“Some kids are not that severely affected, and others are practically ruined. If you are trying to prevent abuse from happening again, obviously the sooner you can intervene the better.”

— Director Lucy Berliner of the Center for Sexual Assault and Traumatic Stress at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle, talking in support of programs to break the cycle of multi-generational child abuse.

“I think today is a great day that we can say we have a state vegetable.”

— Washington state Sen. Marilyn Rasmussen, D-Eatonville, following Senate passage of legislation proclaiming the special designation for the Walla Walla Sweet Onion.

“When a police officer says ‘stop,’ I can tell you, most of the guys in here would keep going. They’ve seen things that freaked them out.”

— Truth Ministries Director Julie McKinney, at whose homeless shelter Jerome Alford lived before being shot to death following a scuffle with Spokane Police Sgt. Dan Torok.

“It was an off-the-cuff remark, a joke, and it is not true. File under April Fool’s joke,”

— Rolling Stones publicist Bernard Doherty, explaining that the legendary rock group’s guitarist Keith Richards was just kidding when he said during an interview that he once snorted a mixture of cocaine and his father’s cremated remains.

“I don’t know if I have another tear left in my tear ducts.”

— Washington State University women’s basketball coach Sherri Murrell, in a surprise announcement that she was resigning after five years in which her Cougar teams won 27 games and lost 114.

“I would say that if you had a rhinoceros in your home, we could probably rule that one out.”

— Washington state Sen. Jim Hargrove, D-Hoquiam, conceding that while a ban on owning exotic pets goes too far in some respects, there are circumstances where the intent is appropriate.

“I purchased a gun when I was a young man. I’ve been a hunter pretty much all my life.”

— Former Massachusetts Gov. and now Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, campaigning in New Hampshire before it came out that he’s been hunting twice in his life, once at age 15 and once last year on a fenced game preserve.

“We’re affectionately referred to as the Soviet of Washington in other places, although we aren’t the only state that turns up its nose at for-profits.”

— Professor Carolyn Watts of the Resource Center for Health Policy at the University of Washington, pointing out that only seven of the 97 hospitals in Washington are for-profit organizations.

“With the amount of money and donors they each have, there’s not much oxygen left for anyone but the front-runners.”

— Democratic campaign strategist John Lapp, talking about the more than $50 million in already raised by Democratic Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for the 2008 presidential election.