Wilson's Snipe
This Wilson's Snipe is feeding in the grass below KPU on Tongass Ave. When approaching, the bird tried hiding in the grass as seen here.These birds do this a lot, and typically will fly off even if the approaching person is a distance away. It is a secretive bird and is seldom seen except when flushed. These birds are 9-10 inches in length with a 17-18 inch wing span. They can weight 2-4 ounces. Old folk names include "mire snipe", "horse gowk", "heather bleat", and the variant spelling "snite"
Front Page Photo by JIM LEWIS

Ketchikan: Johansen vows to fight recall effort - Ketchikan Republicans are planning a petition to recall their district’s only state House member, Rep. Kyle Johansen reports Ketchikan Public Radio.

KRBD reports that the Republican district chair for Ketchikan, Dick Coose, says that the law does not allow a recall application within 120 days of the start of the legislative session. As a result the application will be turned in after mid-May, about a month after this year’s session ends. The recall decision was made last week.

In the SitNews' news review of 2010, Dave Kiffer wrote, "State Representative Kyle Johansen was easily elected to his third term in Juneau from District One, but then immediately shocked locals by walking out of the Majority Coalition and giving up his seat as House Majority leader. The walkout occurred during the leadership organizational meeting in mid November."

"Johansen contended that he did so for political reasons because he didn’t like the “anti-development” direction that the caucus was taking. Caucus members replied that Johansen and Rep. Charisse Millett of Anchorage left the caucus because Millet was not given a committee chairmanship that she sought. Millett and Johansen are close friends, but Johansen denied at a public meeting in Ketchikan in December that they are a couple," wrote Kiffer.

Some local Republicans have expressed interest in attempting to recall Johansen but the earliest that could occur could be the summer of 2011 wrote Kiffer.

At the public meeting in Ketchikan in December, Johansen assured residents that he would be a member of the majority coalition and have a leadership position when the legislature convened in January. (Neither Johansen nor Millet were back in the coalition when the Legislature convened on Jan. 18).

Some local Republicans started expressing an interest at that time in attempting to recall Johansen.

Representative Kyle Johansen commented this morning on District One GOP recall actions. 

Johansen said in his prepared statement, “While I respect the right of the Republican Party leaders in Ketchikan to take this step, I am disappointed that they have chosen to do so.  I strongly disagree with their attempt to thwart the will of the people as expressed in the November election and I plan to vigorously fight this effort." - More...
Monday PM - January 24, 2011

Fish Factor: Iron Chef challenge; Fish in Juneau & more... By LAINE WELCH - Alaska pollock was the main ingredient in an Iron Chef competition aimed at getting more fish on to school lunch trays. 

The annual Child Nutrition Industry Conference held by the School Nutrition Association occurred in Seattle last week – and Alaska’s pollock producers made sure fish was in the spotlight.

“We had the opportunity to create a seafood Iron Chef competition so school food service directors could work with pollock and create new menu ideas in a competitive environment,” said Pat Shanahan, project director for the Genuine Alaska Pollock Producers trade group, a leader in getting good seafood on school menus. 

For the Iron Chef challenge, 24 school district directors were divided into three teams, and each had a different pollock product to work with:  Baja fish sticks from Trident Seafoods, a potato crunch strip from American Seafoods, and an unbreaded pollock wedge from Fishery Products International.

Their challenge was to create a balanced meal that meets strict federal school nutritional guidelines.

 “So they were judged not only on taste, but also whether it met the nutritional guidelines, whether it could be replicated in a school food service kitchen and also on how innovative the idea was,” Shanahan said.

The pollock meals were judged by a panel of adults and high school students from Ingraham High School.  The winner?

“All scored very highly but the winning recipe was Fiesta Flatbread Fish – which was a sandwich that used the potato crusted Alaska pollock,” Shanahan said.

New school dietary guidelines will be out at the end of January, Shanahan said, and that means good news for Alaska seafood. - More...
Monday PM - January 24, 2011

Ketchikan: KGH Volunteer Auxiliary Announces Grants - Crazy colored socks, yards of scarves, earrings, candy bars and baby clothes sold in the Ketchikan General Hospital Gift Shop provided funding for almost $50,000 in equipment and supplies for six hospital departments this year.

Left to right, Auxiliary members Dolores Houts, Kathy Fitzgerald and Auxiliary President Carolyn Wilsie completing ballots for the donations.
Photo courtesy KGH

The Ketchikan General Hospital Auxiliary met Saturday, January 15 for their annual luncheon to decide which projects to fund from applications sent by hospital managers.

“We had a good year in the shop,” said Carolyn Wilsie, President of the Auxiliary. “Each year we give the profits back to the hospital. It’s gratifying to see our hard work benefit the community like this. The hard part is deciding between the projects. There is always an unmet need but we do our best.” - More...
Monday PM - January 24, 2011

Columns - Commentary

DAVE KIFFER: The Three Day Snow!!! - Once upon a time we didn’t worry much about upcoming weather.

Sure, we would get a little concerned it the skies darkened when we were traveling on the water and we certainly looked askance at rising winds if we had a plane flight coming up but in general the weather just sort of happened and we dealt with it.

We used to always kind of chuckle when we saw TV news reports of hurricanes down south and all the folks running around nailing up plywood and stripping the grocery store shelves bare of necessities.

Sure, we had storms. We had occasional blizzards, random hurricanes, torrential downpours that would have drowned half the Lower 48. But there wasn’t much point in getting ready for them because we didn’t usually know what was coming.

That, of course, has changed in the information era where you can’t click on a computer or turn on the TV without getting a massive injection of “storm warning.”

And so it was the case a couple of weeks ago when Ketchikan residents prepared for the “storm of the century” to bury us in somewhere around three feet of snow. - More...
Monday PM - January 24, 2011

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