Military veteran living with PTSD recalls night APD officer helped save his life
KOAT 7 News Shellya Leggett April 19, 2019
"When it was going on, that was like, that was really intense and scary for me. So, it was just like, in hindsight thinking about it, you know, that guy was really, really patient and really cool with me." J Freeman
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. Albuquerque police and other agencies across New Mexico are requiring officers to get training from psychologists on how to deal with people with mental illnesses.
A man who said that training helped save his life spoke to KOAT. J Freeman is a six-year Army and Air Force veteran who lives with post-traumatic stress disorder. He said without the help of Albuquerque Police Department officer Phillip Meier, he might not be here to tell his story.
Freeman said he spent some time overseas in Kuwait and Iraq but has been home since 2003 and lives every day with PTSD.
"It's not always easy to have a conversation with someone, and when it's a police officer or anyone, especially when they have weapons on them, it just makes you all the more defensive and agitated," Freeman said.
About a week ago, he had a PTSD crisis.
"If I was agitated, if this were two years ago, this would have been a completely different ending," Freeman said.
He needed help, and two-year APD officer and five-year Navy veteran Phillip Meier was there.
read more here
Governor Ducey Signs Bill To Better Track Veteran Suicides
News Release April 17, 2019
New Data Will Help Inform Arizona’s Efforts To Prevent Veteran Suicide PHOENIX — Governor Doug Ducey today signed HB 2488, legislation sponsored by Representative Jay Lawrence, directing the Arizona Department of Health Services (DHS) to submit an annual report improving the tracking of veteran suicides in Arizona.
Veterans face a risk of suicide four times greater than non-veterans in Arizona. Until now, Arizona did not have a formal way to track or report veteran suicides in the state. The new annual report will provide critical data to help Arizona understand and prevent veteran suicide. The report will begin in January 2020 and will track a variety of data points that will provide historical and regional trends and compare Arizona's resident veteran suicide rate to the national rate and other regions across the country.
“Our veterans have sacrificed so much to protect our freedom, and this country and Arizona are going to continue doing everything we can to support our veterans and prevent veteran suicide,” said Governor Ducey. “This legislation will provide Arizona with a necessary tool to understand the issues that cause veteran suicide, and implement data-driven policy to address this devastating issue.”
“There are no easy answers when it comes to veteran suicides. With this new report, Arizona will now be able to define the scope of the devastating problem of veteran suicide and find a way to prevent them and bolster our veterans’ services,” said Representative Lawrence. “I thank my colleagues for the bipartisan support and Governor Ducey for signing this legislation to help Arizona’s veterans.”
The FY2020 budget includes increased funding for Arizona’s “Be Connected” suicide prevention program. The Be Connected program connects service members, veterans and their families to support and resources. In 2018, the program assisted over 2,000 individuals. This investment will also support community outreach efforts to find additional public, private and non-profit partnership opportunities and increase awareness of the critical resources available to Arizona’s military and veteran communities.
#BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife
Side by side the same way you fought every other battle!
Update on the book thing...It seems that the book went into the dead file somewhere, at some time, and must have been bitten by Zombies because its alive!
Members of Washington National Guard's 194th Wing pose as zombies with their simulated injury makeup before participating in the Cascadia Rising exercise, a test of Washington state’s earthquake response plan. Air Force photo by Tech Sgt. Paul Rider
I have been trying to figure out what I was seeing, since it did not make sense. If you have read Wounded Times lately, then you know the trouble I've been having with my first book. If not, then you may not need to go back and see what it is all about because of what I am about to show you.
For the sake of my loyal readers, I do not want to rehash all of it, so please forgive me and you can catch up here.
Today I went to ISBN to understand how it works. After all, two numbers on a book did not make much sense. Here is the deal on them.
One agency per country is designated to assign ISBNs for the publishers and self-publishers located in that country. The U.S. ISBN Agency cannot assign ISBNs to publishers and self-publishers located outside the United States and its territories.
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Still not sure what is going on with overseas operations but we'll focus on the US for now.
The ISBN identifies the title or other book-like product (such as an audiobook) to which it is assigned, but also the publisher to be contacted for ordering purposes. If an ISBN is obtained from a company other than the official ISBN Agency, that ISBN will not identify the publisher of the title accurately. This can have implications for doing business in the publishing industry supply chain.
