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Diaz is retiring at a time when his department is under close scrutiny by the Department of Justice, which found the department policed in a bias manner.

As car sharing continues to gain traction among American drivers, Car2Go is one company benefiting from the changing way we use cars. Economics and environmental concerns are spurring the market, as is the idea that cars are tools, not symbols of power or status.

More than a dozen people were evacuated in the neighborhood where a large landslide severely damaged one home and threatened 33 others on Whidbey Island, about 50 miles north of Seattle.

The Washington Post and the San Francisco Chronicleare the latest big newspapers embracing a pay model for Web content that had been free. But around the country, more small papers, like the Chinook Observer in Washington state, have also started charging for their digital content in a bid for economic survival.

Law enforcement agencies in Washington state are having to make lots of adjustments as the state implements a ballot initiative that legalized the use of marijuana. One surprise change has been the need to re-train dogs used for sniffing out illegal drugs.

Students of color have long been punished in far higher numbers than white students in Seattle. The Education Department is looking at whether black students are disciplined more frequently and more harshly than white students for the same behavior.

Days after angering cyclists with his contention that people who ride bikes don't help pay for roads — and stating that "the act of riding a bike results in greater emissions of carbon dioxide from the rider," Washington State Rep. Ed Orcutt has apologized for his words.

When Washington State lawmakers proposed a new tax on bikes, the owner of several bike shops protested. He ended up in an email argument with a Republican lawmaker. State Senator Ed Orcutt argued cyclists pollute just by breathing. It is true that a heavy breathing cyclist would emit more carbon dioxide than a person who's just sitting, but Orcutt reconsider his claim and apologized.

A woman in Spokane, Wash., stepped out of the shower to see her 14-month-old boy bouncing on the bed, and out a half-open second-story window. She dove after the boy, smashed through the window, grabbed his foot as he was tumbling down the porch roof and lowered him safely to his grandma, who was smoking on the porch.

The state's governor called the news "disturbing" but said there is no health threat at the moment. Hanford has been in existence since the 1940s, when the site was used to prepare plutonium for bombs.