Top Stories U.S. News U.S. Politics Alaska Ketchikan

Ketchikan: Director of Public Safety addresses Chamber by MARIE L. MONYAK - Speaking at the Greater Ketchikan Chamber of Commerce luncheon Wednesday, keynote speaker Rich Leipfert announced current changes being implemented by the Department of Public Safety. The father of three young women, Leipfert came to Ketchikan in 1998 and has been the Director of Public Safety since 2004, overseeing both the city Police and the Fire Departments for Ketchikan.

The key issue the Chamber of Commerce was most interested in recently was the process developers must now go through to receive approval of their plans through the State.  It has been felt that the process can be streamlined by allowing local government to approve the plans.  This year's budget allowed for an additional inspector and it is hopeful that the application process will be finished within the next six months.  Once completed, developers and architects will be able to submit their plans locally and receive their feedback in a timelier manner. - More...
Friday - January 06, 2006

Alaska: Feds Approve Revised Coastal Management Program - The federal coastal oversight agency has given final approval to Alaska's hard-fought revised coastal management plan to protect state coastal resources while providing for environmentally responsible development, Gov. Frank H. Murkowski said Thursday.

"We have been working hard for nearly three years to update and reform our coastal management program into one that works for Alaska," the governor said. "The process was challenging, but the results were worth it. I'm very pleased that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and its Office of Ocean and Coastal Resource Management have recognized our desire, ability and legal right to manage development on our own shores." - More...
Friday - January 06, 2006

National: Washington officials respond to increased violence in Iraq By JAMES ROSEN - Just when it seemed like things might be taking a turn for the better in Iraq, insurgents have issued a bloody reminder that the war is not over by launching some of the deadliest attacks since the U.S. invasion almost three years ago.

Suicide bombings and a roadside explosion killed at least 130 people Thursday, including five U.S. soldiers, a day after 32 Shiite Muslim mourners were slain at a funeral.

After a period of relative calm in Iraq since Dec. 15 elections, the renewed violence reverberated in Washington, where President Bush on Wednesday had described a small drawdown of U.S. troops in Iraq and looked ahead to additional cuts later this year.

Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Thursday that the fresh bloodshed in Iraq was a sign of desperation by insurgents who he said have failed to halt the movement toward democracy and self-rule.

"I see the terrorist attack as acknowledgement on the terrorists' part that this is a center of gravity and that they're losing," Pace told reporters at the Pentagon.

Expanding his recent initiative to seek broader support for the U.S. military effort in Iraq, Bush met with a bipartisan group of 13 former secretaries of state and defense from presidential administrations stretching back more than four decades. - More...
Friday - January 06, 2006

Alaska - National: IRS collected taxpayers' party affiliations By LES BLUMENTHAL - As it tries to hunt down tax scofflaws, the Internal Revenue Service has collected information on the political party affiliations of taxpayers in 20 states.

One senator called it an "outrageous violation of the public trust." - More...
Friday - January 06, 2006

Sitka Youth First Responders Win Spirit of Youth Award Members of the Sitka Youth First Responders youth rescue team strike a pose during a fall 2005 weekly meeting at the Sitka Fire Department in Sitka, Alaska. From left, team members are Anna Grenberg (with backboard), Sierra Vaden-Vernoy (with hat), Cheryl Waska, Michelle Foss, Rhiannon Mead, Trevor Upcraft, Maggie Davis, Susan Shorey, Tracy Sockpealuk, Ashley Stickman (with backboard) and Skeeter Atoruk. Not pictured are Ani White and Jiin Chung. Photo courtesy of Bill Winslow

Alaska: Sitka Youth First Responders Win Spirit of Youth Award - The Sitka Youth First Responders, a team of young emergency volunteers, will be honored during the annual Spirit of Youth awards banquet March 11 at the Fourth Avenue Theatre in Anchorage. - More...
Friday - January 06, 2006

National: Fiftieth anniversary of invention of artificial intelligence By BYRON SPICE - As people shuffle back to work this week, they will swap tales of New Year's revelry, ski-slope antics and bizarre Christmas gifts, as is always the case after a long holiday break.

Fifty years ago, Herbert A. Simon and Allen Newell had a Christmas-break story that would top them all. - More...
Friday - January 06, 2006

National: Researchers to study Katrina survivors By LEE BOWMAN - They are the Community of Katrina, those more than 2 million Americans whose lives were disrupted by the wrath of the nation's most damaging hurricane.

