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Congressional lawmakers find themselves caught between the unlikely and the impossible as they try and work through complicated issues like drug price controls. With the sharp partisan divide, the ongoing impeachment of President Trump, the upcoming presidential campaign and their own re-election fights on everyone's minds, difficult choices with disappointing results are the most likely scenario for prescription drug and most other major health care legislation affecting seniors – just like i...
Family caregivers of loved ones with disabilities and chronic illnesses experience life transformations that are often unexpected. Their altered lifestyles, frequently resulting in dramatic changes to their personal identities, can last for many years, depending on their circumstances. Being uprooted from their former selves over long periods of time can bring isolation and loneliness. And that can have negative physical and mental ramifications for both the caregiver and their loved one. How caregivers deal with their newly transformed lives,...
By Al Clayton, Sr., as told to Maraley McMichael. Recent clear sunny days in make me think of going ice fishing. I've made many winter fishing trips through the years, but one in particular stands out in my memory. While living in Anchorage in the early 1960s, I made a trip to Copper Lake in the Nabesna Road area. I chose March because it usually brings beautifully clear, cold weather to interior Alaska. Another fellow, Buck Moore, made the trip with me. Buck was a camp cook for Lee Hancock and...
In the early 1900s, coal was being shipped from as far away as Cardiff, Wales, to the U.S. Navy's coal station at Sitka. Some thought that the coal deposits at Chickaloon in the Matanuska Valley might meet the Navy's requirements. Along with federal Bureau of Mines director A.M. Holmes, Jack Dalton went to look the mine over in 1913. When Holmes concluded the coal would suffice, he gave Dalton the task of figuring out a way to get the coal from the mine to tidewater – at a cost the Bureau c...
Originally airing on NBC from 1962 to 1971 and currently rerunning on several cable networks (INSP and Starz), the enduring popularity of the "The Virginian" doesn't surprise 85-year-old James Drury, who starred throughout the series in the title role (see www.thevirginian.net). "It still holds up," said Drury from his home in Houston. "The old westerns were morality plays that showed the triumph of good over evil and I think that's important for young people to see on screen these days because...
Well, they did it to you. Right before Christmas, too. Your Congress sent you a nice Christmas stocking, but inside was a nasty lump of coal. They eliminated the “Stretch IRA”. I guess I had better back up and explain. A stretch IRA is a device which estate planners have been using for many years, to minimize the income tax bite for your heirs. And now, except in limited situations, we can’t use it anymore. In fact, many people now desperately need to change their plans to avoid a huge incom...
Q. How do I show my medical information on my smartphone’s lock screen? A. Both Android and iPhone support storage of personal medical information and emergency contacts, accessible even when phones are locked. In an emergency, your phone can communicate vital information to a first responder if you prepare it beforehand. Here is how: On Android, the feature is called Emergency Information and it...
While President Trump has not had much success on the drug price reform front, his administration is making modest progress on a different front – announcing two regulatory changes that Trump hopes will provide more easy-to-read price information to patients. The first effort targets hospitals, finalizing a rule that requires them to reveal and display their secret, negotiated rates to patients, beginning in January 2021. This proposal has been resisted for months by a large portion of the health care industry. It would require hospitals for th...
Earlier this year, the National Indian Council on Aging (NICOA) had the opportunity to host several focus groups with American Indian family caregivers. The purpose of the groups was to learn more about these caregivers’ experiences helping an older family member or friend who has health problems and disabilities. During the focus groups, we learned about their caregiving duties, the challenges they face, and their encounters with healthcare professionals. Our focus groups revealed how caregivers’ lives are impacted by their role as caregivers....
By MARALEY McMICHAEL Senior Voice Correspondent "This is not working, I can't handle this all the way to Texas! As soon as we get to Kamloops, I'm going to find a veterinarian and see if we can get something to quiet her down," my husband Gary declared one January day in 2000. He had already grumbled so much, I had moved into the middle of the seat of our '97 pickup. That put Patches, our dog, by the passenger window. We didn't know about harnesses attachable to seatbelts, but we did know that...
More than 60 years ago, the framers of Alaska's Constitution found one of their most difficult problems to be the intermediate government between municipalities and the state. Their solution was the creation of a unit known as the "borough." "It's a county with a New York name," a legislator once said. Most delegates to the Constitutional Convention did not want to slice the territory into a large number of counties as in other states. Valdez delegate William A. "Bill" Egan listed "make-up of...
Toasting the New Year by raising a glass of wine on December 31 is a tradition with many families and friends. But unlike most year-end revelers, actress Donna Mills can welcome the New Year with a bottle of wine from her own vineyard. Schlepping up a hillside harvesting grapes probably wasn't an activity soap vixen Abby Ewing might have enjoyed on the old CBS TV series "Knots Landing." But Mills, who portrayed the manipulative character on the popular show for a decade, has no such...
I have had a lot to say about the problems with the probate system -- it’s expensive, it takes a long time, it is easy for a disgruntled heir or creditor to hold up the proceedings, it is very public -- and about how to avoid it. But today I want to talk about another imperfect system. If someone claims that you are not competent to handle your own affairs, the courts have an adult guardianship system to determine whether you need to have someone appointed to handle those affairs for you. T...
