"Daily Bread"
This agile squirrel is gathering a cone and will eat
the seeds contained in the cone.
Front Page Photo by CINDY BALZER

Ketchikan: Officials conducting preliminary investigation of diving death near Annette Island - United States Coast Guard investigators from Marine Safety Detachment Ketchikan are working with the Annette Island Department of Fish and Game and the Metlakatla Police Department in the investigation of a commercial diving death that occurred on the 68-foot fishing tender Island Dancer near Annette Island Wednesday.

Metlakatla Police Department reported the incident to the Coast Guard at 2:30 p.m. Wednesday and two Ketchikan-based investigators flew to Metlakatla to begin the investigation. - More...
Thursday PM - January 13, 2011

Ketchikan: UAS Ketchikan Announces Finalists for Campus Director Position - Three finalists for the open UAS Ketchikan Campus Director position will be in Ketchikan at the end of February for face-to-face meetings with students, faculty, staff, members of the Ketchikan Campus Advisory Council (KCAC) and the community. Exact days and times of the public forums will be announced soon.

The finalists are: John F. Garmon, Ph.D.; Anthony Mansueto, Ph.D.; and Fredrick (Fred) W. Smith, Ph.D.

John F. Garmon, Ph.D., is from Las Vegas, Nevada. In a letter to the search committee, Dr. Garmon stated his first priorities are student learning in community education and student success. He believes a college’s size and its classes should be the right fit to foster a friendly atmosphere on campus or online. His record of service in higher education includes twenty years of administration and leadership of programs and services in arts, humanities and social sciences; supervision of occupational-technical programs; success in full-time teaching, shared governance, dean of student services, public relations, strategic planning, curriculum development, developmental education, academic research, faculty development, regional accreditation, distance education, honors programs direction, community development, team building, fund raising and workforce development. - More...
Thursday PM - January 13, 2011

Alaska: "Alaska’s Oil, Alaska’s Jobs Act” uses tax breaks to encourage industry to hire Alaska residents – Alaska’s oil and gas producers could get a tax break for hiring Alaska residents if the legislature passes a bill pre-filed by Representatives Chris Tuck and Berta Gardner (both D-Anchorage) and Representative Scott Kawasaki (D-Fairbanks). The proposal, known as the “Alaska’s Oil, Alaska’s Jobs Act,” would offer tax credit incentives for increasing the number of Alaskans on the payroll.

“Oil jobs are some of the highest paid ones in the state, and there are plenty of Alaskans who'd love to work up on the Slope. This will provide more opportunities for local hire in jobs with good pay and good benefits,” said Rep Tuck.

“This bill creates small tax changes that are a win-win for Alaskans and the industry,” said Rep. Gardner. “Once Alaskans get the good jobs the oil industry provides, industry gets its tax cut.”

“Alaskans are ready to work developing our resources, so instead of just giving the producers a tax break and hoping they put people to work, this bill puts Alaskans to work first,” said Rep. Kawasaki. - More...
Thursday PM - January 13, 2011

Alaska: Final report on sinking of Alaska Ranger released - The Coast Guard released Wednesday its final report of the investigation into the March 23, 2008, sinking of the fish-processing vessel Alaska Ranger and the subsequent loss of five of the 47 people aboard the ship.

The Alaska Ranger sank approximately 130 miles west of Dutch Harbor, Alaska. Of the 47 people aboard, 42 were rescued, four deceased crewmembers were recovered and one remains missing and is presumed dead. The Coast Guard rescued 20 of the Alaska Ranger’s crew through multiple hoists conducted by HH-60 and HH-65 helicopters, with survivors being transported to and cared for aboard the Coast Guard Cutter Munro. The fishing vessel Alaska Warrior rescued 22 survivors from two liferafts and recovered three deceased crew members from the frigid water. The fourth deceased crewmember was recovered by the Coast Guard.

The Alaska Ranger was a 189-foot, 1,577 gross ton, fish-processing vessel in the Bering Sea/Aleutian Island federal groundfish trawl fisheries. The vessel was owned by the Fishing Company of Alaska.

The report of investigation details the findings of the Coast Guard’s marine board of investigation as well as recommendations for enhancing safety for fishing vessels.

The Board determined that the cause of the sinking was flooding that likely started in the rudder room, but rapidly progressed to the engine room and other spaces due to a lack of watertight integrity. - More...
Thursday PM - January 13, 2011

Alaska Science: Alaska glaciers help drive rise in sea level By NED ROZELL - Geophysical Institute researcher Regine Hock and her colleague Valentina Radic have calculated that the rate of sea-level rise due to the meltwater from glaciers in Alaska and elsewhere will increase by as much as 60 percent by the year 2100. Half of the world’s smallest glaciers may not survive that long.

Very small glaciers, like these in the Alaska Range, may disappear by the year 2100 as part of a 40 percent loss in Alaska glacier volume.
Photo by Ned Rozell

Many glaciers smaller than about five square kilometers - like those in the European Alps, New Zealand, Scandinavia and Glacier National Park in Montana - will disappear by the end of this century, said Radic, a researcher at the University of British Columbia and former graduate student at the Geophysical Institute. She and Hock authored a paper on their meltwater calculations that appeared in Nature Geoscience on Jan. 9, 2011.

According to Radic and Hock, the contribution to rising sea level from melting glaciers outside the massive ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland will grow by the end of the century to about 1.6 millimeters per year from the current 1 millimeter per year.

“This is significant even though the total over 100 years (around 12 centimeters or 4.6 inches) may not sound like much,” Hock said.

The expansion of ocean water resulting from warmer air is responsible for about one-quarter of the world’s current sea-level rise of approximately 2.5 millimeters each year (roughly 1/10th of an inch). Additional rise is attributed to meltwater coming from ice that formed during colder periods of Earth’s past. Currently, about half of the water gushing to the sea from glaciers comes from Alaska and mountainous areas other than Antarctica and Greenland. - More...
Thursday PM - January 13, 2011

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