News For Reasonable People

The largest school district in Washington state is suing several major social media companies for creating apps that it says exploit children and contribute to a "youth mental health crisis." Seattle Public Schools filed a lawsuit against Facebook, Instagram and their parent company Meta as well as Snapchat, TikTok, YouTube and others for their roles in the allegations. The lawsuit, file...

The shoplifting epidemic in Portland is happening in plain sight. KGW has documented people stealing armloads of products that security experts like Scott Castleman say are resold on the black market.   “In my career in loss prevention, I’ve never seen anything to the degree that we have today. The brazenness of the shoplifters. Going in, knowing that they won't get caught, they don't ev...

Police caught a 10-year-old behind the wheel of a stolen car after spotting the child speeding out of a North Portland fast food restaurant parking lot early Friday morning. At about 1:15 a.m. Friday, a Portland Police officer on patrol near North Vancouver Avenue and Lombard Street saw the vehicle, a Kia, speed out of the parking lot and continue driving erratically. She started following the veh...

Leaders at a church in Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood said members of their congregation are fearful of coming to services because of a growing homeless encampment that has set up around their building. Penny Peppes, the president of the Greek Orthodox Church of the Assumption, said the city has not responded to multiple complaints about the encampment. “We want them to get help, we want...

Federal law enforcement authorities have revealed the alleged motives behind attacks on four power substations in Washington state on Christmas Day that left thousands of people without electricity. The four substations that were targeted were the Graham and Elk Plain substations operated by Tacoma Power and the Kapowsin and Hemlock substations operated by Puget Sound Energy. The damage to just th...

Another prominent Seattle business is closing up shop, citing crime concerns and also declining foot traffic following the pandemic. Seattle Credit Union will close two branches in February, on the heels of Starbucks shuttering several stores for similar reasons. People in Georgetown were not surprised to hear their branch will be closing its doors Feb. 3. One restaurant manager nearby believes a...

What would it take to house every single homeless person in San Francisco? That question has long vexed politicians, advocates for the unhoused and ordinary citizens.  But new analysis paints a gloomy picture of the costs. Ending unsheltered homelessness would require vast increases in housing, shelter and prevention services, according to the report from the city’s Department of Homelessness and...

The ongoing migrant crisis could leave New York City bankrupt, Mayor Eric Adams warned Wednesday — while repeatedly refusing to blame President Biden’s lax border policies. Adams — who’s asked the federal government for $1 billion to pay for migrant housing and services — said there were “real dollar amounts” tied to the state of emergency he declared in October. “This is an expensive endeavor tha...

(The Center Square) – Despite Gov. Gavin Newsom’s invitation to Floridians to move to California ahead of the November election, California businesses continue to leave, and increasingly to Florida. While their top relocation destination is overwhelmingly Texas, several major companies have relocated to Florida since Newsom’s been in office. The most recent include several major companies that ann...

Following a fire at a Portland Bank of America branch on Saturday, an anonymous person has taken credit for starting the fire, saying that the fire was started in retaliation for domestic terrorism charges brought against five militants that were a part of a violent occupation of land in south Atlanta.  "Last night I broke into a Bank of America in Portland, Oregon and started a large fire. A...

A Portland woman showcased what she identified as an enablement problem within the city's homeless crisis in a video posted to Twitter on Saturday, telling philanthropist and outreach worker Kevin Dahlgren that being homeless in Portland is a "piece of cake." "It’s a piece of cake, really. That's probably why you've got so many out here because they feed you three mea...

Vacancy rates in San Francisco hit an average of 27% in 2022 according to the CBRE real estate firm this week, jumping up from 19% in 2021 and 4% in 2022, becoming the highest vacancy rate the city has seen since the early 1990s. Throughout the year, San Francisco has struggled to entice companies to bring employees back to downtown offices amid a growing desire to work from home and reduced costs...

Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey says it was the right move to tear down a homeless encampment near the Quarry shopping center in Northeast Minneapolis Friday. Frey says delaying the original plan to vacate the camp two days ago was the right move, because they had evidence some were prepared to take violent action against police and public works employees. Frey tells WCCO's Chad Hartman the city...

