Free Republic

The Pacific Northwest is beginning to look like very friendly territory for Barack Obama. Last week, Rasmussen Reports polling showed that Obama had opened a double-digit lead over John McCain in Oregon. Now, Obama has done the same in Washington state (see video report). The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of likely voters in Washington finds Barack Obama leading John McCain 51% to 40%. For Obama, that’s an improvement since late-March when the presumptive Democratic nominee led his Republican counterpart by five percentage points. Nationally, Obama and McCain are essentially even in the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll. In...

The re-election prospects for Washington Governor Christine Gregoire (D) have improved significantly over the past two months. The latest Rasmussen Reports telephone survey of Washington voters shows Gregoire leading her Republican challenger, Dino Rossi, by eleven percentage points. It’s Gregoire 52% Rossi 41%. In late March, Gregoire was up by just a statistically insignificant single percentage point. In February, Rossi had a one point advantage. Four years ago, the 2004 election between the same two candidates was one of the closest elections in the state’s history.

Democrats are rebuking President Bush for saying in his speech to the Knesset, here, that to “negotiate with terrorists and radicals” is “appeasement.” The Democrats took it as a slap at Barack Obama. What bothers me is the continual reference to Hitler and his National Socialists, particularly the British and French accommodation at the Munich Conference of 1938. The narrative we're given about Munich is entirely in hindsight. We know what kind of man Hitler was, and that he started World War II in Europe. From the view of 1938, what Hitler was demanding at Munich was not unreasonable, according...

Olympia--Starting in July, retailers will start charging sales taxes on Internet customers in Washington. About 1,100 online retailers have agreed to charge the tax to avoid being sued by the state. The tax is based on where the customer lives. Retailers have to identify 350 tax districts.

MOUNT St. HELENS, Wash. - On May 18, 1980, the once bucolic ice-cream cone shape that defined Mount St. Helens in Washington state disappeared in monstrous blast of ash, rock, gas, and heat. ... And inside the volcano, which was once a soft dome of snow but is now a gaping, steaming menace with an unpredictable streak, an unexpected phenomenon is taking place: a glacier is growing. ... But Walder cautions that a glacier inside a volcano leads a tenuous existence. A surge in volcanic activity, especially an eruption, could melt away the glacier in the space of a day,...

CANON CITY, Colo. -- A Kent man who is an associate professor at Seattle University was arrested in connection with a variety of child sex crimes on Monday in Colorado, reported KIRO 7 Eyewitness News. Police said the arrest of Major Andrew Douglas Franz, 41, stemmed from an undercover Internet investigation by the Fremont County Combined Investigative Response Team. Police said Franz traveled from Washington to Fremont County in Colorado for the purpose of having sex with an underage girl. ...

Two cheers to the Seattle School District for eliminating its Office of Equity, Race and Learning Support. I'll award the third cheer if a district spokesman's contention that this move is purely a budgetary fix turns out to be a glossing over of the truth. I hope the real story is that someone in charge came to their senses and realized the Office of Equity, Race and Learning Support would have been better titled the Office of Race Propaganda, White Guilt and Bogus Sociology. The director of the office, Caprice Hollins, gained notoriety for a variety of offensive acts. Most...

That $13.2 million grant Washington state won last year to enhance the teaching of Advanced Placement courses in math and science is history. It’s lost because of the financial incentives it would have provided for teachers who improve test scores. The Washington Education Association didn’t much like the idea of tying teacher pay to student performance on exams. Neither did the teachers union like the involvement of an outside party, the grant provider, in teacher-pay decisions.

CENTRALIA, Wash. -- When the city of Centralia dedicates a monument on Tuesday to the 1996 visit of President Bill Clinton, Vice President Al Gore and their spouses, it will be less about politics than the historical significance of the event. The city will officially unveil the monument, which is already in place at the corner of Tower Avenue and Pine Street, at 6 p.m. Tuesday during a ceremony that is free and open to the public. Everyone involved in the project, from politicians to city staff, say the monument is a commemoration of the fact that the country's two...

Following up on vows to bring spending in line with its shrinking revenues, The Seattle Times Co. sliced the staff at its flagship newspaper by 125 employees this week. Of the total, 73 were laid off and 52 left voluntarily, with 51 accepting buyout offers, spokeswoman Corey Digiacinto said. The Times announced a month ago that, to help save $15 million, it would freeze 60 unfilled positions and lay off up to 131 employees. Voluntary departures trimmed the number of layoffs needed by more than 40 percent, Digiacinto said. Before this week's cuts, The Times had 1,845 full-time and part-time...