When participating in the ISBN standard, publishers and self-publishers are required to report all information about titles to which they have assigned ISBNs.
For more than thirty years, ISBNs were 10 digits long. On January 1, 2007 the ISBN system switched to a 13-digit format. Now all ISBNs are 13-digits long. If you were assigned 10-digit ISBNs, you can convert them to the 13-digit format at the converter found at this website. A 10-digit ISBN cannot be converted to 13-digits merely by placing three digits in front of the 10-digit number. There is an algorithm that frequently results in a change of the last digit of the ISBN.
Yet, the book that came in last week, (which according to Xlibris) is not new, it did not have the old ISBN number on the inside. It just had the one that was issued after 2007. Yes, this is like a very bad movie that you cannot shut off!
So, exactly why would a publisher do this after they "stopped printing it" and pulled it from distribution years before? Even that is in doubt because apparently Xlibris cannot make up their mind when they stopped it. First it was 2005,
And then it was 2004~Which came in an email last week after they wrote how they stopped in 2005.
Again, we know it was not a used book! (Yes, that is my name and after I started writing back in 1984)
Love that part at the end. I bet she hoped it did so that I would go away and stop wanting them to be accountable!
The worst part of this is, they have been doing this to me for 16 years! Why not remove a book if they had in fact stopped distribution of it? Why put on a new ISBN number on a book that was "out of print" a couple of years before this special number was even issued? Wonder how many others they did it to? If they did it to you, leave a comment and then maybe someone with the power to do something about it will! I am trying to raise funds to take control of this book back! I want to print it and give it away. Please go here to support that effort.
Four Idahoans in the national spotlight after viral video
KIVI 6 News By: Natasha Williams Apr 15, 2019
Before the heartwarming video went viral, Khloe had been dealing with some bullying at school for not having a dad. She says the video changed everything.
BOISE, Idaho — Steve Exceen and his daughter Sarai have a special bond with Mary Braunstein and her daughter Khloe--so much so they say the four Idahoans are a package deal.
"It was basically like...(pause)...friendship at the first moment," Sarai said.
You might remember the special moment, caught on camera, we brought to you back in February.
A local veteran and his daughter stepped in to take a fifth-grade girl to a daddy-daughter dance after she lost her own father to suicide after a battle with PTSD. The sweet video went viral and now has more than four million views.
read more here
Wounded Times Kathie Costos April 14, 2019
When the article on The Washington Post went viral, most people thought that it was horrible, but they thought it was accurate as well. February 7, 2019
The parking lot suicides
Veterans are taking their own lives on VA hospital campuses, a desperate form of protest against a system that they feel hasn’t helped them.
His death is among 19 suicides that occurred on VA campuses from October 2017 to November 2018, seven of them in parking lots, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.
It wasn't. I contacted the reporter, Emily Wax-Thibodeaux and complained that she got it wrong. There were too many missing. She believed what the VA told her, instead of actually doing research to find out how many were missing from their data. December 17, 2018, I posted how there had been at least 27 veterans committing suicide in very public ways. Most of them were at VA facilities. I use "at least" because they are not all reported in the newspapers or on local news stations. I am sure I missed some. It is happening again. First came the headline about two veterans committing suicide at VA facilities in Georgia. Then they added on another veteran who committed suicide in Texas. What about the other one who committed suicide in Florida?
Brieux Dash hanged himself March 14 at the VA Medical Center in Riviera Beach. The U.S. Army veteran had a military family by blood and another by marriage. He joined after high school and went twice into combat. And came home with post-traumatic stress syndrome.The Palm Springs man raised a family of three and was able to graduate college. But his demons were gaining on him.
Or this veteran who had been given a ride by Jimmy Johns, which did make national news?
Greg Holeman "Army veteran who served as a mechanic, fatally shot himself inside his pickup truck on the night of February 25, a Platte County Sheriff's Office lieutenant told KETV NewsWatch 7. The 48-year-old was parked outside of the Columbus Community Hospital's emergency department.
