Seattle didn’t just miss the memo on combatting crime—it set it on fire, stole your car, and camped on it.

Emerald City or Crime City? Seattle Earns Its Spot on America’s “Worst Of” List

Seattle Democrats keep insisting their soft-on-crime policies are “working.” The FBI begs to differ. New 2024 data shows Seattle ranked fourth-worst in the nation for overall crime and third-worst for property crime—with theft, burglary, and auto theft nearly triple the national average.

While the rest of the country saw property crime decline—thanks to the steepest drop in auto thefts in 40 years—Seattle bucked the trend and stayed stubbornly dangerous. Violent crime didn’t make the top ten, but Seattle’s rate was still more than double the national average.

Meanwhile, Portland is right there in the gutter with Seattle, proving that progressive leadership is basically a masterclass in how to turn once-great cities into cautionary tales. Read more at Seattle Red.

Democrats’ Tax-a-Palooza: Everything’s a “Retail Sale” Now

Starting October 1, Washington businesses—and by extension, every consumer—get slapped with yet another round of Democrat-engineered taxes. Thanks to ESSB 5814, “retail sales” now means just about anything you can think of: advertising, IT services, custom websites, even presentations. Yes, your safety briefing or kid’s driver training could soon come with a state tax attached.

Republican Sen. John Braun is sounding the alarm, calling the law “chaos.” He’s right—Democrats rushed this tax grab through in the waning hours of session, leaving the Department of Revenue scrambling to invent rules on the fly. That means businesses don’t even know what to collect, but if they guess wrong, they’ll be stuck footing the bill years later.

Democrats, of course, defend this mess as “difficult decisions” to keep government services flush with cash. Translation: families struggling with housing, food, and childcare get to pay more so Olympia can keep bloating the bureaucracy. Read more at Center Square.

Choo-Choo to Nowhere: Democrats’ $30 Billion Trainwreck

Sound Transit just admitted its shiny ST3 expansion plan is going off the rails—literally and financially. Thanks to the usual cocktail of Democrat “management” (translation: incompetence), we’re now looking at a $30 billion cost overrun. That’s a 20–25% increase on a 30-year plan that already soaked taxpayers for billions with special sales and property taxes.

Instead of accountability, we get cheerleading. Seattle’s Mayor Bruce Harrell says the solution is to “go faster,” because apparently spending money quicker makes it cheaper. Councilmember Dan Strauss assures us he’s “kicking the wheels,” which is exactly what you want to hear when your government is burning through billions. And King County’s Claudia Balducci? She’s floating “big swings,” like ditching a second downtown tunnel—because who needs to follow through on voter-approved promises when you can just move the goalposts?

The bottom line: Democrats’ answer to every self-inflicted mess is the same—spend more, delay accountability, and call it “opportunity.” Read more at Center Square.

Sanctuary for Crime, Not Safety: Seattle Throws a Fit Over ICE

President Trump is turning up the heat on sanctuary cities, and Seattle and Portland just made the enforcement “to-do” list. Border Czar Tom Homan says ICE will ramp up operations in both cities after Labor Day—because when local leaders refuse to cooperate, dangerous criminals walk free.

Naturally, Seattle’s Mayor Bruce Harrell is crying “illegal overreach” and huddling with Gov. Bob Ferguson and Attorney General Nick Brown to figure out how to shield lawbreakers instead of law-abiding residents. Meanwhile, activist groups are busy playing the victim card, warning that families are “afraid to take their kids to school”—ignoring the fact that it’s criminal activity, not ICE, making Seattle unsafe in the first place. Read more at Seattle Red.

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