In the tiny Hockinson School District, the budget gap is $250,000. For Vancouver Public Schools, the shortfall is more like $4 million, officials say. In the Evergreen district, it’s at least $1.6 million. Across Clark County and Washington state, school districts are feeling the pinch of a large cost-of-living pay hike for teachers and other workers, approved by state legislators earlier this year.

The McClatchy Co. figures the value of its not-quite-half stake in Blethen family-controlled Seattle Times Co. has tumbled to barely one-tenth of its worth just two years ago. In a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, McClatchy estimated its 49.5% stake in the publisher of The Seattle Times has a value of $12.06 million. That's a drop of more than one-third from the carrying value it assigned its Times Co. interest last December -- and represents a 88% drop from its estimated value of $102.2 million at the end of 2006. McClatchy acquired the stake in the Times Co. in its...

OKLAHOMA CITY — Oklahoma City officials want Starbucks chairman Howard Schultz to know they expect the Seattle SuperSonics to relocate, regardless of who owns the team. An assistant municipal counselor sent a letter on behalf of Mayor Mick Cornett and other city officials informing Schultz, the team's former owner, that Oklahoma City's lease with the SuperSonics will be enforced no matter how pending lawsuits in Seattle are resolved. "We expect that any subsequent owner or owners would join hands with the city, and its citizens, and honor the OKC NBA agreements, made in good faith, and perform as good corporate...

MOUNTLAKE TERRACE -- Former Gov. Booth Gardner no longer runs the state, but now he'd like to be in control in a different way. He wants to be able to die on his own terms if his quality of life becomes seriously diminished, he said at a meeting of the Lynnwood Rotary Club on Thursday. Gardner, 72, has Parkinson's disease. For the past year, he has been promoting the controversial cause of physician-assisted suicide. "I recognize there are people here who won't like what I'm about to say, and others who will be with me implicitly," he said. "I respect...

Kansas, Or A Seattle Suburb? When Bill Clinton was presenting himself to the American public in 1992, he was described as "The Man from Hope", Hope, Arkansas, that is.  His supporters even made a movie with that title.  The Clinton campaign called him the Man from Hope for two reasons, to take advantage of the town's name, and to imply that Clinton had the wholesome values many of us associate with small towns.There is just one thing wrong with calling Clinton the Man from Hope; it isn't completely true.   Clinton was born in Hope in 1946 and lived...

Straight Kids Unite by: J. Matt Barber, May 08, 2008 On April 25, adult homosexual activists with the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network (GLSEN) held their annual “Day of Silence” (DOS) propaganda push. During DOS, teachers and students in roughly three thousand middle schools, high schools and colleges across the country are cynically used as culture war pawns in an effort to legitimize conventionally immoral, objectively deviant and demonstrably high-risk sexual behaviors. Kids and teachers are encouraged on DOS to disrupt the school day by refusing to speak in class as a show of support to students who self-identify...

Two Seattle high schools are among seven statewide that will lose a chance to add and strengthen Advanced Placement courses in math and science because a $13.2 million grant that Washington state won last year has been scrapped. The National Math & Science Initiative (NMSI), based in Dallas, announced that it will end Washington's grant because NMSI was unable to reach agreement with Washington's schools on the terms of the contract. NMSI declined to give any specifics, but state Rep. Bill Fromhold, who resigned his legislative post as of next year so he could help administer Washington's grant, said it...

Two European business consultants have identified themselves to U.S. officials as the men who were being sought by the FBI after crew members and riders reported their unusual behavior aboard a Washington state ferry last summer.The men, both citizens of a European Union nation, appeared at a U.S. Embassy two weeks ago and identified themselves as the men pictured in photos released to the media last summer, according to a news release issued today by the FBI's Seattle field office. The release did not identify the men or the city where the embassy is located.

Mike Huckabee, the former governor and Republican presidential candidate, is scheduled to take part in a May 22 fundraiser for a group trying to raise money for music programs through the sale of a special license plate. Huckabee once played in a band called Capitol Offense. This time he is slated to jam with drummer Alan White , best known for his work with Yes, plus Bob and Shelley Tomberg of Shelley and the Curves. Music Aid Northwest is behind the program of selling license plates to boost music education and organizers of the concert. This is not a political...

