With Gov. Chris Gregoire’s signature, Washington today becomes the seventh state to recognize gay marriage. It’s a historic day for same-sex couples seeking equal treatment under the law for their relationships.

It was probably inevitable that a Washington Post report on congressional earmarks would turn up something on U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Belfair.

It’s hard to believe, but there is a bright side to the tawdry tale of a Lakewood police officer accused of embezzling money meant for the families of four murdered fellow officers.

Education reform – serious education reform – remains alive in the Legislature. No thanks to the Legislature’s education chairwomen.

It was crowded, it was smoky, and it was dark. But none of that bothered me. I was 20 years old and drinking legally.

WASHINGTON – Mitt Romney’s recent losses to Rick Santorum in Colorado, Missouri and Minnesota revealed a truism that Romney might want to study – but not too much!

“One of the worries we have obviously in the next campaign is that there are so many of these so-called super PACs, these independent expenditures that are gonna be out there, there is gonna be just a lot of money floating around and I guarantee a bunch of it’s gonna be negative.”

A recent study by the University of Pennsylvania criticizing Washington’s higher education system identifies some real problems but lands wide of the mark in offering solutions. The report leaves the impression that Washington’s higher education system is fundamentally broken. We do not believe it is.

With bated breath, the world’s markets recently waited for the announcement of the U.S. fourth-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate – a potential bellwether for the global economy. It turned out to be 2.8 percent.

This was the week Mitt Romney should have sealed the Republican presidential nomination. He was expected to win Tuesday’s caucuses in Colorado, to win or tie in Minnesota and to do credibly well in Missouri. Instead, the former Massa-chusetts governor managed to lose all three contests to Rick Santorum, a candidate who has spent most of the campaign stuck near the bottom of the polls.

When good news happens to a bad candidate like Mitt Romney, it makes an already difficult situation worse. He has enough trouble communicating any message, much less a mixed one.