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Q: Seniors in Alaska have a higher mortality rate due to behavioral health conditions. What are some of the leading causes of death among seniors in Alaska, and how we can work to improve behavioral health outcomes for this population? A: Correct, as Alaskan seniors struggle with behavioral health conditions, their mortality rates increase. Let’s examine more about the impact of these conditions and what resources are available. In February 2019 the Alaska Dept. of Health and Social Services r...
There are many Alaskan wintertime sports. I always preferred cross-country skiing over downhill, but my son, Patrick, is the other way around. The Hatcher Pass Mountains in the Matanuska Valley are a winter playground for skiers, snowboarders and snowmachiners. During his high school years, Patrick and his friends loved to downhill ski in the area, mostly because it was close and there was no lift ticket expense, not to mention the abundance of white fluffy powder. The absence of a chair lift...
As a young man, famous American novelist Rex Ellingwood Beach struck out from Illinois in 1897 in search of his fortune in the gold-filled Klondike. Along with others who had some money and time, he chose to travel the all-water route. Hopeful prospectors like Beach hopped onboard steamships leaving Seattle and other West Coast ports bound for St. Michael, where they connected with flat-bottom sternwheelers for the 1,500-mile trip up the Yukon River to Dawson. However, many travelers discovered...
The movie world was shocked when the body of 43-year-old Natalie Wood was found floating lifeless in the ocean off Catalina Island on the morning of Nov. 29, 1981. Forty years later, sister Lana still can't accept that the incident was nothing more than a tragic accident. Natalie's watery demise remains one of Hollywood's enduring mysteries, recently resurrected in Lana's book, "Little Sister: My Investigation into the Mysterious Death of Natalie Wood," published last November, 40 years after...
Today I want to talk about Marx. No, not the guy who wrote the Communist Manifesto. Not the comic with the big eyebrows either. Not even the ‘80’s rocker. I want to talk about a Marx you probably haven’t heard of. His name was Lawrence Marx, he lived in Southeast Alaska, and he died a few years back. And oh, did he leave a mess. Lawrence and his wife had a living trust. It had fairly typical terms; it was for their benefit while they were alive, and then it left everything to their two sons,...
There are newer, more secure, and more convenient choices available to make payments at most cash registers. Secret PIN codes and signatures are making way for methods like tap-to-pay plastic cards and smartphones. Savvy consumers can take advantage of these methods to reduce the likelihood their credit and debit card numbers could be stolen. Even better, the new methods are faster and easier to use. After years of swiping cards, signing receipts, and entering PIN codes, the new methods may...
Kaiser Health News editor Elisabeth Rosenthal, in a recent opinion column, argues that two of America’s toughest problems can be tempered with one solution. Older people, many isolated, are ill-equipped to meet people or even have their health monitored at their homes. Meanwhile, the U.S. Postal Service, has gone $160 billion into debt, in part, as digital communications have replaced old-school mail. Rosenthal suggests having letter carriers spend less time delivering mail, much of which these days involves fliers and unwanted s...
Help Wanted signs have sprouted up all over. Without enough workers, businesses can’t stay open. The day after Thanksgiving – the day when all chain stores start clamoring for everyone’s gift-buying dough – I stopped at the nearest dollar store for some paper towels. The store was closed. On the day after Thanksgiving. Why? The sign on the door vaguely cited “staffing shortages.” A supervisor later explained to me a lot of workers had been out sick. Seems nowadays “staffing shortages” can mean a lot of workers are out sick but the store doesn’t...
Q: What threats do older adults face, and what increases people's exposure to threats? How can I help? A: The concept of vulnerability first emerged in the environmental sciences, specifically in the study of natural disasters such as flood, fire, earthquake, drought, or hurricanes. But, in the wake of those disasters, not everyone suffers equally. Vulnerability in disaster studies was initially defined as the 'potential for disruption or harm', and the type of hazard, severity of damage...
Medicare may include coverage of diagnostic-level genetic testing for patients when the test is ordered by a physician, as long as certain requirements are met. Genetic tests of this sort are performed in order to help identify medical traits which may be cancer-related. The development and availability of genetic tests continues to evolve, especially in the diagnosis and early treatment of many diseases. Tests of this sort may be able to confirm or eliminate an appropriate diagnosis, far...
When I turned 65-years-old, I stopped playing pickup basketball at the local high school here in Homer. I was just getting too beaten up. Not by the 20 and 30-something youngsters I was playing with, but by my failing body parts. I had heard about "pickleball," but the name sounded goofy and "not my style". I can't remember who made me come watch, but the first time I saw a game played I understood that this was going to be my next sports addiction. I realized that I could bring into this...
"Whoa!" Grandpa McMichael exclaimed as my husband, Gary, drove down the boat launch at Finger Lake Campground near Palmer, right out onto the lake ice. We were only 30 feet offshore when Grandpa demanded, "You turn this car around and take me back to shore, right now. I'm not kidding!" Gary's mom and dad were up from California spending the Christmas holiday with us. This was not their first trip to Alaska, and they were always ready to go adventuring with us no matter where in Alaska we lived....
