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The So listen to the Fresh Air podcast from NPR and WHYY. Hey, good morning. I'm Patricia Murphy. It's Monday. This is Seattle now.

Until very recently, Washington's Department of Licensing Self-Service Line sounded like this when you pressed two for Spanish.

Thank you for calling the Department of Licensing Customer Support Center. It was like that for months. We'll talk about

what went wrong and what it took to fix the issue in a minute, but first, let's get you caught up.

King County Metro is expanding bus service on March 28th. The same day, light rail will finally cross Lake Washington. The new service includes earlier morning trips, later

nighttime service, and additional weekend runs, mostly on the east side and in

South King County. They're intended to improve service around the Cross Lake Connection. Also on the

28th, Metro will introduce all-door boarding to speed up trips and reduce delays. The so-called

millionaires tax recently passed by state lawmakers is making

headlines, but Washington's estate tax actually got rolled back during this legislative session.

The tax rate went down for every estate worth more than a million dollars. On the top end,

estates worth more than $12 million will now be taxed at 20%.

Previously, that was 35%, the highest in the nation.

Seattle Times reports the change comes amid concerns that increasing taxes could encourage wealthy residents to relocate.

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