Ccs Expecting Big Enrollment

It’s time to register for spring quarter at the Community Colleges of Spokane and officials are expecting more than 1,600 older adults to sign up as usual for classes in the Seniors Program.

The colleges offer an array of affordable classes for adults 55 and older on campus and at senior centers, retirement complexes, churches and other locations throughout the metropolitan area. Tuition can range from $5 to $30. For those in need of financial assistance, scholarships are available while funding lasts.

Courses include computer studies, art, foreign languages, writing workshops, self-publishing, book discussions, social science, fitness and much more.

For more information call 533-3393.

This is for readers who phoned, faxed, e-mailed and wrote wanting to know more about somnoplasty, following a piece I wrote for the Real Time column that appears each Sunday on the back of this section.

Somnoplasty is a revolutionary intervention for obstructive sleep apnea, a debilitating breathing disorder that afflicts tens of millions of Americans. Nobody knows just how many, because it is generally accepted that most cases go undiagnosed.

I don’t know how many people have contacted me or attempted to, flooding my phone mail. But there are far too many for me to respond individually.

So I am taking this opportunity to provide additional information: Somnus Medical Technologies Inc. makes the medical devices used in the somnoplasty procedure. There are doctors in Boise, Billings, Tri-Cities, throughout the West Coast and across the country who are trained in this new procedure, but it is not available in Spokane.

To find out the name and number of the nearest doctor, call the company’s toll-free patient referral service at (800) 250-6031.

Or you can write to Somnus Medical Technologies Inc., 258 N. Wolfe Road, Sunnyvale, CA 94086.

A wealth of detailed information and data, pictures, charts and diagrams can be found on the company’s Web site at www.somnus.com.

After 23 years at the YMCA, the American Association of Retired Persons/Senior Employment Program has moved to a new home at 1801 W. Broadway.

An open house will be from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. March 26 in the new quarters, four blocks west of the Spokane County Courthouse.

AARP/Senior Employment serves people 55 and older who are low income and looking for work. The program helps job hunters gain work experience and training while they seek permanent employment.

All interested are invited to attend the open house and find out more about the program, or call 325-7712 to get questions answered.

The state’s most potent business lobby has issued an appeal to area business owners and managers to help defeat health care reform efforts.

“The Senate Ways and Means Committee is looking at several bills that will make health care even more expensive and inaccessible,” the Association of Washington Business lobby says in its latest legislative communique. “The bills, which include mental health parity, a patient’s bill of rights and assorted mandated benefits, could increase costs by at least 15 percent - and that’s on top of the annual health insurance inflation rate of 10 percent.

“If you are only going to make one phone call this session,” the lobby urges its member businesses, “make it this call to your senator.”