Ketchikan: Ban on all outside burning in borough announced - Due to the continuing dry conditions Borough Manager Roy Eckert, in cooperation with Fire Chief Mark Malone of the South Tongass Volunteer Fire Department and Fire Chief David Hull of the North Tongass Volunteer Fire Department, is calling for a ban on all outside burning in the Ketchikan Gateway Borough until such time as the weather conditions are more favorable. Recent fire events in both the City and in the Borough have highlighted the very real danger of the drought like conditions locally. - More...
Tuesday - June 21, 2005

Tlingit master carver Israel Shotridge as he carves on the Ketchikan Indian Community 40-foot Totem. Courtesy photo by Sue Shotridge.

Ketchikan: Tlingit Master Carver Creates Totem for "Hall of Tribal Nations" exhibit - The U.S. Forest Service recently commissioned a Tlingit master carver to create a 12-foot totem pole to be prominently displayed at the agency's new "Hall of Tribal Nations" exhibit in the nation's capital.

Israel Shotridge, a member of the Teikweidee Taantwaan Bear Clan of the Tongass Tribe, is creating the piece of art, which will depict the Forest Service and the history of Southeast Alaska Natives. Its theme will be the 1939 to 1953 Civilian Conservation Corps Totem Restoration Project, for which the CCC paid more than 200 Alaska Native carvers and laborers to restore and replicate totems in Southeast Alaska.

"This commissioned artwork recognizes the dynamic partnership which began with the establishment of the Totem Pole Restoration Program in 1937," said John Autrey, Tongass National Forest tribal government relations specialist.

"The foresight of the Totem Pole Restoration Program is evident today. The totems and the partnership between the Forest Service and the Native Communities of Southeast Alaska continue to stimulate an enormous international interest and growth of heritage tourism, which in turn is providing an impetus for the development of new economic opportunities." - More...
Tuesday - June 21, 2005

National: Speculation mounts on Rehnquist retirement By MARY DEIBEL - With the Supreme Court term set to end next week, the most anticipated decision isn't a case on the docket but whether Chief Justice William Rehnquist or another justice will step down.

These nine justices have served together 11 terms, the longest stretch in high-court history. That record, along with Rehnquist's treatment for thyroid cancer since October, have fueled speculation that the 80-year-old jurist will retire at the conclusion of the term after 33 years on the court, a tenure that ranks second only to Justice William O. Douglas' 36 years. - More...
Tuesday - June 21, 2005

National: Hostettler accuses Dems of waging 'War on Christianity' By M.E. SPRENGELMEYER - An Indiana congressman accused Democrats of waging a "war on Christianity" Monday, as a debate over religious tolerance at the U.S. Air Force Academy erupted in shouts and finger-pointing.

Work in the House of Representatives ground to a halt for 30 tense minutes after Rep. John Hostettler, R-Ind., blasted Democrats for trying to use a $409 billion defense spending bill to take a stand against "coercive and abusive" proselytizing at the academy's Colorado Springs, Colo., campus.

Academy officials have acknowledged dozens of complaints about incidents of religious intolerance in recent years, prompting an ongoing investigation. But Hostettler said legislation condemning the situation was part of a "long war on Christianity" being waged by "the usual suspects, Democrats." - More...
Tuesday - June 21, 2005

National: Senate Democrats again block Bolton nomination By LAWRENCE M. O'ROURKE - Rejecting President Bush's demand for a vote "now," Senate Democrats refused to allow a confirmation vote Monday on John Bolton as ambassador to the United Nations.

The vote to continue a Democratic filibuster against Bolton and thus to deny him a confirmation vote came after the White House hinted that the president might brush aside the Senate process and put Bolton in the diplomatic post through a rare recess appointment.

Some 54 senators voted to grant Bolton a confirmation vote, while 38 opposed it. Eight senators did not vote. The tally fell six short of the 60 yes votes needed if all senators were voting to shut down the filibuster Democrats launched a month ago. - More...
Tuesday - June 21, 2005

National: Identity theft is crossing state lines By CHRIS WELSCH - Leraitta Patton and her 14-year-old daughter Tanisha Long had just spent several pleasant, warm days at a wedding in Jamaica. They landed in Miami and were waiting in the customs line, tired but ready for the flight home to Minneapolis.

That's when the Customs and Border Patrol officer ran her name through the computer and broke the bad news. "You're going to need to come with me," he said.

