Free Republic

Two Pierce County Sheriff's deputies responding to a domestic violence call tonight were involved in a shooting. The shooting happened at about 9 p.m. Officers from multiple agencies are responding. The suspect was also shot, according to police radio traffic.

Led by a spike in robberies and assaults, the violent crime rate in Seattle increased by more than 21 percent during the first part of this year compared to last.FBI crime statistics released Monday showed there were 1,927 incidents of violent crime (murder, rape, robbery and assault) from January to June in 2009. That compares to 1,582 incidents during the same time period in 2008. Murders were down - eight during the period this year compared to 15 in 2008. There were 55 reported rapes compared to 65 last year. There were 908 reports of robbery compared to 707...

Senator wants to ban semi-automatic weapons      By HEATHER BOSCH KIRO Radio  Expect to hear a lot about gun control when the legislature reconvenes in January. Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles is among those who want to ban the sale of military-style, semi-automatic weapons. "These are guns that I don't see have any function in our society." Kohl-Welles said she was prompted to act after the murder of Seattle Police Officer Tim Brenton. "He was believed to be killed by a semi-automatic assault weapon. Of course, we also had the killing of several other police officers not by assault weapons....

This is a quick look at the 5 main candidates currently running for the United States Senate against Patty Murray. I say main candidates because, Wayne Glover a trucker , and Rod Rieger have created websites but neither have gained any traction. This is the race that will be at the top of the ticket in Washington and so far the GOP has struggled to come up with a credible candidate. I am currently undecided in this race, but wanted to lay out the negatives and positives of each candidate as I saw them. I will do a post in...

SEATTLE - Police say an 18-foot-tall totem pole stolen from a West Seattle park has been found about 200 miles away in Oregon. The Seattle Times reports a 69-year-old West Seattle man led investigators to the pole. Police say he apparently had a crew with a crane help move the totem, but it's unclear if the crew knew the man didn't have permission to take the landmark.

Today In Irony: Robert Henry Smith, Rainier Beach High School Drug Prevention Counselor, Indicted On Drug Charges By Vernal Coleman in Crime & Punishment Friday, Dec. 11 2009 @ 4:47PM   Staff Photo: Rainier Beach High School Robert Smith   If you're hiring a person to ward the kids off getting involved with drugs, you hire a guy who has previously been prosecuted on federal drug charges.   Of course, that logic falls apart when the person you've hired goes from preventing back to pushing. Enter Robert Henry Smith, the Rainier Beach High School drug and alcohol prevention counselor who...

Boeing said Thursday evening that the first flight of its 787-8 long-range jet is set for 10 a.m., Dec. 15 in Everett, Wash. The first of six test airplanes, ZA001, is due to take off from Payne Field next to the airplane's final assembly factory north of Seattle. Chief Pilot Michael H. Carriker and copilot Randall Neville will conduct low- and high-speed taxi tests that take the airplane to the threshold of flight in preparation for Tuesday's events. Once airborne, Carriker and Neville are not expected to return ZA001 to Everett. They will land at Boeing Field in Seattle, headquarters...

Tuesday, thousands of people mourned their deaths with a touching memorial service. How did Mike Huckabee honor the victims? He appeared on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" to promote his book.

Portland has the 19th worst traffic congestion in the country, with 23 percent of the city’s roads having “heavy delays,” according to a report released Wednesday.Seattle’s road woes are the worst, followed by Los Angeles at No. 2, with 38 percent of its roads having heavy delays, followed by Chicago (37 percent), San Francisco (35 percent) and New York City (31 percent), according to global positioning system (GPS) company TomTom of Concord, Mass.The company ranked cities as most to least congested according to how fast cars could travel on the street network. Traffic was defined as congested if drivers...

When Maurice Clemmons, the man suspected of killing four Lakewood police officers, walked free from a Pierce County jail last week, it wasn't for lack of effort on the part of Washington officials to keep him behind bars.Documents released Tuesday show that a wide variety of state and local officials — everyone from prosecutors to sheriff's deputies to corrections officers — viewed Clemmons as a dangerous man, and wanted desperately to keep him in custody.But Washington officials encountered resistance from an unlikely source — their correctional colleagues in Arkansas. The acrimony has since become so intense, according to Pierce...

