WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Postal Service is reporting quarterly losses of $3.3 billion, hurt by declining mail volume and mounting costs for future retiree health benefits.

From October through December of 2011, losses were $3 billion more than during the same period in 2010 — even though the final quarter is typically the strongest, due to increased holiday shipping.

The mail agency says that at the rate it's going, it will run out of money by October.

Postmaster General Patrick Donahoe is warning of a possible suspension in postal operations this fall unless Congress acts to address long-term money problems.

He wants new leeway to eliminate Saturday mail delivery, raise stamp prices and reduce health and other labor costs.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of people seeking unemployment aid fell to nearly a four-year low last week, an encouraging sign of continued improvement in the job market.

The Labor Department says weekly applications for unemployment benefits fell 15,000 to a seasonally adjusted 358,000. That's the second-lowest level since April 2008.

The four-week average, a less volatile measure, fell to 366,250, the lowest since late April 2008.

The figures come a week after the government reported that employers added 243,000 net jobs last month. That pushed the unemployment rate down to 8.3 percent, the lowest in nearly three years.

When applications fall consistently below 375,000, it usually signals that hiring is strong enough to lower the unemployment rate.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama on Thursday will free 10 states from the strict and sweeping requirements of the No Child Left Behind law, giving leeway to states that promise to improve how they prepare and evaluate students, The Associated Press has learned.

The first 10 states to receive the waivers are Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oklahoma and Tennessee. The only state that applied for the flexibility and did not get it, New Mexico, is working with the administration to get approval, a White House official told the AP.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the states had not yet been announced. A total of 28 other states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have signaled that they, too, plan to seek waivers — a sign of just how vast the law's burdens have become as a big deadline nears.

No Child Left Behind requires all students to be proficient in reading and math by 2014. Obama's action strips away that fundamental requirement for those approved for flexibility, provided they offer a viable plan instead. Under the deal, the states must show they will prepare children for college and careers, set new targets for improving achievement among all students, reward the best performing schools and focus help on the ones doing the worst.

In September, Obama called President George W. Bush's most hyped domestic accomplishment an admirable but flawed effort that hurt students instead of helping them. He said action was necessary because Congress failed to update the law despite widespread bipartisan agreement that it needs fixing. Republicans have charged that by granting waivers, Obama was overreaching his authority.

The executive action by Obama is one of his most prominent in an ongoing campaign to act on his own where Congress is rebuffing him. No Child Left Behind was primarily designed to help the nation's poor and minority children and was passed a decade ago with widespread bipartisan support. It has been up for renewal since 2007. But lawmakers have been stymied for years by competing priorities, disagreements over how much of a federal role there should be in schools and, in the recent Congress, partisan gridlock.

For all the cheers that states may have about the changes, the move also reflects the sobering reality that the United States is not close to the law's original goal: getting children to grade level in reading and math.

Critics today say the 2014 deadline was unrealistic, the law is too rigid and led to teaching to the test, and too many schools feel they are labeled as "failures." Under No Child Left Behind, schools that don't meet requirements for two years or longer face increasingly tough consequences, including busing children to higher-performing schools, offering tutoring and replacing staff.

As the deadline approaches, more schools are failing to meet requirements under the law, with nearly half not doing so last year, according to the Center on Education Policy. Center officials said that's because some states today have harder tests or have high numbers of immigrant and low-income children, but it's also because the law requires states to raise the bar each year for how many children must pass the test.

In states granted a waiver, students will still be tested annually. But starting this fall, schools in those states will no longer face the same prescriptive actions spelled out under No Child Left Behind. A school's performance will also probably be labeled differently.

The pressure will probably still be on the lowest-performing schools in states granted a waiver, but mediocre schools that aren't failing will probably see the most changes because they will feel less pressure and have more flexibility in how they spend federal dollars, said Michael Petrilli, vice president of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, an education think tank.

While the president's action marks a change in education policy in America, the reach is limited. The populous states of Pennsylvania, Texas and California are among those that have not said they will seek a waiver, although they could still do so later.

On Tuesday, Education Secretary Arne Duncan said states without a waiver will be held to the standards of No Child Left Behind because "it's the law of the land."

Some conservatives viewed Obama's plan not as giving more flexibility to states, but as imposing his vision on them. Rep. John Kline, R-Minn., who chairs the House Education and Workforce Committee, said the president allowed "an arbitrary timeline" to dictate when Congress should get the law rewritten and set a dangerous precedent by granting the education secretary "sweeping authority to handpick winners and losers."

