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Alaska: Vision, leadership, and a plan needed, says Stevens By SitNews - In an address to a joint session of the Alaska State Legislature in Juneau Wednesday, Senator Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) said the current challenges facing Alaska are even greater than those faced during the fight for statehood. Stevens urged all of Alaska's elected representatives to work together to develop a plan for the state's future that will foster a climate for investment, maximize Alaska's economic potential, and educate Americans about Alaska's challenges and opportunities.

Like the fight for statehood fifty years ago, today Alaska needs people with vision, leadership, and a plan and people willing to dedicate their time and energy to Alaska's cause. Like then, we need to work together without regard for politics, Stevens said.

"Our state leaders have a long history of reaching out to Congress and the Lower 48. Those who fought for statehood were the opinion leaders of their day - they educated Americans about the benefits statehood would provide." Stevens said, "The decade ahead will be the proving ground for Alaska's promise and ingenuity. We can only realize our potential with strong leadership and a favorable climate for investment." He said it will be up to Alaska's elected representatives to lead the way "North to the Future."

"This is now the 25th year of the battle over ANWR." said Stevens. We need Alaskans who are willing to speak with the press - and others - and make our case heard. Stevens said, "It is difficult to get federal support because of our image in Washington. Many see our projected $1.4 billion annual surplus plus $34 billion in the Permanent Fund, and with the increasing price of electricity, gasoline, and heating oil, ask: Why send federal money to Alaska when they're not willing to spend their own funds?" - More...
Thursday - March 23, 2006

Alaska: Environmentalists decry policy on roads in federal lands By LIZ RUSKIN - Interior Secretary Gale Norton has issued a new federal land policy that environmentalists say will allow states and local governments to build hundreds of roads across national parks and refuges in Alaska and elsewhere in the West.

"This is classic Gale Norton," said Heidi McIntosh, conservation director for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. "It's like getting punched in the head with a velvet glove."

The policy, issued Wednesday, tells park superintendents and other land managers how to cope with an 1866 law that is goes by an ungainly name: R.S. 2477. This law, and now Norton's policy interpreting it, inspires nightmares among conservationists, who invoke images of state road graders intruding on wilderness and four-wheelers running amok on hundreds of miles in Denali National Park.

The 140-year-old statute grants local governments "the right of way for the construction of highways" across federal land. It was repealed in 1976 but still applies to older roads and trails, mostly in Alaska and Utah. What kinds of routes are covered is a matter of fierce dispute.

Alaska has identified more than 600 it says are state rights of way under R.S. 2477. The state sees 14 of them in Denali National Park, nearly 50 are in the Wrangell-St. Elias National Park, and six in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, said Kahlil Wilson, an access specialist at the Alaska Department of Natural Resources.

Environmentalists complained Wednesday that Norton's new policy goes further than the law or courts require. It would allow local government to turn hiking trails and cattle tracks into highways, they complained. - More...
Thursday - March 23, 2006

Viewpoints Opinions/Letters Support port improvement project with a Yes vote By Chris Herby - Thursday A CERTAIN BRAND OF SELFISHNESS By David G. Hanger- Thursday State Must Focus on Oil Tax By Rep. Kurt Olson- Thursday Spraying on Long Island will be a violation of our Human Rights By Carrie James- Thursday ALTERNATE ENERGY SOURCES. NOW! By Peter Stanton - Thursday Scope of the destuction By Dr. Jolie Harris- Thursday GOVERNMENT PANDEMIC PLAN WON'T FLY By Jack Saporito- Thursday KAYHI Football By Richard Cropp - Thursday Enough Government Regulation By Janice Norman - Thursday Looking for information By Laureen Curtner - Thursday Waterfront Storage Development By Neil Gray - Tuesday PM North Tongass Community Club By Tony Yeisley - Tuesday PM An issue of the heart By John Maki - Tuesday PM Naha Bay Residents By Ed and Linda Purvis - Tuesday PM STOP THE SPRAYING PLEASE! By Frances Natkong - Tuesday PM Keep Aid to Municipal Governments Limited to Basics by Rep. Vic Kohring - Tuesday PM Vote No on Don Hoff By Tom LeCompte - Tuesday PM After Katrina By Virginia E. Atkinson - Tuesday PM Circling Around The Truth About the Port Bond By Marie L. Monyak - Monday am THOU SHALT STEAL By Alan Lidstone - Monday am Some make the right choices By Cynthia Grant - Monday am Support dock expansion By Shauna Lee - Sunday Support growth By Bill Ayers - Sunday Panhandlers By Jessica Mathews - Sunday ANWR By John S. Hutton - Saturday am Help stop pesticide spraying on Long Island By Robert Sanderson Jr. - Saturday am Loss of F/V Slayer and Crew By Richard Clark - Saturday am Imposing Democracy and Peace via Pre-Emptive Wars? By Stanley Arcieri - Saturday am Government Secrets By Virginia E. Atkinson - Saturday am Vote No on $38.5 million Port Revenue Bond By Don Hoff Jr. - Saturday am More Viewpoints/ Letters Publish A Letter Political Cartoonists Political Cartoons Ketchikan 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

