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The committee voted unanimously this morning to send the proposal to the full city council for consideration next Monday, according to the Seattle P-I.com. Monday’s vote could set the stage for a legal confrontation, and there were hints that existing gun shops could move out of the city, and that gun owners living in Seattle will simply shop outside the city, thus thwarting any dreams that this tax will generate $300,000 to $500,000 annually for the city’s gun control efforts. Waiting in the legal tall grass are the Bellevue-based Second Amendment Foundation and Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep...

According to a report released Sunday by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), the $15 minimum wage has caused Seattle restaurants to lose 1,000 jobs — the worst decline since the 2009 Great Recession. “The loss of 1,000 restaurant jobs in May following the minimum wage increase in April was the largest one month job decline since a 1,300 drop in January 2009, again during the Great Recession,” AEI Scholar Mark J. Perry noted in the report.

There isn’t a far-left issue that the Seattle City Council hasn’t passed or considered passing. So you just knew that they would get around to screwing gun owners in some novel and inventive way. How about a $25 tax on every firearm sold? Add to that a 5 cent tax on every cartridge and you have the typical liberal assault on law-abiding gun owners. But that’s only part of the package. There’s also a provision to require gun owners to report the theft or loss of any firearm within 24 hours. [Snip] The tax is expected to bring $300-500,000 a...

Bernie Sanders was forced to exit the stage of his own rally in Seattle by Black Lives Matter agitators. They would also disrupted Sanders and Martin O'Malley during their appearance at the Netroots Convention in Phoenix last month and cut considerably into their speaking time. SNIP Could Taibbi please tell me exactly how many Republican presidential candidates have been forced off the stage of their own rallies? SNIP

Bernie Sanders could #feelthebern of the “Black Lives Matter” protesters Saturday after they disrupted — and eventually shut down — his Seattle campaign rally. Chaos broke out after two women stormed the stage as Sanders spoke and commandeered the microphone. What they had to say was apparently more important than anything a candidate for president could muster. One of them, who identified herself as Marissa Johnson, implied the crowd was racist when they booed her demands to speak before Sanders.

Protesters who claimed affiliation with the Black Lives Matter movement stormed the stage during a rally for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in Seattle on Saturday, taking over the microphone and forcing Sanders to leave without ever speaking. Moments after Sanders took the stage at Westlake Park, two women and one man climbed the stage and confronted the Democratic presidential candidate, demanding a chance to speak. After several moments of confusion and confrontation, an event organizer took the microphone and said the protesters would be allowed to speak before Sanders. Some in the crowd booed.

Video at http://www.kirotv.com/videos/news/raw-video-activists-disrupt-rally-featuring-sen/vDYQxq/ SEATTLE — A Social Security and Medicare rally at Westlake Park that featured Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders was interrupted by activists with Black Lives Matter on Saturday afternoon. As Sanders went up to the podium, activists took the stage to protest. Sanders stood aside as the activists spoke. Sanders was scheduled to speak at the event, but due to the disruption the event ended. [snip]

A planned speech in Seattle by presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders celebrating the anniversary of Social Security and Medicare was scuttled Saturday after protesters from a Black Lives Matter chapter took the stage and demanded that the crowd hold Sanders “accountable” for not doing enough, in their view, to address police brutality and other issues on the group’s agenda.

Gov. John Hickenlooper has pledged that Colorado will comply with the EPA’s Clean Power Plan, but this effort to cut so-called “CO2 pollution” could come at a dear price to the state’s coal industry. ... Colorado is among the top states in coal production and consumption. In the year 2013, 64 percent of energy produced in Colorado came from coal, 20 percent from natural gas, and around 15 percent from various renewables including hydroelectric, biomass, solar and wind. The history of Colorado’s coal mining industry stretches over the past two centuries. Not to mention, coal jobs have a multiplier effect...

The sage grouse population has exploded in the last two years, growing by nearly two-thirds from more than 49,000 males in 2013 to more than 80,000 this year. ... This is encouraging news for the bird, and for the people whose lives would be turned upside down by the federal government if it still insists on listing the critter as an endangered species on the brink of extinction. The report considered the population across the bird’s 11-state habitat, with specific news on the growth in Colorado numbers ... The report falls on the heels of a gloom and doom forecast...

