Ross Files with Dave Ross

Professor in Ethics & Public Life at Cornell David Shoemaker. He is the author of "The Architecture of Blame and Praise: An Interdisciplinary Investigation". He and Dave talk about how blame and praise has shaped the American media landscape, and how people have reacted to the murder of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.

Congressman Derek Kilmer, representing Washington's 6th Congressional District talks with Dave about his legacy in office, fixing Congress, and looking ahead to the future.

Senator Phil Fortunato talks about his proposed bill in the Washington state legislature to change sanctuary status of the state. He defends his stance on immigration, and how he is looking forward to President-elect Trump's mass deportation plans.

Longtime Washington State Senator Karen Keiser talks to Dave about her legacy after announcing she will be retiring from the state legislature after nearly 30 years. She discusses how she navigated being a woman in local government, and reaching across the aisle to get bills passed in Olympia. Her book is "Getting Elected is the Easy Part: Working and Winning in the State Legislature"

In a special edition of "Crime and Punishment", we hear from Presiding District Judge Rebecca Robertson and King County Public Defense Office Spokesperson Will Casey about the process behind prosecuting and sentencing defendants in King County.

It turns out another big influence on this year's election was cryptocurrency...crypo companies put roughly $130 million into candidates, many of whom were GOP candidates, Dave called up New York Times Writer David Yaffe-Bellany -- who looked into the data behind this trend -- and he highlighted some of the candidates who received the most from cryptocurrency donors...

Let's look at one of the most prominent issues that we face in Seattle, homelessness. One of the problems you face in trying to solve homelessness is figuring out just how many people are dealing with housing instability. A new report is out from the University of Washington looking at how to count the amount of people impacted by homelessness, so we called up one of the co-authors of the report, Zack Almquist, who teaches at the UW 

Alexis Mercedes Rinck is running for the at-large position in Seattle City Council against encumbant Tanya Woo. Alexis talks about her experience in public service, addressing homelessness and public safety if she is elected into Position 8.

Seattle City Council member Tanya Woo was appointed to Position 8 in the Council 8 months ago, and she is running to keep that spot against her opponent Alexis Mercedes Rinck -- what has Woo done in the months since being appointed and what does she hope to do if she gets elected?

John Woodrow Cox is a reporter for the Washington Post and along with members of his team looked into what exactly happened to a 14 year old boy in order to make him open fire at school. The story is called The making of an alleged school shooter: Missed warnings and years of neglect and we learn more in today's Ross File. 

Warning: the topic of suicide is discussed in this interview