Tag Archives: Washington

President Obama Not Meeting with Netanyahu

President Obama will not meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he comes to Washington to address a joint session of Congress.

The White House stated that it is due to the close proximity of the Israeli elections.

“As a matter of long-standing practice and principle, we do not see heads of state or candidates in close proximity to their elections, so as to avoid the appearance of influencing a democratic election in a foreign country,” National Security Council spokeswoman Bernadette Meehan stated.

House Speaker John Boehner exercised his right at Speaker of the House to invite a foreign leader to address Congress.  In this case, Boehner wants Netanyahu to speak to the Congress about problems with Iran and the need for stronger sanctions against that nation.

President Obama is working to ease sanctions against Iran.

Netanyahu will speak to Congress on March 3rd and being asked to appear in January.  The Israeli leader had previously planned to be in the U.S. for a conference in Washington on the March date so the speech was rescheduled to fit that trip.

Boehner said that he wants to move forward quickly on sanctions against Iran and that the speech from Netanyahu will allow members of Congress to understand what’s at stake in the region.

“Let’s send a clear message to the White House — and the world — about our commitment to Israel and our allies,” he said.

Christian Student Who Shared Christ Suspended From School

A high school student in Everett, Washington has been suspended from school multiple times for sharing Jesus with his classmates.

Michael Leal, a senior at Cascade High School, has been suspended three times since September for his efforts to provide the truth of Christ to classmates.  He hands out gospel literature and preached at an open air school event.

The school says that Leal is a disruption and has threatened him with expulsion if he does not stop talking about Christ to his classmates.

Cascade High School attorney Michael Patterson claims it’s not because of the Christian content even though the principal of the school told Leal it’s “breaking the law” if he distributed Christian materials.

“At no time was Mr. Leal told that his distribution of material or his statements were inappropriate at school because of their religious content,” he wrote. “Rather, he was informed of district policy … and told that he needed to comply with it. He was also informed that he could not create a substantial disruption at school or school events.”

The Pacific Justine Institute is defending Leal and says that at no point did Leal harass any student or staff member and did not disrupt any event.

Mars Hill Church To Disband

The Seattle area megachurch founded by Mark Driscoll is disbanding at the end of the year.

The announcement last Friday sent shockwaves through the church’s multiple locations as they have only a few weeks to decide if they want to become an independent church, merge with another congregation or simply disappear.

The “Mars Hill” ministry itself will also cease to exist.  They will fire all of their existing staff.

The church has been struggling through transition after the resignation of founding pastor Mark Driscoll.

Several former Mars Hill leaders expressed optimism that this news could end up bringing benefit to the Seattle area.

“God makes good out of bad:  New local ‘Mars Hill’ churches: Redemption Church, Redeemer Church, A Seattle Church, Downtown Cornerstone, Reach; all these seeds have fallen from the dying Mars Hill tree.  God is very much alive in Seattle,” former Mars Hill deacon Mike O’Neil wrote.

Two dead, four wounded after student opens fire Washington state school

A student opened fire in the cafeteria of his Washington state high school on Friday, killing a classmate and wounding at least four others before he was killed amid the chaos of students scrambling to safety, authorities said.

All of the victims were young people, and three were in critical condition with gunshot wounds to the head and in surgery, said Joanne Roberts, chief of medicine at Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett.

The fourth wounded victim suffered less serious injuries in the gunfire at Marysville-Pilchuck High School, about 30 miles north of Seattle, and had been transferred to another hospital. Two of the victims were male and two female, hospital officials said.

Source: Reuters – Two dead, four wounded after student opens fire Washington state school

Seattle Pacific University Hero: “God’s Grace” Saved Lives

The 22-year-old engineering student who disarmed a gunman bent on mass killing at Seattle Pacific University has broken his silence after the event, saying that God’s grace is what saved the lives of others.

Jon Meis, a building monitor at the Christian university, pepper-sprayed and then tackled 26-year-old Aaron Ybarra as he was reloading.  Other students then held down Ybarra, who was not a student at the school, until police arrived on the scene.  Police said that the gunman had a significant amount of ammunition on him and likely would have killed and wounded dozens more without Meis’ heroic actions.

“He was hellbent on killing a lot of people today,” an officer told the Seattle Times.

Meis, who had been avoiding the spotlight after the incident, finally released a statement to the press.

“I know that I am being hailed as a hero, and as many people have suggested, I find this hard to accept,” Meis wrote. “I am indeed a quiet and private individual; while I have imagined what it would be like to save a life, I never believed I would be put in such a situation. It has been deeply touching to read the comments online and realize that my actions have had such a strikingly widespread effect.”

“[W]hat I find most difficult about this situation is the devastating reality that a hero cannot come without tragedy,” Meis continued. “In the midst of this attention, we cannot ignore that a life was taken from us, ruthlessly and without justification or cause. Others were badly injured, and many more will carry this event with them the rest of their lives.”