Those suicides did not make national news with the others. One more example of how the media forgot it is their job to actually research what they are claiming to be factual. I find these stories because I care. When will they care enough to get this right? They are also still pushing the "22 a day" slogan instead of investigating what we know. To our veterans, you do matter and the deaths of the other veterans who committed suicide in public did it for a reason. While it was the wrong way to fight for the rest of you, that is why they chose to do it in the open where no one could cover it up. If you want to make a difference for others to, do it the right way! If your VA is not living up to the needs of veterans in your community, contact the hospital administrator and complain. If that fails, go to the media. If your local charity is taking in money but shutting the door on veterans needing help, contact the head of it. If that fails, contact the media. If you are not getting the help you need, contact the media. As much as I complain when they get the report wrong, they hold power to put public pressure on what is wrong. Hell, think of it this way. It is one way to make them do their jobs and get something fixed so that you can live to see it happen!
The legislation would require the VA to notify Congress of any suicide or suicide attempt and the name of the VA facility and location where the event occurred, no later than seven days after it happens. Sixty days after the event, the VA would be required to provide even more information to Congress, including the enrollment status of the veteran, with respect to the patient enrollment system at the VA, and the most recent encounter between the veteran and any employee or facility of the Veterans Health Administration before the suicide or attempted suicide occurred.
And then there is this, which is bad.
Between October 2017 and November 2018, there were 19 suicides on VA campuses -- seven in parking lots -- according to AMVETS.
AMVETS Executive Director Joseph Chenelly said that suicides at VA facilities "appear to be protests of last resort where health care systems, treatment programs, and the underlying cultures of the responsible federal agencies have failed them."
update 4-26-19 I contacted lawyers over this and they wanted to know how many books were involved...
I have no way of knowing that considering how many people had viewed my profile that far outnumber the page views on Wounded Times and my videos. Consider how many searched for me and then understand why I may never know. Yes, that says 15,446,256 and is the Google count on my profile from a few years ago.
Why you should never publish your book on April Fools Day or with Xlibris
Wounded Times Kathie Costos April 13, 2019
"We're not interested in owning your work...after all, we didn't write it." Xlibris
That quote is from the Xlibris brochure that made me decide on choosing them as the (FLUSHING) publisher for the book that had to "get out there" way back in 2003.
After all this time telling veterans to #BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife that is what I am doing. Breaking the silence on what has been torturing me for all these years and taking back control over my own work! I wrote FOR THE LOVE OF JACK, HIS WAR/MY BATTLE before 9-11 but could not find a publisher. After all, it was about a veteran's family living with PTSD. To top that off, the veteran was a Vietnam veteran. You know, before they were big news again.
After 9-11, I added to the ending and had the copyright done in 2002. 2003 I decided to self publish it. On April 1, 2003 it was published.
Yes, April Fools Day! Should have known right there it was off to a bad start with this (FLUSH) company.
After 16 years...I can assure you, that while the actual ownership of the book does belong to me, they have not seemed to be able to remember that fact. I was hearing from people about reading the book, but saw few sales reported. I questioned Xlibris and they said that they were "used" books they must have been reading. Used book? How when there were only a few "new" ones sold according to them. Just to find out what was going on, I ordered 2 books from Barnes and Noble. I had them shipped to the store and yes, paid full price. The bar code did not work. Anyway, a few more emails and trust was gone. I wanted my book out of their hands. I told them to stop printing it. That didn't work. Really odd that they did not manage to explain why the book was still being sold, if there were no sales. I wrote to the Better Business Bureau and Xlibris responded with it was my ego that was involved and not their problem. Besides, they also said that I was taking up too much of their time. Odd thing is that responding to the BBB, they said that "half a dozen" more were sold. By 2004 I totally had it and my lawyer sent them a letter to stop publishing it and give me a full report. In 2005, the book was still being sold. I (FLUSH) emailedthem again!
This is their response.
RE: STOP SELLING MY BOOK/CANCELLATION CONFIRMATION Mon, Mar 14, 2005 6:33 am Channel (Channel@Xlibris.com)
Dear Ms. Costos, As long as Ingram still has physical copies of your book in stock, your book will continue to be listed as available and people can continue to purchase copies of it through the different online resellers. Another way to get hold of your book is through the used book resellers.
What happened was when customers decided to sell their used copy of a book to these resellers; they can set the book's price to any amount they want when they list it with online resellers with Amazon.com, Borders.com, Barnes and Noble.com. Xlibris does not have a relationship with these used book resellers nor do we have a say in the way they operate their business since they got these books from the customers who decided to sell their purchased books to them. Further, these used book resellers are entitled to sell used book under the first sale doctrine of copyright law.
