Conversation

State senate leaders plan to revive a bill in the upcoming special session that would allow school principals to veto teachers’ school assignments.  Education “reformers” support the change.  Teachers’ unions are opposed. Ross Reynolds interviews both sides.

Seattle City Councilmember Mike O’Brien wants Seattle carbon neutral by 2050. The plan to make Seattle carbon neutral is bound to be expensive, but O’Brien says carbon neutrality has benefits beyond just reducing greenhouse-gas emissions. Mike O’Brien joins Ross Reynolds today to talk about this proposal. 

The campaign for Seattle mayor is already underway. The new mayor will face a variety of obstacles from transportation and business to poverty and homelessness. What are the key issues you would like Seattle’s next mayor to address? Ross Reynolds takes your calls and is joined by special guests including Sharon Lee, the executive director of the Low Income Housing Institute and Evan Manvel director of policy, planning and government affairs at Cascade Bicycle Club to talk about their wish list for the next mayor. What is on yours?

A new report from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention shows that suicide deaths have surpassed car deaths in the United States. According to the same report, suicide rates rose 15% from 1999 to 2010, with an even more dramatic rise among the 35-64 age group. Washington state has seen similar increases. Ross Reynolds speaks with Dr. Thomas Simon, a researcher at the CDC’s Injury Center in Atlanta about why the suicide rate is growing.

Our car expert Ashly Knapp says in the not-too-distant future your car will be driving itself. Ross Reynolds sits down with Ashly Knapp to find out more about the latest auto trends. And Ashly Knapp answers your questions about auto-buying.

KUOW Conversation host Ross Reynolds and OPB Think Out Loud host Dave Miller sit down to discuss this week's regional news with the writers and reporters covering the issues.

When the Emerald City and the Rose City go at it, from the outside it must look like a silly sibling feud between two hippies wearing REI chic. The two laid-back cultures maintain the most heated soccer rivalry in the country; on the men’s side with the Seattle Sounders and Portland Timbers, and now on the women’s side as well with the Seattle Reign versus the Portland Thorns.

Admittedly, some concessions can be made. Seattle continues to top the list of most literate cities, but can’t boast anything to rival Portland’s Powell’s Books. Portland has Light Rail, but Seattle has free parking on Sundays. Seattleites may allow the superiority of Voodoo Doughnuts, but will never compromise on Tom Douglas and Thierry Rautureau.

Can Portland really match the view of the Cascades to the east, the Olympics to the west and the Puget Sound in between? Seattle has crabbers from the Deadliest Catch wandering Ballard and Brandi Carlile playing Jimi Hendrix with Mike McCready backed by the Seattle Symphony at Benaroya Hall. Is it any real competition?

Today on The Conversation, we explore the I-5 rivalry between the two cities and why these two ideologically-similar urban centers love to take each other down.

Three in 10 registered American voters believe an armed rebellion might be necessary in the next few years according to pollsters at Fairleigh Dickinson University. Anti-government extremism has grown in other ways too.  Here in Washington state, the number of anti-government patriot groups has grown from two in 2008 to 52 in 2012, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

A new study from Johns Hopkins University finds that overweight patients are treated with less warmth than thinner patients by doctors. That kind of discrimination is not limited to the doctor’s office. Many overweight people say they face discrimination, mistreatment and bias in their daily lives.

Last November Washington became the first state to legalize same sex marriage at the polls but today we want to check in on what is happening with the same-sex marriage debate in and out of the Evergreen State.