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Do people vote based on race? That’s a question the Washington Legislature will likely tackle this session, as supporters of a state Voting Rights Act prepare to push the measure again this year. The law would aim to strengthen minority representation in places with a large population of Latinos or other racial group.

Teachers at Orca K-8 school in Seattle say they will boycott the same standardized test that Garfield High School teachers came out against last week.

City officials predict that by 2050 parts of Seattle will be under water at high tide as global sea levels rise. At a press conference held Monday on the edge of Elliott Bay near downtown Seattle, the City Council announced a new plan to take action on climate change.

Seattle Public Schools officials and the company that produces the Measures of Academic Progress (MAP) test are defending the school district's use of the standardized test after Garfield High School teachers refused to give it to their students this quarter.

Contemporary art is a lot like baseball: you can't really enjoy it until you understand a few rules.   Nobody, not even the hippest art insider, is born appreciating abstract expressionism or conceptual performance. In fact, no two people will give you the same definition of contemporary art.  It can be anything, from abstract painting to live performance.

With her stylish clothing and regal bearing,  art educator and curator Yoko Ott looks like she was born in one of the world's great art capitols.  But appearances are deceiving.  "It doesn't get further away from the contemporary art scene than a little island in the middle of the Pacific," she laughs.

Correction: An earlier version of the story stated that buildings cannot be nominated for landmark status if they are too small. The story has been corrected to say that while small buildings can be nominated, they do not automatically trigger a landmark review.

South Lake Union in Seattle was once home to timber mills, commercial laundries, warehouses, even a factory making Ford Model Ts. It’s now being targeted for major new development, with the city’s mayor proposing raising building heights dramatically in the low-rise district. But historic preservationists say the plan does not adequately address the area's unique history and they worry it will result in the obliteration of many of the old buildings that provide the city’s connection with the past.  

The Washington State Liquor Control Board is forging ahead in its new role creating access to legalized marijuana. Next, the board will issue a request for consultants to gauge pot consumption in Washington state. 

Federal regulators are pledging a full-scale review of the design and build of the Boeing 787 Dreamliner. In a news conference, the Federal Aviation Administration said it will get to the root cause of a set of problems, including last week’s fire on a Dreamliner at Boston's Logan Airport.

Rumor has it that somewhere in a forgotten corner of a basement somewhere in Seattle there's a decaying 3-D model of a brand new Yesler Terrace. It was dreamed up in the late 1960s but, like the R H Thomson Expressway or the parking lot that was planned for where the Pike Place Market still stands, it never made it out of the world of imagination and onto the grid of the real world.

In 2013, after six years of planning, it appears another vision of a brand new development will take root where Yesler Terrace now stands. It's not the first transformation this patch of ground has seen though. This is the story of two places that occupy that ground -- one in the present and one in the past.

The Federal Aviation Administration said this morning that the Boeing 787 will undergo a comprehensive design, manufacture and assembly review.  The announcement  follows two separate incidents with  the so-called Dreamliners operated by Japan Airlines. The first was a fire in a battery pack of an auxiliary power unit and the second was a fuel leak.