King County ranks in the top two percent nationally for male and female life expectancy, according to a nationwide survey of all 3,147 U.S. counties or county equivalents, by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington. IHME’s U.S. County Performance Research Team, led by Dr. Ali Mokdad, of Mercer Island, recently presented the survey data (here, in an Excel file) at a health care journalists conference in Atlanta. Researchers gathered life expectancy data for men and for women in each U.S. county, and used 1989, 1999 and 2009 as key touchpoints.
Collaboration in Civic Spheres
Archive for the ‘International’ Category
UW report: King County a national leader in life expectancy
by Matt Rosenberg May 4th, 2012
$44M more in military dough announced for WA firms
by Matt Rosenberg April 8th, 2012
According to a recent announcement from the U.S. Department of Defense, two Washington employers can expect a total of up to $44 million more in military contract revenues in coming months. First, the Tacoma division of the French-born international conglomerate Universal Sodexo was awarded a one-year contract extension worth up to $36 million by the Philadelphia-based U.S. Defense Logistics Agency last week. As a result Universal Sodexo Tacoma will continue serving as prime vendor for operations, maintenance and repair for major branches of the U.S. military in South Korea, including the Army, Air Force, Marines, and civilian federal agencies. Sodexo provides building supplies and non-munitions equipment to 85 U.S. military bases in South Korea from a central 24,000 square foot warehouse, emphasizing just-in-time delivery and inventory control, according to a video at this Sodexo page.
Washington ranks in the middle nationally on executions
by Henry Apfel April 3rd, 2012
According to a recent report from the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, Washington is ranked twenty-fourth among U.S. states in the number of inmates it executed during the years 1930-2010, at 52. However, very few prisoners have received the death penalty in recent years; Washington has executed only five inmates during the years 1977-2010, 22nd of 50 in that time. Texas ranked first, having executed 761 inmates since 1930, and 464 between 1977 and 2010. Data on all 50 states is immediately below, in our visualization based on the BJS report.
Follow the red and blue lines closely with your mouse, to see data on all 50 states.
Source: The Bureau of Justice Statistics
According to a 2008 report by the Washington, D.C.-based Urban Institute on the costs involved in capital-eligible cases in Maryland, cases in which the death penalty was not sought cost on average over $1.1 million. Cases in which the death penalty was unsuccessfully sought cost on average $1.8 million, while cases in which the death penalty was successfully sought cost an average of $3 million.
A bill to abolish the death penalty in Washington, SB 5456, was introduced last year in the state legislature and reintroduced this year, but failed to advance.
Internationally, the death penalty is still very common, according to a recent report from Amnesty International summarized in The Guardian. Amnesty estimates that China alone executes thousands yearly, although exact statistics are difficult to find. China, North Korea, Yemen, Iran and the United States conduct the greatest number of executions. The United States remains the only G8 nation with a death penalty. In total, according to Amnesty, 139 countries still retain a death penalty and last year, at least 676 executions were carried out by nations other than China, roughly half of which were conducted in Iran.
Public Data Ferret is a news knowledge base program of the Seattle-based 501c3 public charity, Public Eye Northwest. Ferret In The News; Donate.
Bothell firm wins military contract extension worth up to $46M
by Matt Rosenberg February 17th, 2012
Yesterday as the first stage of its $995 million purchase by Tokyo-based Fujifilm was successfully completed, Sonosite, Inc. of Bothell, Wash. was awarded a third-year contract extension worth up to $46,303,658 to supply the U.S. Army, Navy, Air Force and federal civilian agencies with ultrasound devices used near combat settings and in hospitals to detect injuries to war-fighters and other personnel. The company’s 2010 gross revenues were $275 million.
According to the company’s Vice-President of Governments Accounts and MSK Imaging, Ronald S. Dickson, the contract with the Philadelphia-based U.S. Defense Logistics Agency means Sonosite will continue to sell core products such as the M-Turbo and NanoMaxx portable ultrasound devices for use by field physicians in tents and medics in “far-forward” battle locations, as well as other ultrasound products for U.S. military and Veterans Administration hospitals. There are approximately 70 to 80 of the former globally and about 170 of the latter in the U.S.
Infographic: deforestation and greenhouse gas emissions
by Matt Rosenberg January 6th, 2012
Because trees help absorb greenhouse gases, forest preservation plays an important role in controlling climate change. When forests are destroyed or degraded that harms our ability to control climate change. The problem is primarily concentrated in tropical developing nations. A new report from the Congressional Budget Office says there are three big challenges: building capacity to better document forest absorbtion capacity and its loss; improving governance in countries where the problem is most pronounced; and calibrating policy responses so they’re effective on a global scale. The study is titled “Deforestation and Greenhouse gases.” A related CBO infographic helps tell the story. Excerpts of the infographic follow.
First, the backdrop. Five different categories of energy-related activities account for two-thirds of manmade greenhouse gas emissions globally, according to CBO. Of the remaining one-third, 12 percent comes from destruction of forests for agriculture, primarily in developing tropical nations.
More U.S. funds to Boeing-Seattle for Saudi air defense fixes
by Matt Rosenberg December 16th, 2011
A $50 million Foreign Military Sales contract announced this week by the U.S. Department of Defense will bring to at least $277,292,000 the maximum value of U.S. government spending with the Seattle-based defense unit of Boeing Co. and subcontractors since 1997 for technical upgrades to the Royal Saudi Air Force’s fleet of five E-3A Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) jets. They are used by the Saudis to help to protect their U.S.-allied Kingdom from potential attacks by hostile neighbors in the Middle East and Persian Gulf.
New UW study assesses “net benefits” in African malaria fight
by Matt Rosenberg September 21st, 2011
SUMMARY: Working with U.S. and African colleagues, researchers from the University of Washington’s Institute For Health Metrics and Evaluation, in Seattle, integrated data from several dozen qualifiying health surveys in malaria-prone Sub-Saharan Africa and found that the use of Insecticide-Treated Nets helped actually reduce parasitemia and death in young children to a significantly greater degree than previously estimated in clinical trials. Their research, recently published in a peer-reviewed “open access” (online, free) medical journal and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, concludes that the use of the treated nets should be continued and expanded in Sub-Saharan Africa, where the bulk of the world’s one million annual deaths from the parasitic disease of malaria occur.
Seattle-based EarthCorps teaches stewardship to the world
by Administrator September 1st, 2011
Editor’s note: Public Data Ferret’s “mother blog” site Social Capital Review periodically profiles noteworthy nonprofits or community initiatives with ties to our base coverage area of Western Washington.
By Scott Patton
You already know that Washington’s extensive trail network serves tens of thousands of annual users. But you may not know that it’s also a training ground for 15,000 volunteers a year from all over the globe, who learn outdoor stewardship from the local non-profit EarthCorps, headquartered off Sand Point Way in Northeast Seattle next to Magnuson Park.
On a recent summer weekend, EarthCorps member and crew leader A.J. Velon was helping move rocks that weigh hundreds of pounds to build a turnpike on the Snoqualmie Lake Trail. The Snoqualmie Lake camp used by the crew is an eight mile hike from a fairly remote trail head. The crew of six included participants from Kazakhstan, Peru, and Fiji. The work starts everyday at 7:30 am and goes until 5:00 pm and consists of tasks ranging from repairing campsites, to repairing trails and building drainage structures. This goes on for 11 days.