Police say the gunman Ybarra has a history of mental illness and has been on suicide watch since the incident.  Meis has called for the community to respond to the gunman in a spirit of love.

“When I came face to face with the attacker, God gave me the eyes to see that he was not a faceless monster, but a very sad and troubled young man. While I cannot at this time find it within me to forgive his crime, I truly desire that he will find the grace of God and the forgiveness of our community.”

Magma Rising In Mount St. Helens

Scientists say that magma is slowing starting to build inside Washington’s Mount St. Helens.

However, the scientists say there is no indication of an impending eruption like the one that killed 57 people in 1980.

“The magma reservoir beneath Mount St. Helens has been slowly re-pressurizing since 2008,” the U.S. Geological Survey said in a Wednesday statement.  “It is likely the re-pressurization is caused by the arrival of a small amount of additional magma 2 to 5 miles beneath the surface.”

The USGS said they will be working this summer with the Pacific Northwest Seismic Network at the University of Washington to monitor ground deformation and seismic activity at the volcano.  They will also measure gases and gravity field which can monitor subsurface magma.

Death Toll In Washington Mudslide Jumps Overnight

As a state official says residents of the area struck by a massive landslide on Saturday knew of the “high risk” of being killed in that way, rescue workers recovered 2 bodies and found the locations of 8 more victims.

The total of the missing is now listed at 150.

The Washington Army National Guard and FEMA arrived Tuesday to join the recovery efforts using specially trained dogs and sonar to search the area.  The additional searchers came as local government officials did a flip-flop on their public stance regarding the disaster.

Initially, officials had said the slide was unforeseen and “came out of nowhere.”  The same officials changed their story Wednesday.

“This entire year we have pushed message after message that there’s a high risk of landslides,” John Pennington, director of Snohomish County Emergency Management told reporters. “The dangers and the risks are known.”

Rescuers on site have told reporters that the work is going very slowly because the ground is “like quicksand.”  Local fire chief Travis Hots said some of his crew could only go 50 feet in a five minute time frame because of the soft ground.

Mudslide Death Toll; Number Missing Climb

Washington state officials confirmed the death toll in Saturday’s massive landslide has risen to 14.  The number of people reported missing has risen from 108 to 174.

“The 176 I believe very strongly is not going to be a number that we’re going to see in fatalities, I think it’s going to drop dramatically,” Snohomish County emergency management director John Pennington said.  Pennington added he believes there are duplicate names on the list that have yet to be weeded out.

Officials also announced a suspension of search-and-rescue efforts after fears were raised that there could be another shifting of the earth at the site.  However, several search teams using hovercraft, air support and sonar devices are continuing to search the site.

A closer examination of the site showed that 47 home sites were destroyed in the slide.   Officials say at least 25 of the homes were occupied full time.

Family members of the missing were gathering at a Red Cross shelter.  Reed Miller, whose son Joseph was inside a mobile home that was caught in the landslide, says he’s been calling his son’s cell phone for days without a response.

Anti-Christian Group Sues To Remove Cross Memorial To Veterans

An anti-Christian group is seeking to have a memorial to men killed during World War I removed because it is in the shape of a cross in a public area.

The American Humanist Association sent a letter threatening a lawsuit if the 40-foot tall Bladensburg Cross is not immediately turn down.  The anti-Christianists say that the location of the cross violates the First Amendment of the Constitution.

The 40-foot concrete memorial to 49 Prince George’s County men who were killed in combat during World War I was built by the American Legion in 1925.  The monument was initially owned by the state but then deeded to the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission in 1960.

Steven Lowe, a man from Washington, claims in the complaint that he was “shocked” when he first saw the cross and gets “upset” every time he has to pass it because he is exposed to something that could possibly be Christian.  Lowe is trying to perpetuate the myth that the existence of the cross in itself is the state promoting Christianity over other religions.

The town administrator said that the cross has historic and patriotic value and they will not remove it because of the anti-Christian group’s efforts.

Seattle Police System Can Track Citizens Without Their Knowledge

Police in Seattle are claiming to have deactivated a “mesh network” that was installed in the city to allow officers to send large amounts of data between each other while in the field.

The reason? The system also contacts every wireless device in its radius like a cellphone or wireless internet modem allowing police to track civilians without their knowledge.

The network could also collect a series of data from the devices of citizens.

The SPD said they had “no bad intentions” when they installed the network and that they were going to disable the system until a policy was adopted by the city for what they consider proper use for the network.

However, residents told an alternative newspaper that their phones were still showing the internet boxes as connecting to their devices when they were within range of one of the system’s white boxes. Police later admitted the system was still on but not being used by police personnel.