Hi, I'm Monica Nicholsberg, co-host of KUOW's economy podcast, Booming.

Microsoft President Brad Smith's favorite catchphrase of the moment is,

AI is the electricity of our age.

The next great general purpose technology.

So what does that mean for all of us?

On the latest episode, I spoke with a tech historian to find out what lessons we can learn from the last time a truly revolutionary technology took over the world.

Listen to booming on the KUOW app or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hello from the KUOW Newsroom. This is Seattle now.

I'm Patricia Murphy with a roundup of today's top stories. It's Monday, June 30th.

Washington Senator Patty Murray is calling Republican efforts to pass their massive spending and tax bill on American and wrong.

The Senate has been voting on amendments to the bill today after Republicans narrowly voted

to advance it over the weekend. The Democrat asked her Republican colleagues where their concern

for the national deficit has gone. How many times have they told me, I know you want to invest in

child care, Patty, but we got to get this budget under control. But now that it's tax

cuts for billionaires and corporations, suddenly the budget doesn't matter anymore. Suddenly,

the rules do not matter anymore. Suddenly, a couple trillion goes away with a sprinkle of fairy dust.

The Congressional Budget Office estimates the bill will add more than $3.3 trillion

to the deficit over the next decade.

Murray and her fellow Democrats also say the measure will strip millions of people of Medicaid

and snap food benefits.

Cherry growers in Washington continue to struggle with a shortage of pickers.

They say fear and rumors of ice rates are causing a labor shortage that's reaching a crisis

...