BAGHDAD, Iraq — Iraq on Monday signed two deals worth $5 billion to buy 40 planes from Boeing and 10 planes from Canada's Bombardier to upgrade Iraqi Airways' aging fleet. The deals were signed by Finance Minister Bayan Jabr in a ceremony attended by Iraq's Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki as well as U.S., British and Canadian diplomats. The first Boeing plane will be delivered in 2013, Jabr said, while the Canadian company will start delivering the planes later this year.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A federal appeals court on Thursday left in place a lower court's ruling that allowed Washington state pharmacists to refuse to sell emergency contraceptive "morning after" pills on religious grounds. A federal judge in Seattle suspended state rules that required pharmacies to dispense "Plan B" and other emergency contraceptives that prevent fertilized eggs from implanting, which some people believe is the same as abortion.The case was brought by Stormans Inc, doing business as Ralph's Thriftway, and pharmacists Rhonda Mesler and Margo Thelen.

Six federally protected sea lions were apparently shot to death on the Columbia River as they lay in open traps put out to ensnare the animals, which eat endangered salmon. State and federal authorities are investigating. The discovery came one day after three elephant seals were found shot to death at a breeding ground in central California. Trapping will be suspended during the investigation, said Rick Hargrave, a spokesman for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife who was at the scene Sunday.

State and federal authorities said they are investigating the deaths of six sea lions found dead at the Columbia River traps. They appeared to have been shot. The bodies of four California sea lions and two Steller sea lions were found at the traps early Sunday afternoon. There were two California sea lions and one Steller sea lion at each of two traps just below the Bonneville Dam. The Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife and federal investigators are treating the area as a crime scene. Both species of sea lion are federally protected but Oregon and Washington state are...

(edit)   Nickels and City Council President Richard Conlin proposed a 20-cent "green fee" Wednesday on all disposable bags to encourage customers to carry their milk and eggs home in their own bags. Forget the canvas sacks at home? Shoppers at grocery, convenience and drug stores will pay the price starting Jan. 1, if the City Council approves. A family buying six bags of groceries a week would spend $62.40 a year in bag fees. The city will issue one free reusable shopping bag to each household."The answer to the question 'Paper or plastic?' should be 'Neither,' " Nickels...

HORSETHIEF LAKE, Wash. -- Fidelia Andy was a 6-year-old happily running coffee to tribal fishermen at Celilo Falls when the federal government signed a deal with the tribes that flooded the falls and her family's home in the rising waters behind The Dalles Dam. On Friday, more than 50 years later, Andy and other leaders of four Northwest tribes finalized a new $900 million agreement with the federal government that they hope will begin to reverse the damage done by Columbia River system dams. "We Indians gave up so much in the past," Andy, a Yakama tribal leader and chairwoman...

Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of illegal immigrants are expected to join supporters in a four-mile march through downtown Seattle at the height of rush hour today, proclaiming they're not illegal or undocumented — but workers. And at the same time, many more are expected to stay away, fearful of drawing the attention of immigration authorities or frustrated by the failure of Congress to fix the immigration system even as raids and deportations continue. "Two years ago, there was legislation in Congress and a tangible reason to turn out," said Louis DeSipio, an expert on Latino politics and associate professor of political...

LOS ANGELES -- An arbitrator has ordered the union that represents dockworkers at West Coast ports to tell members they must report to work Thursday and not take the day off to protest U.S. military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan. A wide enough walkout could cause a slowdown at West Coast ports -- the nation's major gateway for cargo from the Far East. Arbitrator John Kagel issued his decision today after holding a hearing by phone with the employers' group, Pacific Maritime Association, and International Longshore and Warehouse Union, according to a document outlining the ruling. The union previously asked...

SNOHOMISH — The patch under the bridge is closed in by brambles. Rodent tracks crisscross in the dirt. It may be dry, but still it's not fit for human habitation. Unless you're a sex offender, that is.The underside of the 88th Street bridge, near this river town's greenhouses and horse farms, is where state government last week assigned a released rapist to sleep. David J. Torrence, who assaulted a 16-year-old girl in 1995, had completed his latest prison term (for failing to register as a sex offender.) He had no place to go. So officials gave him a sleeping bag...

The passionate debate over immigration and workers' rights has dropped a few degrees from past years, but hundreds or thousands of demonstrators are expected to march through downtown Seattle during afternoon rush hour Thursday with a basic message:   "We are not undocumented. We are not illegal. We are workers." Or, as a bilingual flier for the event states in Spanish, "No somos ilegales. No somos indocumentados. Somos trabajadores."Until the nation's broken immigration system is repaired -- a process that might take years -- the rights of workers must be protected, organizers said Monday in announcing the ninth annual march.They...

Rep. Jim McDermott has paid more than $1 million to House Minority Leader John Boehner, ending a decade-long dispute over an illegally taped telephone call. McDermott, a Seattle Democrat, paid $1,093,297 to the Ohio Republican's campaign committee earlier this month, spokesman for the two men said Monday. The payment is in addition to $64,000 McDermott paid Boehner in January, as part of court-ordered punitive damages in the long-running case. A federal judge ordered McDermott to compensate Boehner for attorney's fees after Boehner sued McDermott for leaking the contents of a cell phone call that was illegally recorded in 1996. A...

