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National: Plan to unify immigrant appeals By BOB EGELKO - Tucked into a wide-ranging immigration bill now before a U.S. Senate committee is a proposal to send all future appeals in deportation and asylum cases to a court in Washington, D.C., where a single judge would have the authority to dismiss them.

The office of Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., the bill's author, says the proposal would make immigration law uniform throughout the nation and relieve the other 12 federal appeals courts - particularly those in San Francisco and New York - of a glut of immigration cases.

But immigration lawyers and the American Civil Liberties Union say the plan is ill-conceived, dangerous and a thinly veiled attack on the Ninth U.S Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco, which now hears about half of the nation's immigration appeals. The critics were joined Friday by the Ninth Circuit's chief judge, Mary Schroeder. - More...
Tuesday - March 14, 2006

National: Study: Life getting better for American seniors By LEE BOWMAN - Life is getting better for American seniors, according to a new government snapshot that depicts a group getting healthier and better educated, one growing in numbers and less likely to be poor.

The report, "65+ in the United States - 2005," was compiled by the Census Bureau last year for the National Institute on Aging, and released Thursday.

"This report tells us that we have made remarkable progress in improving the health and well-being of older Americans, but there is much left to do," said Dr. Richard Hodes, director of the NIA. - More...
Tuesday - March 14, 2006

National: We're living longer - is that a good thing? By CARRIE STURROCK - Harry Weinstein used to think of 93 as ancient. Now that he's reached that age - well beyond today's average life expectancy - he's looking forward to turning 100.

"I'm full of life and hope," he said. "You can't get back what's gone, but you can make the best of what's left."

The retired physician has weathered the loss of his wife, four of his five siblings and many friends. And he's almost always the oldest person wherever he goes. But he enjoys the ballet and the symphony. He has dinner with friends. He finds life rich. - More...
Tuesday - March 14, 2006

National: Most teens experiencing hearing loss, poll finds By LEE BOWMAN - Life is too loud for most high-school students. A poll released Tuesday suggests that more than half are experiencing at least one symptom of hearing loss, and experts are looking at ways to turn up warnings to turn down those iPods.

The survey of 301 teens and 1,000 adults nationwide, which was done for the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association, also found that 47 percent of adults reported at least one symptom of hearing loss.

Although it's not clear from the poll what's causing the symptoms, researchers from Zogby International found that the listening habits of both students and adults are potentially harmful to hearing health. - More...
Tuesday - March 14, 2006

Red Squirrel Front Page Photo By Jodi Muzzana

International: Civil war a reality in Iraq, experts say By ANNA BADKHEN - Heavily armed private militias routinely clash; suicide bombers kill civilians every day; each side sets fire to the other's mosques, expels families from their homes, and slaughters each other; and the central government seems powerless to stop the violence.

The latest upsurge in Iraqi bloodshed, the conventional wisdom goes, has pushed the country to "the brink" of civil war. Testifying before Congress last week, Gen. John Abizaid, head of the U.S. Central Command, said as much when he stated that "sectarian violence is a greater concern for us security-wise right now than the insurgency." - More...
Tuesday - March 14, 2006

National: Law center fights to dethrone Darwin By JENNI LAIDMAN - Visitors to this law office are greeted by a life-size portrait of a saint. Beside the saint is a head-and-shoulders statue of Jesus carrying the cross up Golgotha. As the visitor walks down the hall, he may be tempted to dip a finger in the holy water fountain he encounters there.

But the fountain is empty at the moment. No time to fill it. People here are too busy fighting a holy war of sorts - a war to rescue the American culture.- More...
Tuesday - March 14, 2006

Match of the Month Lilah and Jana pose with Lilah's dog Rocky By Nancy Coggins Ketchikan: Match of the Month By Nancy Coggins - Enjoy a good laugh, anyone? That's what "Big Sister" Lilah Walker and "Little Sister" Jana do a lot of the time during their meetings. Lilah says, "When I am with Jana and she starts laughing, it's so easy to find the humor in things. She has such a wonderful sense of humor." - More... Tuesday - March 14, 2006

