Oil Tax Petition
Dear Editor: On April 14, at 1:45 a.m., the Alaska Legislature passed SB 21, a circa $1 billion-a-year oil tax cut for oil companies. On April 25, ConocoPhillips released its quarterly profit figures. Alaska alone accounts for $540 million of Conoco’s $2 billion in worldwide profit.
Gloriosky! $540 million in pure profit over three months just in Alaska? I’m considering starting my own business; nothing wrong with profit! But why in the world should the State of Alaska inflate the already phenomenal profit margins of ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, and BP at the direct expense of its own citizens?
After spending a legislative session in Juneau, I don’t have anything remotely resembling a good answer.
If you’re as dumbfounded, gobsmacked, and bamboozled as I am, I’ve got good news about SB 21: we can repeal the darn thing. God bless the Alaska Constitution, because it provides citizens the recourse of referendum, and there is a statewide movement afoot to put SB 21 on the 2014 ballot for repeal. Can I hear an amen?
Petition books should be circulating shortly, and every signature matters. Want to get involved? Email local organizers: sitka.repeals.the.giveaway@gmail.com.
We have 73 days to collect 30,050 signatures. I accept the challenge. Do you?
Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins
Whooping Cough
Dear Editor: Pertussis, also called whooping cough, has been reported in Sitka. Whooping cough is a bacterial infection that can spread through the air when people cough. Symptoms can appear 5 to 21 days after infection. Pertussis may start with cold-like symptoms (i.e., sneezing/runny nose) followed by a cough that can gradually become worse. Others may develop the cough without any cold symptoms at all. Those with pertussis are most contagious during the beginning, cold-like stage and the first two weeks after cough onset. The cough usually develops into ‘‘coughing fits.’’ Coughing in very young children may produce a whooping sound due to trying to catch their breaths. Coughing may last four weeks or longer., If you suspect someone in your family may have pertussis contact your doctor. Pertussis is generally treated with antibiotics, which are used to control the symptoms and to prevent infected people from spreading the disease.
Pertussis can be a very serious, even deadly disease, especially for infants less than one year old. Immunization against pertussis is the best way to protect infants and help prevent outbreaks in our community. Alaska requires all public school children to be vaccinated against pertussis/whooping cough. A booster dose of pertussis vaccine (Tdap) is available at age 11 years old and is required by age 14 years for students. Check with your child’s doctor to see if he or she is due.
Adults need pertussis vaccine boosters too. Teenagers and adults who were completely immunized can also get pertussis because protection from the vaccine or from having the disease wears off over time.
Please check with your health care provider to see if anyone in your family is in need of a pertussis booster,
Low cost or no cost pertussis containing vaccines are available in Sitka.
Please call the Public Health Nurse at 747-3255 if you have a question regarding vaccine availability.
Penny Lehmann, PHN
Ellen Daily, PHN
Sitka Public Health Nurses
