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Washington state lawmakers pass gay marriage bill (AP)
AP - Washington state lawmakers voted to approve gay marriage Wednesday, setting the stage for the state to become the seventh in the nation to allow same-sex couples to wed.

For Santorum, new challenges follow his big wins (AP)

Republican presidential candidate, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum greets supporters as he arrives to speak at the Bella Donna Chapel in Mckinney, Texas, Wed. Feb. 8, 2012. (AP Photo/Rex C. Curry)AP - One day after Rick Santorum's startling breakthrough in the presidential race, his few aides decamped to distant states to start building campaign organizations from scratch. It was evidence of his challenge in converting sudden momentum into victories in the rush of contests ahead.



Romney's Tuesday losses show conservative doubts (AP)

Republican presidential candidate, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks at a campaign rally in Atlanta, Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2012. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)AP - Mitt Romney still can't seem to win over the bulk of the conservatives who make up the bedrock of the Republican Party.



EU threatens new sanctions on Syria (AP)

An injured Syrian rebel fighter is carried into a local hospital following an exchange of fire with army troops, unseen in Idlib, Syria, Wednesday, Feb. 8, 2012. The European Union will impose harsher sanctions on Syria, a senior EU official said Wednesday, as Russia tried to broker talks between the vice president and the opposition to calm violence. Activists reported at least 50 killed in the regime's siege of the restive city of Homs. (AP Photo)AP - The European Union will impose harsher sanctions on Syria, a senior EU official said Wednesday, as Russia tried to broker talks between the vice president and the opposition to calm violence. Activists reported at least 50 killed in the regime's siege of the restive city of Homs.



Agency will investigate 911 call in Powell fire (AP)

In this pool photo provided by the Pierce County Sheriff's Dept., an investigator walks through the garage area, Monday, Feb. 6, 2012, in the rubble of the home in Graham, Wash., where Josh Powell and his two sons were killed Sunday in what police said appeared to be a deliberately set fire. Powell's wife Susan went mysteriously missing from their West Valley City, Utah, home in December 2009. (AP Photo/Pierce County Sheriff's Dept., Ed Troyer, Pool)AP - A social worker pleaded with a 911 dispatcher throughout a nearly seven-minute call to quickly get police to Josh Powell's house after he locked himself inside with his two sons.



More photos found in Calif. teacher abuse case (AP)

Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent John Deasy takes his seat following a closed-door meeting of the Board of Education in downtown Los Angeles Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2012. Prosecutors have filed a lewd-acts complaint against the second of two teachers removed from a Los Angeles-area elementary school, and the Board voted to fire him in the closed-door meeting. On Monday night Deasy said that more than 120 staff members at Miramonte Elementary School — everyone from the principal and teachers to the cafeteria workers — were being replaced because a full investigation of the allegations will be disruptive and staffers will require support to get through the scandal. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)AP - The scandal embroiling an elementary school where two teachers were arrested last week on lewdness charges widened Wednesday with revelations of 200 more inappropriate photos of children and that one teacher sent warmly written birthday cards and presents to students who participated in his "games."



GOP vows to reverse Obama birth control policy (AP)

House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio speaks during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2012, following a GOP strategy session. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)AP - Republicans vowed Wednesday to reverse President Barack Obama's new policy on birth control, lambasting the rule that religious schools and hospitals must provide contraceptive coverage for their employees as an "unambiguous attack on religious freedom in our country."



GOP targets child tax break for illegal immigrants (AP)

FILE - In this July 8, 2011 file photo, House Social Security subcommittee Chairman Rep. Sam Johnson, R-Texas presided over the subcommittee's hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington. Republicans are looking to deny illegal immigrants the child tax credit, and refund checks as one way to help pay for extending the Social Security tax cut another 10 months. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)AP - Republicans are looking to deny child tax credits to illegal immigrants — refund checks averaging $1,800 a family — in an effort that has roused anger among Hispanics and some Democratic lawmakers.



