Ketchikan: Firefighters Win Battle With Spreading Brush Fire By Dick Kauffman - With sirens screaming down North Tongass highway, firefighters from three local fire departments and the United States Forest Service responded quickly to a brush fire that reportedly began near the west end of North Point Higgins Elementary School around 4 pm Thursday. With Ketchikan experiencing very dry conditions and afternoon winds, the fire quickly spread from the west to the east running a line behind the North Point Higgins' parking lot toward two water cisterns that supply water to the elementary school. - More...
Friday am - June 10, 2005

Ketchikan: Watch For Spruce Aphids Warns Forest Service - Sitka spruce in some areas of Southeast Alaska may be facing a tough year because of spruce aphids, according to U.S. Forest Service Alaska Region Entomologist Mark Schultz. According to Schultz, the spruce aphid has been on the rise throughout the past month in many locations, but especially in Craig, Sitka and possibly Ketchikan.

Spruce aphids are an invasive insect which kill Sitka spruce by sucking the sap from the needles. A large number of trees have been defoliated in Craig, Juneau, Ketchikan, and Sitka.

Spruce aphids will not usually kill a tree in one year, and several years of defoliation are needed to kill a big tree, defined as a tree that is bigger than 24 inches diameter at breast height. Before treating a tree, determine if the pests are present. Look for trees that are thin or lack foliage, said Schultz. - More...
Friday - June 10, 2005

Ketchikan: Corrections Tops Fundraising Efforts For Special Olympics - Correctional and Probation/Parole Officers and Corrections support staff from across Alaska joined to raise nearly $8,000 for Special Olympics Alaska during the annual 5K Law Enforcement Torch Run for Special Olympics, held in multiple locations around the state on May 21.

The officers, joined by support staff and family members, earned the Alaska Department of Corrections (DOC) the 'traveling trophy' that is awarded to the single law enforcement agency that raises the most money for Special Olympics athletes. According to DOC, they are extremely proud to have been a contender for this honor. - More...
Friday - June 10, 2005

Washington Calling: Costly secrets ... Dampen hurricanes ... Rethinking fries By LANCE GAY - Thanks to the war on terrorism, the cost of keeping Washington's secrets soared 10 percent last year to more than $8 billion, and the number of aged documents that were declassified declined sharply.

The Information Security Oversight Office estimates that 41 federal agencies spent $7.2 billion securing secret documents, but that amount excludes any information on how much the CIA is spending to secure its information because the agency insists all of its budget figures are official secrets. Government contractors spent an additional $822 million securing sensitive information at the direction of Uncle Sam.

Part of the increased spending went toward creating new secure facilities to hold the documents, and communication systems so agencies can more easily share their secrets with other agencies. The 9/11 Commission concluded that one of the failures that made possible the 2001 terrorist attacks was an inability of federal agencies to share secrets they were gathering. - More...
Friday - June 10, 2005

Coast Guard rescuers assist stranded boaters Official Coast Guard photo by Seaman Brad Briggs, Station Ketchikan Ketchikan: Coast Guard rescuers assist stranded boaters - A Coast Guard Station Ketchikan rescue boat crew assisted a boater whose vessel became disabled and grounded near Metlakatla Thursday afternoon. - More... Friday - June 10, 2005

Dave Kiffer: "Going once, going twice......" File this under "if money were no object."
 
I spend way too much time on internet auction sites, trolling about for cool stuff. And stuff relating to Ketchikan's history is always the coolest.

This week, someone on EBAY is auctioning off a PBY!
 
I'm sure most of you are thinking that a PBY must be some sort of odd healthfood sandwich, maybe peanut butter and yucca root or something.
 
Au contraire! It is another long-lost emissary of my Ketchikan youth. A genuine Consolidated PBY 5A Super Cat. One of the biggest, baddest float planes to every grace Tongass Narrows. And this one actually did grace local air and waters for quite some time. - More...
Friday - June 10, 2005

Viewpoints Opinions/Letters Going once, going twice... By Debbi Swaim - Friday More Viewpoints/ Letters Publish A Letter June 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     Front Page Archives

Jason Love: Easy Rider - To think I've lugged this body through the decades without ever, until last week, riding a motorcycle. This thanks to photographer Gary Phelps, who just had to share. Of course, I'd jump on any assignment where you can spit and curse at your leisure.

We, a gang of eight, met at The Shop, a motorcycle retail-and-repair joint. Owner David Hansen decked me out with sunnies and helmet. I passed on the helmet with flames, since I looked sufficiently flamboyant on my own.

David was the quintessential biker, so comfortable with himself that later in the day, after our ride, he fell asleep in the middle of a group conversation. I never admired a man so deeply. - More...
Friday - June 10, 2005

Preston McDougall: Chemical Eye on the Didgeridoo - When the absolutely impossible is unmistakeably right before your eyes, you can be sure that the ongoing learning experience will be a memorable one.

That's why great chemistry demonstrations are an indispensable teaching tool, and also why they are designed to have a sizeable "Wow!" factor, much to the occasional frustration of local fire departments. (Sorry guys, but everything really was under control.)

This pedagogical truth is also why I simply had to purchase the didgeridoo that a lovely free-spirit was demonstrating for me at a craft booth here in Perth, Australia. - More..
Friday - June 10, 2005

Dale McFeatters: Talking trash, raising cash - Howard Dean doesn't mind talking trash, but the folks who made him chairman of the Democratic National Committee knew that going in. There was, notably, that famous scream and the promised courtship of "guys with Confederate flags on their pickup trucks."

This week he was at it again, saying of the GOP, "It's pretty much a white Christian party," which, in fact, it pretty much is but coming from him is an insult.

The week before he said of the Republicans, "A lot of them never made an honest living in their lives." At least Dean is safe from a slander rap because one defense is that a statement is so outrageous no reasonable person would believe it. - More...
Friday - June 10, 2005