Ross Files With Dave Ross

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 

Sound Transit expansion continues to be a hot button issue and the co founders of Smart Transit are calling for a pause on the expansion efforts, despite being big believers in public transit.     

Who decided what is and isn't recylable and just how powerful is that decision? ProPublica's Lisa Song covered this and she discusses her findings with Dave Ross

Jim Walsh joins us for a conversation about the recent primary election results in Washington as well as a conversation about the power and responsibilities of government.     

Democratic Political Strategist Cathy Allen chats with Dave Ross and Colleen O'Brien about Tim Walz joining Kamala Harris on the Democratic Presidential ticket, what makes him a good Vice Presidential candidate, and why she would like to see him debate JD Vance.

Washington GOP Political Analyst Randy Pepple speaks to Dave Ross and Colleen O'Brien about Tim Walz as a Vice Presidential candidate for the Democratic Party and why he believes Donald Trump does not need to debate Kamala Harris.

 A topic that we think about a lot here locally -- fentanyl addiction...it is ugly, dangerous, and running rampant throughout the country, especially here in Seattle, in fact, last year in King County there were reportedly 1,060 fentanyl related deaths, a record high. Dr. Christian Lüscher from the University of Geneva is looking into the fentanyl crisis. He is visiting the Allen Institute to explain his work surrounding how the drug impacts the human brain. 

There is research now to show that social connections can help heal physical ailments -- and those findings are outlined in a book titled "The Connection Cure" by author Julia Hotz...a look at "social prescriptions" being given to people in countries around the world like Finland -- we spoke to Julia, who described some of the common social prescriptions...

Can we use AI and security cameras to prevent shootings before they happen? And if we can, what does that mean for our privacy? We talk to Sam Alaimo, one of the co-founders of ZeroEyes software

D.W. Gibson, author of "One Week to Change the World" on how the "Battle of Seattle" formed, what it said about the nature of mass protests and local law enforcement.

Dr. Neal Chatterjee from the UW Medicine Heart Institute on his research into using AI to predict potential cardiac arrest.

New York Times Investigative Reporter David Fahrenthold weighs in on the June 27th debate and whether President Biden should remain in the running. He also comments on the lengths that can be taken with Presidential immunity. 

Amy Smith, Acting Chief of CARE Seattle joins Dave to talk about the new Community Assisted Response and Engagement program in the city.