Police trying to hunt down a man suspected of the execution-style killings of four of their colleagues burst into a house in Seattle today after spending the night trying to talk him out of the building - only to find that he was not there. The setback came after a night of loudspeaker warnings, explosions and gunshots all apparently designed to flush Maurice Clemmons, a convicted armed robber, out of the house. Mr Clemmons, 37, is the prime suspect in the case and witnesses to the murders yesterday morning in a coffee shop on the edge of the McChord Air...

Nov. 25, 2009 TURKEY TROT: Palin scheduled to run in Kennewick race By Kristi Pihl, Herald staff writer Kennewick Sarah Palin and her family are registered for the Benton-Franklin Chapter of the Red Cross’ Turkey Trot, which begins 7:30 a.m. tomorrow. The Red Cross has not hired security for the race, but has informed the Kennewick Police Department that Palin may be attending, said Jeanne Jelke, executive director of the Benton-Franklin Chapter of the Red Cross. The event features a one-mile fun run/walk and a 5K run in Columbia Park in Kennewick. About 3,000 people are expected, she said. Registration...

"Going Rogue" Book Tour Dates Through Thanksgiving     Today at 2:59pm Here are some details of the upcoming book tour. I’m starting in Michigan and you’ll understand why when you read the book. Last year, I made a promise to the good people of Michigan that I would be back, and now I’m keeping that promise. (Michigan is near and dear to my family’s heart! Our eldest son, Track, lived with a great host family there during his hockey days.) From Michigan, the “Going Rogue” tour will cover as much of the country as possible. I’ve decided to stop...

A year ago Saturday, Tacoma garage-rock legends, The Sonics, showed us they still had it with a fierce, swaggering set at Seattle's Paramount Theatre, their first local performance since the Nixon administration. And as this Halloween approaches there's more Sonics news that's so good it's scary. Lead howler Jerry Roslie tells me his band is close to finishing four new songs with Seattle super-producer Jack Endino. The new song titles are "Bad Attitude," "Vampire Kiss," "Cheap Shades" and "Don't Back Down," Roslie told me this afternoon. And though he's not sure exactly how they will be released at this point,...

SEATTLE -- Seattle Parks and Recreation on Wednesday put into effect a new rule banning the possession or display of firearms at playgrounds, community centers and other places where children are likely to be.   Firearms will be prohibited at designated facilities once signs are posted notifying people of the new rule. The first signs are to be posted Friday, with the rest up by Dec. 1.   In all, the rule will be applied at more than 500 parks, recreation centers, pools, beaches and golf courses.

Some Washington Mayors Are Gunning to Take Away Your Rights By Mark Knapp | 09/19/09 | 02:58 AM EDT   Yakima Mayor Edler recently announced that he joined Mayor Bloomberg’s Mayors Against Illegal Guns (MAIG). Yakima is dealing with a string of gang-related shootings that have rocked the City of Yakima. MAIG’s Mission Statement declares: “We support the Second Amendment and the rights of citizens to own guns.”   The anti-gun mayors’ group does not support the right to bear arms, however. MAIG has stated that “a policy that is appropriate for a small town in one region of...

The city just installed high-tech cameras that catch every car that rolls through the city limits. And city residents say they are willing to give up privacy for protection. Resident Kay Stelter says she feels a little better knowing that there are an extra set of eyes keeping tabs. "I do, even though it makes me nervous that it's me that they're seeing," she said. For years, people in Medina have relied on gates to protect their homes and property. But now they've added surveillance video. The Medina City Council approved the cameras after Medina reported 11 burglaries in 2008...

Explosive Ordnance Disposal Marine Breaks Bomb Suit Run World Record 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing Public Affairs Story by Cpl. Ryan YoungDate: 09.11.2009Posted: 09.11.2009 12:37   SAHL SINJAR AIRFIELD, Iraq – The morning sky over Sahl Sinjar, Iraq, is barely lit by the sun, which has not yet broken past the horizon as most Marines throughout the forward operating base are getting their final moments of sleep. Meanwhile, a Marine explosive ordnance disposal technician sits on the back steps of a mine resistant ambush protected vehicle parked in the sand near a desolate stretch of road aboard the base. The...

