Tagged: politics

Seattle’s mayor is launching a new program aimed at improving instruction in the city’s preschools. Mayor Mike McGinn announced the initiative in his State of the City address Tuesday.

Drug-testing welfare recipients, Governor Inslee’s jobs package, the gun control debate, and extending the waiting period for divorce are just some of the topics that have been discussed by lawmakers in Olympia this week. Ross Reynolds talks with Olympia correspondent Austin Jenkins about the state of things in the state capital.

Recent debate over the future of the state's pre-paid tuition program and the continually rising cost of college raises a larger question: Who is going to pay for a college education? It used to be that Washington state paid most of the cost of a public university degree. Today, students must find most of the funds. As costs rise, how will society keep higher education affordable? William Zumeta heads the graduate program at the Evans School of Public Affairs and has written about the costs of college. He joins us to talk about how we can make sure people in Washington state can pursue higher education without having to go into crushing debt.

Despite recent disagreements over gun control proposals in the state legislature, a few Democrats and Republicans are coming together to support one bill that would require background checks for all firearms transactions in Washington.

Both state and federal lawmakers have been debating over how to approach immigration reform. Immigrants themselves tend to favor paths to citizenship and educational opportunities for their children. But how do non-immigrants formulate their opinions on the subject? A recent academic study says that maybe our genes play a key role in shaping our political views. According to the research, people with a predisposition to social anxiety and fear are more likely to be critical of the unfamiliar and therefore more likely to support things like anti-immigration policy. David Hyde talks to lead author and political science professor Pete Hatemi to get the details.