FYI – Nov. 25

Parnell appoints Norton to council
Homer resident Sharon Strutz Norton, a 30-year Alaska registered nurse with special interest in Alaska Native health care and suicide prevention, was appointed by Gov. Sean Parnell to the Suicide Prevention Council.
Her career has included work as a University of Alaska research assistant, nursing instructor, state nursing licensing examiner, and U.S. Army Reserves health-care instructor. A family survivor of suicide, she has worked to improve suicide prevention training for nurses. She serves as an Alaska liaison for the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and is a founder of the Kenai Peninsula Suicide Prevention Coalition. An Alaska Native, she won Arctic Slope Regional Corporation’s Anagi Leadership Award in 2008 for her work to improve Native health care.

Breast exam legislation
U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski joined by a bipartisan group to call on the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee (HELP) to hold a hearing on controversial new breast screening recommendations made by a federal task force. 
Murkowski authored a letter, co-signed by 21 of her colleagues, to the chairman and ranking Republican member of the HELP committee asking for a hearing. A HELP committee member, Murkowski said the recommendations by the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force have been widely criticized by patients and doctors alike and could prove devastating for women at risk for breast cancer.
Last week, the task force announced it no longer recommends routine mammogram screening for women in their 40s and advised women 50 and over to get a mammogram just once every two years. The task force’s previous recommendations urged women 40 and older to get a screening mammography as often as once a year.
 “These recommendations have caused great confusion among women,” Murkowski said. “We clearly need a hearing to better understand how this task force came to its conclusions.”

Clam Shell entertainment
T. Harvey Combo’s combination of Alaska and Texas talent will be featured at the Clam Shell Lodge Saturday night starting at 9 p.m.
T. Harvey’s foot stomping music is described as “Texas Blues Hippie,” high energy blues and rock and roll. The Clam Shell Lodge is located at Clam Gulch.

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