Free Republic

...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....

Her name was written in the thick murder book. Three decades later Snohomish County sheriff's detectives came knocking on her door. She knew why the two men were there. The moment finally had come to share the secret she'd been lugging around since she was 18 years old. She could tell them who killed Susan Schwarz. The words eventually tumbled out. She had been in the small Lynnwood-area home in 1979 when Gregory Johnson grabbed a pretty, young woman out of her shower, tied her up and put a bullet in her head. Johnson, then 26, looked up to find...

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...

 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...

EVERETT -- It's a fad that's picking up steam in Snoho­mish County's hyper-competitive coffee market. Espresso drive-through stands with bikini- and lingerie-sporting baristas are popping up from Monroe to Edmonds. In the past year, at least six of these java joints employing provocatively dressed young women have opened in the county. A few owners of these roadside stands say business is so brisk, they're hiring more employees and have plans to open new locations. "I brought a touch of Vegas back to Washington," said Bill Wheeler, who opened Grab 'N' Go Espresso on Highway 99 just south of Everett last...