In brief: Teachers get board certification

OLYMPIA – For the second year in a row, Washington has more new national board certified teachers than any other state.

Washington has 946 teachers who passed the rigorous evaluation process this year, nearly double the number of teachers who earned their certification last year.

The state now has a total of more than 8,000 board certified teachers.

To earn the certification, teachers must submit a complex portfolio and participate in content and teaching assessments. The portfolio is judged by a national panel of teachers.

Washington has 12 of the top 30 school districts in the nation for new board certified teachers, led by Seattle, Spokane, Bellevue, Evergreen, Kent and Issaquah. Washington encourages teachers to seek the certification by providing cash loans during the process and bonuses afterward.

Actress was killed by blunt-force trauma

SEATTLE – A Seattle-area medical examiner said actress Misty Upham, known for her roles in “August: Osage County” and “Django Unchained,” died of blunt-force injuries to her head and torso.

The King County medical examiner’s office updated its investigation of the Oct. 5 death Wednesday, but the manner of death is still undetermined.

The 32-year-old actress died in the Seattle suburb of Auburn on the same day her family told police she was suicidal. Relatives reported her missing the next day.

Friends and family searching for Upham found her body in a ravine.

Auburn police said they believe the trauma was caused by a fall and there’s no indication of foul play, but they don’t know exactly what happened. Upham’s father has said he doesn’t believe she committed suicide.

Drowned man was well-known kayaker

EVERETT – A kayaker who drowned near Granite Falls, Washington, was well known in Alaska as a whitewater paddler.

The Snohomish County medical examiner’s office said 27-year-old Xavier A. Engle drowned accidentally Sunday in the South Fork Stillaguamish River. The sheriff’s office said two friends pulled him out of the water but he could not be revived.

The Alaska Dispatch News reported Engle graduated from West High School in Anchorage and Dartmouth College. He was living in Seattle while enrolled in a program at the University of Washington that trains physicians for the Northwest.

Engle spent summers as a raft guide in Alaska and appeared in the 2010 film, “New Horizon: An All-Alaskan Whitewater Film.” For a time he was a sponsored athlete for Fluid Kayaks.

Patients attack nurses at state hospital

TACOMA – Officials say three nurses at Western State Hospital in Lakewood were assaulted last week by two patients.

The Nov. 25 incident has renewed concerns about staffing cuts and safety precautions at the state hospital, the News Tribune of Tacoma reported Tuesday.

Lakewood police spokesman Chris Lawler said one patient attacked a staff member and two other staffers who tried to defuse the situation. He said another patient then joined the fray.

All of the staff members had minor injuries.

Earlier this year, Western State established a 14-member psychiatric emergency response team to address staff safety and assaults by patients.

Chicken, turkey farms under flu quarantine

VANCOUVER, British Columbia – Four poultry farms where an outbreak of avian influenza was discovered in British Columbia are now under quarantine, and thousands of their turkeys and chickens will be euthanized, officials said Wednesday.

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency said two more farms have been placed under quarantine, a day after announcing that measure for the first two farms.

There are no reports of the disease being transmitted to humans.

Tests to determine the precise strain of the virus were conducted Sunday after bird deaths were reported at a turkey farm in Abbotsford and a chicken farm in Chilliwack.

The Abbotsford farm housed 11,000 turkeys that were to be slaughtered for Christmas. Half died from the bird flu. The Chilliwack barn housed 7,000 chickens and about 1,000 of those died.

Numbers for the two latest quarantined farms were not available.

“They are (under quarantine) just on the basis of suspicion. The tests will reveal if they have an influenza or not,” said Harpreet Kochhar, Canada’s chief veterinary officer.

The results expected today should show whether the virus is the dangerous H5N1 strain or another variation, said Perry Kendall, British Columbia’s provincial health officer.

Avian influenza poses little risk to people consuming poultry meat if it is handled and cooked properly.

Instruments stolen from school returned

PUYALLUP, Wash. – Police in Puyallup say most of the musical instruments stolen from a school in October have been returned.

The News Tribune reported that a citizen brought more than 30 of the 42 instruments to police on Tuesday night. They were taken from Northwest Christian School on Oct. 27. Police returned the instruments to the school on Wednesday.

The loss was estimated at $31,000, and the returned items are valued at about $18,000.

Police spokesman Scott Engle said the person who returned them is not a suspect. Officers know how that person acquired the instruments but have not disclosed it. Engle said one suspect in the burglary is in jail on unrelated charges and two have not yet been arrested.