News For Reasonable People

A member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors who previously called for "defunding the police" is outraged after city officials allegedly told her there are "no officers" to send to her district.During a Budget and Appropriations Committee hearing last week, Supervisor Hillary Ronen voiced frustration that the city's police force appeared to be prioritizing retail theft over the safety of the residents in her district."I've been begging this department to give the Mission what it deserves in terms of police presence, all year long. And I've been told time-and-time-and-time-and-time again there are no officers that we can send to Mission. And then I see these numbers protecting shoppers, and it hurts. It hurts. And I feel betrayed by the department, I feel betrayed by the mayor, I feel betrayed by the priorities of this city," Ronen said during the hearing. "It is not this board of supervisor's priorities -- we want our residents safe."But Ronen's comments have been earning her loads of criticism considering her stance on "defunding the police," which she shared in the wake of the murder of George Floyd."I want to make it clear that I believe strongly in defunding the police and reducing the number of officers on our force," Ronen tweeted roughly three months following Floyd's death. "For decades we've had an imbalance in our city's budget, with hundreds of millions of dollars going to SFPD to have them do work they are not qualified to do."Support the showSign Up For Exclusive Episodes At: https://reasonabletv.com/LIKE & SUBSCRIBE for new videos every day. https://www.youtube.com/c/NewsForReasonablePeople

Michael Thomas shopped at the Walmart at 301 San Mateo Blvd. SE in Albuquerque, New Mexico, every week for roughly three years up until six months ago.He began to see more people stealing items from the store. Sometimes, he saw shoppers physically attacked.So when Walmart said last month that it would be closing the store, Thomas wasn't surprised.It's "very sad," he told Insider, because there aren't many retailers with stores in that part of Albuquerque. But it is "expected," he said.The San Mateo Boulevard store is set to close on March 10 after opening in July 1985, according to Walmart spokeswoman Lauren Willis. The store has 287 employees, all of which are eligible to transfer to another store in the area. Walmart did not answer questions about whether crime rates at the Albuquerque location were responsible for the decision to close it. But Albuquerque police officers had their hands full with the store in the past year. The Albuquerque Journal reports that 708 calls were made requesting police service at or near the store in 2022."There is no single cause for why a store closes," Willis told Insider. "We do a thorough review of how a store performs and weigh many factors before making the difficult decision to close a facility."She added that the Albuquerque Police Department "has been a great partner and we are extremely appreciative of their efforts to combat crime at this store."Support the showSign Up For Exclusive Episodes At: https://reasonabletv.com/LIKE & SUBSCRIBE for new videos every day. https://www.youtube.com/c/NewsForReasonablePeople

Cracker Barrel announced Monday that it is closing three of the remaining four locations in Oregon, seven months after it closed its Jantzen Beach store.Employees at the Beaverton, Tualatin and Bend locations were notified Monday that the three stores were closing, effective immediately, the company told KGW. Only one Cracker Barrel remains open in Oregon, the Southern Oregon location in Medford.In a statement shared with KGW, Cracker Barrel cited the pandemic’s impact on the business as a reason for the three new closures."As a standard course of business, we continually evaluate the performance of our stores, using various criteria to ensure we are meeting the needs of our guests and our business," the company said. "With that, we are saddened that we have been unable to overcome the impact the pandemic had on our business and have made the difficult decision to close the Beaverton, Tualatin, and Bend locations. The decision to close a store is never one we take lightly, and our focus right now is in assisting our impacted employees during this transition."Former employees told KGW the news was a surprise to them. "It was just a regular day at work yesterday. Everyone was the same, I was talking with my manager about working more hours and taking time off for Spring break," said Jordan Nerski who worked in Tualatin. "We didn't really know anything was happening and just out of the blue this morning got a phone call."Several customers were also upset by the news."I didn't know if the Yankees could support good Southern cooking and apparently not!" said a customer named James, outside the shuttered Beaverton location.In August 2022, Cracker Barrel closed its Jantzen Beach location. At the time, the corporation said the store wasn't meeting unspecified evaluation criteria to meet "the needs of our guests and our business." Employees who reached out to KGW said they were told the store closed due to security issues.Support the showSign Up For Exclusive Episodes At: https://reasonabletv.com/LIKE & SUBSCRIBE for new videos every day. https://www.youtube.com/c/NewsForReasonablePeople

