Derek Wang

Many Seattle residents are grateful for the new year because it means that their garbage will be picked up every week. At least for now.

For the past six months, 800 Seattle households participated in a pilot program that experimented with picking up the trash every other week. The affected neighborhoods were roughly in the four corners of the city and included Wedgewood.

Winter is usually not the season for road construction, but this year, things are a little different. Friday marks the start of eleven planned closures of some Interstate 5 ramps.

A group of religious leaders from numerous different faiths called on Washington state lawmakers Thursday to change the state’s gun laws. The new group spans several different religions, including Christianity, Islam, Judaism and Sikhism. It represents a new voice joining the chorus that’s calling for more gun restrictions following the Connecticut school shootings.  

It’s almost a year before the 2013 general election, but the race for Seattle mayor continues to draw a crowd. Former Seattle City Councilman Peter Steinbrueck held a press conference Wednesday morning to formally announce his candidacy.

Washington Governor Chris Gregoire proposed a new wholesale vehicle fuel tax Tuesday that you might notice at the gas pump. The governor said the move will help the state support education by helping cover the costs of getting kids to school.

Currently, school districts help pay for students' transportation needs, but a recent court ruling says state government is not doing enough to support education. That includes education-related transportation.

Another high-profile candidate says he’s interested in becoming the next Seattle mayor.  This time, it’s state Senator Ed Murray, a Democrat from Seattle.   

The CEO of the Port of Seattle, Tay Yoshitani, can sit on the board of a private freight logistics company without creating a conflict of interest, according to an outside attorney hired by the Port of Seattle Commissioners. The attorney presented his formal opinion to the port Tuesday.

The war of words stemming from the effort to reform the Seattle Police Department is heating up.  At issue is the selection of an independent monitor who would oversee the reforms.

The Justice Department and the city are supposed to jointly select the monitor, but city officials can't agree on whom that monitor should be.

Mayor McGinn opposes the selection of a Los Angeles police consultant named Merrick Bobb, who has been described as being one of the country’s preeminent police reform experts. McGinn said he had questions about whether Bobb would be fair.

Washington state’s online voter registration system is vulnerable to hackers, according to The New York Times.  

The newspaper said it took less than three minutes to get the information it needed to access the registrations of some unnamed executives.