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Alaska’s state general election will be held Tuesday, November 4, 2014. The ballot has many important items on it. Some will be complicated and unfamiliar unless voters have prepared themselves. Three things will make it possible to vote and to vote with confidence that your vote supports the outcome you want. First, if you are not registered at all – or if you intend to change your registration information – you must do so on or before Sunday, October 5. You can do so at the State Division of Elections offices; by going online to http:...
The Anchorage Senior Citizens Advisory Commission is hosting a forum to dialogue with interested community members and providers serving seniors about emerging and future trends vital to housing for the elderly. Please join on Wednesday, October 22, from 10 a.m. to noon at the Z.J. Loussac Library, Wilda Marston Auditorium, 3600 Denali St. A panel of professionals will be given five minutes to offer an overview presentation of how their organization serves seniors/elders, followed by a moderated discussion. For further information contact...
A nationwide media contest has recognized Senior Voice for excellence. The 23rd Annual National Mature Media Awards contest honored Senior Voice with Merit Awards for three entries: • regular contributor Diana Weber, the former Alaska Long Term Care Ombudsman, was awarded for her article, “An Offer to Help Can Evolve Into Exploitation” • regular freelance contributor Dianne Barske was awarded for her feature story, “Unique Opportunities for Lifelong Learners” • freelance contributor Zaz Hollander was awarded for her feature story, “Dog B...
"Where's my calculator?" Eyes popping in surprise, Rebecca Parker proclaims, "Yes. It's true. I have been in Anchorage for 41 years!" Becky and I have known each other for most of those 41 years. We'd met long ago as members of Alaska Press Women, now called Alaska Professional Communicators. I am sitting with her in her new office setting at the Anchorage Senior Activity Center, where she has recently been named General Manager. Feeling like old friends who hadn't had a chance to visit in sever...
Interested in learning more about businesses and agencies providing senior services in the Anchorage area? Want to get the word out about your own service? The monthly Interagency Breakfast, sponsored by Older Persons Action Group, is an opportunity for all of the above. Informal, early and free, with breakfast provided for business and agency representatives. The October meeting is Oct. 8 and will be hosted by Anchorage Senior Activity Center. Begins at 8 a.m. Call Older Persons Action Group to RSVP and get directions to the event, or for...
This years’s Older Persons Action Group annual membership meeting, is Nov. 14, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the OPAG Anchorage office, 325 E. Third Ave. Includes officer elections and a presentation on emergency preparedness by guest speaker Michelle Torres, Emergency Programs Manager for the Municipality of Anchorage. Light refreshments will be served. Please RSVP. For more information or to RSVP, call 276-1059....
Alaskans are struggling with high energy costs throughout the state. Seniors and others on fixed incomes are particularly burdened when heating oil and gas rates rise. Even in Anchorage, which has ready access to natural gas, rising heating rates hit hard. On July 1 Enstar ratepayers across Southcentral Alaska saw their rates shoot up by over 48 percent. But more troubling than the rate hike itself is how the Regulatory Commission of Alaska rubber stamped Enstar’s requested increase. We give public utilities a government sanctioned monopoly i...
Do you respect the “rights” of your medications? By that I mean taking the • right medication, at the • right dose, at the • right time, in the • right way. If you read the first column in this series, you may recall that three-quarters of Americans — yes, 75 percent — don’t manage to do so on a regular basis. Why? Well, it can be a lot less simple than it sounds. That’s what the Med Ed website and this column series is about — identifying common barriers and giving you strategies to get aro...
Senior Benefits and heating assistance If you are 65 years old or older, you might be eligible for the Senior Benefits program, depending on your income. You should call 1-888-352-4150 and ask for an application. Monthly benefits are, depending on income, $125 or $175 or $250 – and assets do not count. It is also time to apply for the heating assistance program. If you do not have an application, you can get one at our office or by calling statewide, 1-800-470-3058. Applications will be a...
The Annual Enrollment Period for Medicare is October 15 through December 7, 2014. This is the ideal time to evaluate your Medicare Prescription Drug plan costs and coverage*. You can switch into a different plan that may work better for you in 2015 during this timeframe. The Alaska Medicare Information Office is ready, willing and able to assist Medicare beneficiaries with this confusing process. If you or someone you know needs our help, please gather up your red, white and blue MEDICARE card and be prepared to provide us with the names and...
Veterans exposed to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War – 9 January, 1962 through 7 May, 1975 – or near the Korean DMZ between 1 April, 1968 and 31 August, 1971, have been determined to have a presumptive service-connected disability for certain illnesses (see VA and VVA websites for full list) and are entitled to compensation as well as medical care. If you served in-country in Korea or Vietnam during these dates, you are eligible for compensation for many illness including Type ll dia...
