Updated March 9, 2010 – News either ignored or under reported by the mainstream liberal media that impacts the United States.  Particular attention is given to news from the home state of RuminationsBlog, Washington.  News stories are added at the top. Click on the headline to read the entire story.

Washington State House: $680 Million in Tax Hikes
The state House has approved a $680 million tax package that would shrink tax exemptions, collect more money from smokers and service businesses, and extend the sales tax to new types of purchases.

Bills to restrict initiative process really aimed at Eyman
RuminationsBlog Comment: In Washington State Tim Eyman has enraged big-spending Democrats by using the initiative process to rein-in state spending. 

Top 10 Media Attacks on Conservative Women
March is Women's History Month, in which we acknowledge the accomplishments and contributions of women in history and in society today. But for a select group of women - conservative women - their accomplishments and contributions are rarely celebrated but often demeaned and mocked in sexist - and crassly sexual - ways.

The Big-Spender Scorecard
RuminationsBlog Comment: Find out how your congress member wasted the money that belonged to the ones who paid taxes.

Seattle Councilman Approves Crackdown on Girl Scouts
Tim Burgess wants to rid Seattle of "aggressive panhandling." A move that would make it illegal for Girl Scouts to sell boxes of cookies on city streets.  RuminationsBlog Comment: It’s okay Tim, I think I can handle those pushy Girl Scouts on my own.  Thanks anyway. 

Budget deficit grows to $2.8 billion
The state's budget outlook worsened today with news that the revenue forecast is being downgraded by $118 million. Combined with a $96 million increase in caseloads, the state's new budget deficit is projected to be $2.8 billion.

Feds Admit They Wronged Pro-Lifers
Pro-life Wisconsin is raising serious questions about information gathered by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) since information was inappropriately shared with a Wisconsin Police Department.

Seattle Metro Tunnel Security Problems
Investigators expose even more trouble in the Metro bus tunnel after the brutal beating of a teenage girl and uncover a picture of a guard sleeping on the job. RuminationsBlog Comment: Why do we spend millions on security personnel who can’t do anything but watch people get beaten?

Crisis-Pregnancy Centers to be Gagged?
Two hot-button issues – abortion and free speech – are clashing in Washington state, as lawmakers attempt to regulate what is said in crisis pregnancy centers.  RuminationsBlog Comment: See our blogpost, Wasting Time and Possibly Lives.

Muslim Student Adviser: Death Penalty for 'Gays'
Vanderbilt University is distancing itself from a Muslim chaplain after he told a gathering of students homosexuality is punishable by death under Islam.  RuminationsBlog Comment: Christians are expelled for saying homosexuality is wrong, but university regents pander to Muslim radicals.

Integrity - An Issue for Climate Change Proponents
A leading climatologist says the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has an uphill battle to regain credibility.  RuminationsBlog Comment: After climategate and word that the Himalayan glaciers are not melting not only is the science in doubt, but also the integrity of the scientists.   

Courtroom Cirque du Jihad
Imagine this nightmare courtroom scenario: Unhinged Jew-bashing, open mockery of American soldiers, juror intimidation and coldly calculated exploitation of U.S. constitutional protections by a suspected al-Qaida defendant. Well, there’s no need to wait for the Gitmo terror trial circuses. New York City is already getting a glimpse of the future.  RuminationsBlog Comment: I hope that the Obama administration does not allow are courts to become a farce, but I fear they are stumbling into the hands of radical Muslims.    

Green light for tax increases? Gregoire Praises Oregon Vote
In a closely watched test of Northwest voter sentiment on taxes, Oregon decided yesterday to raise taxes on the wealthy to stave off more cuts to government services.  RuminationsBlog Comment: Watch your wallet. Governor Gregoire will see this as justification to raise taxes. 

States' Rights Rebellion over National Guard
A new push is being launched for states to adopt laws limiting the use of their respective National Guard units unless there is an invasion, insurrection or a few other limited circumstances.

Rifqa Bary May Still be Target
Bary ran away saying she feared her father would harm or kill her for leaving the Islam faith. Now the ministry that helped the Sri Lanka native when she was in the Sunshine State, hopes federal authorities will take another step.

Beware Political Chameleons
Washington is beginning to crawl with chameleons doing their best to jump on the bandwagon and swim with the rising tide of liberty-minded Americans.

ACORN Filmmakers Sued in Federal Court
Hannah Giles and James O’Keefe III, the independent filmmakers behind the series of videos which exposed the ACORN internal corruption and illegality were sued today in federal court in Philadelphia by an ACORN employee featured in one of the pair’s films.  RuminationsBlog Comment: To paraphrase Dickens, if the law allows this, then the law is an ass.