The number of states announcing investigations or reviews into Planned Parenthood keeps growing, as do the videos released by the Center for Medical Progress showing top Planned Parenthood employees discussing their fetal parts business. Unfortunately though, some state governors, all Democrats, have turned down the call from their legislatures to investigate Planned Parenthood. Governor Terry McAuliffe of Virginia and Governor Mark Dayton of Minnesota, and now Governor Jay Inslee of Washington state have come out against investigating to see if illegal fetal harvesting is taking place at Planned Parenthood affiliates in their state. Inslee also took the requests as an...

When Dan Price, CEO of the Seattle-based credit card payment processing firm Gravity Payments, announced he was raising the company's minimum salary to $70,000 a year, he was met with overwhelming enthusiasm. But in the weeks since then, it's become clear that not everyone is equally pleased. Among the critics? Some of Price's own employees. Two of the company's "most valued" members have left the company, "spurred in part by their view that it was unfair to double the pay of some new hires while the longest-serving staff members got small or no raises." Maisey McMaster — once a big...

Link only: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/higher-wages-a-surprising-success-for-seattle-restaurant/

Gov. Jay Inslee has sharply rebuffed a campaign demanding that the state investigate and defund Planned Parenthood, describing it as the work of “national extremist organizations” trying to eliminate a vital source of health care for women, particularly poor women. The Governor’s statement came after a letter to Inslee by seven Republican legislators demanded that the state stop funding Planned Parenthood, and a letter from 34 GOP lawmakers asking Attorney General Bob Ferguson to investigate whether Planned Parenthood has been selling organs from aborted babies for financial gain. “Planned Parenthood provides millions of women across the country access to a...

One of the Senate’s biggest supporters of firearm background checks is renewing calls for Congress to fix the system in the light of a deadly theater shooting in Lafayette, La. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said Sunday that Congress should “shut down the loophole” that allows some mentally ill people, like the Louisiana movie theater shooter, to slip through the government’s system for vetting gun sales. “Right now, I need Republican help,” said Manchin, a moderate Democrat has led the push to reform background checks. “I need my friends on the Republican side of the aisle to help us with a...

SEATTLE--“They’ve taken an area that was formerly a home for gay people, for queer people, for artists,” says John Criscitello while showing me around Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, “and they’ve turned it into a destination drinking spot.” Criscitello, an artist who lives and works on Capitol Hill, is 48 years old but looks a decade younger. He’s tall and muscled, with tattoos covering most of his skin and blue eyes that stand out against the gloomy Seattle sky. He hasn’t been in the city long — he moved from New York just four years ago — but in that short...

The first phase in of Seattle’s $15 an hour minimum wage has been in effect for a little more than 3 months and there are already signs of trouble. The wage, to be phased in over several years, is needed, say proponents, because so many workers who have full time jobs are on public assistance. Many companies raised their employee’s wages beyond the $11 an hour mandated by the law, which has led to some curious results. Employees are begging their bosses to cut their hours so they can keep their food stamps, housing assistance, and other welfare benefits. Yes,...

The state of Washington can require a pharmacy to deliver medicine even if the pharmacy's owner has a religious objection, a federal appeals court ruled on Thursday, the latest in a series of judgments on whether religious believers can opt out of providing services.

A proposal in Seattle meant to increase homeownership among Muslims by offering financing compliant with strict Islamic law -- known as Sharia -- is gaining ground in the latest test for local leaders trying to accommodate diverse religious beliefs. "We will work to develop new tools for Muslims who are prevented from using conventional mortgage products due to their religious beliefs," Seattle Mayor Ed Murray said during a press conference July 13. "Sharia," which comes from the Koran and means "the right path," prohibits the payment of interest -- the primary way lenders earn. Many of Seattle's 30,000 practicing Muslims,...

Seattle’s $15 minimum wage law is supposed to lift workers out of poverty and move them off public assistance. But there may be a hitch in the plan. Evidence is surfacing that some workers are asking their bosses for fewer hours as their wages rise – in a bid to keep overall income down so they don’t lose public subsidies for things like food, child care and rent.