A proposal to give $5 million to every eligible Black person in San Francisco as part of the city's efforts to pay reparations was slammed Wednesday as "preposterous" by critics.It is one of dozens of suggestions, along with a guaranteed annual income of nearly $100,000, a house for $1 and the cancellation of debts, which came from a committee tasked with finding ways to atone for the city's racist policies of the past.It was met Tuesday with a rapturous response from San Francisco's Board of Supervisors, one of whom hailed it as a plan "for everybody's collective future."But John Dennis, head of the Republican Party in San Francisco, who was at the meeting, said the proposal was irresponsible because it was impossible to finance."It's completely unserious and aside from being a massive waste of time, it's also a complete distraction," he told AFP."The city's (annual) budget is $14 billion. They're talking about spending $50 billion. It's preposterous."The draft reparations plan is the latest by liberal-leaning jurisdictions looking for ways to make up for centuries of systemic repression that have left Black Americans more likely to be imprisoned, poor, or unemployed.The notion gained ground with the swelling of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, and the following year the Chicago suburb of Evanston said it would give Black residents money for home repairs.Support the showSign Up For Exclusive Episodes At: https://reasonabletv.com/LIKE & SUBSCRIBE for new videos every day. https://www.youtube.com/c/NewsForReasonablePeople

Alexander Jay waited for nearly a year behind bars at the King County Jail before being transported on March 3 to Western State Hospital for mental health treatment.State law, as well as federal and superior court orders mandate inmates like Jay who are deemed incompetent to stand trial due to mental illness must be moved to a state psychiatric facility within seven days. In Jay’s case, it was 299 days since King County Superior Court Judge Johanna Bender signed the order for treatment.Jay is charged with assaulting a Harborview nurse at a Seattle light rail station in March, 2022, and then stabbing a woman at a Seattle bus stop the same day. In August, Jay was charged with murdering a man with a piece of rebar on Capitol Hill hours after assaulting the two strangers.Jay’s case underscores a problem uncovered by the KING 5 Investigators in the series Mentally Ill, Waiting in Jail – hundreds of people with serious mental illness stuck in jails across Washington without access to trial or treatment.The case gained more attention after Judge Bender ruled the state agency responsible for providing the psychiatric help, the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS), was in contempt of court for the delays. Bender sanctioned DSHS $250 per day for “willful failure” to “timely admit Mr. Jay to inpatient competency restoration treatment.” Bender ruled the money should be paid to Jay, with a responsible party as a custodian, until being transported to Western State.The total for Jay added up to approximately $75,00Support the showSign Up For Exclusive Episodes At: https://reasonabletv.com/LIKE & SUBSCRIBE for new videos every day. https://www.youtube.com/c/NewsForReasonablePeople

Data from the Portland Bureau of Transportation (PBOT) shows a significant drop in the number of bicycle riders in Portland in 2022, which had the lowest number of cyclists since at least 2006.The numbers have been declining since before the pandemic, and looking at information from the city's Bicycle Counts 2022 report, KATU gathered several factors for why people have stopped commuting by bike.Some of the top concerns we heard are over homeless camps and tents on bike paths and aggressive drivers on the roads.“I definitely see homeless on bike paths and that is tough to drive around them,” said cyclist Tiffany Quarles. “It forces you onto the road and off bike paths, and also aggressive drivers, who don’t seem to want bikers on the road.”Support the showSign Up For Exclusive Episodes At: https://reasonabletv.com/LIKE & SUBSCRIBE for new videos every day. https://www.youtube.com/c/NewsForReasonablePeople

