Alaska | InsideOjodu https://www.insideojodu.com ...conecting the community Fri, 06 Dec 2019 23:25:49 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=5.9.10 http://www.insideojodu.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/favicon.ico Alaska | InsideOjodu https://www.insideojodu.com 32 32 Alaska dentist rode hoverboard while performing procedure https://www.insideojodu.com/alaska-dentist-rode-hoverboard-while-performing-procedure/ https://www.insideojodu.com/alaska-dentist-rode-hoverboard-while-performing-procedure/#respond Thu, 05 Dec 2019 23:06:01 +0000 https://www.insideojodu.com/?p=9268 An Alaska dentist charged with fraud and unnecessarily sedating patients performed a procedure while…

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An Alaska dentist charged with fraud and unnecessarily sedating patients performed a procedure while riding on a hoverboard, authorities said.

A former patient testified Wednesday at the trial of Seth Lookhart that an investigator showed her a 2016 video of the dentist riding the motorized, wheeled vehicle while extracting one of her teeth when she was sedated.

“I obviously wouldn’t have approved that. That’s dangerous,” Veronica Wilhelm said on the stand, calling Lookhart’s alleged actions unprofessional.

Lookhart also sedated Wilhelm’s son for a teeth cleaning, she said.

The Anchorage dentist denied the fraud allegations but admitted to riding the hoverboard during the procedure, his attorney Paul Stockler said.

Stockler described his client’s actions as “absolutely stupid.”

“But I’ve seen much more dangerous things where no doctor has been charged,” the lawyer said.

Stockler gave Wilhelm a chance to address his client directly, KTUU-TV reported.

“(You) Probably could’ve been a really good dentist,” she said. “I don’t have anything bad to say about taking out my tooth, I appreciate that, but I just think that what you did was outrageous, narcissistic you know, and crazy.”

Authorities said Lookhart fraudulently billed Medicaid around $1.8 million and stole $250,000 from his partners. The state suspended his dentistry license in 2017.

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Alaska to receive $10M from Justice Department to combat violent crime https://www.insideojodu.com/alaska-to-receive-10m-from-justice-department-to-combat-violent-crime/ https://www.insideojodu.com/alaska-to-receive-10m-from-justice-department-to-combat-violent-crime/#respond Sat, 29 Jun 2019 17:07:02 +0000 https://www.insideojodu.com/?p=5371 Life in “The Last Frontier” may be way harsher than a lot of Americans…

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Life in “The Last Frontier” may be way harsher than a lot of Americans realize.

On Friday, AG William Barr declared a public-safety emergency in Alaska so the Justice Department could allocate more than $10 million toward fighting violent crime in some of the state’s rural communities.

In a whole lot of areas, getting timely law enforcement replies to sexual assaults, child abuse and other violent crimes can be difficult.

A 2013 federal report said that more than 75 Alaska Native communities had no law enforcement officers. Tribes have been wanting authority to establish police forces since the 1971 Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act took effect, Reuters reported.

Because of Alaska’s immense size (663,268 square miles) it can sometimes take hours for state troopers to reach a village from which a crime is reported.

Tribal leaders have alerted authorities to the fact that victims of sexual assault sometimes need to take boats or planes to reach medical facilities in more populated areas, the Associated Press reported.

Barr visited Alaska in late May to get a sense of the problems Alaskans have been dealing with.

“In May, when I visited Alaska, I witnessed firsthand the complex, unique, and dire law enforcement challenges the state of Alaska and its remote Alaska Native communities are facing,” Barr said in a Justice Department statement.

“With this emergency declaration, I am directing resources where they are needed most and needed immediately, to support the local law enforcement response in Alaska Native communities, whose people are dealing with extremely high rates of violence.”

Barr and some other officials have visited the communities of Galena, Bethel and Napaskiak on May 31, the Anchorage Daily News reported.

Alaskan members of Congress said they were pleased by the attention Barr was directing toward their state.

United States Rep. Don Young, an Alaska Republican who lives in Fort Yukon, a small community above the Arctic Circle, said he was glad Barr released the money.

“I’m cautioning people, though, because money just doesn’t solve the problem,” the 86-year-old Young said Friday. “There should be recognition that this problem can only be solved by support by the communities themselves.”

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