Southeast Alaska: Reward Offered For Information On Harbor Seal Shootings - NOAA Fisheries Service's Office for Law Enforcement is offering up to $2,500 for information about the shooting of two Harbor Seals near Juneau, Alaska. Both shootings are believed to have occurred during the second week of February 2006, near Outer Point on Douglas Island. The reward is conditional upon information leading to an arrest, conviction, civil penalty assessment or forfeiture of property for violations against those responsible. - More...
Tuesday - March 14, 2006

Southeast Alaska: Coast Guard releases details of fishing vessel Slayer search - After three days of intense searching the Coast Guard suspended the active search for the fishing vessel Slayer Sunday at 7:50 p.m. The two missing crewmen, Rick Nebert of Juneau and Matt Young of Sitka, got off a brief mayday call to the Coast Guard at 6:54 a.m. Friday morning while underway near Point Gardner in Chatham Strait.

A Coast Guard helicopter arrived on scene within 50 minutes of the fishing vessel Slayer's initial mayday call and with assistance from the Good Samaritan vessel Aleutian Dream, located a raft, survival suit, and life ring approximately five miles south of Point Gardner. By mid-morning the Coast Guard was scouring the area with an additional HH-60 Jayhawk helicopter and the Coast Guard Cutter Anacapa; by early afternoon, two Civil Air Patrol (CAP) aircraft had also joined the search effort. - More...
Tuesday - March 14, 2006

Opinion Poll Web Polls Are Not Scientific Polls On April 11th city voters will have an opportunity to vote on the City of Ketchikan's $38.5 million port improvement bond. How would you vote? View Poll Results Poll ended 03/14/06 Viewpoints Opinions/Letters Looking for Heads to Roll By John Maki - Tuesday PM ANWR oil could reduce foreign dependency by up to 20% By Timothy Droke - Tuesday PM Calling All Addicts By George Miller - Tuesday PM Adults far more likely to abuse drugs By Samantha Sizemore - Tuesday PM DEC refuses to answer our questions! By Carrie James - Monday Don't bash teen parents By Christina Lewis - Monday Republican agenda By Martha Leftwich - Monday Drug usage ... or non usage By Shirley McDonald - Monday FEMA Wasted Much More Than Our Dollars By Bob Smither - Saturday PM Drug problem trickles down By Ken Lewis - Saturday PM The World's Oil Supply By Don Hoff Jr. - Saturday PM More Viewpoints/ Letters Publish A Letter Political Cartoonists Political Cartoons Ketchikan March 16, 2006 - Thursday - 7:00 pm - Ketchikan City Council Meeting - City Council Chambers Agenda & Information Packets March 16, 2006 - Thursday - Noon - Assembly/School Board Liaison Committee meeting i - City Council Chambers, 334 Front Street. The committee will be discussing items of mutual concern to the Assembly and School Board. The public is invited to attend. LIO: March 16-Alaska Board of Education will meet at 8:00am.  Testimony from 8:00am-9:00am   LIO: March 18-House Finance Committee will meet at 10:00am.  Topics of discussion will be HB365 & HB366.  Testimony from 10:00-11:00 only with 2 minute limit. March Calendar Arts This Week Today's Forecast Ketchikan Weather Data Current AK Weather Map City Police Report AK Troopers Daily Dispatch Classifieds & Announcements March 2006 Click on the date to read the stories published on that day. S M T W T F S 26  27 28 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

Ketchikan: Arts This Week - This week in Ketchikan Author and therapist Sharone Maldaver of Whitehorse, Yukon will do a presentation on her book "Menopower: A Loving Guide to Your Menopause Years and Beyond" at 7:00pm, March 15th at the Ketchikan Public Library. Refreshments will be served.

Get Ready for Spring with a Velvet-embossed scarf! Instructor Faith L. Duncan will provide luxurious velvet and stamps for participants of all skill levels to create an easily made gift. This workshop will take place on March 14, from 5:30pm to 8pm at Rainforest Crafts, $10 per person, please call 247-2738 to register in advance.