State Furloughs Pass Senate
The state Senate voted Friday to require state agencies to place workers on mandatory furloughs one day a month or offer alternative plans saving $69 million.  RuminationsBlog Comment: The Democrat controlled legislature will never pass such a measure.  Mark my words—this is all for show.    

More Bankrupt Banks
Regulators have shut down banks in Florida, Missouri, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington, bringing to nine the number of bank failures so far in 2010, following 140 closures last year in the toughest economic environment since the Great Depression.

Univ. of Wash. President Endorses College for Illegals
University of Washington president Mark Emmert says he supports allowing illegal immigrant students to attend college as a pathway to permanent residency and U.S. citizenship.  RuminationsBlog Comment: All students receive taxpayer support and the tax money of citizens should not go to support those who enter our country illegally.

Media Largely Ignores U.N. Error on Himalayan Glaciers
The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change recently issued a statement retracting its’ claim that Himalayan glaciers would soon disappear.  According to LexisNexis, not one other national television news outlet covered this announcement.

Seattle’s Sound Transit: Art for Plywood Walls
One percent of all Sound Transit project funds must go to public art projects.  RuminationsBlog Comment: A near total waste of taxpayer money. 

TSA Nominee Steps Down
Erroll Southers, President Obama's nominee to head the Transportation Security Administration, has withdrawn his name from consideration for the position.  RuminationsBlog Comment: Another extreme left-wing nominee forced to step aside because of their own words. 

Interpol no longer subject to U.S. Constitution
The head of a civil liberties organization is concerned about an executive order signed by President Obama last month which allows an international law enforcement agency to have jurisdiction in the United States without being subject to the U.S. Constitution.

MSNBC “Cheat to keep these b******* out”
MSNBC television and syndicated radio host Ed Schultz declared that he would stuff the ballot box in Massachusetts if he could to prevent Republican Scott Brown from upsetting Democrat Martha Coakley in the race to fill the state's Senate seat formerly held by Edward M. Kennedy.  RuminationsBlog Comment: Could there be a better demonstration of the liberal elitist attitude and there complete disregard for democracy?

Treasurer Warns State Will Go Broke
Washington state government is in danger of running out of money if the Legislature fails to act quickly, state Treasurer Jim McIntire says. RuminationsBlog Comment: The state is spending more than it brings in and needs to cut expenses, not increase taxes or create new taxes, such as a state income tax.

Is a U.S. Default Inevitable?
There were those who warned a housing bubble was being created like the dot-com bubble; others who predicted the Empire of Debt was coming down. As, today, there are those warning that the United States, with consecutive deficits running 10 percent of gross domestic product, is risking an eventual default on its national debt.

Seattle Parks Want to Ban Smoking, Spitting and Sex
A proposed ban on spitting in parks — one of 13 behaviors Seattle Parks and Recreation wants to regulate, including a ban on smoking on its grounds — already is generating heated public comment.

Carbon Footprint Hypocrisy
A leading global-warming skeptic says a recent congressional junket to a United Nations global-warming summit in Denmark illustrated once again that many lawmakers urging Americans to cut back on their carbon footprint are not living up to their own expectations "for the masses."  RuminationsBlog Comment: With he liberal elites there is often one standard for them and another, stricter, standard they seek to impose upon the rest of us. 

Man honored by Obama: God 'sinful, homophobic bigot'
A man honored by President Obama as a "civil rights pioneer" has told a Christian ministry leader the God of the Bible is a "sinful, homophobic bigot" who needs to repent and "seek forgiveness for the pain and suffering which his sinful homophobia has needlessly inflicted upon gay people for the past 4,000 years."

IRS Commissioner uses Tax Preparer
IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman does not file his own taxes in part because he believes the tax code is complex.  RuminationsBlog Comment: I laughed when I read this, but the more I think about the more I just shake my head in frustration.

Washington State Income Tax
Senators Rosa Franklin and Joe McDermott have introduced SB 6250 and SJR 8219 to proposing a state income tax.  

Washington Senate Bill Would Ban Terms
Nine Democratic senators have filed a bill that would remove from state law any references to school kids that are considered negative.  Instead, all such references – such as at-risk, in-poverty and disadvantaged – would be replaced with the phrase "kids at-hope."  RuminationsBlog Comment: See our blogpost, A Legislative Waste of Time.

Taxpayers Footing Bill for 'Tool' to Aid Illegals
A border-enforcement advocate says members of the faculty at the University of California, San Diego, are clearly misusing taxpayers' funds in providing GPS-enabled cell phones to individuals trying to enter the U.S. illegally.

Higher Taxes for Washington State
Washington's ruling Democrats are set on raising taxes to avoid deep cuts in state spending. So who gets to pay?

Seattle has record low temperatures.
RuminationsBlog Comment: The global warming priesthood changed their mantra to “global climate change,” because even while lying about the data they couldn’t explain things like this.