Washington, DC, USA. Gay marriage wouldn’t have passed in the Washington State Legislature this year without Governor Chris Gregoire’s decision to reverse course and push for it.

Legislators’ personal pleas to colleagues, as epitomized by Republican Representative Maureen Walsh’s passionate floor speech about her desire to throw her daughter a wedding someday, also played a major role. The speech went viral on YouTube.

Des Moines, IA, USA. When Iowa Governor Terry Branstad stumped recently for increased higher education funding to keep down tuition, he was doing so in direct opposition to fellow-Republican legislators who control the state House of Representatives.

It didn’t worry him.

New York, NY, USA. On a recent Thursday afternoon in the shadow of Yankee Stadium, in the South Bronx, five 16- and 17-year-old boys met outside the Bronx Criminal Court building to complete court-mandated community service.

After appearing before a judge for nonviolent offenses such as shoplifting and graffiti, they’d been assigned to Bronx Community Solutions, an alternative sentencing organization attached to the criminal court, for an afternoon of cleaning up the sidewalks around a recrea

Crestview, FL, USA. Florida Governor Rick Scott urged legislators to put back $1 billion toward K-12 education after making severe budget cuts last year. Educators appreciate the help, but say they will still be struggling in 2013.

Declining property taxes contributed to a $1.3 billion statewide cut to education last year, Republican Governor Rick Scott’s first year in office. Now Scott wants to put money back into education.

Los Angeles, CA, USA. Diversity is a goal for all sorts of institutions — but what it means may depend on who you ask. A study finds the role of ideology in helping people determine what they count as diverse.

Miguel Unzueta notes that historically it meant inclusiveness toward historically disadvantaged groups. Now the term is commonly used for people who are different in any way (even personality traits and food preferences). That, he argues, may render the concept useless.