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Monday
January 13, 2014
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Nichols Passage
Saturday, from the one mile mark on Deer Mountain looking out Nichols Passage
Front Page Photograph By CHARLES HABERBUSH ©2014
(Please respect the rights of photographers, never republish or copy
without permission and/or payment of required fees.)
Ketchikan: It is officially flu season in Ketchikan - There are thirteen confirmed influenza cases to date with results pending on an additional fifteen.
“I expect more than half of these will be confirmed as flu,” said Pamela Standley RN, the Infection Preventionist at Ketchikan Medical Center (KMC). “The predominate strain this season appears to be the pandemic H1N1 strain, sometimes knows as the ‘swine flu’, that arose in 2009. All known identified cases in Ketchikan are the 2009 H1N1 strain”.
Most forms of flu occur in older adults but H1N1 disproportionately affects children and young and middle-aged adults although severe illness has been seen in all age groups. Annual vaccinations have proven to be effective in prevention and, although flu season is underway, it is not too late to get a flu shot.
Protection against H1N1 is included in the current vaccine. Locally vaccinations are available at some pharmacies, from primary care providers and at Ketchikan Public Health. Public Health is waiving the administration fee in some instances The Centers for Disease Control recommends annual influenza vaccination for everyone six months and older.
Some laboratory tests for influenza in Ketchikan are sent to the Alaska Department of Health to confirm the flu. Thirty eight percent of specimens tested for influenza were positive but that number is likely higher. “The rapid influenza test has not been very successful at detecting the predominant H1N1 strain this year,” said Standley. “We did get back negative test results for some that were later confirmed to be influenza.”
Influenza season for the Medical Center is declared when this threshold rises above twenty percent and there is an increase in local community Influenza like Illness. - More...
Monday PM - January 13, 2014
Alaska: State to Pursue Equity Partnership in Gasline - Governor Sean Parnell announced Friday that the State of Alaska will pursue becoming an equity partner in the Alaska LNG project. The governor also announced the state will terminate its involvement with TransCanada as its licensee under the Alaska Gasline Inducement Act (AGIA), and partner with the company in a more traditional commercial agreement.
“For the first time in our state’s history, the framework is in place to build an all-Alaska gasline on Alaska’s terms and in Alaskans’ interests,” Governor Parnell said. “We have all the necessary parties to make an Alaska gasline project go - three producers, a pre-eminent pipeline builder, an entity in AGDC that can carry Alaskans’ interests, and state agencies responsible for the royalties and taxes.”
The governor stated he soon expects a commercial agreement, known as a Heads of Agreement, for the Alaska LNG project. The agreement is anticipated to be signed by Exxon, BP, ConocoPhillips, TransCanada, the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation (AGDC), and by the commissioners of the Departments of Revenue and Natural Resources. The Heads of Agreement will be subject to public review by the Legislature. - More...
Monday PM - January 13, 2014
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Fish Factor: Walmart Reps Meet With Alaska Officials By LAINE WELCH - Walmart reps were in Juneau last week to learn more about Alaska’s salmon fisheries, and to make sure management is up to snuff with the company’s sustainability criteria.
Alaska’s salmon industry opted out of the high priced certifying program that Walmart uses as its seafood purchasing standard (London-based Marine Stewardship Council). Alaska instead adopted the UN sanctioned Responsible Fisheries Management (RFM) program for ‘well managed’ certification, a label that has become practically a requirement in most seafood buying and selling today.
That put Walmart in the problematic position of finding Alaska salmon outside the bounds of the company’s seafood sourcing guidelines. When word spread last summer that Walmart might not stock it on its shelves, Alaskans went ballistic. Thus, the trip to Juneau.
Seven Walmart officials met for several days with Governor Parnell, state officials and seafood industry experts and scientists. The mood was friendly, said John Renner, vice-president of Cordova District Fishermen United, who spent time with the group.
