Health

An outbreak of salmonella illness in Washington and Oregon also hit Alaska, according to state medical authorities.

Health officials in Washington and Oregon are now linking the salmonella to Foster Farms chicken, sold widely in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska.  But a farm or plant has not been isolated and no chicken has been recalled.

At least 56 cases in Washington were linked to a specific strain of the bacteria called salmonella Heidelberg during the last 6 months of 2012.

Dr. Brian Yablon of Alaska’s public health department says there were 11 reported cases in the state during the same time period, but most food-borne disease is underreported.

“Usually public health hears about only a small fraction of the actual cases, because you can imagine if you’ve had a GI (gastro-intestinal) illness and otherwise feel okay, a lot of people choose not to go in and see a doctor and just ride it out at home. And if you do go see a provider, a lot of people don’t actually submit stool specimens,” Yablon says.

Yablon says the key is in the handling of raw chicken and cooking it to an internal temperature of at least 165 degrees throughout the bird.

Avoiding cross contamination between raw chicken and other products is critical as well.

“In your grocery cart, in your bag, on the cutting board, sink, etc. make sure raw chicken is not touching your produce or other food items.  And make sure you’re using good hand washing and surface washing in the kitchen so that you’re not spreading salmonella around or touching your hand to your mouth and consuming raw chicken in that way,” Yablon says.

Dr. Yablon says raw chicken is a commonly known source of the family of bacteria known as salmonella.

Legislation that would limit the circumstances in which public funds can be used to pay for abortions was introduced in the Senate on Monday, but the bill may have trouble standing up to court scrutiny.

Right now, if a low-income woman is receiving Medicaid, the state is required to cover the costs of her abortion if her doctor determines that the procedure is “medically necessary.” A bill sponsored by Senate Majority Leader John Coghill, a Republican from Fairbanks, would change that by defining the term to mean “a threat of serious risk to the life or physical health of a woman.”

There are a few aspects of the bill that could conflict with previous decisions of the state Supreme Court. For one, the bill purposefully excludes mental health exceptions to the funding ban. Sen. Pete Kelly, a Fairbanks Republican, is one of the co-sponsors of the bill. He explains why the bill was drafted to leave out psychological conditions from their medically necessary definition.

“It is the vague language that has been used to drive a Mack truck through it. We heard — not testimony — but we heard people tell us, who work in the industry that if someone claimed that they were stressed out about their pregnancy, that was enough for the mental health portion of the statute,” Kelly says.

During the last fiscal year, the state paid for approximately 500 abortions through Medicaid, but information on how many of those were for mental health reasons is not publicly available.

This isn’t the first attempt by anti-abortion legislators to restrict public funding for the procedure. A bill to limit Medicaid payments for abortion was introduced last year, and past budgets have also included language prohibiting those payments.

And every time these efforts have been made, the Alaska Supreme Court has found them unconstitutional. Kelly is prepared for that to happen again.

“You know, I’m convinced that the courts, because I don’t believe that they’re actually following the law — they’re trying to make law — I figure they’ll probably find some other way [to overturn] after this, but we just have to go through the exercise,” Kelly says.

The Court’s rationale for blocking these efforts is that they violate the state’s equal protection guarantees. Janet Crepps, an attorney for the Center for Reproductive Rights, breaks down the legal reasoning.

“If you pay for all medically necessary services for pregnant women, then you need to pay for all medically necessary services for women seeking abortion. And you can’t discriminate based on a women’s choice, as between carrying a pregnancy to term or seeking an abortion,” Crepps says.

She says that based on her experience arguing abortion-related cases in Alaska, she doesn’t expect the bill to hold up against Supreme Court scrutiny. With Republican majorities in both chambers of the legislature, the bill is being introduced in a favorable environment for passage.

The U.S. Senate has just passed a reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act. However, its future in the House is unclear.

The Senate passed a reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act last Congress … only to see it fester in the House.

Conservatives in both chambers say expanded protections for undocumented immigrants and members of the LGBTQ communities amount to political handouts.

And perhaps more worrisome to many is the provision that allows tribal courts to prosecute non-natives in Indian Country for abuse. In Alaska, that only applies to Metlakatla, because it’s the only reservation in the state.

U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski says her party needs to drop its opposition in the House.

“They need to think of the vulnerable people who are victims of domestic violence every single day. It doesn’t matter where you live,” Murkowski says.

The previous reauthorization will remain law regardless of whether the House passes the new version.

The Juneau International Airport is moving smokers further away from the terminal.

The Assembly last night (Monday) amended the Second-Hand Smoke Control Code to prohibit smoking more than 10 feet from entrances, which is current law.

The airport has been getting lots of public complaints about smoking in front of the terminal, so in December the Airport Board approved a smoking prohibition in any area the board designates. The city-owned airport needed Assembly approval.

Airport Manager Jeanie Johnson said the airport board did not consider a full ban on smoking because a number of employees and airline passengers smoke.