Q. My daughter gave me an Amazon Fire tablet. What is the best way to learn how to use it? A. The Amazon Fire is a great introduction to the world of tablet computers. Because the Fire can do so many different things, it can seem confusing at first. Here are a few ideas to get started. Tablets are much less complicated than traditional computers, so try a little trial-and-error. Play with it. Push buttons, swipe across the screen. Just play and explore. The Fire has built-in apps that let you read, watch movies, play some games, and browse the...
When Altrice Ward’s 82-year-old mother was hospitalized after falling for the third or fourth time, Ward knew she had to face an uncomfortable reality: Her mother could no longer live on her own. So, despite holding down a full-time nursing job, Ward decided to move her mother in with her and take on the role of caregiver. Even her professional training caring for others did not prepare her for what lay ahead. “It was eye-opening and more difficult and exhausting than I imagined it would be,” says Ward, of Maywood, Ill., a Chicago subur...
As a child in Anchorage, Seward and then Glennallen, I remember many magical Christmases. Then, in third grade, I got into a big argument with another student about Santa. I was devastated after a conversation with my mother as I realized that the other child was right. Christmas was still special, but not magical. During the early years, our family would frequently spend Christmas at our cabin on Kenai Lake. Dad and Mom packed everything we needed into the 1956 two-tone green Chevy station...
During the Klondike Gold Rush, Dawson's dancehall girls offered prospectors a welcome diversion from their grueling, lonely days of digging in the sub-arctic tundra. "The sourdoughs lay on their bunks until noon – and noon might just as well be any other time – moving painfully about only to stoke the stove or break off a chunk of rye bread, more from sheer boredom than hunger," wrote Ellis Lucia about digging for gold during a winter in the north country in "Klondike Kate: The Life of the Que...
BDuring the seven years Jon Provost starred as little Timmy Martin in the CBS TV series "Lassie" from 1957 to 1964, several end-of-year Christmas episodes aired. Most still stand out in Provost's mind for one reason. "The crazy thing is we would be filming a Christmas episode during summer in Southern California where it was 90 degrees," said Provost from his home north of San Francisco. "We were all bundled up like it was 30 degrees and just dying from the heat. But of course, you kept acting...
By KENNETH KIRK For Senior Voice Since I finally got my TV antenna adjusted, I’ve been watching more of those higher-number UHF channels, the ones with numbers in the 30s and 40s. A lot of those channels run the same commercials over and over, which is why I want to talk to you today about reversing hair loss. No, wait! Wrong topic! I mean, final funeral and burial arrangements! Sorry. I see a lot of those commercials for small insurance policies which say you can’t be turned down, no mat...
Q. TVs in my price range are twice the size they were a few years ago. What should I keep in mind when buying one of these big sets? A. There are two measurements to focus on, screen size and resolution. The ideal screen size mostly depends on the room size and how far away viewers will sit. It is difficult to imagine how a TV will fit in a room without measuring the space where it will be placed, so start there. Sitting too close to a very large screen can be as uncomfortable as sitting in the first few rows of a movie theatre. There are...
This year, SAGE commemorated the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, the night in 1969 when New York City's lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community fought back against years of police harassment and social isolation. Many of SAGE's program participants and supporters, in New York and across the country, were at the Stonewall Inn that night. Charles "Valentino" Harris, known to friends and family simply as Val, was 17 years old the first night of the Stonewall uprising. "On...
Imagine being older and losing the only home you’ve ever known. Everything that was familiar to you is suddenly gone. That’s what happened to Qin Qin (pronounced Chin Chin), a 12-year old cat who had lived with the same people, in the same home, all her life. Due to an illness in her family, she found herself at Anchorage Animal Care and Control (AACC), with only her cat tree to remind her of what her life used to be. And now, imagine, as an elderly woman having to move from your home into your child’s home. You are welcome there so you are g...
"Would you be willing to drive to Slana and help me retrieve the little 1955 camp trailer?" I asked my son Patrick. "Sure," he replied. He had just told me he was coming to Alaska this past August, only this trip he planned to help with projects on my "honey do" list. Because of his busy schedule with his architectural firm, he's lucky to make a trip to Alaska every two or three years, and when he does, he usually plays "fishing guide" to a group of his buddies that come along, too. A couple of...
Americans have been casting ballots on the first Tuesday in November since the mid-1840s. Why November and why Tuesdays? The answer goes back to our founding fathers when agriculture was prominent. Congress used to meet in December and adjourn in March every year because that's when farmers could get away from their land. A 1792 law established that elections should be held some time in November to give time to count the votes before the new congressional session started. Americans also began of...
The Critters are back and meaner than ever. Fortunately, Dee Wallace has also returned to take aim at the miniature alien monsters in "Critters Attack!" Released straight to Blu-ray, DVD, and digitally over the summer, the film had its television premiere on the Syfy Channel in October. Wallace starred in the original 1986 comedy horror, but skipped the three sequels and only agreed to do the new movie because it was a reboot of the franchise. "Too much time had gone by to go back and reprise...
