As its share of ballots cast by mail has steadily increased, Washington state in 2010 reached a new high in national ranking of “voting-eligible population” voter turnout, a more precise measure of civic engagement than the traditional turnout reports on the percent of registered voters who voted. One of only two U.S. states along with Oregon where all voting is now by mail, Washington state ranked second highest in percent of the voting-eligible population which actually cast ballots counted in the November 2010 elections. This is according to a recently-updated report based on government data and released by the United States Elections Project at George Mason University.

A recently published federally-funded research study tracking more than 30,000 ex-prison inmates released in Washington state shows that among the cohort of 1.5 percent or 443 that died within an almost two-year medical surveillance period, one-sixth perished in connection with use of so-called psychostimulant drugs – typically from an overdose. Researchers wanted to begin to zero in on the role in these deaths of non-cocaine psychostimulants such as meth, and found they’re definitely in the mix. The report also underscored that the risk of psychostimulant-related deaths for Washington state ex-inmates is highest within the first two weeks of release. So-called psychostimulants such as cocaine, meth and ecstasy are a distinctly different class of drugs from opioids such as heroin, morphine, codeine, fentyl and Oxycontin; which are prescribed for pain but also sometimes abused.

Following at least five other documented cases of ethical or major administrative missteps in the last 10 months and two more being investigated, the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services is in the spotlight again, for possible employee misconduct. In a whistleblower report stemming from an internal complaint and issued this week, the State Auditor’s Office finds that a budget analyst in the agency’s Economic Services Administration – identified by officials as Sally Barber – may have improperly used state resources to conduct personal business. Although according to the report Barber told investigators she didn’t handle business related to her four rental properties during work hours, a forensic audit of her work computer’s hard drive showed 119 visits to sites that “appear to pertain” to her property rental business. Additionally, 19 files or images were recovered from her hard drive related to her business including “a checklist for cleaning a triplex,” an amortization chart, a lease agreement and “a document related to marketing a home for sale.” The whistleblower report concludes there is “reasonable cause to  believe an improper governmental action occurred when the subject used her work computer to conduct her rental property business.” As with all such findings by the State Auditor, the case will be forwarded to the Washington State Executive Ethics Board for review and possible sanctions.

It’s not the first time in the recent past that DSHS has found itself in ethical hot water. Allegations of employees doing personal business on the job at DSHS have been a familiar theme. Three have been fined by the state ethics board and two more face possible sanctions. Other cases have involved a signed admission by a DSHS nursing assistant of sexual abuse of a developmentally disabled client, and over-billing by DSHS of Medicaid for more than $8 million.

Since a Washington State Supreme Court ruling in 2008, King County Jail authorities have been able to continue legally recording phone calls made by detainees. County prosecutors say calls by those charged with domestic violence especially can yield valuable evidence. Signs near phone areas warn all detainees their calls will be recorded and potentially incriminating statements may be used against them. This does not always prevent them from instructing their alleged victims not to testify, or threatening them, as shown in a recent episode of the The Justice Files from King County TV.

One in three murders in King County are domestic violence-related, says King County prosecutor Dan Satterberg.

More episodes of The Justice Files here. Also see King County TV’s YouTube channel.

RELATED: King County Senior Deputy Prosecutor David Martin was part of a research team which supervised analysis of recordings of 25 Washington State felony domestic violence detainees using phone calls to try to convince their wives or girlfriends to recant. The article was published in July 2011 in the journal Social Science and Medicine and is titled, “‘Meet me at the hill where we used to park’: Interpersonal processes associated with victim recantation.” The authors conclude that detainees use a common set of emotional tactics to urge recantation and that victim advocates should work to raise awareness among victims of these tactics.

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Washington state ranks second among 50 states behind only Vermont in the low-carbon intensity of its energy supply, according to a report issued Monday by a branch of the U.S. Department of Energy. Washington is also just outside the lowest tenth of states in the carbon intensity of its economy and within the lowest fifth in per-capita carbon dioxide emissions stemming from energy consumption. Titled “State-Level Energy-Related Carbon Dioxide Emissions, 2000-2009,” the report underscores the clean energy benefits of Washington’s reliance on hydropower – which itself is the source of some ongoing environmental controversy because of the challenges that hydro-electric dams can pose to migrating salmon.

Twenty percent of students enrolled in transitional bilingual education programs in Washington state K-12 public schools in 2010-2011 who took a key English language proficiency test passed it. Four-fifths didn’t. Those who passed were then able to transition during the school year to all-English instruction in core subjects. The 20.5 percent passage rate is up from 13 percent the prior year and slightly higher than the 18 percent the year before that. But it took those who transitioned longer to do so than at any previous time from 2005-06 through last year. In addition for students who did successfully transition last year, their performance lagged the general student population in meeting state assessment standards in reading, writing and math and particularly science. The news comes in a required annual report to the state legislature from the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, published in December. It’s on the state’s Transitional Bilingual Instructional Program and key performance indicators.

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.

A study summary presented yesterday to the Washington State Legislature’s Joint Transportation Committee says money from profit-motivated private companies could be a way to deliver better value to taxpayers on construction and management of some toll lane projects. Two identified for possible public-private partnerships – also known as “P3s” – were the I-405/State Route 167 corridor and the southeast extension of State Route 509 from near Sea-Tac Airport to connect with I-5. Each would include so called “High Occupancy and Toll” or “HOT” lanes available for a sliding fee to solo drivers and free to carpoolers. The summary released yesterday says, “Despite the higher cost of private capital, it is sometimes the case that P3 delivery can be a better value to the public. Transferring construction and long-term operating, maintenance and preservation risks to the private sector can sometimes result in significant cost savings to the public” although “sometimes…traditional public sector delivery is the better value.”