The airport already has installed two smoking shelters that look like bus stops adjacent to the terminal building. One is on the front curb near the older part of building. Johnson said the other was placed away from the curb and around the side of the building near the bus canopy at the new end of the terminal.

“That we did to accommodate all those employees that were standing under the bus canopy smoking and we weren’t able to really give them a ticket for doing something that at this particular time was legal,” Johnson says.

Only Assembly member Jerry Nankervis objected to the ordinance. He recalled the history of Juneau’s smoking ban…

“Several years ago this body enacted an ordinance that prohibited smoking inside businesses, city and private businesses, then we extended that to ten feet outside teach door. Now this extends it farther than that. My concern is where will this stop? I don’t believe it will stop here,” Nankervis says.

The ordinance gives the airport board authority to post any area on the campus as non-smoking.

The entire campus of Bartlett Regional Hospital, also owned by the city and borough of Juneau, is non-smoking.

About a hundred people gathered on the steps of Juneau’s Sealaska Plaza Friday evening for one of several candlelight vigils held around the state for Mackenzie Howard.

Alaska State Troopers are investigating the 13-year-old girl’s murder last week in the small Southeast village of Kake.

The vigil included performances of a Tlingit Mourning Song and a Haida Prayer Song.

Paul Marks of Juneau offered a prayer, struggling at times to find the words to describe the sadness and pain felt by those who attended the gathering.

“But looking around at each and every one of your faces today,” Marks said. “I see a love for your family, because she was our family too.”

Mourners also held candlelight vigils Friday in Kake, Sitka, Petersburg, Anchorage, and Fairbanks.

Organizers collected donations for the Howard family at Friday’s event in Juneau. A checking account has also been set up at Wells Fargo Bank. The account number is 5274579043.

Tlingit Mourning Song led by Nancy Barnes:
Haida Prayer Song led by Vicki Soboleff:

As the investigation into her death continues, candlelight vigils are planned across Alaska tonight (Friday) in memory of Mackenzie Howard. The 13-year-old Kake girl is believed to be a victim of murder in the small, Southeast village on Kupreanof Island.

The vigils begin at 6 p.m. in most places. In Kake, mourners will gather at the Old Grade School. In Juneau, they’ll gather at Sealaska Plaza. The Sitka event is planned at the Salvation Army, on Sawmill Creek Road near the roundabout.

Family members, meanwhile, remember Mackenzie as an energetic young girl, with a bright smile and a love for basketball.

Her mother, Marla Howard, plays the game, and her father, Kip Howard, is a veteran of Southeast Alaska’s annual Gold Medal tournament. He says his daughter wanted to follow in those footsteps.

“She says, ‘Mom, you’re a baller, and my Dad’s a baller. So that must mean I’m going to be a super baller,” Kip Howard said. “That was a joy to hear from her.”

At 13 years old, Mackenzie was looking forward to the day she’d be able to play on the JV or varsity squads for Kake High School. And her dad says she took an interest in college basketball, too. Mackenzie’s inspiration was Brittney Griner, a 6-foot-8 senior who plays for Baylor.

“She enjoyed when she got to watch her play,” he said. “And then she would run downstairs and make a pose, and say ‘Brittney Griner!’ She was dreaming of going to Baylor University to be the next Brittney Griner.”

For her dad, the fun was in watching her play. On a road trip to Klawock, Mackenzie played on a team of all boys, against another team of all boys. He told her that it would make her better, and he says she bought into it. Not that it was always easy to watch her take that advice.

“I was sitting on the bench, and she was playing defense, I think, and the kid ran her over, and then stepped on her and trampled on her,” he recalled. “My first reaction was, I jumped off the bench, and I took two steps toward the court, and then I stopped. I looked back at my wife, and I told her, ‘These bleachers need seatbelts.'”

But everything turned out all right.

“My baby got right up off the floor and continued playing as hard as she was,” Howard said.

Those good memories – of a young girl who liked her big pink glasses as much as dribbling a basketball – are what Kip Howard says he and his family will hold onto. But they also have a lot of questions.

The night she didn’t come home, Kip Howard says he got a handheld floodlight and went searching.

“That was the most terrible feeling I’ve had,” he said. “And then I got the call.”

The Howard family is well-known in Kake, a city of about 600 people about 40 miles northwest of Petersburg. Kip Howard is the fire chief and captain of the city’s search-and-rescue boat. He says because Kake is a close-knit community, the tragedy of Mackenzie’s death reverberates throughout the city.

“My mom is still alive down south, and I have several sisters,” he said. “But since I’ve been here in Kake, the folks here have been my mother, my grandmothers, my sisters, my brothers, my uncles, my nephews. This is my family.”

Mackenzie had several siblings – three brothers and five sisters. Many family members traveled back to Kake upon hearing the news. Condolences have also poured in from throughout the community, the Alaskan panhandle, and friends across the country.

“Too many to respond to,” Howard said. “All I could think of was ‘Thank you. Thank you.'”