Government

  A House committee in Olympia will hear public testimony Wednesday for a bill that would abolish capital punishment in Washington. House Bill 1504 would eliminate the death penalty in favor of life without parole.

KUOW has learned that the U.S. Department of Education has launched an investigation into discipline rates in Seattle Public Schools. In an email, agency spokesman Jim Bradshaw told KUOW that its Office for Civil Rights is looking into whether black students in Seattle are disciplined "more frequently and more harshly" than white students for the same infractions.

It’s not news that government can get bogged down by layers of bureaucracy. The solution to cutting the red tape, says California Lieutenant Governor Gavin Newsom, is technology. He joins us to talk about his new book "Citizenville," and how to put technology to use to take citizens from observers to collaborators.

The first members of Washington state’s new Charter School Commission are due to be appointed Wednesday. The commission will be able to approve some of the 40 charter schools allowed under the law voters passed last fall.

Both of King County’s death penalty cases are on hold pending appeal to the Washington Supreme Court. A key issue in both cases is whether the defendants have experienced any hardships that should have required prosecutors to be more lenient.

What do politics have to do with professional sports? More now than ever according to Dave Zirin, sports editor for The Nation. Ross Reynolds talks to Zirin about the impact of politics in professional sports and what he learned while researching his new book "Game Over."

At least 1,000 children could be kicked out of Head Start programs in Washington due to the automatic federal budget cuts that began today.

The King County Housing Authority has stopped issuing new Section 8 vouchers. The program is federally subsidized through the Department of Housing and Urban Development. The move is a result of the impending reduction in those funds due to sequestration.

Today marks yet another sink-or-swim deadline for bills in the state Legislature to make it out of committee. Which ones have the best chance of survival? It’s all part of our end-of-the-week update with reporters Austin Jenkins and Tom Banse. They will cover everything from sick leave, to education reform, to the State Supreme Court’s recent ruling that lawmakers should only need a simple majority vote to raise taxes.