Government

  Leaders of some cities in Washington state say public-records requests take a big bite out of their already strained budgets. A new bill in Olympia aims to fix that. It would limit the amount of time and money cities in Washington would have to spend on public-records requests. Ross Reynolds talks with the bill's prime sponsor, Representative Dean Takko. 

A King County Superior Court judge has rejected a lawsuit that would have stalled plans to build a new professional basketball and hockey arena in Seattle’s Sodo neighborhood. It's part of a proposal to bring an NBA team back to Seattle.

House Democrats are proposing to raise the gas tax by 10 cents, to 47.5 cents a gallon, within five years, to pay for a $10 billion transportation package. The plan was introduced earlier this week by State Representative Judy Clibborn, D-Mercer Island, who chairs the House Transportation Committee. 

Ross Reynolds talks to Clibborn and  Sen. Tim Sheldon, a Democrat representing the 35th District, which includes all of Mason County and parts of Thurston, Kitsap and Grays Harbor counties.  He’s one of two Senate Democrats to join with Republicans to form a majority coalition this legislative session.

Congresswoman Suzan DelBene was elected in November to represent Washington's 1st District. How has she spent her first few months in office? Ross Reynolds sits down with Congresswoman DelBene for an update on what she has been working on and her thoughts on gun control, marijuana legalization, immigration and looming federal budget cuts.

Unless lawmakers in the other Washington can come to an agreement, the US is facing $85 billion of automatic spending cuts. How will sequestration hit us here in the Evergreen state?

Ross Reynolds talks with Governor Jay Inslee's budget director, David Schumacher, about how the looming federal budget cuts will impact Washington state.

Today marks the last day for policy bills to leave committee in the state Legislature. That means the House and the Senate will swap bills and decide which ones to send to the governor.

Snohomish County officials are preparing for a change in leadership. Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon says he’ll resign at the end of May. Reardon announced his pending resignation at a 7:00 a.m. meeting at the Everett Golf and Country Club Thursday.

The Everett Herald reports Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon will resign, effective May 31. Reardon has been dogged by allegation he misused county funds and  had his staff anonymously harass critics. Ross Reynolds talks with Everett Herald reporter Scott North about Reardon's announcement.

North Dakota is booming. The state's unemployment rate is just 3.2 percent — well below the national average of 7.9 percent. Officials are trying to keep pace with a population surge brought on by oil industry jobs that have made North Dakota the country's number two oil-producing state. But what will extracting millions of barrels from the Bakken oil field mean for the region's environmental and economic future? Writer and reporter Richard Manning joins us with the story of North Dakota's oil boom.