Seattle Now

The Democracy voucher program is Seattle’s system for public financing of city elections. It’s designed to combat big money in local political campaigns, and to ease the financial burden that prevents many cash-strapped households from donating to local races. But does the program work as intended?

Seattle residents keep an eye out… democracy vouchers will be showing up your mailboxes starting this week.

Sure they may look like Valpak coupons, but they’re actually a way for you to financially support candidates in the city council election.

KUOW’s David Hyde is here to tell us about democracy vouchers why you might not want to recycle them with your junk mail.

This week… Seattle Police started working 4-tens to cover the significant recruitment problem. A Seattle researcher made a data map of the city’s so-called 15-minute neighborhoods. And we’ll spill the beans on which Seattle billionaire is the worst carbon emitter.

Out of state health providers are scrambling to find abortion training in states like Washington. Medical residents, family physicians, and OBGYNs in states where abortion is illegal often can’t get adequate training there.

And because many doctors don’t plan to work solely in states where abortion is illegal…states like Washington can fill in the gap.

KUOW reporter Eilis O’Neill is here to talk about how Washington state’s Abortion training landscape changed after the Roe decision, and how it has been filling the gaps for other states

What happens when ChatGPT does your homework?

That’s what educators are figuring out now that the text generating technology is online.

Teachers are talking about how to help students use it responsibly.

West Seattle High School English chair Kira Hopkins is here to explain.

Streateries are one of Seattle’s favorite pandemic byproducts. The city made street dining permanent and added an amendment to give historic districts six months to decide whether or not they’re a good fit. Like on Ballard Avenue, where there’s tension about whether one of Seattle’s most successful stretches of streateries gets to stay. The Urbanist’s Ray Dubicki is here to talk us through the decision.

Last week, the Seattle Police Department released their annual crime report for 2022.

Violent crime was up, except in the last quarter.

Concern and fear about violent crime is up too.

And that perception may be more important than the statistics.

Seattle University’s Dr. Jackie Helfgott is here to explain why.

This week, there’s a special election, with one thing on the ballot: social housing. Microsoft is beefing up their search engine to catch up with Google, and the downtown Regal Theater is just like Schrödinger's cat - it’s either dead, or alive, but we don’t know which. Needling Editor in Chief Lex Vaughn and KUOW Arts and Culture Reporter Mike Davis are here to break it all down.

Here's a forecast for Seattle area homebuyers: partly cloudy with a chance of less competition.

The start of Seattle's 2023 housing market is off to a temperate start with financial worries buzzing. But for a few winter is offering glimmers of bright spots

Seattle Times business reporter Heidi Groover is here to help us with the forecast.

In Washington about half of hospitals are Catholic run due to mergers. And that can complicate access to things like abortion, gender affirming care, and death with dignity.

A new bill would authorize public oversight of hospital mergers and whether they would impact access to care.

Seattle Times reporter Nina Shapiro is here to talk about the bill and our local hospital network.