Free Republic

The bar exam will no longer be required to become a lawyer in Washington, the state Supreme Court ruled in a pair of orders Friday. The court approved alternative ways to show competency and earn a law license after appointing a task force to examine the issue in 2020. The Bar Licensure Task Force found that the traditional exam “disproportionally and unnecessarily blocks” marginalized groups from becoming practicing attorneys and is “at best minimally effective” for ensuring competency, according to a news release from the Washington Administrative Office of the Courts. Washington is the second state to not require the...

Five competitive cyclists – women in their 50s and 60s – met at the Tokul Creek trail north of Snoqualmie. At the yellow gate before riding into the deep forest, the women took a group selfie. They had no premonition that 19 miles in, a young male cougar would attack one of them, and that they’d spend 45 minutes in a battle for their lives. The first cougar, presumably the mother or a sibling, ran off. But the younger one paused … and then lunged at Keri Bergere, 60, who was biking a few paces ahead of him. “Looking to...

TACOMA, Wash. — Two teens accused in a Sumner armed robbery and shooting appeared at Remann Hall Juvenile Court in Tacoma. A 15-year-old suspect came before a judge on Wednesday and a 14-year-old suspect on Thursday. The two teens are accused of multiple counts of robbery, assault and taking a motor vehicle without permission. The 14-year-old suspect is also accused of unlawful possession of a firearm. The two teens allegedly robbed a woman at gunpoint at the WinCo Foods parking lot in Sumner on Nov. 20, 2023. umner Police say they both took off in her car and fired shots...

Twenty-three Democrat run states and the District of Columbia, the home of our nation’s capital, filed amicus briefs in support of government censorship and banning of free speech in the United States. These 23 states and the District of Columbia filed amicus briefs in support of the Biden administration in the SCOTUS case is Murthy, et al v. Missouri, et al, 23-411 (Missouri v. Biden) case. The states essentially argue that they have an interest in collaborating with tech companies to “encourage” the public to behave themselves and “discourage” the public from believing alleged “disinformation” or engaging in online predatory...

BELLINGHAM, Wash. — A Mexican drug trafficker faces the potential of decades in federal prison after the Drug Enforcement Agency arrested him for peddling fentanyl from a homeless encampment in Bellingham. Prosecutors say Rigoberto Vasquez-Martinez, 32, had a "fortified compound" inside the encampment, which included armed security around the structure where he stayed. The city of Bellingham is in the process of trying to clear the encampment behind the Walmart on Stuart Road after years of shootings, explosions, overdoses, and drug crimes. According to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Seattle, Vasquez-Martinez was a significant supplier of drugs in Bellingham and...

Scientists have detected a 'great swarm' of earthquakes off the coast of Washington clocking as many as 200 in a single hour during one day. Geologists at the University of Washington said the quakes could lead to the Juan de Ruca Ridge erupting within a few weeks or years - but the effects are believed to be mild and not likely impact anyone on land. The underwater volcano sits more than 16,000 feet below the Pacific Ocean and about 150 miles off the coast of Washington. With more than a thousand tiny quakes detected in one day, this is the...

When Clay T. (Tom) Whitehead arrived at the Old Executive Office Building on August 7, 1974, dressed as a cowboy, he surely didn’t want to run into Henry Kissinger. Whitehead was supposed to be on vacation in the Rockies, but a last-minute emergency meant he had to stay in D.C. “Well, you know, I got tied up for a little while,” he explained to President Richard Nixon’s powerful National Security Advisor. Kissinger, ever paranoid about being out of the loop, protested: “What is going on here? Something is going on here.” What was going on had started three months earlier...

SEATTLE — The suspect accused of hitting and killing a Washington State Patrol (WSP) trooper on I-5 in Marysville early Saturday morning is a citizen of Mexico living in the United States "unlawfully," according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The 32-year-old man, with a Lynnwood address, is being held on charges related to vehicular homicide. He "entered the U.S. at an unknown date and time, without admission or parole by an immigration officer, and was first encountered by (Enforcement and Removal Operations) Seattle Oct. 28, 2013, at the South Correctional Entity, Burien, WA, following his arrest for failure...

The far left leaning Senate is about to try and kill the first amendment. Senate Bill 5427, after it is signed into law, would allow private individuals (note: this is not limited to American citizens) to report “bias incidents*” (see definition below) to the State Attorney General’s Office, with the possibility of receiving up to $2,000 of taxpayers money for this noncriminal incident. The bill was very clear: this is a non-crime which they will then forward to local law enforcement to investigate. What’s to investigate? No crime, no investigation.

