Public Insight Network

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. 

RadioActive's Halle Bills takes a look at the high school tradition of hazing or "froshing." Froshing happens at high schools across the country. It is an initiation process where incoming freshmen are humiliated as they start the school year.  A source in our Public Insight Network helped make this story happen.