Fired with the romance of the undertaking and inspired by exciting rumors, thousands thronged to Nome's beaches in 1900 after gold nuggets were found in the sand. Lured by the siren's cry of "gold," prospectors who'd not had luck elsewhere in Alaska came in the hopes that Nome's sand would become their pay dirt. But several adventurers, like A.F. Raynor, swarmed to the Seward Peninsula to mine the gold-mad prospectors. Raynor, a port steward for the Blue Star Navigation Co., was working in...
It's a personal resolution I observe every January: celebrating the New Year with duck soup, animal crackers and, of course, the cocoanuts. No, it's not some strange private culinary ritual. It's a tradition to welcome the New Year with some old-fashioned Hollywood madcap merriment by viewing several Marx Brothers films including, but not limited to, three of my favorites: "Duck Soup," "Animal Crackers," and "The Cocoanuts." And at some point this January, I'll also enjoy the next episode of...
If you ain’t no punk Holler “we want prenup! We want prenup!” It’s something that you need to have ‘Cause when she leave your *** She gonna leave with half. - Kanye West This month’s column is about prenuptial agreements. If you read the news, you probably think that is something a billionaire uses to keep his fourth wife from getting half of his fortune, but it’s more than that. Bear with me. Most people get married without a prenup, and that’s fine. Not everyone needs one. There are laws...
Q. When I visit certain web pages, a video starts playing automatically. Is there a way to disable this annoying behavior? A. The simple answer is yes, there is probably a setting you can adjust to stop most videos from automatically playing. Where things can get messy is finding the right setting. Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari each have preferences that block video auto-play everywhere, and they can also selectively block auto-play on specific sites. These options can be found in the browser’s preference (settings) screen, under the h...
The Biden administration recently rolled out several steps toward getting more Americans vaccinated with two different new rules covering more than 100 million workers and specific guidelines for nursing homes and assisted living facilities. The first rule, issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) covers companies with 100 or more employees, applying to an estimated 84 million workers. It requires companies to ensure that their workers are either fully vaccinated...
After the 2020 election in Alaska the hidden backstory came out: GCI donated $100,000 to the national Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC), which gave $380,000 to the Alaska Council on Good Government, which launched late-in-the-campaign attack ads against Alaskan Independent and Democratic legislative candidates, and ads supporting five Republican candidates in Anchorage and Fairbanks. At the same time, another group, Defend Alaska, collected $150,000 from the Sixteen Thirty Fund based in Washington D.C. and spent it in support of...
In May 2021, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced on Twitter that its COVID-19 data tracker now displays U.S. vaccination progress by race and ethnicity. The tracker, "Percent of People Receiving COVID-19 Vaccine by Race/Ethnicity and Date Reported to CDC, United States," showed that as of July 6, American Indians and Alaska Natives have the highest vaccination rate in the country, with 45.5 percent having received at least one dose and 39.1 percent fully vaccinated....
Q: I have been watching the TV series “Dopesick” about opioid addiction. How do I talk to my mom‘s doctor about whether or not the medication she is on needs to be adjusted as she ages? A: This is a relevant question for any family. As adults age, social and physical changes occur which may increase vulnerability to substance misuse. As reported from 2018 Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration data, 1 million adults age 65 and older live with a substance use disorder. While...
One winter while living in Slana, a couple months after our devastating 2002 Denali Fault earthquake, I took a two month leave of absence from my school aide job, and my husband, Gary, and I drove our truck camper Outside to visit family in several states. One of our stops was at his sister Diana's home in Gilroy, California, which is located near an outlets shopping complex. This really excited me since I had not had time to drive to Anchorage to shop for replacement items destroyed in the...
Capt. James Cook reported seeing a tall, sail-like rock about 60 miles west of Dutch Harbor in 1778. Unbeknownst to him and his crew, a 6,000-foot volcano lay beneath the conical mountain and its crater sat just below sea level. At various times throughout Alaska's history, navigators' logs recorded changes in the volcanic island's shoreline from season to season. Sometimes it was said to have disappeared into the ocean, only to emerge later in other locations. The mystery island, named...
Premiering in Los Angeles a few days before Christmas 75 years ago this year, "The Yearling" depicted the post-Civil War Baxter family struggling to survive in the backwoods of Florida. Notwithstanding fine performances from screen parents Gregory Peck and Jane Wyman, the film soon became a family favorite due in no small measure to Claude Jarman Jr. and his dramatic portrayal of their son, Jody. Just 10 years old when filming began in spring 1945, it was young Claude's first professional...
Many of our Senior Voice readers will remember Ric Ocasek. He was the lead singer of a band called The Cars which had quite a few hits in the late 70s and early 80s. And if you were paying attention to pop culture in that time frame, you might also remember Paulina Porizkova, a supermodel who graced the cover of Sports Illustrated. Did you know they were married? This is their story. At least a little piece of it. Ric and Paulina met while filming the video for the song “Drive”. You might rem...
