Drop in child welfare deaths

By Bill Lucia | Editor

By Jake Goldstein-Street

State officials attribute the dramatic drop in deaths and critical injuries in the child welfare system at least partially to an overall decrease in opioid-related overdoses. Of the 18 incidents so far this year, four were related to fentanyl. Last year, 27 of the 57 were tied to the synthetic opioid. The Department of Children, Youth and Families last year also required that child welfare staff conduct special consults for cases involving opioid use and children younger than 3, and state legislators earmarked money this year to help with the issue.

By Jerry Cornfield

Structural safety concerns have led to fewer state employees reporting to the Department of Transportation headquarters in Olympia. In November last year, employees reported cracks in a lower-level office. Agency leaders began asking employees last fall to limit in-office work after a subsequent structural assessment by the Department of Enterprise Services identified concerns. DES owns the building. Before the COVID pandemic, daily occupancy averaged about 840 employees. Now, fewer than 50 people typically work in the four-story building on the Capitol Campus each day. The 183,000-square-foot structure was built between 1969 and 1970 for $8 million.

As vote counting nears its final stages, Democratic Rep. Amy Walen of Kirkland holds a 32-vote lead in her race in King County’s 48th Legislative District against fellow Democrat and Redmond City Council member Jessica Forsythe.

Walen is known as a moderate Democrat, and broke with her party to vote against the income tax on high earners this year. She was ahead by 618 votes on election night. New Direction PAC, a well-funded political committee whose largest donors include public employee unions, spent in support of Forsythe.

Both candidates in the two-way race will scoot through to the general election. But the close primary underscores that Walen likely has a tough path ahead in the fall.

In northwest Washington’s 42nd District, two Democrats remain locked in a close race for a chance in the general election. Michael Shepard leads Eamonn Collins by nine votes. In this race, Collins is running in the progressive lane. Whichever of the two candidates ekes out a second-place finish will face Republican psychologist and Blaine school board member Erika Creydt in November.

Whatcom County elections officials said that at the end of the day on Friday only one ballot remained to be counted, but noted there could be more arriving by mail before an Aug. 18 certification deadline for counties. People also still have time to address signature issues with challenged ballots.

Machine recounts are required if the difference between two candidates is under 0.5% of the total ballots cast and fewer than 2,000 votes. To trigger a manual recount, candidates have to be separated by fewer than 150 votes and 0.25% of the total votes.

By Nada Hassanein

Twenty-eight states this year have reported over 3,500 cases of patients sick with the drug-resistant yeast Candida auris, which can cause severe illness and is often reported in healthcare facilities. As of Aug. 1, 3,544 clinical cases of Candida auris, or C. auris, have been reported to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, compared with 4,262 the same time last year, according to the latest round of numbers from the agency’s National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System. People without risk factors generally don’t get infected, the CDC says. Risk factors include severe underlying medical conditions and people undergoing complex medical care. Candida auris symptoms can vary depending on the location of the infection — such as a superficial skin infection or widespread bloodstream infection — and its severity.

ICYMI

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