Isaiah Willoughby, a man who was charged with arson after setting fire to a police precinct during the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP), is officially running for the 2nd District seat on Seattle’s city council.“I am committed to educating the youth to lead and to serve the community, enlightening the minds, developing the region, touching the heart, and aspiring the soul,” Willoughby said on The Jason Rantz Show on KTTH. “The name of my campaign is multiculturalism democracy because, in our legislative branch, there’s no representation of my ethnic diversity.”Willoughby pleaded guilty to pouring gasoline on debris next to the precinct and lighting it on fire on June 12, 2020, damaging the Seattle Police Department’s (SPD) East precinct.He was sentenced to two years in prison on Oct. 5, 2021, according to The Post Millennial, but was released March 2022.“Why would we want to give someone power by putting them on the council if they’re an arsonist?” Jason Rantz asked Willoughby on his show.“Once I found out that police brutality was going through multiple miscarriages from Tacoma and Seattle, then I committed a crime in the upheap of the moment,” Willoughby responded. “But my crime does not define who I will be in the future, or my narrative, or the legislative policies I can implement in Seattle for the greater good of my people.”Willoughby claimed the loss of Manny Ellis — the 33-year-old Black man who died while being restrained by Tacoma police on March 3, 2020 — set off his actions at CHOP.Support the showSign Up For Exclusive Episodes At: https://reasonabletv.com/LIKE & SUBSCRIBE for new videos every day. https://www.youtube.com/c/NewsForReasonablePeople

Two new ordinances approved by the Portland City Council are seeking to get more people to live full-time downtown as well as make the transition from office to housing more viable.According to a release by the city, vacancy in Portland’s central business district is up almost 26%, and that rise is expected to continue.‘Not again’: Bus union calling for greater safety after TriMet driver stabbing“The challenges we are trying to address are a critical shortage of housing supply and our central business district that lacks sufficient residential occupancy,” said Andrew Fitzpatrick, director of economic development for the city.Many made their pleas to the Portland City Council as leaders look to solve two major city problems: A demand for housing and overwhelming vacancies in downtown office buildings.Support the showSign Up For Exclusive Episodes At: https://reasonabletv.com/LIKE & SUBSCRIBE for new videos every day. https://www.youtube.com/c/NewsForReasonablePeople

The governing committee of the King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA) met Thursday to discuss its work handling the homeless crisis in Seattle and the county.The KCRHA is in the process of revising its five-year plan, which includes bringing together 39 cities and King County into one system to deal with homelessness and has a proposed price tag of nearly $ 12 billion.At Thursday's meeting, Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell expressed concerns over how the plan would be funded.“If you’re going to put that [$12 billion price] out there, then you have to help leaders find the route to it," Harrell told KCRHA CEO, Marc Dones. “I think you did perhaps what you thought was a directive, which is 'what does a full investment to solve homelessness, look like?' You looked through it, came up with your strategies, and certainly a big price tag. But we can’t fund that.”Support the showSign Up For Exclusive Episodes At: https://reasonabletv.com/LIKE & SUBSCRIBE for new videos every day. https://www.youtube.com/c/NewsForReasonablePeople

Uptown is losing another business, and this one hits a little closer to home.Minneapolis-based Target announced Monday that it will close its small-format store in the south Minneapolis neighborhood because of a lack of foot traffic.Target joins a growing list of national and local retailers that have left the area in the past few years following the COVID-19 pandemic and damage from riots in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd.The store, between West Lake Street and Lagoon Avenue on S. Fremont Avenue, will close May 13."The decision to close one of our stores isn't something we take lightly," said Joshua Thomas, a Target spokesman. "It's an action we take only after multiple years of working to improve performance. That is the case for our Uptown store. ... We value the team members at the Uptown store, and they will be offered the opportunity to work at nearby Target locations."Support the showSign Up For Exclusive Episodes At: https://reasonabletv.com/LIKE & SUBSCRIBE for new videos every day. https://www.youtube.com/c/NewsForReasonablePeople

