More from KUOW

The Everett Herald reports Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon will resign, effective May 31. Reardon has been dogged by allegation he misused county funds and  had his staff anonymously harass critics. Ross Reynolds talks with Everett Herald reporter Scott North about Reardon's announcement.

For four decades, public defenders in King County have worked for private, non-profit companies. Soon they'll become public employees. Some are concerned this could weaken the county's public defense system. What will it mean for those who rely on public defenders? We’ll talk it over with King County Executive Dow Constantine. Plus, we’ll find out what’s in store for Seattle's next gun buyback as state legislators in Olympia consider background checks on gun sales. And are the Sonics any closer to coming back to town? King County Executive Dow Constantine joins us. Have a question? Email us at weekday@kuow.org.

North Dakota is booming. The state's unemployment rate is just 3.2 percent — well below the national average of 7.9 percent. Officials are trying to keep pace with a population surge brought on by oil industry jobs that have made North Dakota the country's number two oil-producing state. But what will extracting millions of barrels from the Bakken oil field mean for the region's environmental and economic future? Writer and reporter Richard Manning joins us with the story of North Dakota's oil boom.

Different periods in history have different swear words. How people throw them around says something about our who we are as a culture. Because we reserve the harshest epithets for the kind of person we most fear becoming.

Hear NPR’s linguist Geoffrey Nunberg get bleeped on the radio, today on KUOW Presents.
 

Full list of stories from KUOW Presents, Thursday, February 21: