Commentary/Columns Howard Dean: Inauguration - President Bush won the November election rather handily, but unfortunately for the country, early indications are that his second term may be less successful than his first. The president was re-elected largely because he made clear statements about what he believed. However, he does not seem, either after or before the election, to have really believed much of what he said during the campaign. - More... Monday - January 17, 2005 Preston MacDougall: Chemical Eye on Chemotherapy - Nobody knows why chemo rhymes with Nemo, when it is in fact a branch of medicinal chemistry. It just does. Likewise, for most us, a day will come when there will seem to be no rhyme or reason why a loved one has an aggressive cancer. It just happens. - More... Monday - January 17, 2005 Viewpoints Opinions/Letters Re: Third Avenue Bypass by Dave Kiffer - Monday Asking for your Vote by Elmer Makua - Monday Response to President's Perspective by Elmer Makua - Monday VOTE by Cecelia Johnson - Monday VOTE FOR SAM by Barbara L. Bigelow - Monday The lack of local government control by James Grim - Monday COMMENTS ON YOUTH SPORTS IN KETCHIKAN by Lynne Miller - Monday More Viewpoints/ Letters Publish A Letter January 2005 Click on the date for stories and photos published on that day... S M T W T F S 26 27 28 29 30 31 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31            Front Page Archives

Profile America: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was born on January 15, 1929. He was assassinated April 4th, 1968 - and today is a federal holiday to honor his memory. The birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. has been observed as a federal holiday on the third Monday in January since 1986.

The holiday marks King's fight for equality for everyone through nonviolent means. His hopes for America's future were embodied in his famous "I have a dream" speech in Washington, D.C. His dream was that the national creed - that all are created equal - would become reality. Today, America's diverse population includes 233-million whites, 37-million African-Americans, more than 11-million Asians, and close to 3-million American Indian and Alaska natives. About 39-million of the U.S. population are of Hispanic origin. - Source U.S. Census Bureau

National: Group seeks more life along King streets - The dead end of Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue in the nation's capital has no plaque about his life, but has become a temporary dump for two tire carcasses and hundreds of shriveled office papers.

A drive along the entire avenue one recent day showed that the largest group of people congregating anywhere outside - about a dozen - were leaning against the wall of Martin's Food Town, a small store advertising its beer. A couple of men held small brown-paper bags wrapped around a beverage that they sipped periodically.

The late civil-rights leader's birthday (Jan. 15) and federal holiday (Jan. 17) is stirring more introspection about what has happened to his legacy since his 1968 assassination in Memphis, Tenn., at age 39. The Nobel Peace Prize winner would have been 76 this year. - More...
Monday - January 17, 2005

Health: Grapefruit juice and medication can be a deadly mix - Grapefruit juice can be deadly for people on certain medications, nurse researchers remind doctors, nurses, and everyone who takes medicine and enjoys grapefruit juice, in a paper in the American Journal of Nursing, a journal of the American Nurses Association.

Amy Karch, R.N., M.S., of the School of Nursing at the University of Rochester Medical Center reported on a man from a northern climate who moved to Florida for the winter ­ one of tens of thousands of "snowbirds" who head south each winter ­ and began drinking two to three glasses of grapefruit juice each day. Two months later the man died, the victim of a deadly interaction between grapefruit juice and his cholesterol-lowering medication.

Karch's paper, "The Grapefruit Challenge: The juice inhibits a crucial enzyme, with possibly fatal consequences," appears in the December 2004 issue of the journal. - More...
Monday - January 17, 2005

Final testing day Wendy Mackie (in front) being tested by Frank Divelbiss in the burn room at Station 2. Photo courtesy NTVFD

Ketchikan: Final testing day by David Hull, Chief North Tongass Volunteer Fire Department - If you were to stop by at Station 2 on Saturday the 8th, you would have thought the world was coming to an end. There were people gathered in a room frantically going over notes and practicing skills, others were struggling to get into their protective clothing and breathing air packs, still others could be seen tying knots and hoisting tools with ropes or sitting in a cramped trailer answering questions about smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors.

Outside in the frigid temperatures you would have found firefighters putting ladders up against buildings, and a fire in a small room that just did not appear to go out. Time and again, the firefighters would rush in with charged hose in hands, only to back out and turn the hose over to another firefighter for their turn at the stubborn fire all the while watched closely by an other firefighter writing notes on a clip board. Finally when all seemed lost, as the last of the firefighters had their chance, the fire was finally extinguished. What in the world was going on? - More...
Monday - January 17, 2005