Mortgage rates tumbled Monday in the wake of Silicon Valley Bank’s collapse that has rattled markets.The average 30-year mortgage rate dropped to 6.57% on Monday, according to the latest Mortgage News Daily quote. That’s down from 6.76% on Friday when SVB failed and 7% on Thursday when the bank’s stock got hammered. The rate tracks the 10-year Treasury yield, which has fallen around 30 basis points since Wednesday's close as investors bet the unfolding chaos could persuade the Federal Reserve to slow its interest-rate hiking campaign.The unexpected drop in rates could offer an opening for price-strained homebuyers and homeowners who have been waiting for an opportunity to lock in a lower rate, but housing experts remain uncertain how long the dip will last.“There's still a lot of uncertainty but in the near term, I do expect mortgage rates to drop,” Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin, told Yahoo Finance. “And I expect buyers to take advantage of those mortgage rates because we've seen buyers be incredibly sensitive to those interest rates.”Support the showSign Up For Exclusive Episodes At: https://reasonabletv.com/LIKE & SUBSCRIBE for new videos every day. https://www.youtube.com/c/NewsForReasonablePeople

On a sidewalk littered with tarps, bicycles and discarded food containers, one tent sat farther away from the rest. It was clean, with the rain fly removed, showcasing the vacant interior."This is an empty tent erected by activists to encourage people to live in tents," Kevin Dahlgren said.Dahlgren's day job is reducing homelessness in the City of Gresham, but he spends most of his free time talking to those who live on the streets of Portland. He often posts videos of his conversations on Twitter, hoping to shed light on the West Coast's "dysfunctional system" for addressing homelessness.During his 27 years in social services, Dahlgren said he's seen a shift from permanent solutions to Band-Aid approaches."When you're not actually helping the permanent solutions, the old homeless stay there and the new homeless come in and everything just grows," he said.Oregon has one of the highest rates of homelessness in the nation. An estimated 17,959 people were homeless in the state during the nationwide count last year, 11,000 of whom were unsheltered, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development.The state — and its largest city — have struggled to reverse the trend.Support the showSign Up For Exclusive Episodes At: https://reasonabletv.com/LIKE & SUBSCRIBE for new videos every day. https://www.youtube.com/c/NewsForReasonablePeople

Open house traffic has been brisk around Western Washington, signaling the start of the spring market, suggested brokers at Northwest Multiple Listing Service. They noted softening prices are enticing some would-be buyers, while others remain on the sidelines hoping fluctuating mortgage rates will stabilize or decline.“It’s a very interesting market, comprised of primarily serious buyers and sellers,” remarked Northwest MLS board member Mike Larson, managing broker at Compass Tacoma. “Rates and inflation appear to be under control, giving buyers a window of opportunity before things possibly get crazy again,” he added.Newly released statistics from the MLS for February show upticks in new listings, pending sales, closed sales and median prices compared to January, but when compared to the same month a year ago, figures for those metrics declined:Brokers added 5,231 new listings of single family homes and condos to inventory last month, about one-third fewer than twelve months ago.Pending sales declined 19%, from the year-ago total of 7,697 to 6,230.Year-over-year (YOY) closed sales dropped 17.3%, from 5,147 to 4,258 transactions.Median prices slipped 1.7% areawide, from $585,000 to $575,000.  “One could say a modicum of balance is returning to the market,” commented Dick Beeson, managing broker at RE/MAX Northwest, Tacoma/Gig Harbor. “Buyer demand remains at reasonable levels considering the high interest rate environment we’re in,” he stated. “Multiple offers are still seen on the right properties.”Support the showSign Up For Exclusive Episodes At: https://reasonabletv.com/LIKE & SUBSCRIBE for new videos every day. https://www.youtube.com/c/NewsForReasonablePeople

