Washington | featured news

Three baristas accused of giving customers peep shows along with their coffee have been arrested in Washington state, accused of operating an adult cabaret without a license from the drive-thru windows of two Grab-N-Go coffee shops, police said on Wednesday.

A 4-year-old girl in Washington state pulled her little sister from the wreckage of a car crash that killed their mother, then kept the two of them warm under a blanket in the chilly rain for six hours until a passing driver found them. State troopers said that the girls probably only survived because the older sister had the wherewithal to get them out of the car and cover them. The younger girl is 2. Both were hurt, NBC affiliate KING5 in Seattle reported.

Cities increasingly are building protected lanes for bicyclists, finding that they bring economic as well as environmental benefits to communities. Last year, cities built 40 of the so-called green lanes, according to the Bikes Belong Foundation's Green Lane Project, an organization working with six cities — Austin; Chicago; Memphis; Portland, Ore.; San Francisco and Washington — to add them.

If a California company has its way, recreational marijuana users in Colorado and Washington state will one day be able to get their pot out of vending machines.

LOS ANGELES — Patrick Dempsey says he wants to rescue a coffee house chain and more than 500 jobs.The "Grey's Anatomy" star said Wednesday he's leading a group attempting to buy Tully's Coffee. The Seattle-based company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in October.

President Barack Obama says he won't go after Washington state and Colorado for legalizing marijuana.<p/>In a Barbara Walters interview airing Friday on ABC, Obama is asked whether he supports making pot legal. He says - quote - "I wouldn't go that far."

Young voters helped pass laws legalizing marijuana in Washington and Colorado, but many still won't be able to light up. Most universities have codes of conduct banning marijuana use, and they get millions of dollars in funding from the federal government, which still considers pot illegal.

The residents of Colorado and Washington state have voted to legalize the recreational use of marijuana, and all hell is about to break loose -- at least ideologically. The problem is that pot is still very much illegal under federal law, and the Obama administration must decide whether to enforce federal law in a state that has rejected the substance of that law.

Hit the slopes - and then a bong? Marijuana legalization votes this week in Colorado and Washington state don't just set up an epic state-federal showdown on drug law for residents. The measures also open the door for marijuana tourism.

Hundreds of thousands of people were told to flee low-lying areas, New York and Washington shut down their subways, federal offices and local schools closed, and presidential candidates curtailed their campaigning as Hurricane Sandy roared ever closer to the Eastern Seaboard on Sunday, promising epic storm surges, howling winds and drenching rain across much of the Mid-Atlantic region and Northeast.