This email is also to confirm the cancellation of your book with Xlibris. Your book entitled "For The Love of Jack", with ISBN 1-4010-8691-8, is no longer available for sale through our Xlibris website or the 800 number. Although no new copies of your book will be produced from this point forward you should be aware that due to our relationship with various printers and book distributors, physical copies of your book currently exist within the book vending channels. For reasons of quality assurance and to provide a more efficient ordering process, Ingram will keep a handful of copies of all titles listed with them in stock at all times.Ingram currently shows one (1) physical copy of your book in stock.Your title will remain available in the channels until this copy is sold. When a title is listed as cancelled, production knows not to replenish this stock once it is depleted. Unfortunately, it must be depleted before Ingram will remove the title's listing from its system.
Amazon and the other online channels base their listing information from what Ingram's system provides. As a result, as long as Ingram has copies in stock, title will remain listed with the online stores. These online resellers and distributors could not change the availability of your book to out of stock until somebody purchases these remaining books from them.
The copies that the online retailers have were purchased from us (you were paid royalties for these sales) giving the resellers the right to continue the sale of your book with no implication on the contract between you and Xlibris. Please note that as part of Barnes and Noble's sales programs, titles that are considered "out of print" are kept in the system as such to allow customers the ability to track hard-to-find books. Hard-to-find and out-of-print books present a great source of revenue for these businesses, which is why they continue listing books that are no longer available through their distributor. We would like you to know that it has been a pleasure doing business with you. We wish you success in your writing endeavors and we hope to work with you again in the future.
How could there be more "used" copies than ones I had been "paid for" in the first place?
"Hard-to-find and out-of-print books present a great source of revenue for these businesses, which is why they continue listing books that are no longer available through their distributor."
A great source of revenue that are no longer available? Is this why they refused to pull the book? FLUSHING seriously?
I emailed them again and told them I wanted this stopped! I asked them how I could finally get this done.
This is their reply.
Channel (Channel@Xlibris.com)To:you (Bcc) + 1 more DetailsDear Ma'am,Currently, there is only one (1) physical copy of the book left at Ingram's microinventory. You may purchase this remaining copy either through Amazon/Borders.com or Barnes and Noble.com. Based on Amazon's listing, it is indicated that there is only 1 left in stock for your title. List Price: $20.99
So I paid full price for that book and others!
Well this kept going on, and on, and on! I tried giving away free PDF of it, and that happened many times, because I figured if I was not getting paid, I could at least control that and get it into the hands of people it would help. In 2012, I opted to have it republished with a few changes on Amazon.
Long story short, 2019 and the book was still online. I am planning on writing the follow up. Last week, after trying to get my ducks in a row for more changes coming to this site (which we'll talk about later), I went onto Amazon and saw that the damn thing was still online right next to the one I put up in 2012. I hit the roof when I saw that there were "new" copies and "used" copies.
I sent an email to Xlibris, Lightening Source/Ingram (the printer) and Amazon legal department.Ingram legal department responded, just stating that "The title in question, For the Love of Jack / EAN 9781401086916, is already cancelled in our system." with no answer as to when that was done or why it was still available.
Cutting this shorter than including in all the evidence and emails back and forth, on March 28, 2019 Xlibris responded with,
"However, although no new copies were produced, we would like to make you aware that due to our relationship with various printers and book distributors, physical copies of your book may currently exist within the book vending channels until these copies have been sold out."
The email went on to state that, when a book is out of print, it can still be online but will show "out of print" or "not available" even though I had already shown them, that according to Amazon, they had at least one new one.
So, I ordered it and it shipped.
I didn't know I was a magician! How did I manage to buy a brand new book that went extinct in 2005? Wow, looks like there are a lot of (FLUSHING) magic tricks going on!
This new copy that did not exist shipped out the day after I ordered it from California.
On April 1, 2019, exactly 16 years after they published my book, I asked them to tell me when they supposedly stopped it from being printed. On April 2, 2019 they responded with this.
"Upon further checking, the book was cancelled way back March 11, 2005. Therefore, there was really a time wherein the book was available."