City of Homs becomes focus of Syria's uprising (AP)

In this citizen journalism image provide by the Local Coordination Committees in Syria, a damaged house from the Syrian government forces shelling, at Baba Amr neighborhood in Homs province, Syria, on Wednesday Feb. 8, 2012. The European Union will impose harsher sanctions on Syria, a senior EU official said Wednesday, as Russia tried to broker talks between the vice president and the opposition to calm violence. Activists reported at least 50 killed in military assaults targeting government opponents. (AP Photo/Local Coordination Committees in Syria) THE ASSOCIATED PRESS IS UNABLE TO INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE AUTHENTICITY, CONTENT, LOCATION OR DATE OF THIS HANDOUT PHOTOAP - Every day, rockets and mortars fired by regime forces rattle the streets of Homs. Armed rebels ambush government military checkpoints. Hatreds brew on either side of the avenues that divide the bloodstained Syrian city.



Study: Electric boost helps brain to learn better (AP)

This undated image provided by the Fried Lab/UCLA shows a brain MRI with an arrow showing where researchers applied deep-brain stimulation during tests on learning. A painless bit of electrical current applied to the brain helped some people play a video game, and someday it might help Alzheimer's disease patients remember what they've learned, a small study suggests. The game-players had to learn where particular stores were in a virtual city. They recalled the locations better if they'd learned them while current was supplied by tiny electrodes buried in their brains. That strategy may someday help people with early Alzheimer's hang on to many kinds of memory, suggested Dr. Itzhak Fried, a neurosurgeon at the University of California, Los Angeles. But 'this is obviously a preliminary result,'' he cautioned. (AP Photo/UCLA, Fried Lab)AP - People learned better when a key part of their brains got mild zaps of electricity, a finding that may someday help Alzheimer's patients keep more of their memories.



Groupon loss and weak sales clobber shares (Reuters)
Reuters - Groupon Inc reported a loss on Wednesday as user growth slowed from the breakneck pace of past quarters, potentially signaling consumer fatigue with daily deals and wiping 13 percent off its shares.

After wins, Santorum seeks money (Reuters)
Reuters - Republican presidential contender Rick Santorum, a day after his stunning sweep of nominating contests in three states, scrambled in Texas on Wednesday to round up the support and money he needs to take on well-financed and well-organized rival Mitt Romney.

Jobs rebound dampens QE3 prospects: Fed officials (Reuters)
Reuters - The pick-up in jobs has caught the eye of two top Federal Reserve officials who said on Wednesday that continued improvement in the beleaguered labor market dampens prospects for more economic stimulus measures from the central bank.

BP wins exclusion of emails from oil spill trial (Reuters)
Reuters - BP Plc won a court order keeping several potentially damaging emails out of a scheduled trial to determine responsibility for the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill.

Diamond removes CEO, CFO after nut payment probe (Reuters)
Reuters - Diamond Foods Inc removed top management after its audit committee found that the company improperly accounted for payments to walnut growers, sending its shares down 40 percent in after-hours trading.

Washington state House passes gay marriage bill (Reuters)
Reuters - The Washington state House of Representatives approved a Senate-passed bill to legalize gay marriage in a vote on Wednesday that moved the state another step closer to becoming the seventh to recognize same-sex nuptials.

Watchdog fines Ernst & Young $2 million over audits (Reuters)
Reuters - The watchdog board for corporate auditors on Wednesday said it has imposed a $2 million penalty, its largest fine ever, on accounting and consulting firm Ernst & Young LLP in a settlement involving past audits of Medicis Pharmaceutical Corp.

Greek deal prospects rise, euro ministers to meet (Reuters)
Reuters - Prospects for a deal on a second international bailout for Greece brightened on Wednesday when euro zone finance ministers were summoned to talks in Brussels while Greek political leaders met to approve a tough new reform and austerity program.

Boehner vows Congress will reverse Obama birth control policy (The Christian Science Monitor)
The Christian Science Monitor - Congress this week plunged into fray over new Obama administration rules that will require religious employers to offer birth control in their health-insurance programs, even if contraception runs afoul of their religious doctrines. 

As cybercrime rises, so does a new – and successful – breed of cybercops (The Christian Science Monitor)
The Christian Science Monitor - Amid the flurry of cybercrime news that dominated headlines last year, from rampaging hacktivists and cyberspies to rising sabotage threats to infrastructure control systems – there was something else: the cybercops on the beat did a better job, too.