Every 42 minutes there is a report of vandalism in Portland — often involving broken windows. Some storefronts have been hit repeatedly.“We’ve seen a lot of it,” said landlord Matt Kaplan, as a repair crew worked to replace the broken glass outside of his Old Town building. It was the fifth time in three years vandals smashed the windows.A few doors down, the dispensary Serra is hidden behind a huge piece of plywood, after its front windows were broken for a sixth time.“People are running out of money replacing the windows. They’re running out of patience,” said Serra employee Kora Burrows.n 2022, there were 12,238 reports of vandalism citywide — including broken windows, according to data from the Portland Police Bureau. The agency doesn’t separate broken windows from other types of vandalism. Last year’s numbers are up 27% from 9,660 vandalism cases in 2021. In 2020 there were 8,322 cases and 6,289 in 2019.Support the showSign Up For Exclusive Episodes At: https://reasonabletv.com/LIKE & SUBSCRIBE for new videos every day. https://www.youtube.com/c/NewsForReasonablePeople

The sudden collapse of Silicon Valley Bank has thousands of tech startups wondering what happens now to their millions of dollars in deposits, money market investments and outstanding loans.Most importantly, they're trying to figure how to pay their employees."The number one question is, 'How do you make payroll in the next couple days,'" said Ryan Gilbert, founder of venture firm Launchpad Capital. "No one has the answer."SVB, a 40-year-old bank that's known for handling deposits and loans for thousands of tech startups in Silicon Valley and beyond, fell apart this week and was shut down by regulators in the largest bank failure since the financial crisis. The demise began late Wednesday, when SVB said it was selling $21 billion of securities at a loss and trying to raise money. It turned into an all-out panic by late Thursday, with the stock down 60% and tech executives racing to pull their funds.While bank failures aren't entirely uncommon, SVB is a unique beast. It was the 16th biggest bank by assets at the end of 2022, according to the Federal Reserve, with $209 billion in assets and over $175 billion in deposits.However, unlike a typical brick-and-mortar bank — Chase, Bank of America or Wells Fargo — SVB is designed to serve businesses, with over half its loans to venture funds and private equity firms and 9% to early and growth-stage companies. Clients that turn to SVB for loans also tend to store their deposits with the bank.Support the showSign Up For Exclusive Episodes At: https://reasonabletv.com/LIKE & SUBSCRIBE for new videos every day. https://www.youtube.com/c/NewsForReasonablePeople

Retail industry analysts say that rising concerns over theft may have contributed to Walmart’s decision last month to shutter its Portland stores. But it’s likely not the driving factor.Theft and other crime, the Walmart watchers said, is surely a concern for the chain. But the impact is rarely enough to close an otherwise successful store without warning, and especially without appeals to local officials for assistance.“The decision to close down a store is typically linked to sales,” said Neil Saunders, managing director of the retail division at GlobalData, a market analysis firm, “which often has nothing to do with thefts or shoplifting.”After Walmart announced the pending closure of its two Portland locations, the role of retail theft in its departure took center stage as politicians and commentators sparred over the cause on Twitter. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott took aim at Portland last weekend, blaming the closures on “what happens when cities refuse to enforce the rule of law.”Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, however, disputed Abbott’s claim and pointed to the store closures in Texas in recent years, adding, “The retail industry is changing and retail theft is a national issue.”Support the showSign Up For Exclusive Episodes At: https://reasonabletv.com/LIKE & SUBSCRIBE for new videos every day. https://www.youtube.com/c/NewsForReasonablePeople