In a holding room, customs officers told Patton she was wanted for larceny in Ohio. "I said I'd never even been to Ohio," Patton recalled. - More...
Tuesday - June 21, 2005

Viewpoints Opinions/Letters PIPSters, Don't Lose More By David Hanger - Tuesday Schoenbar: End the nonsense By Susan Doherty - Tuesday Wouldn't it be great? By Walt Bolling - Tuesday "Community and Economic Development" By Colleen Scanlon- Tuesday Always the gentleman By Bill Thomas Sr. - Tuesday Bridge to Gravina By Rob Glenn - Tuesday Where is the outrage? By Kirk Muse - Tuesday "Downing street memo" letter By Josh Cook - Tuesday Name calling? By Joe Branco - Tuesday The Greatest Prevaricator By Joe Johnson - Tuesday More Viewpoints/ Letters Publish A Letter Such a deal By: Larry Wright The Detroit News Distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons, Inc. Political Cartoonists Note: Roger Maynard, Ketchikan Editorial Cartoonist will not be updating his website for awhile. Ketchikan Calendar, Meetings, Events Today's Forecast City Police Report Updated AK Troopers Daily Dispatch Classifieds & Announcements 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

Jay Ambrose: U.N. should act in Darfur - Imagine the United Nations is a fire department and that across the street a whole block of homes is ablaze. Close to half the firefighters don't care, seeing as how they are arsonists. Instead of hoses spraying, we get debate. By the time debate is done, so is the block.

The depiction is no exaggeration. It is, in fact, an understatement about how this international body - established as a means of securing peace - has as much as kowtowed to the monster of genocide. Not only has it allowed the most vicious of its members to get away with the murder, torture and rape of hundreds of thousands of people, it has actually put the likes of Sudan on its human rights commission. - More...
Tuesday - June 21, 2005

Reg Henry: 'Liberal' media drove past Downing Street - Graduates of the Cheers for Us School of Journalism (Motto: "Cheers for Us and All the Great Stories We Write!") have been put off their self-congratulatory stroke by the rise of the "Downing Street memo" story on this side of the Atlantic.

If by now you have not heard of the Downing Street memo, I trust that your cave is pleasantly cool during the summer months and the paper is being delivered right to its mouth so that you can read this explanation.

The Downing Street memo was the confidential notes of what British Prime Minister Tony Blair and his aides discussed at a meeting at No. 10 Downing Street on July 23, 2002 - eight months before President Bush took the United States to war against Iraq. It was leaked to the Sunday Times in London and published May 1. - More...
Tuesday - June 21, 2005

James Derk: Tech questions and answers - It's hot outside, at least around here, but the mail keeps coming. I guess you all are inside working on your PCs when I need to be outside mowing the grass. But let's go to the questions.

Q: You mentioned the dropping cost of PCs versus building one yourself. There's no way that $300 PC you mentioned from could match the one I built for myself. Just my video card cost that. That has to be a pretty basic PC. - More...
Tuesday - June 21, 2005

Martin Schram: The Conscience of the Senate? - The interview with the Senate leader had droned on for more than an hour and just about every topic had been asked and answered, cordially and completely. Except one, which seemed so obvious it surely had to be expected. So near the end, it, too, was asked.

What happened next remains as vivid in the reporter's mind today as it was the day he wrote it in The Washington Post 24 years ago: "Suddenly (the Senate leader's) face freezes. The muscles on either side of his jaw harden to what must be the consistency of golf balls. His eyes are lasers burning deeply into the questioner. There is silence."

You'd think the question had been about a terrible transgression. Maybe an old scandal. Or sex. Or his days as a Kleagle and Exalted Cyclops in the Ku Klux Klan. - More...
Tuesday - June 21, 2005

Dale McFeatters: When voting isn't democracy - While blasting President Bush for questioning the honesty of last Friday's elections, Iran's ruling clerics were busily trying to fix the outcome of this Friday's runoff.

On the eve of last Friday's ballot, Bush issued a statement saying, accurately, that power in Iran "is in the hands of an unelected few who have retained power through an electoral process that ignores the basic requirements of democracy."

Before the election, the ruling self-appointed Council of Guardians had barred 1,000 would-be candidates for failing to measure up to the regime's standards of loyalty and compliance. Seven candidates were deemed acceptable and even then supreme ruler Ali Khamenei had to intervene to add a moderate to the ballot for appearance sake. - More...
Tuesday - June 21, 2005