Kayhi Drama Club proudly presents: Your Fish is Dead Under the direction of Gus Nollmeyer, this mystery comedy is filled with handcuffs and laughs. It's the tale of two old fishermen who decide to spend the day fishing in the park when things get confusing, crazy, and down right hysterical. Join us and see if Detective Stash can figure out why Farley Larson might murder his life long fishing buddy. Show times: 7:30 PM, Kayhi Auditorium, March 16th-18th. - More...
Tuesday - March 14, 2006

June Allen: The frozen eagle - I had to smile when I saw the picture of the beautifully painted eagle on the KPU truck! That eagle no doubt has different significance to different people. Up until maybe 25 to 30 years or so ago, Ketchikan admittedly suffered from an awful lot of power outages! I know that when I moved back to Ketchikan in 1987, after an absence of almost 20 years, I made sure I packed a nice oil lamp and a hefty supply of candles. There are a lot of folks who still have stories about holiday turkeys and dinners left half-cooked in the dark because of a power outage. It's bound to happen once in awhile in any town visited by wind and rain of the super-sized kinds experienced in Ketchikan! The response to the temporary inconvenience of a blackout ranged from amused to downright angry ­ it just happened too often back then.

So people used to say, tongue-in-cheek, when the lights went out, "Yep, an eagle just flew into the lines somewhere, again." The joke went around town that KPU kept a frozen eagle or two on hand to haul out for PR occasions! - More...
Monday - March 13, 2006

Star Parker: Private savings accounts don't attract less educated - Recent research by behavioral psychologists might shed some light on why President Bush had difficulty in selling his concept of private retirement accounts as a central feature of reforming Social Security.

As you might recall, the president promoted the plan through the idea of moving to an "ownership society" and providing the opportunity of choice regarding our retirement funds.

However, according to a team of psychologists from Swarthmore and Stanford, who discussed the results of their work recently in the New York Times, Americans do not uniformly welcome more choices into their lives. - More...
Monday - March 13, 2006

Dale McFeatters: Escaping court's verdict but not history's - The Butcher of the Balkans is dead. Slobodan Milosevic, 64, died of an apparent heart attack Saturday in his jail cell at The Hague. There were ambiguities about his death - perhaps linked to a medicine he was taking surreptitiously - that Dutch and international doctors should quickly resolve, as the former Serbian dictator's part of the world is too prone to conspiracies already.

Milosevic had been on trial for war crimes and genocide, crimes for which there really was not much question of his guilt. He launched four wars in the Balkans and lost all of them, but not before some 200,000 to 300,000 people had died and his regime had given the world the phrase "ethnic cleansing." - More...
Monday - March 13, 2006

Bonnie Erbe: Women's rights lose ground under Bush - Now it's official. Many of you have read my detonations during the past year about the fact American women's cultural progress is in a stall, if not in a freefall. I've written that the number of women in Congress has remained relatively stagnant for the past decade. I've reported on data that prove the percentage of women occupying seats in state legislatures (the training ground for national politics) is down for the first time this decade after three decades of rising rapidly. I've written that women's progress toward CEO status in major corporations is edging forward at a molasses-like pace and the same is true for women on corporate boards.

But now it's official. The Associated Press reports from Rome, "Over the last 10 years, more than a dozen countries have made it easier to get abortions, and women from Mexico to Ireland have raised court challenges to get access to the procedure. The trend contrasts sharply with the United States, where this week South Dakota's governor signed legislation that would ban most abortions in the state. The law is intended to set up a direct legal challenge to Roe v. Wade, the 1973 Supreme Court decision that made abortion legal." - More...
Monday - March 13, 2006

Steve Brewer: Land mines lurk in group dynamics - Greetings, class. Today's lesson is on group dynamics.

No matter what your field, you'll sometimes find yourself in a group of people trying to accomplish something. Even those of us who work alone at home eventually must go reeling into the world to meet with employers or colleagues or creditors.

At those times, you need a working knowledge of group dynamics. Without it, you can make blunders and upset your fellow humans and risk embarrassment, financial ruin or, in extreme cases, a swift and painful death.

Group dynamics arise in all arenas, from the traditional business meeting to charity board proceedings to team sports to five guys leaning on shovels, staring at a pothole. - More...
Monday - March 13, 2006