1. Civil rights advocates who had been calling for a minority-majority state legislative district got good news last night after the Redistricting Commission finally reached an agreement: The 15th Legislative District  in the Yakima Valley in Central Washington, taking parts of Yakima, Union Gap and most of Selah from the neighboring 14th District, will become the state's first state legislative majority-Latino district with a 54.5 percent Latino majority.

Including the three redrawn legislative districts that fall within the new minority-majority US Congressional District in the Puget Sound announced last week, there are now four majority-minority state legislative districts: The 11th in Southeast Seattle and Renton, the 33rd in SeaTac, Kent, and Burien, the 37th in Southeast Seattle, and the 15th.

In a less-noticed decision, liberals got some other good news in the final proposal—which wasn't agreed upon by the bipartisan commission until last minute, around 10:00 on Sunday night (the plan was due January 1). The 6th District around Spokane was tweaked to take in more  swing suburban turf, balancing out the more conservative rural areas and exurbs.

Democrats recently lost a state senate seat in the 6th when Republican Michael Baumgartner beat incumbent Chris Marr in 2010.

The final proposal is here . The legislature has 30 days to evaluate the proposal, but it takes a two-thirds vote to make changes.

To find out what district you're in, check out the redistricting web site's cool Google Earth mapping option.

2. The Seattle Times has a report on the holiday weekend's sad and scary news: A park ranger was shot and killed.

Park Ranger Margaret Anderson, a mother of two who was married to another ranger at the park, was shot about 10:30 a.m. after setting up a roadblock to stop a car that was fleeing another officer.

The suspect, an Iraq War vet, is at large in the woods at Mt. Rainier National Park.

3. If you're looking from 2011 analysis from us, check out our Year-End Jolts; a review of some 2011 resolutions ; and some predictions for 2012.

Erica will be publishing her year in Crank today.