Democrat Election Lawyer Marc Elias Brags: Trump Can’t Get Fair Trial in DCDemocrat election lawyer Marc E. Elias boasted Sunday that President Donald Trump cannot receive a fair trial in the District of Columbia, after noting the small number of votes Trump received Saturday in the Republican primary there.FAIR TRIAL

A city council meeting in Seattle became so unruly with far-left activists that councilmembers had to take several recesses and a handful of people wound up in handcuffs. On Tuesday, hundreds of activists, many of them wearing face masks, marched outside Seattle City Hall and flooded the chamber inside, demanding that local leaders allocate more resources toward immigrant housing rather than fund "racist" police equipment. The protestors included members of far-left groups such as Stop the Sweeps Seattle and Comunidad Sin Fronteras. "We need housing now!" they chanted in unison before one ringleader, believed to be Rosario Lopez Hernandez, rattled...

A Washington Councilwoman was caught on camera having a heated exchange with unhoused people earlier this month. 'Y'all need to move because you're trespassing,' Burien Councilwoman Linda Akey can be heard telling a group of unhoused people outside her condo building in footage taken on February 10. Akey and her husband can be heard telling the group outside their tents of the city ordinance prohibiting camping on public property between 7 pm and 6 am. 'I live here and you do not belong here. You are trespassing right now,' Akey tells one individual in front of the Burien Town Square...

Mystery surrounds a secret trip by Squad members Ilhan Omar and Pramila Japayal to Communist Cuba that coincided with a visit by Russia's foreign minister Sergei Lavrov. The two leaders of the Democrats progressive caucus sparked fury when details of last week's trip emerged with top Republicans accusing them of a Communist 'pilgrimage.' -snip- 'No surprise that the Hamas Caucus made a pilgrimage to Cuba last week to get a refresher course on communism to bring back to DC,' tweeted Florida Congressman Mike Waltz.

TUKWILA, Wash. — The victim of a random drive-by shooting on Interstate 5 in Tukwila suffered serious injuries after a bullet struck his spinal cord. Evan Hershey was shot multiple times on southbound Interstate 5 in Tukwila on Monday, Feb. 19. According to Washington State Patrol (WSP) Trooper Rick Johnson, the victim was driving a 2015 Ford Mustang on southbound I-5 near I-405 when they were shot around 11 p.m. "We don’t know what to say, so we will do our best to share what we can," the Hershey family said. "Evan, our son, brother, and friend, needs our help."...

JBLM Army doctor was formally arraigned on Friday in what has been described as the largest sexual assault case of its type in military history. Michael Stockin said little during the brief arraignment at the Cascade Courthouse Complex as part of an Article 120 hearing. He stands accused of sexually assaulting at least four dozen men during his time as a pain management doctor at Madigan Army Hospital at JBLM. Stockin deferred entering a plea during his first court appearance Friday, which is allowed in military court. A charging sheet obtained by KOMO News claims that Stockin abused the soldiers...

In a terrible case of mistaken identity, KGW found PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center in Vancouver allowed a family to pull the plug on the wrong man. The family of a Vancouver man faced a heavy decision after an unexpected phone call in the middle of the night. Their loved one was on life support, hospital staff told them, after a horrible choking incident. “They said, 'He’s basically brain dead,'” explained Debbie Danielson. “'Do you want us to keep him on life support or do you want to pull the plug?'” After a brief discussion with her husband, Danielson told the...

“The commander in chief expressed ‘disapprobation of such disorderly proceedings’ (ad hoc mass meeting of officers) as the illegally called meeting. He summoned a meeting of his own for the following Saturday, March 15, 1783. This was probably the most important single gathering ever held in the United States. Supposing, as seemed only too possible, Washington should fail to prevent military intervention in civil government?

Radical-left activist and former politician Nina Turner marked Presidents’ Day, the holiday officially named “Washington’s Birthday,” by attempting to vilify America’s first president and founding father as well as other early U.S. presidents. In a post from Monday, Turner, a one-time Ohio state senator and current Senior fellow at Institute on Race, Power and Political Economy, wrote: “Reminder: George Washington owned human beings.” Reminder: George Washington owned human beings. — Nina Turner (@ninaturner) February 19, 2024 In a follow-up post, she insisted “this President’s Day we must remember that 12 of the first 15 Presidents enslaved other human beings.” “We...

He was the greatest American. Don't settle for less.“First in war, first in peace and first in the hearts of his countrymen. He was second to none in the humble and endearing scenes of private life; pious, just, humane, temperate and sincere; uniform, dignified and commanding, his example was as edifying to all around him, as were the effects of that example lasting.“To his equals he was condescending; to his inferiors kind; and to the dear object of his affections exemplarily tender: Correct throughout, vice shuddered in his presence, and virtue always felt his fostering hand; the purity of his...

Joe Kent, a Republican 3rd Congressional District candidate, believes the Yelm and Rainier communities are a crucial factor in his second attempt running for a seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. That’s why he visited Mr. Dougs in Yelm on Thursday, Feb. 8 for a meet and greet with approximately 50 supporters in attendance. Despite only a portion of southern Thurston County being represented in the 3rd District, Kent said the region is “key” to his candidacy. “Yelm and Rainier and this little sliver of Thurston County is very important because it’s a very conservative district. We did very...