The Illinois Supreme Court has halted the Pre Trial Fairness Act, a provision of the Safe-T Act, hours before it is set to go in effect at the first of the year. The decision handed means, until further notice, every county in the state must maintain a cash bail system. The court issued the order Saturday evening, keeping the cash bail system until further notice as the state appeals a judge'...

Prosecutors in Seattle filed charges this week against a software engineer who is accused of a theft scheme that swiped approximately $300,000 from his employer. Ermenildo Castro, 28, of Tacoma, allegedly told detectives that he was inspired by the 90’s movie "Office Space" when he devised a plan to divert customer fees from his employer, Zulily.com, into his own bank accounts. According...

A conservative commentator has warned electric vehicle drivers in Los Angeles that charging stations for their $60,000 cars are littered with homeless encampments. Alexandra Datig shared a video of her driving in downtown LA on Wednesday, with one of the local Blink EV charging stations surrounded by trash and tents. 'When you live in Los Angeles, it's better to have a charging station a...

The 93-year-old billionaire co-founder of Home Depot blamed “socialism” for Americans lacking the motivation to work and warned that the future of capitalism is in danger. Bernie Marcus — who along with Arthur Blank built Home Depot into a nationwide empire from just two stores founded in Atlanta in the late 1970s — told Financial Times on Thursday, “Nobody works.” “Just give it to me. Send me mon...

A veteran Los Angeles County prosecutor scolded his boss Thursday, saying his progressive reforms and management style have alienated his colleagues and turned the nation's largest district attorney's office into a "managerial dumpster fire." In a lengthy letter to District Attorney George Gascon and his top aides, prosecutor Mark Burnley aired a number of grievances on his las...

These days, a luxury high-rise in downtown San Francisco with units that appear to be mostly empty isn’t an uncommon sight. As a cooling real estate market continues to impact the city, downtown condos might be some of the hardest-hit properties around. Patrick Carlisle, Compass’ chief market analyst, said that while economic headwinds are affecting real estate markets everywhere, downtown San Fra...

PORTLAND, Ore. — Terri Zinzer is a homeless woman who suffers from some form of mental illness. She's been repeatedly accused of committing crimes over the last few years, landing her in and out of the Oregon justice system like a revolving door. Troubling though Zinzer's case may be due to her alleged activities — and the potential danger they pose to both herself and others — it's...

PORTLAND, Ore. — Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler is asking Oregon Governor-elect Tina Kotek and the state legislature to help address what he sees as the city's biggest crises during the upcoming legislative session. Wheeler shared his list of priorities with Kotek during a meeting Tuesday.  Among them, Wheeler lists the city's homelessness crisis, traffic enforcement, civil commitment and me...

The Buffalo Police Department launched an anti-looting unit that has already made eight arrests in the wake of a deadly winter storm that buried the city in snow over the Christmas weekend.  "This isn’t people stealing food and medicine and diapers. They are destroying stores. They are stealing televisions, couches, whatever else they can get their hands on. They’re opportunists," Buffal...

Fentanyl seized at the border was sufficient to kill twice the population of North America. A report released on Dec. 23  by the office of California’s Governor Gavin Newsom revealed that the amount of fentanyl pouring over the California border has reached catastrophic proportions. There was enough of the drug reaching the state in 2022 to kill every man, woman and child in North America -- twice...

Retailers are scoring one win in the governmentwide spending bill, which will force online marketplaces like Amazon and Facebook to verify high-volume sellers on their platforms amid heightened concerns about retail crime. Tucked in the $1.7 trillion funding package lies a piece of legislation brick-and-mortar retailers have been pushing Congress to pass for more than a year, part of an effort to...

No more “Yes, sir!” The US Marines may ban recruits from respectfully addressing senior members as “sir” or “ma’am” to avoid “misgendering” and offending them. The woke recommendation was made in a new $2 million report commissioned by the Corps from the University of Pittsburgh. The exhaustive, 738-page study that the Marines first commissioned in 2020 said traditional ways of addressing superior...