Higher dose flu vaccine may benefit older adults For older adults, it may be better to go with the high dose when it comes to the flu vaccine this year. A new study has found that the high dose influenza vaccine is 24 percent more effective than the standard dose vaccine in protecting adults 65 and older against influenza illness and its complications. The Fluzone high dose vaccine is an inactivated influenza vaccine that contains four times the amount of antigen in the standard dose Fluzone...
The Kenai Peninsula Family Caregiver Support Program will hold the following peer support meetings in October. This month’s theme is “Dental Hygiene Awareness Month”. Oct. 7, Caregiver support meeting at Sterling Senior Center, 1 p.m. Oct. 14, Caregiver support meeting at Soldotna Senior Center, 1 p.m. Oct. 16, Caregiver support meeting at Kenai Peninsula Family Caregiver Support Program in the Blazy Mall, 5 p.m. Oct. 21, Caregiver support meeting at Kenai Senior Center, 1 p.m. Oct. 28, Caregiver support meeting at Soldotna Senior Center, 1 p.m...
There are 1,001 great reasons for you to be exercising, especially if you are over 50. I’ll bet you can even tell me what at least 10 of those reasons are. Even if you don’t consider yourself a health nut, just about every newspaper, magazine, news program and talk show touts the benefits of exercise. So, I won’t beat you up with more reasons why you should be exercising. I will talk to you about why you’re not exercising and give you a quick “How to” guide to get started. Let’s start with a list. I call this list, “The top 10 reasons people...
Alaska Health Fairs, Inc. continues its fall series of health fair around the state this month, featuring free health screenings and education, low cost blood tests and more. These tests can help you learn about your health and detect potential problems early, when treatment or changes in personal habits can be most effective. The test results give you and your health care provider important information about your physical condition and vital organ functions. A complete and comprehensive chemistry/hematology test is available for only $45 and...
The geese have headed south and the Alaska summer is now just a memory. There is one more thing you should do before the snow comes — get a flu vaccine. While there is no way to ensure that you will not catch the flu, there are several things you can do to reduce your risk. Practicing these “habits of healthy people” and encouraging those around you to do likewise will go a long way in reducing the spread of flu. • Wash your hands often with soap and water. Some people find that singing through the entire ABCs while they wash is a good way to...
While workers completed the last portion of the Alaska-Canada Highway at Beaver Creek on Oct. 25, 1942, the idea to connect Alaska to the rest of the world was born many years earlier. Donald MacDonald, a locating engineer with the Alaska Road Commission, had dreamed for years of an overland coastal route to Alaska. It would run north from Seattle across British Columbia through the Yukon Territory to Fairbanks. MacDonald and a group of Fairbanks residents formed the International Highway...
What should have been "a three-hour tour" turned into a 50-year journey for Dawn Wells, who played castaway Mary Ann in the zany sitcom "Gilligan's Island" that debuted on CBS in September, 1964. "I'm still talking and writing about the show and it continues to gain new fans," said Dawn, from her home in Los Angeles. "If you're a 10 year old kid watching the show today, there's not much to date it – a desert island is a desert island." To celebrate the show's 50th anniversary, Dawn draws on h...
Gather unneeded and outdated personal documents and old cellular phones for Better Business Bureau’s biannual BBB Secure your ID Day, Oct. 18 in Fairbanks. Take advantage of free document shredding and cell phone recycling. Mobile shredding trucks will be on site, accepting up to three bags or boxes of unwanted documents per person. Please note that cardboard and three-ring binders cannot be accepted. Recycled phones will be donated to Verizon’s HopeLine, a nationwide program that wipes data and allocates phones to victims of domestic abu...
Dear Jonathan: My wife passed away last year just a few months after we had updated our estate planning documents. The attorney who prepared the documents on our behalf has recommended to me that I engage in yet another update of my estate planning documents for the purpose of removing my wife from the documents as the primary beneficiary and as the primary fiduciary. I guess I kind of understand why he is recommending this, however, in all of our documents we named our son and our daughter as back-up beneficiaries and fiduciaries....
Q. What happens when an external hard drive runs out of space? Does that mean I have to spend money to buy a new one? A. When you start to run out of space on your external drive, one possibility is to purchase another, larger drive. A better option is to take a look at your saved files and see if you can thin the herd. Try to make a point of periodically reviewing your files and deleting items you don’t really and truly need to save. Old files are a lot like old clothes in a closet: If you haven’t worn something in a year or two (or used a fil...
Sex, drugs and great museums are what this city is all about. You can either be a traditional tourist and take in the Rijksmusem or the van Gogh museum, or go off the chart and cruise the Red Light District, where the women and men are displayed in windows of what we Alaskans would call "cribs." With its hash and marijuana coffee houses, Amsterdam has a racy reputation. This is an ultra-liberal city. As one Dutch friend once said to me, "We were glad to see the Pilgrims leave, they were...
