NPR News

This fall, voters in Oregon and Washington will decide whether to legalize marijuana. Washington’s Initiative 502 would allow pot to be sold in state-licensed stores. So would Oregon’s Measure 80. But it would go one step further: The Oregon ballot measure would allow people to grow their own marijuana. In both campaigns, there's no shortage of claims about the drug. Chris Lehman has been fact-checking two of those claims. Today, he takes on this question: Is marijuana a safer drug than alcohol?

To Paul Stanford, this isn't really a question.

In addition to choosing a president and members of Congress, voters in several states will weigh in on high-profile social issues on Nov. 6. Here are some of the key voter initiatives on ballots:

Here's a scenario: You come home for Christmas, call up your old punk rock buddies, and find out they're really into hip-hop and dance music now. Catching up, you pretend to understand words like "chillwave" and "dubstep," taking their word for it that those are, in fact, real things.

That's what's going on right now with Seattle's Sub Pop Records, known for bringing fringe rock music to the masses for over 20 years.

Unlike a lot of people I know, my summer reading doesn't differ significantly from the reading I do the rest of the year. I'm always looking for new authors, older titles I might have missed, books I want to reread, and a nice mixture of fiction and nonfiction. While I understand the concept of beach reading, for me it doesn't mean light reading, but rather choosing books whose ultimate destruction by sand and water won't concern me overly much because I know that I can easily replace them.

Transcript

LINDA WERTHEIMER, HOST:

A break in hot weather this weekend helped firefighters control wildfires in several western states. Higher humidity, calmer winds aided fire crews in Wyoming and rain made a difference in Montana. Firefighters also made progress with a fire near Redding, California. And in Colorado, the most destructive wildfire in the state's history is almost fully contained.