Duncan maintained this week that the administration "desperately" wants Congress to fix the law.

In an election year in a divided Congress, that appears unlikely to happen.

A Senate committee last fall passed a bipartisan bill to update the law, but it was opposed by the administration and did not go before the full Senate for a vote.

Kline released a draft of a Republican-written bill to update the law, earning the ire of California Rep. George Miller, the committee's ranking Democrat. Miller said such partisanship "means the end" to No Child Left Behind reform in this Congress. Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, who chairs the Senate committee with jurisdiction over education, has said he believes it "would be difficult to find a path forward" without a bipartisan bill in the House.

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JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The Mississippi Supreme Court is set to hear arguments over whether ex-Gov. Haley Barbour legally pardoned 10 current and former inmates.

Among the inmates are four convicted murderers who served as trusties at the Governor's Mansion while Barbour was in office.

The Supreme Court is not expected to rule Thursday.

Barbour pardoned 198 people in his final days in office. Most were already out of prison, some for years or decades.

State Attorney General Jim Hood is challenging the legality of some of the pardons, saying some people didn't publish notifications as Hood says is required in Mississippi's Constitution.

Five of those pardoned are being held in jail on a temporary restraining order while the legal wrangling plays out.

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LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) — Beef prices at the supermarket likely will rise for the next two years because of the smallest cattle herd in 60 years.

Experts say retail prices for beef could climb as much as 10 percent a year in 2012 and 2013, and the increase could be even greater if demand from other countries increases.

Prices might drop in later years, but that also will depend on demand that is expected to grow and could keep prices high.

Ranchers have sold more of their cattle in recent years to meet increased costs for feed, fuel and other expenses.

The situation has been worst in Texas and nearby states, where a drought caused pastures to wither. That left ranchers with few options but to sell their cattle or pay top-dollar for feed.

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DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Powerball's $250 million jackpot went to no one last night, as there were no matches for all six numbers to claim the top prize.

The jackpot now swells to $310 million for Saturday night's drawing.

But five players in five states came awfully close, by each matching five of the six winning numbers. Those tickets were sold in Georgia, North Carolina, Missouri, Nebraska and New Jersey. There were no Power Play Match 5 winners.

The winning Powerball numbers in Wednesday night's game: 17-28-38-39-and-51; the Powerball was 33.

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Pentagon rules are catching up a bit with reality after a decade when women in the U.S. military have served, fought and died on the battlefields of Iraq and Afghanistan.

On Thursday, the Pentagon is recommending to Congress that women be allowed to serve in more jobs closer to the front lines.

According to defense officials, the new rules are expected to continue the long-held prohibition that prevents women from serving as infantry, armor and special operations forces. But they will formally allow women to serve in other jobs at the battalion level, which until now had been considered too close to combat.

In reality, the necessities of war have already propelled women to the front lines — often as medics, military police or intelligence officers.

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OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) — The last time same-sex marriage was debated in the state Capitol, the Legislature's sole gay lawmaker watched as his colleagues passed the state's version of the Defense of Marriage Act in 1998 banning gay marriage. 14 years after that "lonely moment," Sen. Ed Murray stood in the wings as lawmakers approved his bill allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry.

"I didn't think I would be in office to see marriage equality passed," Murray, D-Seattle, said Wednesday night. "It was incredibly moving to watch a new generation of gay and lesbian lawmakers in the House standing up and carrying the torch."

The Washington House passed the bill on a 55-43 vote earlier in the day. Supporters in the public-viewing galleries cheered as many on the Democratic side of the House floor hugged.

The state Senate approved the measure last week. Wednesday's vote sends the bill to Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire, who is expected to sign it into law next week. She issued a statement saying it was "a major step toward completing a long and important journey to end discrimination based on sexual orientation."

The passage came a day after a federal appeals court declared California's ban on gay marriage unconstitutional, ruling it was a violation of the civil rights of gay and lesbian couples.

Democratic Rep. Jamie Pedersen, a gay lawmaker from Seattle who also has sponsored gay rights bills for several years, cited Tuesday's ruling by the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals during his remarks on the House floor. He noted a section that stated "marriage is the name that society gives to the relationship that matters most between two adults."

Several Republicans argued that the bill goes against the tradition of marriage. Rep. Jay Rodne, R-Snoqualmie, said the measure "severs the cultural, historical and legal underpinnings of the institution of marriage."