When questioned again as to how it was possible I managed to buy a new book...and not a new one, they replied with this.
The books I bought online in 2005 were new, and they had emailed acknowledgement of at least one of them. How were they not able to decide when they "cancelled" it? Was it 2004? 2005? And how the (FLUSH) were people making money off new ones when Xlibris denied the existence of new ones?
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update 4/17/2019
About the ISBN Standard "The ISBN identifies the title or other book-like product (such as an audiobook) to which it is assigned, but also the publisher to be contacted for ordering purposes. If an ISBN is obtained from a company other than the official ISBN Agency, that ISBN will not identify the publisher of the title accurately. This can have implications for doing business in the publishing industry supply chain."
"For more than thirty years, ISBNs were 10 digits long. On January 1, 2007 the ISBN system switched to a 13-digit format. Now all ISBNs are 13-digits long. If you were assigned 10-digit ISBNs, you can convert them to the 13-digit format at the converter found at this website. A 10-digit ISBN cannot be converted to 13-digits merely by placing three digits in front of the 10-digit number. There is an algorithm that frequently results in a change of the last digit of the ISBN."
But that is exactly what they did!
ISBN-13:978-1401086916
ISBN-10:1401086918 So why would they add this number years after they supposedly stopped printing it?
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How did I manage to buy new books, yes, paying full price, for books that went extinct? I called Morgan and Morgan yesterday and ran down what happened. They wanted to know how many I thought were sold. How the (FLUSH) would I know that since Xlibris keeps saying that only "used" copies are being sold and they have "no control" over that? The lesson here is, never publish on April Fools Day...or with Xlibris because after 16 years of putting me through hell, they cannot, or will not, explain how it is a book that had so few sales, according to them, IS STILL BEING SOLD!
Army veteran once called his parents to say good-bye as he contemplated suicide. Now he helps other struggling veterans.
11 Alive Author: Hope Ford April 8, 2019
Gary Herber made a plan and waited until he had 10 percent battery left on his phone to call his parents to say goodbye. Years later, he works with the same program that helped him change his life around.
ATLANTA — Two veterans committed suicide outside of VA medical clinics in Georgia over a weekend in April.
It's a harsh reminder of the struggle and pain of many veterans in America. Roughly, one veteran dies by suicide every 65 minutes in the country.
Gary Herber was almost one of them. In November of 2010, Herber made a plan and called his family to let them know.
"I waited until I has about 10 percent left on my battery and called my parents to say goodbye," Herber recalled. "In a 10-minute phone call, thank God they were able to get the New York City Police to my house and they kicked the door in and saved my life."
Herber served in the Army for close to five years and while in Afghanistan, the truck he was in was hit with a bomb.
"In that moment, my whole life changed," he stated.
He returned to America, his health problems consuming him as he isolated himself from the world around him.
"From chronic pain to anger to anxiety, I just decided I was done with the world and no one could understand what I was going through," he explained.
But that door kick from police saved him and he ended up in Atlanta at a program called SHARE Military Initiative with the Shepherd's Center.
"I spent 14 weeks at the Shepherd Center center and it turned my life around 180 degrees," he said.
Herber now works with the center, run by The Shepherd's Men, a group of veterans and civilians, who help raise awareness, fund raise and work with veterans with PTSD and traumatic brain injuries. The programs at the center help address their needs and veteran suicide, with over 500 veterans graduating from SHARE since 2008. read more here
update 'I just wish they would have found him and stopped him:' Central Georgia family mourns after veteran commits suicide
The family of 28-year-old Gary Pressley is now searching for answers after he took his own life in the parking lot of the Carl Vinson VA Medical Center
In this case, Pressley's family says the VA did have the chance to help him, but didn't act. His sister, Lisa Johnson, says she called the VA to tell them her brother was threatening suicide from their parking lot just moments before he killed himself. read more here
Two veterans kill themselves at separate VA medical centers in Georgia
Atlanta Journal Constitutional By Jeremy Redmon April 8, 2019
The victim in Atlanta was 68 years old and shot himself, according to a person familiar with the investigation who was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.
Two veterans killed themselves at separate Department of Veterans Affairs hospitals in Georgia over the weekend, refocusing attention on what the VA has called its “highest clinical priority.”
