Government

Medical marijuana providers are challenging Seattle’s licensing rules in court. They say having to obtain business licenses forces them to incriminate themselves under federal law.

Washington’s chief of K-12 education says the state’s high school students are required to take too many exit exams in order to graduate.

The Seattle City Council is debating a plan that would transform a huge swath of the city’s center, and that for the first time would allow developers to build residential high rises just a block from Lake Union.

In the other Washington, lawmakers are still trying to reach a deal to avoid the "fiscal cliff," a series of sharp tax increases and spending cuts taking effect January 1. House Speaker John Boehner and President Obama spoke on the phone yesterday, a day after the president offered to reduce his initial demand for $1.6 trillion in higher tax revenue over a decade to $1.4 trillion.

Obama wants much of the revenue to come from raising tax rates on the wealthy. House Speaker John Boehner has accused the White House of stalling the negotiations. Central to a final settlement is Washington’s senior senator, Patty Murray. Ross Reynolds speaks with Senator Patty Murray about the looming fiscal cliff.

Seven Seattle-area school districts have been awarded a $40 million federal Race to the Top grant. The money is aimed at improving academic achievement in high-poverty schools in the Seattle, Kent, Federal Way, Highline, Renton, Auburn and Tukwila districts.

Looking for a holiday gift for the green thumb in your life? Greg Rabourn and Marty Wingate join us with a few ideas for useful gifts sure to please any gardener.

Washington state Democrats won't have sole control of Olympia in the coming legislative session after all. Two Democratic senators announced on Monday that they will caucus with the GOP to give Republicans a 25-24 bipartisan majority in the state senate. We talk with incoming Senate majority leader Rodney Tom of Medina.

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.