Government

Ballots go out in Washington and Oregon at the end of the week of October 15. Last minute money is pouring into the ballot fight over same–sex marriage in Washington. Those dollars are buying television ads on both sides of the issue. So what claims are the campaigns making? Olympia Correspondent Austin Jenkins takes a closer look.

Applications are now available to serve on Seattle’s new, court-ordered Community Police Commission. This citizen oversight board is part of the city’s agreement with the Department of Justice about police reforms.

This is not exactly a new idea. Seattle’s created civilian panels in the past to monitor police and propose changes. But City Council Member Nick Licata says this new one has a key difference.

Who was the best US president? The worst? Biographer Robert Merry plays "rate the presidents" based on popularity and historical judgment. Here are some hints: Abraham Lincoln's at the top and James Buchanan ranks as one of the country's biggest failures.

A new study by Marijuana Arrest Research Project says more than 240,000 people in Washington have been arrested for marijuana possession over the past 25 years, and that those arrested are disproportionally Black, Latino and Native American.

The Mayor of Kent, Washington is proposing another round of layoffs and new taxes to bridge a $2 million budget shortfall. Mayor Suzette Cooke presented her 2013-2014 budget to the City Council Tuesday. In her opening speech, Mayor Cooke called her budget “as ugly as the economic times we face.”

Despite their political differences, the young and ambitious Harvard Law graduates and Harvard Law Review alumni President Obama and Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts share many similarities. We talk with Jeffrey Toobin, author of the new book “The Oath: The Obama White House and The Supreme Court,” about the battles and truces between America's judicial and executive branches – from inauguration day to the recent Supreme Court ruling to uphold the Affordable Care Act.

The full King County Council is expected to vote on the latest Sodo arena plan next week, following some adjustments made by the council’s budget committee Tuesday.

Committee chairman Joe McDermott said the adjustments included that language that requires
improving pedestrian access to the new Sodo arena. “It could be anywhere from sidewalks to an overpass or underpass somewhere.  I want to underscore that those kinds of pedestrian improvement also assist in freight mobility,” he said.

New York Times columnist Paul Krugman explains why he believes we are in a depression and how a massive government investment could get us out of it. Ross Reynolds interviewed Paul Krugman in front of a live studio audience, May 24, 2012. 

Paul Krugman is a Nobel Prize-winning economist and he writes The Conscience of a Liberal blog for the New York Times.