Jason Love: Fishing - My dad came down the mountain for a visit. He was carrying only one commandment: Thou shalt honor thy father. We decided to fish because my dad is a longtime fisherman and I ... well, I shalt honor my father.

I've never understood the attraction of fishing, trying for hours to catch something that costs a dollar at McDonald's. It's not like we would eat our catches anyway. My wife, having zero stink tolerance, told me to choose my fishing clothes carefully because when I got home she would burn them.

But men need to hunt and fish and exhibit their kills by the fireplace. I myself keep one such trophy, a catfish that, when you touch it, wriggles around and sings "Take Me to the River." - More...
Thursday - March 23, 2006

Michael Reagan: Let Bush be Bush - In his first debate with Walter Mondale, my dad Ronald Reagan fumbled badly - there was no sign of the Great Communicator during that debate. What there was instead was a Ronald Reagan given bad advice by some of his staff who were afraid of letting the public see the real Ronald Reagan, who they feared might be seen as too conservative.

In the second debate all that changed because my dad insisted upon being himself rather than the namby-pamby moderate politician some of his advisers thought he should be. My dad insisted on being Ronald Reagan, not some pale imitation. He wanted Ronald Reagan to be seen as Ronald Reagan

For a long time now, we have not seen the real George Bush and his low poll numbers reflect that. There is some truth to the claim that he was living in a bubble, isolated from the public by timid staff members who feared allowing George W. Bush to be George W. Bush.

On Monday the wraps came off when the president spoke at Cleveland's Commonwealth Club and TV viewers across the nation saw the real George W. Bush emerge. - More...
Thursday - March 23, 2006

Ann McFeatters: Bush struggles to regain credibility on Iraq - Earlier this month President Bush joked that the vice president demanded to know the president's secret for keeping his job approval rating as high as 38 percent.

That was after Richard B. (for "Bull's-eye") Cheney accidentally shot the only trial lawyer in America who supports this White House, said Bush.

But Bush's popularity has now sunk to 33 percent, and nobody at the White House is laughing.

Will Bush be able to restore his credibility eroded by the war in Iraq, the sectarian violence and the rising death toll?

Nervous Republican politicians - desperate to keep control of the House and the Senate in the upcoming November elections - are worried that if they don't distance themselves from Bush, their own careers will be hurt. On the other hand, if they cut and run from a president in trouble, they face alienating their base. - More...
Thursday - March 23, 2006

Bill Steigerwald: Global Warming Journalism - Wonder why Fox News polls show 60 percent of Americans think global warming is either a crisis (16 percent) or a major problem (44 percent)?

It's because for almost 20 years Americans have been under-informed and effectively brainwashed by mainstream liberal media.

A recent example of how one-sided the journalism of global warming is occurred after research scientists at the University of Colorado at Boulder released a new study alleging that Antarctica's ice is melting faster than previously thought.

As the school's March 2 press release stated, according to a study of satellite data, Antarctica's massive ice sheet is not growing, as a 2001 study had predicted, but is "in significant decline." - More...
Thursday - March 23, 2006

Dick Morris: The New Federalism - The recent court decision voiding the efforts of the Bush administration to allow utilities to upgrade their plants - partially, rather than fully, as the law requires - signals the start of a redefinition of federal-state relations.

The plaintiff in this litigation was not an aggrieved individual or company but a dozen states acting in concert to battle the Bush rules.

On the merits of the lawsuit, I agree with the administration. The all-or-nothing requirement on upgrading utility plants has served to freeze the current dirty technologies in place and prevent any improvements at all. Half a loaf, in this case, is better and cleaner than none. But apart from the merits of the case, its true significance is that the states had acted together to challenge federal action. - More...
Thursday - March 23, 2006