-------- "This is...