Government

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?

King County plans to pull an all-nighter on the first day marriage licenses are available to same-sex couples under Washington state law. On Thursday, Dec. 6, at 12:01 a.m., the county is scheduled to open its licensing office in downtown Seattle.

Washington voters just passed an initiative legalizing marijuana that will be certified December 6.  But state Representative Roger Goodman thinks it already needs tweaking.

Plus, we talk to Muraco Kyashna-tocha, director of the Evergreen State Cannabis Trade Association. The association is expanding beyond medical marijuana now that recreational use is being legalized.

South Korea is electing a new president next month. In their elections, corporate money is banned and the campaign season is limited. Ross Reynolds talks with University of Washington Professor Yong-Chool Ha about the ins and outs of election season in South Korea.

SEATTLE, Wash. – Washington Governor-elect Jay Inslee says states are the incubators of new ideas – and that should extend to marijuana legalization. Inslee Wednesday said he’s hopeful Washington’s new recreational pot law can take effect without federal interference.

Inslee didn’t support Washington’s marijuana legalization initiative. But now that it has passed he says, “The voters have spoken.”

Inslee says he will work in a “rational and mature” way to persuade the Obama administration to allow Washington to implement the law.

What are the most common causes of house fires in Seattle and what can be done to avoid fire? Ross Reynolds sits down with Captain Shata Stephenson from the Seattle Fire Marshal’s office and talks about staying fire-free over the holidays.

Last week Seattle voters approved funding for rebuilding Seattle's waterfront seawall. But some waterfront businesses say the construction schedule will hurt the tourist trade. Ross talks to Seattle City Councilmember Tom Rasmussen, who chairs the transportation committee.

Last Tuesday's general election marked a decisive moment for the city of Shoreline: 70 percent of voters there agreed to buy water services back from the city of Seattle and create their own water utility. 

Magdaleno Rose-Avila is the first director of Seattle’s Office of Immigrant and Refugee Affairs. He was selected by Mayor Mike McGinn for his decades of experience working with diverse communities in pursuit of human rights.

Last Tuesday Puerto Ricans cast a public opinion vote to become the 51st state. But what does that mean for those voters and for the rest of the US?

Christina Duffy Ponsa is a law professor at Columbia University and the co-editor of "Foreign in a Domestic Sense: Puerto Rico, American Expansion, and the Constitution." She joins us to talk about Puerto Rico's current status and how things might change with this vote.