Government

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.

A campaign is mounting to switch up how Seattle City Council members are elected. Currently, members can live in any part of the city and their job is to represent the whole of Seattle. A campaign called Seattle Districts Now aims to divide the city into seven smaller districts with a council seat based in each one. Voters in each district would then elect a council member to represent their specific neighborhoods and interests.

Death is something we all grapple with. What do the world's major religions teach? The Interfaith Amigos join us with a look at what religion has to say about mortality and the afterlife.

Bus service in King County could get some good news this week. Washington state lawmakers are expected to introduce a plan that could prevent a looming fiscal crisis.

The deadline for marijuana experts seeking work has closed in Washington state. All bids to help the state set up its legal marijuana system had to be submitted by 2:oo p.m. on February 15. State officials say the response was substantial.

In President Obama’s State of the Union Address, he called on Congress to pass new gun control legislation. He declared that “in the two months since Newtown, more than a thousand birthdays, graduations and anniversaries have been stolen from our lives by a bullet from a gun."

According to the most recent report on gun deaths by the Center for Disease control, two-thirds of all US gun deaths in 2010 were suicides. 

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.

If you want to marry someone from another country, and you’re a US citizen, chances are your spouse could also gain citizenship through marriage. That is, if the marriage is between a man and a woman.  This path to citizenship is not available to gay couples because of the federal Defense of Marriage Act. Next month, the US Supreme Court is set to hear a challenge to this federal law. It’s a case Seattle resident Otts Bolisay is anxious to watch unfold.

Seattle Times reporter Emily Heffter penned an explosive expose about Port Commissioner Rob Holland.  Now Commissioner Holland has resigned.  Emily Heffter talks about what she uncovered and what is next for the Port of Seattle.