News

A KUOW investigation has led a top congressman to demand answers about Shell Oil's underwater accident this fall in Puget Sound.

As we reported on Friday, an underwater test near Anacortes left Shell's first-of-its-kind oil-spill equipment “crushed like a beer can.”

The countdown is on. At 12:01 on December 6, King County will start handing out marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Hundreds are expected to show up for this historic, once-in-a-lifetime event. County staffers are working around the clock to pull off an unprecedented, all-night operation.

As regulators in the region weigh the potential impacts of trains full of coal moving along the Columbia River and the shores of Puget Sound, trainloads of oil are quietly on the move. There are billions of barrels of oil in the Bakken shale formation – located in North Dakota and Montana mainly. And some of that oil is now making its way to refineries in Puget Sound.

What’s the opposite of a shotgun wedding? Try a 15-year engagement.  Seattle couple Kate Schubert and Liz Newman joke they’ve waited that long for the right to get married in their home state.  The wait is almost over. On December 6, same-sex marriage will be legal in Washington.  Now, Kate and Liz are eager to take the next step.

Maybe you’ve heard of the car-sharing service, Zipcar. It’s like a club where members can borrow cars for a set fee. On Monday, the Seattle City Council is expected to approve another similar car-sharing service to launch in the city next year.

Seattle City Attorney Pete Holmes has been a longtime supporter of legalizing marijuana. But when he was elected in 2009, he said he never would have imagined that his goal would be achieved so quickly. This week Initiative 502 takes effect, or at least the part of it that allows people to possess small amounts of marijuana for recreational use.

Marijuana has been historically cast as a dangerous drug for outcasts and societal dropouts. But with the passage of I-502, marijuana is going mainstream. A Seattle web entrepreneur is building tools for the masses to bring marijuana – and its users – into the 21st century.

Most science exhibits focus on animals, robots or body parts. But a new exhibit at Seattle’s Pacific Science Center focuses on wellness. The goal is to help kids understand how the choices they make affect their overall health.

Officials with the Washington state Patrol say about 8 percent of the drivers they pull over turn out to be impaired by drugs. A lab test verifying marijuana in the blood is a factor in showing driver impairment, they say, but there’s never been a legal limit the way there is for alcohol. That changes with the new law allowing marijuana possession, which takes effect Thursday, Dec. 6. It contains a new limit on marijuana components in a driver’s bloodstream.