SEATTLE — At least 2,000 students at Washington State University have reported symptoms of the H1N1 flu virus, university and local health officials said, in what appeared to be one of the largest outbreaks of the virus on a college campus. “It’s real,” Sally Redman, a registered nurse who works in student health services at Washington State, said Saturday. “We’ve had a constant stream of people.” So far, the cases at the university have been relatively mild, although at least two people in the area who are not students were hospitalized. The university, based in Pullman, in eastern Washington near...

PULLMAN, Wash. — Washington State University officials say more than 2,000 students have been sickened by swine flu during the first two weeks of classes on the Pullman campus. But Saturday's football game between Stanford and Washington State will go on as scheduled. School officials say there have been no deaths and no students have required hospitalization. Dr. Dennis Garcia says most students suffer three to five days of discomfort. The school is handing out free flu kits including a thermometer, painkillers, throat lozenges, sport drinks, hand sanitizer and tissues.

An upcoming speech on health care was touted last week by Sen. Maria Cantwell's press office. It was then delayed by a few hours. Then, the speech was deep-sixed as Cantwell flew to Spokane for the weekend. No mention of the speech has come this week, as the Senate wrapped up its work before the August recess. Has Washington's junior senator adopted a long-ago motto of Virginia Sen. Harry Byrd: Silence is golden? Cantwell is a member of the Senate Finance Committee. A bipartisan group of six committee members - not including Cantwell - is trying to hammer out a...

Wash. Gay Partnership Foes Turn in Signatures OLYMPIA, Wash. -- Sponsors of a campaign to overturn Washington state's domestic partnership law turned in their petition signatures Saturday and said they believe they have enough to force a public vote. The expanded "everything but marriage" domestic partnership law was scheduled to take effect Sunday, but is now delayed until the signatures can be counted, a process that could take up to a month. To qualify for the November ballot, supporters of Referendum 71 must have 120,577 voter signatures. Supporters say they have about 138,000 signatures. "I feel our signatures are pretty...

OLYMPIA, Wash. — The Supreme Court in Washington state on Thursday unanimously reinstated a $14 million award to a family who sued a tavern and a bartender after one of the bar's customers drove away from the establishment and collided with their car, leaving a 7-year-old-boy a paraplegic.

Former Vancouver police officer Clyde Ray Spencer spent nearly 20 years in prison after he was convicted of sexually molesting his son and daughter. Now, the children say it never happened.Matthew Spencer and Kathryn Tetz, who live in Sacramento, Calif., each took the stand Friday in Clark County Superior Court to clear their father's name, The Columbian newspaper reported.Matthew, now 33, was 9 years old at the time. He told a judge he made the allegation after months of insistent questioning by now-retired Clark County sheriff's detective Sharon Krause just so she would leave him alone.Tetz, 30, said she...

Video for Vietnam Vets Veterans Memorial Museum in Chehalis, WA We shall Never Forget your service

“Never before have so few stolen so much from so many for so little.” -Jefferson Paine Open Letter to: Mr. David Reichert Republican Representative Washington State Delegation June 30th, 2009 Dear Mr. Reichert, Please, resign your seat in the U.S. House of Representatives because of your “Yes” vote in favor of the abominable “Cap and Trade” or “Climate Change” bill - and without having even read the final bill in its entirety before voting on it. Your egregious voting record does not represent me, or of any Republican that I know. Since your debut in Congress, I have been watching...

SULTAN, Wash. (AP) -- Five teens were charged Friday with second-degree murder in the beating and stabbing death of a 17-year-old Marysville youth in this Snohomish County town.

LONGVIEW, Wash. (AP) — The Cowlitz County sheriff's office said a driver went at least three miles on I-5 near Castle Rock in reverse. Deputy Ryan Cruser said a 41-year-old Canadian was arrested about 8:30 p.m.

Tempers Flare Over Potentially Making Bellingham A Sanctuary City For AWOL Soldiers BELLINGHAM - A heated community meeting was held tonight at the Bellingham Municipal Building over whether the City should become a sanctuary for AWOL soldiers. Bellingham City Council Chambers was jam-packed and at times raucous Monday night, as supporters and opponents of a plan that would allow AWOL soldiers to seek refuge in Bellingham gathered for a public forum. Students from Western Washington University and local military veterans who started G.I. Sanctuary City Movement asked the city for the meeting. Gulf War Veteran Matt Bambara says war objectors...

