Alaska: Subsistence Halibut Permit System Refined by NOAA Fisheries - NOAA Fisheries Service officials today announced the availability of three new types of subsistence halibut fishing permits in Alaska, under regulations proposed by the North Pacific Fishery Management Council and approved by the Secretary of Commerce.

"We designed community harvest permits, ceremonial permits and educational permits to accommodate particular circumstances in communities that fish halibut for subsistence," said NOAA Fisheries Alaska Region Administrator, Dr. James Balsiger. "Community harvest permits allow skilled fishermen to harvest subsistence halibut for the whole community. Ceremonial permits allow halibut harvest for specific ceremonial events such as potlatches and marriages. Educational permits allow students who attend Alaska Native cultural camps to learn traditional methods and means of harvesting halibut for subsistence." - More...
Monday - May 02, 2005

News in Photos Fishing vessel Lovey Joann grounds near Kake Official U.S. Coast Guard photo courtesy Air Station Sitka

Alaska: Report highlights the breadth of scientific studies on Native lands - A new report just released by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) highlights the breadth of scientific studies on Native lands. American Indian and Alaska Native governments will use information from these studies in their land and resource management decisions. Many of the studies were requested by Native American governments, calling upon the unbiased scientific expertise of the USGS in water, biology, geographic information management, and geologic resources.

"Information is a vital resource for Native American governments, communities, organizations, and people," said USGS director Charles "Chip" Groat. "USGS provides technical expertise, reports, and other impartial information sources that benefit Native Americans interested in subsistence issues, water, land use, and the health of many parts of the environment. Native self-sufficiency, economic development, and conservation are cultivated through Native decisions informed with USGS data and analyses." - More...
Monday - May 02, 2005

Ketchikan: Dr. Wynelle Snow honored by NAMI - Wynelle Snow, MD, Psychiatrist, has been named the Service Provider of the Year by the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill (NAMI) Alaska. She has been honored "for her exceptional job in providing services to people with mental illness, and their families."

Snow shares a medical practice, PeaceHealth Psychiatry Services, with David Kuhaneck, MD, Psychiatrist, located on the campus of Ketchikan General Hospital. Prior to opening her practice in Ketchikan in 2001, Snow completed medical school at the University of Texas Health Science Center, and finished her residency in Psychiatry at the Institute of Living in Hartford, Connecticut. She served on the medical staff at the Institute of Living, and later spent 13 years in private practice in psychiatry in Bristol, Connecticut. Dr. Snow is a Diplomate in Psychiatry, American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology. - More...
Monday - May 02, 2005

National: House GOP leaders promise to take up Social Security this year By DAVID WESTPHAL - One day after President Bush unexpectedly endorsed a controversial benefits-slimming plan for Social Security, House Republicans offered a jolt of their own Friday, vowing to pass reform legislation this year.

GOP House leaders, who had been nervous all year about a potentially treacherous vote on Social Security, said they would forge ahead and even add new wrinkles aimed at increasing national savings and addressing long-term health care issues. - More...
Monday - May 02, 2005

Viewpoints Opinions/Letters Deny request to rezone Baranof by Sharon & Timothy Clepper - Monday Baranof rezone request by Alaire Stanton - Monday Re-zone of Baranof a bad idea by Tom LeCompte - Monday COMMUNITY CONCERT HIGHLIGHTS AND CONCERNS by Pete Ellis - Monday Deny request to rezone Baranof by Bill Thomas Sr. - Monday Arctic Power Salaries Questioned by Carl Gatto and Bruce Weyhrauch - Monday Opposed to rezoning of Baranof property by Peter Bolling - Sunday A LETTER OF RECOGNITION By Elroy Edenshaw, Jr. - Sunday Community Beach Clean-up by Gigi Pilcher - Sunday More Viewpoints/ Letters Publish A Letter Blind Justice Guide Dog ©Daryl Cagle, Slate.com Distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons, Inc. Political Cartoonists Ketchikan Editorial Cartoonist Roger Maynard Ketchikan Calendar, Meetings, Events Today's Forecast Ketchikan Police Report AK Troopers Daily Dispatch Classifieds & Announcements April - May 2005 Click on the date for stories and photos published on that day... S M T W T F S           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 01 02  03 04   05  06 07 Front Page Archives

National: Justice Kennedy becomes target of conservatives' ire By MARGARET TALEV - He wasn't President Reagan's first choice for the U.S. Supreme Court - or his second choice for that matter - and plenty of conservatives have never let him forget it.

Seventeen years and a handful of decisions later, Justice Anthony Kennedy - a conservative by background but a swing vote on social issues - has become the poster boy, on the part of those calling for President Bush's most controversial judicial nominees to confirmed by the U.S. Senate, for why the president should get to install judges he really wants rather than capitulate to liberals and moderates.

Pressure on Republicans to employ the so-called "nuclear option," a rule change that would stop Democratic filibusters against Bush judicial nominees, picked up in March, just after Kennedy wrote the court's 5-4 opinion striking down the use of the death penalty against juvenile offenders. To some, this was just one more insult by him in a string of decisions on gay rights, pornography, school prayer and abortion.- More...
Monday - May 02, 2005

Jason Love: TV-Jeebies - I love my chiropractor. Not romantically but how you love a bartender. We get together once a month like clockwork. I always circle the date on my calendar in blue (red is for my wife's period).

If you haven't been adjusted by a chiropractor, go! You leave with a high you just can't find on the street. A word of caution: no visit is as good as the first, so enjoy it while it lasts. - More...
Monday - May 02, 2005

Dan K. Thomasson: The Democrats' dilemma - Normally a presidential job-approval rating as low as George W. Bush's would be an indication of impending doom for his second-term legislative agenda and to his party's fortunes in the congressional elections next year. Recent polls show Bush's overall rating as low as it has ever been, around 47 percent.

But the diminished outlook for Bush and the Republican Party is tempered by the fact that Democrats don't fare much better when it comes to measuring what the country needs and who can best deliver it. - More...
Monday - May 02, 2005

Bonnie Erbe: Lessons from the case of the fleeing fiance - Now that the whole world has vented at Jennifer Wilbanks, perhaps we can step back and build something constructive out of her bizarre and woeful tale.

For those who don't know who she is, please recall last week's national hullabaloo over the woman (identified by various media as a nurse or as a medical assistant) who fled her hometown of Duluth, Ga., rather than admit she was having second thoughts about her pending nuptials.

Instead of being honest with her fiance, family and the hundreds or thousands of rescue workers who searched for her, she feigned abduction and hopped on a bus to New Mexico. - More...
Monday - May 02, 2005