SEATTLE - Mike Cummings believes that for more and more of us, our sentence is "commuting." Working four days instead of five would mean 20 percent fewer trips to and from work, reducing oil consumption by an estimated 40 percent. "When I came here I looked at the traffic on I-5 and thought to myself, 'Everybody who does that is out of their mind' and then I ended up being one of them," he said. So now Mike, a sheet metal contractor, has enlisted in a growing movement to change the way America does business. Whenever possible he and his...

Final assembly starts on the first of Navy P-8A Poseidon planes that could be Renton's last 737s Although The Boeing Co. lost the competition to supply air-refueling tankers to the U.S. Air Force, it still has one major military aircraft development program in the works.Starting next year, it will deliver the first of what could be more than 100 737s, modified with bomb bay doors and weapon pylons under the wings, to the U.S. Navy. Over the next decade or more, the P-8A Poseidon will replace the aging fleet of prop-engine Lockheed Martin P-3 Orion planes that have been used...

About 100 people joined the Rev. Ken Hutcherson outside Mt. Si High School this morning to protest the Day of Silence being observed inside the school. The group prayed and sang as a noisy group of counter protesters tried to drown them out by beating on drums and chanting, "Go Home." Hutcherson, who had called for 1,000 "prayer warriors" to join him in protesting a national day to call attention to the harassment of lesbian and gay students, said his group was not against homosexuals or the Day of Silence. "We're against giving an entire school day to one club...

During the November 2007 special session of the legislature, a prominent state senator cornered a well-known taxpayer advocate in a hallway of the state capitol. Waving a three-inch-thick copy of the state operating budget, the senator asked, “Where is the fat in the budget? You won’t answer the question and the reason you won’t is you’re chicken, you’re chicken, you are a coward...” and later, commenting to reporters, “This guy is a chicken, a coward, and will not answer the question.”

A federal appeals court injunction issued Wednesday says Northwest states can trap, but not kill, the animalsThe on-again, off-again permission for Oregon and Washington officials to kill salmon-gobbling sea lions below Bonneville Dam is off again, courtesy of a federal appeals court injunction issued Wednesday. However, the appeals court said state officials could still capture sea lions and ship them to zoos. Oregon officials said they will begin trapping up to eight of the Bonneville animals today. The sea lions gather at Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River to feast on salmon, including imperiled species, gathering to climb the dam's...

Dayna Klein was on the phone trying to tie up business on a Friday afternoon when she heard popping in the hallway of the Belltown offices where she worked. She peeked her head out of her office expecting to find her co-workers playing around. Instead, she saw Naveed Haq.http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ABPub/2008/04/21/2004363805.jpg

Police and federal agents have been raiding indoor marijuana growing operations at houses in the Seattle area. The U.S. attorney's office says 14 people and two companies have been indicted. Federal agents and police called a 1 p.m. news conference Wednesday at the federal building in Seattle to discuss the raids and the investigation they call "Operation Green Reaper."

Tony Snow cancels speeches at EWU SPOKANE -- Former White House Press Secretary Tony Snow has canceled a series of speaking engagements at Eastern Washington University because of illness. Snow was supposed to make a series of appearances Tuesday at EWU. However, he was taken to the hospital to be treated for exhaustion, in consultation with his doctor, according to a source at the University. The source said he checked into the hospital at 9:30 a.m. Snow was diagnosed with colon cancer several years ago, and he left his position as press secretary for President Bush in September to deal...

It's a liberal manifesto aiming to transform how locally produced food gets to Seattle neighborhoods -- from promoting farmers markets to perhaps limiting the number of fast-food restaurants and convenience stores in the city. Winning raves from some activists as "visionary," the "Local Food Action Initiative" offers goals as lofty as they are sweeping: racial and social justice, environmental sustainability, improved public health, economic development and more. Almost no area of city government is excluded by this pet project of Seattle City Council President Richard Conlin, which aims to curtail obesity, hunger and waste while improving access to and demand...

Frustrated by the state and federal gridlock on solving Seattle's transportation problems, Mayor Greg Nickels suggested secession at a Thursday luncheon.