Joseph Hooks is a Seattle city employee and a commissioner on the Washington state Commission on African American Affairs...police say the [three month] delay [in charging Hooks with beating a white man] had nothing to do with his Hook's professional life...A few days after the incident, Hooks spoke with KOMO News. He first claimed he didn't remember a fight, but later said he had acted in self-defense...[The white victim, Michael] McBain's injuries were so severe he's had to put some of his medical studies at the University of Washington on hold. He may need surgery to repair his eye.

The man accused of killing former radio talk-show host Mike Webb two years ago pleaded guilty this morning to second-degree murder. King County prosecutors plan to seek a sentence of more than 12 years in prison for Scott White, who had originally been charged with first-degree murder. White, 29, had been living with Webb in Seattle's Queen Anne neighborhood for six months when he killed Webb with an ax and hid his body in the crawl space, authorities said. Webb's body was found on June 28, 2007. Webb, who had once been the host of a host of a late-night...

VERLOT -- The Snohomish County Medical Examiner on Tuesday identified Daniel L. Wasilchen as the man killed by deputies Friday night. Wasilchen, 44, died from multiple gunshot wounds to his torso, the medical examiner said. His death was ruled a homicide. The shooting apparently was linked to a disagreement over removal of noxious weeds on Wasilchen's property. The county's noxious weed coordinator reportedly was going door-to-door Friday seeking homeowner permission to use an herbicide. Wasilchen became confrontational and threatened to get a gun, officials said. The weed coordinator called 911.

FEDERAL WAY, Wash., May 21 (UPI) -- Police in Washington state said a suspect used his genitals as a puppet while standing over an air conditioner intake at an apartment complex. The police report of the incident said Timothy Wayne Martin, 44, of Auburn, Wash., was arrested after residents of the Arcadia Apartment Complex in Federal Way called police at about 10:30 a.m. May 13 and reported a man standing over an air conditioner intake wearing only an unbuttoned flannel shirt and "was apparently manipulating" his penis with a string "like a puppet," Seattlepi.com reported Thursday. Police said Martin was...

SEATTLE - The odyssey of Mary Kay Letourneau, which began years ago when she was a 34-year-old teacher who raped a sixth-grade student, has now evolved into "Hot for Teacher" night at a Pioneer Square bar. But the bar's owner says the event is all in fun, and he hopes people take it in the right spirit. Letourneau, who eventually served time for raping her former student then later married him after her release from prison, will be hosting the event Saturday at Fuel Sports Eats & Beats on Washington Street. Letourneau's former student, Vili Fualaau, will be there, too....

Jim Henson he's not. A 44-year-old man was arrested earlier this month after witnesses at a Federal Way apartment complex spotted him using his genitals as a puppet.

Recently I have posted articles ranging from showing that American Muslims are not assimilating and forming their own communities, to Muslims openly calling for jihad just blocks away from Ground Zero. As long as they go unopposed they are going to continue to move forward with their agenda of an Islamic USA. Now two prominent American Muslims are close to finalizing their plan to open an Islamic College right here in America. The school will be lead by two Islamic scholars, the first being Sheik Hamza Yusuf, who in the past had made this statement.

Golf balls are bombarding the Port of Everett and anti-terrorism cameras are being trained on a residential neighborhood to hunt down the source.Port officials believe someone on Rucker Hill is whacking golf balls down the hill onto port property, endangering dozens of workers and millions of dollars worth of equipment and cargo."We're trying to use any means possible to stop it, aside from posting somebody in the field of fire all day and night," said Ed Madura, a port security official.The port says the flying golf balls constitute a threat to personal safety. Pointing video surveillance cameras toward the...

Our Congress with the help of Republicans is squeezing out private charity with paid "volunteers." They are paid - AmericaCorps - but called volunteers; it sound so good. What do they work on? What the politicians want; you have no say. And they tripled its funding. But what if there aren't enough volunteers for paid "volunteer" service. Force! It might be unconstitutional under the 13th Amendment's ban on involuntary servitude. But Jim McDermott (D, Washington) wants your children to serve his favorite causes. Robert Knight at Townhall ... Mandatory national service has reemerged in HR 1442, the "Congressional Commission on...