How much would you pay for an in-demand Girl Scout cookie?That's the question being asked of consumers on secondary selling websites such as eBay, where a flavor of Girl Scout cookies called "Raspberry Rally," is seeing a host of listings, according to news reports.After selling out on official websites, the raspberry-flavor-filled cookie has become a hot secondary market commodity.A listing on eBay is currently asking $29.99 for one box, which is several times what the typical cookie box costs from the organization (typically about $5) — about a 500% markup. Another Etsy sale posting, which appeared to solicit orders ahead of Girl Scout cookie season for a presale, offered a box of raspberry cookies for $20.98. Insider found a box for $99.99.(If you're buying cookies from an official Girl Scout site, in some cases, at least, you have to buy at least four boxes, according to Entrepreneur's attempt to buy cookies from Troop 4758, which is also sold out of Raspberry Rally.)"Wow! Our Raspberry Rally was released online today, and boy did she sell out QUICKLY," the Girl Scouts of the Chesapeake Bay wrote in a Facebook post, as Insider noted.Girl Scout announced the Raspberry Rally cookies in August 2022, along with the lineup of cookies for its 2023 season, which typically starts in January and runs until April, as CNN noted."The thin, crispy cookie is a 'sister' cookie to the beloved Thin Mints™, infused with raspberry flavor instead of mint and dipped in the same delicious chocolaty coating," Girl Scouts wrote in the August press release.Support the showSign Up For Exclusive Episodes At: https://reasonabletv.com/LIKE & SUBSCRIBE for new videos every day. https://www.youtube.com/c/NewsForReasonablePeople

Green Zebra, a Portland-based healthy convenience store, is closing its doors after ten years in business. The three locations will be closed on March 31.The local grocer, founded in 2013, tried to redefine convenience stores. Instead of cigarettes, lottery tickets and sugary drinks, Green Zebra was known to offer fresh produce, kombucha Zlurppees and locally sourced meat. The store cites the pandemic, supply chain and economy as factors in its decision to close down.“We have been holding on by a thread since the pandemic started and have been in austerity mode since then,” said Lisa Sedlar, Green Zebra Founder and CEO. “We experienced 9 straight quarters of increases to our cost of goods, packaging, fuel, insurance, taxes, freight charges and well, pretty much everything. Combine that with supply chain and staffing shortages and razor-thin grocery margins, we just couldn’t overcome all the obstacles. We definitely gave it our all and fought the good fight. We are thankful for the opportunity to have been in service to our community.”Support the showSign Up For Exclusive Episodes At: https://reasonabletv.com/LIKE & SUBSCRIBE for new videos every day. https://www.youtube.com/c/NewsForReasonablePeople

As harried Americans rush to file their taxes before the April 18 deadline, one of the IRS’s most puzzling rules — to self-report income from crimes — has turned into comedy gold.Outlined in the IRS Publication 525, the agency tells sticky-fingered taxpayers: “If you steal property, you must report its FMV (Fair Market Value) in your income in the year you steal it, unless in the same year you return it to its rightful owner.”As for illegal drug sales or bribery, Uncle Same needs you to include those profits in your 1040 form as well.The reminder has triggered massive mocking on social media, with one Twitter user cheekily asking: ‘So my black ski mask and duffle bag is used as a deductible from robbing the local liquor store?’An IRS spokesman said he wasn’t aware of any instance where the agency publicly published how many taxpayers reported income from crimes.Support the showSign Up For Exclusive Episodes At: https://reasonabletv.com/LIKE & SUBSCRIBE for new videos every day. https://www.youtube.com/c/NewsForReasonablePeople

Stevon Williams says he is proud of his job as a bus driver for King County Metro, but he says fentanyl smoke is now so common that it's making him sick.“I really hadn’t ever heard of fentanyl smoking on the bus when I was hired by Metro," Williams told KOMO News. "I don’t want to be put in a predicament where I’m around drugs every day on my job - I didn’t sign up for that.”King County Metro data shows there were 1,885 reports of drug use on the bus system in 2022. 52 transit operators reported being exposed to smoke from drugs, and 16 operators filed worker's comp claims, according to data obtained by KOMO News.“You have people who are on there smoking right beside passengers, right beside mothers with little children. It’s for the drug users, they’re looked out for first," Williams said.Williams is now on leave while he receives medical testing for exposure to fentanyl smoke.“I just know when we’re sick, we should be checked and listened to," he said.Support the showSign Up For Exclusive Episodes At: https://reasonabletv.com/LIKE & SUBSCRIBE for new videos every day. https://www.youtube.com/c/NewsForReasonablePeople