EVERETT -- Eleven years ago, Sabrina M. Weiner graduated as a valedictorian at Kamiak High School near Everett. She was a National Merit Scholar, aiming for a bright future after earning a Navy ROTC scholarship to Stanford University. Two months ago, Weiner, 27, after seven years in the active and reserve duty during which she rose to the rank of lieutenant, forfeited her career. In a rare instance involving a commissioned officer, Weiner was arrested and given a choice between a court-martial or less-than-honorable discharge after refusing to serve in Iraq. Speaking publicly for the first time about it, Weiner...

...at the mere mention of doing the pledge [of allegiance] there were groans and boos. Then, when the district chair put the idea of doing the Pledge of Allegiance up to a vote, it was OVERWHELMINGLY VOTED DOWN. One might more accurately say the idea of pledging allegiance to the flag (of which only one in the room, by the way, on some delegate's hate) was shouted down...

A federal judge on Wednesday refused to stop fishery officials from trapping and killing California sea lions who are eating endangered salmon at Bonneville Dam. The Humane Society of the United States had challenged the plan, arguing that federal officials had failed to show that trapping the sea lions will have a significant impact on the salmon runs. On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman said the government had shown that the sea lions were doing "serious damage." The Humane Society also argued that trapping and killing the animals would harm kayakers and others who have established relationships with individual...

Pierce County sheriff's deputies found a semi-automatic handgun, remnants of liquid explosives and bombs packed with nails while combing through an obliterated South Hill home Tuesday -- and were relieved that there weren't more victims after a registered sex offender detonated explosives there Monday night. Authorities say they found the body of that man, 26, who they believe was killed in the explosion, which blew off the top of the two-story house about six miles southeast of Tacoma. The couple who own the house called police about 11 p.m. Monday, saying the man was being strange and making explosives, Pierce...

PUYALLUP, Wash. (AP) - A powerful explosion blew the top off a house where a registered sex offender described as acting paranoid had rented a room and appeared to have been making bombs, deputies said Tuesday. Investigators found a body in the rubble Tuesday morning, Pierce County sheriff's Detective Ed Troyer said. They believe they know the person's identity but did not release details. He said the couple who owned the house told authorities late Monday they had returned from a trip and found their tenant was acting strangely and making explosive devices. Troyer said the man was in the...

Boeing suggests 767-300ERs to help solve the 787 capacity gap Boeing has yet to tell 787 customers exactly how their delivery schedules will be impacted by the latest delay, but it has floated the idea of producing brand new 767-300ERs to help fill the capacity gap. Dreamliner deliveries will not now begin until the third quarter of next year - at least six months later than planned - and production ramp-up will then be much slower than previously expected with output not due to reach 10 a month until 2012. This will have a major impact on widebody capacity growth...

YAKIMA, Wash. -- A 20-year-old man accidentally shot himself in the groin early Sunday morning. It happened on the 700 block of North 24th avenue.Police say the man was trying to conceal a double barrel shotgun in the front of his pants and accidentally fired it two times.The gun was found at the home where the shooting took place. They also found a second stolen firearm.Hospital staff says his injuries are not life-threatening.Neighbors we spoke to say police are usually seen at the house at least three times a month. They suspect there is gang activity taking place inside. They...

The Spokane County Republican Party formally rejected the Iraq policy of their current president and their party’s likely nominee, saying American troops shouldn’t be on overseas missions for more than six months without a formal declaration of war. At a county convention that some party leaders said may have set an attendance record for Republicans in Spokane, supporters of presidential candidate Ron Paul Saturday handily defeated an attempt to scale back the platform’s stringent limitation on using American troops on foreign soil. They beat back an attempt by delegate Ritajane Boyce of Spokane to swap the platform’s position on the...

McDonald's will up the ante in the coffee wars Friday by offering free small lattes during breakfast hours in the Seattle market. The 112 restaurants in the Seattle region are the latest to offer McCafe espresso drinks. Prices range from $1.59 for an Americano to $3.29 for a large mocha. A small 12-ounce latte costs $1.99. To correspond with the Western Washington launch, McDonald's has created a Web site: unsnobbycoffee.com. "No crazy names or sizes. No second language required," the site advertises. "Hang out. Have fun. And don't leave without your free espresso coupon." Consumers can play an ad-lib game,...

Any hopes salmon fishermen had for even token chinook fishing in Oregon faded Thursday when federal fisheries managers adopted the most restrictive limits on West Coast salmon fisheries in history.The recommendation by the Pacific Fishery Management Council allows fishing for 9,000 hatchery coho salmon off Central Oregon. No other salmon fishing will be allowed south of Cape Falcon, a point between Seaside and Tillamook.That eliminates a fishery that has typically been one of the richest on the West Coast, averaging catches of more than 800,000 chinook annually from 2000 to 2005.Salmon fishing north of Cape Falcon and in Washington...