News For Reasonable People

Seattle Police and anti-police protesters ended 2020 in a familiar fashion on Capitol Hill with clashes and arrests near the 12th Ave youth jail and the East Precinct after reports of property damage and more broken glass at an area business targeted in previous attacks. Friday morning, owner Faizel Khan was sweeping up glass from busted windows at his Cafe Argento on 12th Ave at E Olive St. Khan’...

On Friday, Mayor Ted Wheeler called for stiffer penalties for those who repeatedly engage in destruction and vandalism. A riot in downtown Portland on New Year's Eve reportedly caused tens of thousands of dollars of damage. Authorities say dozens of people vandalized businesses by spray painting them and breaking windows. At least three people were arrested. At press conference on Friday, Jan...

Vandals lashed out at the leaders of the U.S. House and Senate over the holiday weekend, blighting their homes with graffiti and in one case a pig's head as Congress failed to approve an increase in the amount of money being sent to individuals to help cope with the coronavirus pandemic. Spray paint on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's door in Kentucky on Saturday read, "WERE...

Portland police declared a riot just before 11 p.m. local time on New Year's Eve after protesters broke windows, shot off fireworks and set fires near the federal courthouse, CBS News affiliate KOIN reported. Less than half an hour later Portland police advanced on the protesters, who responded by shooting fireworks at them, KOIN said. Department of Homeland Security officers, who've bee...

Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler promised to hold violent demonstrators accountable in a press conference hosted after two straight days of vandalization and clashes with police. Wheeler said Friday that he would organize a meeting with local and state law enforcement to determine a response to “anarchist violence” in the city. Police said Friday that demonstrators launched fireworks at a federal courth...

What’s the cause of the “mayhem in the streets” that has taken over sidewalks in the outer boroughs? Sure, everyone points the finger at the incompetence and stupidity of Mayor de Blasio. Gotham’s astonishing decline on his watch is an indisputable matter of record, and as we head into the last year of his reign of error, it’s no surprise that things are getting worse. But the street-level chaos T...

A group of people experiencing homelessness that was staying in a Fife motel without paying for the rooms has left the property, according to police. The group was organized by advocacy organization Tacoma Housing Now, which booked 16 rooms at a Travelodge in Fife, and paid for one night on Christmas Eve. However, the group refused to leave and pressured the city and county government to step up a...

Barstool Sports has raised over $6 million this holiday season for small businesses struggling amidst lockdowns and the pandemic. The company announced on Christmas that its fundraising efforts, which started just over a week ago, surpassed $6 million from 57,404 different donors. Founder of Barstool Sports Dave Portnoy introduced the Barstool Fund Dec. 17 on Twitter. He said he hopes the company...

Members of the Atlanta City Council have proposed a $ 1.6 million plan to create a private police force in one of the wealthiest suburbs a few days after a seven-year-old girl was fatally shot by a stray bullet. Kennedy Maxi died of an injury on Saturday night, five days after being shot in the back of his head while riding in a car with his aunt and mother in Buckhead, Georgia. The girl has just...

Businesses in downtown Portland say crime is on the rise. Multiple bar owners tell KATU they're now taking things into their own hands. Places like Fuse and Candy watched break-ins happen repeatedly, along with stolen cameras and damaged property. Now businesses are coming together, hiring private security to patrol the area. Azim Patel says this comes after trying other measures, like camera...

By the end of November, the official number of separations was 164. Since then, more officers have offered their resignations to take jobs at neighboring agencies. Put bluntly, the city does not have enough officers to keep the area safe. As of this publication date, sources tell me the SPD actually has 191 separations — an all-inclusive term covering resignations, retirements, and firings. The pr...

Portland has seen more homicides this year than it has in almost three decades and more than 850 shootings as of December, which is more than double the number reported in 2019. Portland police says it will take community action to reduce the gun violence the city is seeing. “The number of bullets that must have been flying around our neighborhoods, city streets, sidewalks – it’s awful,” said Port...

On Christmas Eve, a homeless advocacy group booked 16 rooms at the Travelodge Motel at 3518 Pacific Hwy. E. and paid for one night. But now, the group told the motel’s manager they have no plans to check out, or to pay the bill. Monday night, as volunteers from Tacoma Housing Now brought in food and supplies for more than 40 homeless people now occupying the 16 rooms, they told KIRO 7 many of them...