The first death happened Friday in a parking garage at the Carl Vinson VA Medical Center in Dublin, according to U.S. Sen. Johnny Isakson’s office. The second occurred Saturday outside the main entrance to the Atlanta VA Medical Center in Decatur on Clairmont Road. The VA declined to identify the victims or describe the circumstances of their deaths, citing privacy concerns. read more here It happened 27 times last year when veterans screamed for help as loud as they could. They committed suicide in public, and most of the time, at their local VA. Too bad too many only spread the "suicide awareness" instead of healing awareness. Had that message been spread...maybe these two veterans would have found hope instead of their guns. #BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife because you can defeat PTSD and live a better life.
Wounded Times Kathie Costos April 9, 2019 To tell the truth that is the way to save lives. #BreakTheSilence and make it safe for someone to talk about what is going on. Most of the time they just need someone to listen. But that is not all. They need the one listening to them to actually listen and not try to "fix them" or judge them, or look at their watch as if they want to be someplace else at that moment. You need to know who to call if the person you are listening to needs more help than you can give. There is only one reason a person decides that they do not want to try one more day. They ran out of hope that it would be any different than their worst day was. Help them know that there is hope and they do matter. Whatever you do DO NOT KEEP SPREADING SUICIDE AWARENESS because all that does it let them know you did not care enough to not buy into the BS that has done more harm than good. How do you break the silence? With the sledgehammer called knowledge that there is hope of healing! If you read this site with any frequency, you've read enough reports to know that Suicide Awareness does not work but Suicide Prevention does. We need to make sure we stay on top of what is actually going on so that the people in charge know if what they are doing is working or not. After 37 years now, I can tell you, making them aware of other veterans who gave up on themselves is the last thing they need to hear. The first thing they need to hear is it is possible to #TakeBackYourLife and live a happier ever after.
Oregon newsrooms team up to 'Break the Silence' around suicide
KTVZ reports to focus on veterans helping veterans By: Sarah Zimmerman, AP staff writer and KTVZ.COM Posted: Apr 04, 2019
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — If you're a regular reader or viewer of your local news, it's likely you'll have a good sense of how many people died in a car crash or of a terminal illness. But it's less likely you'll hear when somebody dies by suicide.
It's partly because of a long-held rule across newsrooms not to report on most suicides, out of respect for the family and from the belief that reporting on the topic could have a "contagious effect" and inspire others to also take their own lives.
While there's some evidence for that logic, the nation's growing number of suicides has become difficult for reporters to ignore. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports the national suicide rate is at a 50-year high, climbing 33% since 1999. It's estimated 25,000 Americans died by suicide in 2016 alone.
"Journalists stopped covering suicide for some very good reasons," said Nicole Dahmen, an associate professor of journalism at the University of Oregon. "But the unintended consequence of that is that suicide has remained unreported, and death by suicide has been on the rise so much so that it's become a public health crisis."
The issue has prompted reporters in Oregon, which has a suicide rate 40% higher than the national average, to take a different approach to tackling the topic.
Over 30 newsrooms from around the state, including NewsChannel 21, are banding together in an unprecedented, weeklong reporting collaboration to shed light on suicide and its effect on the community. The project, known as "Breaking the Silence," will run from April 7 to 14 and involve newspapers, TV stations and student media organizations across Oregon. read more here
BREAKING THE SILENCE: Rural areas have higher suicide rates
The Oregonian/OregonLive By Carol Cruzan Morton April 7, 2019
A focus on suicide prevention is showing results as Oregon combats one of nation's highest rates of suicide. This report lists resources to help.
Oregon’s suicide rate has been higher than the national average for the past three decades. More than 800 people killed themselves last year in Oregon.
The problem affects everyone. Suicide is the second leading cause of death for young people, but 90 percent of Oregon’s suicides are by people older than 25 years old. Most suicides are men, but it crosses social, economic, and geographic boundaries.
The highest rates are shared by groups with deep historical and cultural differences—white men and Native Americans. One in every five suicides is a veteran.
These heartbreaking statistics are part of a longstanding and perplexing pattern of higher suicide rates in the West. For decades, the western half of the country, stretching from Montana to Texas and west to California and Alaska, reported persistently higher suicide rates.
Now they are highest in the Rocky Mountain states and Alaska, with Oregon not far behind.
No one really knows why. read more here