Three teenagers have pleaded guilty in the beating death of Seattle's "Tuba Man," but none will spend more than 72 weeks in juvenile detention for their crimes. ... Ed McMichael, 53, a quirky character known for playing everything from Black Sabbath to Bread on his tuba while outside Seattle sporting events, was pummeled by a group of teens after midnight on Oct. 25 last year. ... The Garfield student admitted, Satterberg said, to delivering one unprovoked punch to McMichael's head, knocking down the Tuba Man. Others in the mob kicked McMichael as he lay in the fetal position and rifled...

FEDERAL WAY, Wash. — Police are checking surveillance video as they try to identify people who beat a man at the Federal Way Transit Center. The 32-year-old Kent man was waiting for a bus Tuesday night when he asked another man to quiet down. The Kent man was knocked down and beaten. He was treated for a broken jaw and other facial bones at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle.

The state Department of Ecology in 1996 officially declared Burnt Bridge Creek to be severely polluted with fecal coliform. The environmental regulators, it turns out, had unwittingly contributed to the problem. This week, Vancouver city workers made a startling discovery near the regional office shared by Ecology and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife at 2108 Grand Blvd. At some point in the building's history, a sewer pipe that was supposed to be connected to the city's sanitary sewer main had been incorrectly connected to a stormwater line instead. "The only thing that's supposed to be in the stormwater...

Six Democratic legislators have introduced a bill to stop Boeing from threatening to move out of Washington. That's right: threatening to move. Such is a silly end to a silly story. The tale begins with a different bill, one that would forbid any company from requiring employees to attend a meeting about labor issues. The bill is organized labor's, which calls it the "Worker Privacy Act." We argued on this page that it violates federal labor law, employers' free-speech rights and simple fairness. At the time, we were told the bill was snake venom to Boeing, and would be just...

Shortly after the murder of 13 year-old Alicia Nipp in Hazel Dell, Washington State Republican Senator Don Benton tried once again to get stronger sentencing for sex predators in Washington State. Benton said, “Clark County is up in arms about this. All of us representing Clark County are receiving e-mails asking what can be done. It is just horrific.” “Ladies and gentlemen I ask you to join me today to send a strong message to these heinous criminals, these horrific predators that prey on our children and our communities that Washington state will not be a haven for this kind...

Cat Credited With Waking Up Bremerton Woman Amid Fire By Derek Sheppard (Contact) Monday, March 2, 2009   BREMERTON — In a rare role reversal, it was the cat who helped out the firefighters.More importantly, it was a cat who saved a woman's life with what would normally be a routine annoyance for cat owners — the early-morning face pawing.Around 6:45 a.m. Saturday, an elderly Bremerton woman's Veldee Avenue home filled with smoke billowing through the vents from the home's heater.The smoke alarm was going off, but she didn't hear it.Good thing she has a cat.The feline, whose name...

President Barack Obama will "likely" name Gary Locke, the first Chinese-American governor in US history as his pick for Commerce Secretary, a senior administration official said Monday.

The Legislature is debating bills that would allow police to impound the cars of people arrested on prostitution-related charges.

The Washington women who compete for the dream of becoming Miss USA are each year met with a hard choice: Take on thousands of dollars of debt or fall behind the competition.   Tara Turnure is the Miss Washington USA 2009 (Pageants NW) "This is a little bit of a shock when you don't know what it's going to take," said Tara Turnure, a 22-year-old Seattle native and Washington's representative at April's Miss USA pageant. "Now I'm like, 'Gosh, I leave in six weeks, and I'm still seeking sponsorship.'"On Tuesday Turnure sent out a press release through her personal...

"Climate refugees." It's a term we should get used to, researchers warned on Thursday, predicting a flood of new residents driven north by heat waves, fires and other calamitous effects of global warming. With one speaker raising the specter of a new migration on the scale of the Great Depression, state and county officials admitted they have barely started getting ready. The warnings came at a conference of planners, scientists and government officials drilling into the results of a study released this week examining what Washington faces -- for our food supply, our forests, our drinking-water supplies and public health,...

Washington States own Senior Senator, Patty Murray, tennis shoed lovable little mouse that she is, has joyfully announced how she and other Democrats have locked arms and decided to “stick it to the poor” people they claim to care about and want to help. Of course that isn’t exactly what she says, but that is the obvious outcome of their strong support and passing of the Children’s Health Insurance Program, CHIP. After all the bleeding heart fearmongering of children receiving no health care today and all the millions of dollars that will come to Washington State, Murray unwittingly reveals how...