One of Washington's oldest and most recognizable wine brands, L’Ecole, is growing up a bit with a new, sleeker label.

L'Ecole is French for "the school" and that's because the winery operates out of a nearly 100-year-old school house. The old label was a child's colorful drawing of the facility. The new label sports a sepia-toned oil painting of the historical school house soon after it was constructed in 1912.

Here's some good news in a down economy.  Michelle Dunlop writes in The Herald of Everett that Boeing is hiring 100 people a week and has been doing it for the past several months.

Dunlop writes:

Seattle’s theater community is reeling this morning at the loss of one of their own.  The Seattle Times reports actor Mark Chamberlin died Tuesday after a weekend bicycle accident.

Making headlines around the Northwest this morning:

• Push to Preserve Iconic Seattle PI Globe
• Warnings of Phone Scams
• Plea Deal for JBLM Soldier Likely for Afghan War Crimes

It's About the PI

Some Seattle City Council members are concerned the iconic globe atop the seattlepi.com offices on the city's central waterfront may go away if it's not protected. They're considering landmark status for neon-lighted orb that has been spinning for 63 years. It has survived the company's shift from daily newspaper to a smaller, online-only venture.

It's a giant veg-out!

The man charged with planting a bomb along the route of Spokane's Martin Luther King Day parade will appear in federal court today.

One of Seattle's most famous employers is moving. City leaders are celebrating…because online-retailing giant Amazon.com is only moving a few miles across town. 

The new headquarters complex is large enough to house several thousand employees.

Riders on the nation’s biggest ferry system, Washington State Ferries, should brace themselves for another round of fare increases. The only remaining question is how much. 

The state House and Senate have come out with competing spending blueprints for roads and ferries. One thing the budgets have in common is higher ferry fares. The  increase this fall ranges between 2.5% and 5% and another 2.5% coming next fall.

At events in Olympia and Salem Tuesday, an activist group called on Washington and Oregon's governors to stop spending taxpayer dollars on bottled water.

Organizer Sriram Madhusoodanan, with the group Corporate Accountability International, says those little plastic bottles, sometimes available at public meetings and events, create unnecessary waste and undermine confidence in the quality of public water supplies.

Drug courts have long been viewed as a success.  The courts give drug offenders charged with non-violent crimes the option of treatment rather than prison.

The courts, including those in Washington State, have proven effective in reducing repeat offenses. But some critics say too much money is being poured into drug courts.

Update Wed., March 23, 12:00 p.m.

Gonzaga will play Louisville in the Sweet 16 round of the NCAA women's college basketball tournament. Saturday's game in Spokane begins at 6 p.m.

The first college basketball player to score 2,000 career points and rack up 1,000 assists is a 5'8" Gonzaga guard who last night helped lead her team into the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Women's championships. Courtney Vandersloot led the Bulldogs upset of UCLA in Spokane, 89-75.

Gonzaga's victory ensured their next tournament game would be in front of a hometown crowd in the NCAA's Spokane regional. They will face the winner of tonight's Xavier-Louisville contest on March 26th. 

Vandersloot scored 29 points against the Bruins, 21 of them in the second half, and tallied 17 assists. Teammate Kayla Standish scored 30, and Gonzaga won it's 20th consecutive game. 

Seattle’s on-again-off-again festival celebrating all things cannabis seems to be on again.

Officials with Seattle Hempfest say they’ve resolved their dispute with the city and the event will be held as scheduled in mid-August at Myrtle Edwards Park. 

Making headlines around the Northwest this morning:

• Did Seattle Police Violate DUI Procedures?
• Reforms at Monroe Prison After Guard's Killing
• Electronic Billboard Fight Brews in Tacoma

DUI Prosecutions in Seattle on Hold

Some drunk driving cases have been suspended by City Attorney Pete Holmes while Seattle Police investigate how its DUI squad handled procedures.

On Monday, SPD admitted it is reviewing allegations procedures in the unit were not properly handled. according to The Seattle Times:

The investigation has forced the department to pull all but one member of its five-member DUI Squad from the street and assign them to desk duties, according to police.

A couple of weeks ago, financial commentator Greg Heberlein said it was time for a stock market correction. Sure enough, we've seen the market drop, spurred on by events in the Middle East and the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear crisis in Japan.

Is it time to buy back in? One never knows for sure, but on this week's Money Matters, Greg tells me what to watch for.

Documents surfacing from an ongoing lawsuit are raising questions about the demotion of a Hanford whistleblower and whether a top manager with the Department of Energy was involved.