Many remain scattered to every corner of the nation. Some are still living in hotel rooms; others are with relatives, or in government-supplied trailers or apartments. Hundreds of thousands are living, more or less comfortably, back in their own homes along the Gulf Coast. - More...
Friday - January 06, 2006

Viewpoints Opinions/Letters Lines on roads needed By Amber Williams - Thursday Harriet Hunt Trash Indicates White Trash Mentality By Doug Barry - Thursday Great Earthquake By Craig Alleman - Thursday Southeast Alaska - The Ultimate Travel Destination By Susan Walsh - Wednesday PM What's in a name? By Chris Elliott - Wednesday PM Would You Like A Tour of Schoenbar? By Jackie Williams - Wednesday PM Fireworks By Cecelia Johnson - Wednesday PM World Government By Bob and Miriam Harmon - Wednesday PM An open letter to Alaskan Republican Senator Ted Stevens By John Sodrel - Wednesday PM A New Year's letter to my sisters By Angela Salazar - Tuesday PM Lake Harriet Hunt Trash By Jerry Cegelske - Tuesday PM Trash By Steve Smeltzer - Tuesday PM A Newspaper's responsibility to Protect Its Readers By Mark Neckameyer - Tuesday PM PBS' biased, inaccurate portrayal of people and events By Iliya Pavlovich - Tuesday PM Guard rails and trees falling from the hills By Rhiann Golder - Tuesday PM A Ketchikan 'Auld Lange Syne' By Tori Jackson - Tuesday PM Would enjoy better maintained roads By Caroline Luckey - Monday Faculty vs. Staff in Education By Robert D. Warner - Monday Stimulating the economy By Jay Jones - Monday Dangerfield Earned Respect By Al Johnson - Monday More Viewpoints/ Letters Publish A Letter Political Cartoonists Political Cartoons Ketchikan Monday, January 09, 2006, 5:50 pm - The Ketchikan Borough Assembly will hold a special meeting in the City Council Chambers. Agenda & Information Packets Saturday, January 21, 2006, 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. - Public Hearing - Petition by the Ketchikan Gateway Borough for Legislative Review - annexation of approximately 4,701 square miles to the Ketchikan Gateway Borough. City Council Chambers, 334 Front Street, Ketchikan, AK Summary & Annexation Petition & Exhibits Today's Forecast Current AK Weather Map City Police Report 01/04/06 AK Troopers Daily Dispatch Classifieds & Announcements Dec. - Jan. 2006 Click on the date for stories and photos published on that day... S M T W T F S   28 29 30 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 01 02 03 04 05 06  07 Front Page Archives

Dave Kiffer: Quibbles and Bits - At least once a year, all columnists are required to clean out the sock drawer and dump all those scraps of paper and bits of ideas they have been hoarding into a column.

A belated New Year's present to you all!

Did you know that water expires?

My bottle of Dasani has an expiration date of 12/9/06. Serves me right for not picking an Alaskan brand of bottled water.

Better recheck that pre-nuptial pact

In Indiana recently, an auxiliary police officer accidentally shot her fiance in the leg while defending herself from a charging pit bull, authorities said. The dog charged her but she instead wounded her boyfriend who was standing off to the side. The officer will be required to be retrained on firearms.

Well, duh. - More...
Friday - January 06, 2006

Dale McFeatters: The spreading stain of scandal - As is frequently observed of the young idealists who flock to the nation's capital, "They came to do good and stayed to do well." Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich applies it to the Republican Revolution he led in 1994.

And, as pundit Andrew Ferguson said in an article reflecting conservatives' dismay that the Republicans who had come to Washington to drain the swamp were instead wallowing it in, "Sometime around 1995, Republicans in Washington stopped using the term 'Beltway Bandits.' "

The culmination of the realization that with victory go spoils was then-House GOP leader Tom DeLay's "K Street Project," in which Congress' most powerful Republican basically told corporations and trade associations, "If you want your legislation passed, your voice heard on Capitol Hill, hire GOP lobbyists and donate to GOP campaigns." Even by Washington standards, this was pretty brazen. - More...
Friday - January 06, 2006

Michael Reagan: Jack In The Box - Having pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy and wire fraud in federal court in Florida, onetime super-lobbyist Jack Abramoff says he wants to do whatever he has to do to get the Feds to reduce the stiff seven-year sentence he's facing, which means he's willing to sit in the witness box and tell all.

His plea agreement specifically requires him to cooperate with the Feds in what has been called a broad corruption investigation into certain members of Congress.

Exactly what he'll tell about his widespread lobbying activities in Washington and the Capitol Hill biggies he ran with for years is anybody's guess, but the liberal media speculate (and hope) that his testimony could bring down some really big names despite the fact that very few members of Congress have been mentioned in connection with Abramoff's generosity. The most prominent are Texas Republican Tom DeLay and Ohio Republican Bob Ney. In the Florida trial only Ney's name came up. - More...
Friday - January 06, 2006

Betsy Hart: The parenting dilemma - Now I'm REALLY depressed.

December's Journal of Health and Social Behavior, published by the American Sociological Association, reported on a study that said being a parent is, well, depressing.

All the stuff you've read about how having a family makes one happier? Forget about it.

According to researchers Ranae Evenson of Vanderbilt University and Robin Simon of Florida State University in their article, "Clarifying the Relationship Between Parenthood and Depression," you're apparently better off if you're like yuppies Todd and Margot, who lived next door to family man Clark Griswold in the movie "Christmas Vacation." Think about it. He had a nervous breakdown before he caused theirs. - More...
Friday - January 06, 2006