Several Republican amendments were rejected, including one that would have added private businesses and individuals, such as bakers and photographers, to an exemption in the measure that doesn't require religious organizations or churches to perform marriages and doesn't subject them to penalties if they don't marry gay or lesbian couples. Another would have required a one-month residency requirement before people could get married in Washington.

Two Republicans — Reps. Glenn Anderson of Fall City and Maureen Walsh of College Place — crossed the aisle and voted in favor of the bill. Three Democrats voted against it: Reps. Chris Hurst of Enumclaw, Steve Kirby of Tacoma and Mark Miloscia of Federal Way. Democrats hold a 56-42 majority in the House.

The proposal would take effect 90 days after the session ends next month, but opponents have promised to fight back with a ballot measure that would allow voters to overturn the legislative approval.

If opponents gather enough signatures to take their fight to the ballot box, the law would be put on hold pending the outcome of a November election. They must turn in more than 120,000 signatures by June 6 if they want to challenge the proposed law. Otherwise gay couples could wed starting in June.

Washington state has had domestic partnership laws since 2007, and more than a dozen other states have provisions, ranging from domestic partnerships to gay marriage, supporting same-sex couples.

Gay marriage is legal in New York, Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Vermont and Washington, D.C. Lawmakers in New Jersey are expected to vote on gay marriage next week, and Maine could see a gay marriage proposal on the November ballot.

Proposed amendments to ban gay marriage will be on the ballots in North Carolina in May and in Minnesota in November.

California's voter-approved same-sex marriage ban, known as Proposition 8, was rejected by a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit on Tuesday. The panel gave gay-marriage opponents time to appeal before allowing same-sex weddings to resume. The judges also said the decision only applies to California, even though the court has jurisdiction in nine western states.

Washington state's momentum for same-sex marriage has been building and the debate has changed significantly since 1998, when lawmakers passed Washington's ban on gay marriage. The constitutionality of that law ultimately was upheld by the state Supreme Court in 2006. But earlier that year, a gay civil rights measure passed after nearly 30 years of failure, signaling a change in the Legislature.

The quick progression of domestic partnership laws in the state came soon after, with a domestic partnership law in 2007. An "everything but marriage" expansion was later upheld by voters years later.

In October, a University of Washington poll found that an increasing number of people in the state support same-sex marriage. About 43 percent of respondents said they support gay marriage, up from 30 percent in the same poll five years earlier. Another 22 percent said they support giving identical rights to gay couples, without calling the unions "marriage."

If a challenge to gay marriage law was on the ballot, 55 percent said they would vote to uphold the law. And 38 percent said they would vote to reject a gay marriage law.

Same-sex marriage also has the backing of several prominent Pacific Northwest businesses, including Microsoft, Nike and Starbucks.

In Seattle's Capitol Hill neighborhood on Wednesday, 27-year-old Nicolle Edwards said that the possibility of a referendum to the soon-to-be new law was a concern, but that she was happy her lawmakers approved gay marriage.

"Any step in the direction of equal rights is something to celebrate," said Edwards, who is gay.

___

The gay marriage bill is Senate Bill 6239.

____

Follow Rachel La Corte at http://www.twitter.com/RachelAPOly . AP writer Manuel Valdes contributed from Seattle.

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CHICAGO (AP) — A federal judge has convicted a Chinese-born American of stealing trade secrets but acquitted him of corporate espionage at a trial in Chicago that highlighted fears about China pilfering U.S. company secrets.

Prosecutors accused Hanjuan Jin of stealing confidential information from a U.S. cellphone company knowing it'd likely end up with China's military.

The 41-year-old Jin waived her right to a jury trial, leaving it to Judge Ruben Castillo to announce a verdict at a hearing Wednesday in Chicago.

Prosecutors say Jin rose through Motorola Inc.'s ranks only to steal documents from her Chicago-area Motorola office in 2007. They say she then tried to flee on a one-way ticket to China.

Defense attorneys argued prosecutors overstated the documents' value.

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GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — A new report finds that fatal shark attacks worldwide last year reach their highest level in two decades, though there were none in the U.S.

The University of Florida released its International Shark Attack File report for 2011 on Tuesday.

The U.S. and Florida saw a five-year downturn in the number of reported unprovoked attacks.

But ichthyologist George Burgess says the 12 fatalities could show tourists are venturing to more remote places with less access to immediate medical care. The number of deaths in 2011 doubled from 2010.

A total of 75 attacks were reported worldwide, which is close to the decade average. Florida led the U.S. with 11 of the nation's 29 attacks.

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