Public Insight Network

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.

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.

Correction: This story has been corrected to show that of the 120,000 people who were cut off unemployment benefits before they found a job from summer to 2008 to November 2012, 70 percent have not yet found work.

A program Congress has extended 10 times over the last four years is expected to end this month. The emergency unemployment compensation program has been a safety net for 400,000 people in Washington since the summer of 2008. Four years later 70 percent of people who were cut off from benefits before they found work are still looking. That's about 84,000 people.

Washington’s law allowing same-sex marriage just took effect this week. And that could be not a moment too soon for same-sex couples hoping to receive marriage-related federal benefits.

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.

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.

President Barack Obama is meeting today with members of Congress to try to avoid the fiscal cliff.  The president says he’ll let Bush-era tax cuts for families earning over $250,000 a year expire.  House Republicans are opposed.

Seattle ​entrepreneur and venture capitalist Nick Hanauer would pay more if the tax cuts expire and he thinks he should. Ross Reynolds speaks with Hanauer, business owner Mark Peterson, and policy analysts Mark Guppy and Marilyn Watkins, and he asks listeners to weigh in with their opinion: Are the rich taxed enough?

Last week we invited six members of our source community, KUOW’S Public Insight Network, to our studios in the University District to talk politics. We had a range of views including a self-described Socialist-Independent, a fiscal conservative, a right-leaning Democrat among others. Ross Reynolds sat down with Rob Franco, Rick Wear, Pam Okano, George Robertson, Reena Koshy and Linda Carlson and discussed federal and state issues.

Last week we invited six members of our source community, KUOW’S Public Insight Network, to our studios in the University District to talk politics. We had a range of views including a self-described Socialist-Independent, a fiscal conservative, a right-leaning Democrat among others. Ross Reynolds sat down with Rob Franco, Rick Wear, Pam Okano, George Robertson, Reena Koshy and Linda Carlson and discussed federal and state issues.