“All parties want to get something done. And Walmart wants to get itself out of the box it got itself into,” Renner said. “They were eager to learn and impressed by what they saw. I really got the impression that they came away with a better understanding of Alaska’s management and the fisheries themselves.”
Renner said he came away with “a positive feeling that something will happen shortly after a couple of tweaks are made to the written criteria and allow others besides the MSC.”
Governor Parnell said he welcomed the company’s pledge to work toward a policy that supports Alaska’s commitment to sustainability, rather than a particular brand of seafood certification.
David Baskin, Walmart’s vice president of meat and seafood, said the company “remains committed to buying Alaska seafood, and we’re excited that the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute has agreed to work with us to ensure the RFM standard meets the principles for credible sustainable fisheries programs as developed by The Sustainability Consortium. The Consortium is expected to release its principles in the coming days.”
Along with the lessons in good management, the Walmart group also took home the message that they are dealing with thousands of independent small fishing businesses, said John Renner.
“Everyone in Alaska rallied as one,” he said. “This was the first time in these kinds of battles we’ve seen such a coming together of processors, fishermen, the state and congress got behind what it saw as a major threat to our salmon market and took steps to alleviate it.” - More...
Monday PM - January 13, 2014
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Columns - Commentary
 JEFF LUND: Need a Resolution extension - Almost two weeks after the deadline and I have yet come up with a comprehensive self-improvement plan for 2014 (I learned this from our friends in Washington D.C.). To be sure I am lacking in many critical areas which is the premise for making a resolution but I haven’t yet made a vow. Maybe it’s because I know I am permanently entrenched in imperfection, or because I usually don’t make declarations on New Years. I try instead to address issues or deficiencies as needed rather than wait for the illusion of a clean state coming with a new calendar, but I like the idea of a resolution for the purpose of self-assessment rather than a microscope to seek out maladies. Do that too much and it can be difficult to maintain functional self-esteem. It’s funny to look around and wonder about flaws. You wonder what other people struggle with because there are plenty of times when a flaw seem unique to the sufferer, but even the most specific issues are shared.
If I think enough about it, I start to have issues with motivations for resolutions, possibly as a way to not make them. Why do I want to change, and for whom am I changing? How do you change who you are while remaining who you are? If I did more sit-ups, would I really get girls?
Outside of self help, resolutions can be in response to an event which provides motivation or a splash of reality. If I’ve learned anything by the last year, it’s that it is impossible to direct life. The best we can do is prepare for it, so making a resolution which is dependent on all these specific things culminating in a great 2014 is unrealistic. You can’t bet on chance. It just happens and when it does, you have to hope you’re ready. You can’t resolution a trophy halibut, king salmon or steelhead to swim by.
A college friend and I joke about “wife-ing up” in the new year because it seems that the primary goal for some is to get married to someone or something regardless of readiness or red lights. The absence of a true hobby or direction outside a job prompts some to start filling strollers with offspring, or at the very least start a relationship which is more conducive to “likes” on Instagram and Facebook as if it’s a bad thing to post more pictures of fish than chicks. - More...
Monday PM - January 13, 2014 |
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Viewpoints
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Questions, please contact
the editor at editor@sitnews.us or call 617-9696
Sitnews reserves the right to edit.
 Elections By Cecelia Johnson -
As we head into 2014 I am optimistic that we will be successful, that we will communicate with each other, uplift and support each other because we are all in this boat together. There are young people stepping forward which is what we had hoped for and we need to support their efforts and mentor them so they can push forward leading our tribe to progress. - More...
Monday PM - January 13. 2014
Ketchikan City Council Member's threat By Kathy Flora -
I read in the Ketchikan Daily News, Council Member K.J. Harris' closing comment. I quote "to say that while he didn't favor censorship, he felt that "people need to be very careful what they say." Harris spoke of hearing first-and second-hand derogatory comments from members of the public directed at Council members in the past month, and he advised the public to remember that it never knows when it might have to go before the Council to make a request." - More...