Across the city of Los Angeles, the homeless population has exploded beyond control. Although Los Angeles is not the only community in the United States that is currently struggling with a homelessness problem, encampments are sprouting up along LA streets.  Because homelessness numbers have risen out of control, these encampments are attracting more people and have even been nicknamed McMansions...

A Seattle-area Antifa member, who has been arrested multiple times during violent protests and tweeted out a list of businesses that supported the city's efforts to clean out a homeless encampment, has been identified as a children's camp counselor and substitute teacher.  On Dec. 16, Mikaele Andrew Baker, 23, tweeted a list with the names of businesses and a resident that signed a petit...

A man and woman claiming to be members of a Moorish Sovereign Citizens group are under arrest after they were caught falsely claiming ownership of a home in the town of Woodway and burglarizing it, police said Monday. The incident unfolded late Friday in the 21700 block of Chinook Road when an alert neighbor called 911 and reported seeing two suspects inside the home, which was vacant and had just...

Police officers in Portland, Oregon are abandoning the force, taking a hit to their livelihoods to do so.  The large number of officers leaving the force is “unprecedented,” Assistant Chief, Michael Frome told the Portland Tribune. “We really have not seen this many people leaving at this stage in their career.” Nine officers have resigned from the Portland police department since November, with a...

Alaska Airlines has agreed to buy nearly two dozen additional Boeing 737 Max planes, the first order from a U.S. carrier since regulators cleared the planes to fly again last month after two deadly crashes. Alaska said Tuesday it will buy 68 of the 737 Max 9 planes, up from the 32 it had previously ordered. Alaska will buy 23 of them from Boeing and lease 13 others from Air Lease. Alaska also anno...

Not only is Dallas a major corporate center and Houston, the nation’s fourth most populous city, the capital of the oil industry, but Austin is a rising tech star. Austin’s ascendency was emphasized recently when software powerhouse Oracle said it would move its headquarters there from Silicon Valley. In truth, the reality is more nuanced and the threat to Silicon Valley minimal. The same can be s...

Activists put up a flyer that lies about a police shooting. (Photo: Jason Rantz/KTTH) Posters popped up in South Lake Union claiming Seattle police “murdered” a man, presumably to continue activist pressure to defund police. That didn’t happen. The posting reads, “On December 6, 2015, The Seattle Police Department murdered Raymond Azevedo. They shot him dead at the intersection of NE 68th Street a...

This policy would basically give anyone with a good sob story a green light to violate property rights at will Matthew Humphrey recently lost $4,000 worth of goods in a theft of his Seattle barbershop. Under a new proposal the Seattle City Council is considering this month, what happened to him wouldn’t even be a crime—if the thieves claimed they were driven by poverty, that is. And so, while perh...

Viktor White, former King County Sheriff’s Sergeant, has left the department and the Seattle area due to what he says is the general lawlessness and the lack of support from local elected officials. “The hardest part of leaving me was working with people,” White told KIRO Radio’s Dory Monson Show. “There are some amazing, amazing people within the King County Sheriff’s Office. Those men and women...

Top Capitol Hill negotiators sealed a deal Sunday on a $900 billion COVID-19 economic relief package, finally delivering long-overdue help to businesses and individuals and providing money to deliver vaccines to a nation eager for them. The agreement, announced by congressional leaders, would establish a temporary $300 per week supplemental jobless benefit and a $600 direct stimulus payment to mos...

A Seattle councilwoman who voted to slash the city’s police budget called the cops after her home was attacked, local media reported. Ironically, the culprit could avoid charges under a plan introduced by the politician. Councilwoman Lisa Herbold phoned 911 on Friday after an unidentified man threw a rock through a window of her West Seattle home, according to local outlet My Northwest. A neighbor...

One of Portland’s most storied hotels is closing its doors for the winter. The Benson Hotel in downtown Portland announced Tuesday that it will shut down through the rest of December and all of January, due to a severe drop in reservations caused by the coronavirus pandemic. George Schweitzer, managing director of the Benson, said occupancy levels have dropped below 10% in December, after hovering...