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Fires are having an impact on the personal and political

KUOW PHOTO/MEGAN FARMER

Wildfire season is here, as evidenced by a massive fire in Kittitas County that closed I-90 in both directions. Anna King with Northwest News Network has been reporting on urban fires and their increasing danger due to climate change (and human settlement patterns).

Another fire is also making news, indirectly. This one happened in 2012, when ranchers Dwight and Steven Hammond were sentenced to five years in federal prison for setting fires on public land. That verdict led Ammon Bundy and other protesters to occupy the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge. Today, the president pardoned the Hammonds. Leah Sottile joined Bill Radke to explain the politics behind public lands.

Starbucks has recently announced the phaseout of plastic straws by 2020. There's one problem with that: single use plastic straws were originally created for the disabled community, whose need for them isn't going away as straws fall out of fashion for those who don't require them to eat or drink. Lawyer and writer Robyn Powell tells us why.

Are robots coming for your jobs? Maybe if your job is very far under the ocean, or in space... or maybe just if it's at home. Sidd Srinivasa and Howard Chizek, both roboticists at the University of Washington, joined Bill Radke to talk about the robotic future of work.