Monday PM - January 13. 2014
About that Fukushima Radiation... By Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins -
Since the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in Japan, I've been trying to find zen with the the ongoing Fukushima nuclear mess. Between colossal tax cuts for oil companies, a budget forecast that induces acid reflux, and Medicaid un-expansion, I barely had the brainspace to worry whether my dad's smoked sockeye was going to give me colon cancer or turn me into a mutant. - More...
Monday PM - January 13, 2014
Public use of Herring Cove By Marie Zellmer -
I recently went to the Ketchikan Borough Assembly meeting where one of the topics addressed the issues that have been compounding at Herring Cove over the years. I was very shocked and upset when my statements were incorrectly reported by one of our local papers. After a couple of phone calls no corrections have been made. First of all, I have never worked for a taxi company, I have worked for the same local tour company every summer since 2009, and several others before. - More...
Monday PM - January 13, 2014
Drugs in Ketchikan By Paul Jarvi -
Kevin Kristovich is so right on this subject. Drugs are a major problem in our town. We live on a small island, the Airlines, Fed Ex, UPS, the Alaska Marine Highway System, barge lines, private boats, and the Post Office (which gets two chances between Juneau and Ketchikan) should be put under a microscope so drugs do not come to our town. People who make and sell drugs should be shut down and put away. - More...
Monday PM - January 13, 2014
Ice Cream Guy Can Throw Whoopi Pies By Donald A. Moskowitz -
A former owner of an ice cream company is waging a campaign questioning the necessity of the Pentagon’s large scale weapons systems, including the F-35 fighter bomber which has been plagued with problems to be resolved. - More...
Monday PM - January 13, 2014
Tribal Government, What Are You Thinking? By Randy Williams -
Concerning the recen tletter about a government out of control, let me preface this letter by saying I don't believe in recalls. I do believe in the election process and if the voters made a mistake, correct it during the next election. That being said, the employees who signed the petition are absolutely correct. As a former Chairman of Ketchikan Indian Community (KIC), I had our council pass a resolution that prohibited a council member and our governing body from interfering with Tribal administration. I knew as a leader of our government that we hired a General Manager and department managers to do a job and I also knew I was elected to govern and not to run Tribal programs. - More...
Thursday PM - January 09, 2014
RE: Drug dealers in Ketchikan By Kevin Kristovich - I have to agree with the recent letter posted on the recent wave of drug busts here in Ketchikan. The police are deep in the trenches fighting an ongoing battle. Yes it is apparent when one or many get caught, there are more people picking up where others have left off. This is not just a practice being done here in our town, it is everywhere. The meth epidemic has led to a rash of burglaries and thefts in town and I ask when will this all come to an end? - More...
Thursday PM - January 09, 2014
RE: Howling at the fiscal Moon By Michelle O'Brien - While any and all dialogue from community members is appreciated regarding funding of our local educational system, the recent letter submitted by A.M. Johnson is incorrect in one area: "The issue: The Ketchikan Gateway Borough School board has convinced the Gateway Borough to file a law suit against the State to obtain funding that according to the suit, is guaranteed under the Alaska Constitution." - More...
Tuesday PM - January 07, 2014
RE: What's all the howling about? By Shelley Stallings -
Thanks to Jeff Lund for the thought provoking column in Sitnews Saturday on wolf trapping. Rarely do I read a piece that tries to straddle the fence on this highly charged subject, although Lund's comment about wolves and bear decimating deer populations seems to put Lund on the side of believing killing wolves is overall a positive action. - More...
Tuesday PM - January 07, 2014
Drug Dealers in Ketchikan By Riley Gass -
I don’t know if anyone else has noticed this, but it seems there is a continuous spell of hard drug dealers getting caught in Ketchikan. Nearly every time I open the police reports on Sitnews there are multiple reports of people being caught with mass amounts of heroin, meth, or some other type of hard drug. The positive to this is that the police are doing a great job in taking down these dealers, but the bad is obviously that they are here. It seems like whenever one gets taken down someone else starts shipping drugs onto our island. - More...
Tuesday PM - January 07, 2014
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