Ketchikan Arts & Entertainment: GRINDING TO A FALL STOP; The Season Ends for The Monthly Grind Part I By SHARON ALLEN - Just in case you haven't been in town recently, the Tourists are back. That's bad for traffic and good for the economy. It also means the seniors have graduated, the Derby is in full-swing, the kids are out of school for the summer and the Monthly Grind has ground to a halt for the summer . . . but before you get your Helly's in a bunch, don't fret; it'll be back before you know it.

Every year The Monthly Grind takes a little well-deserved vacation during June, July and August. The musicians need a vacation (like everyone else) and besides, it's tourist season and anyone who isn't working fourteen-hour-days is fishing from four am to 10 pm. There simply isn't time for much else in the summer. - More...
Friday - June 24, 2005

National: GOP hopes latest Social Security plan can reel in Dems By CAROLYN LOCHHEAD - Senate conservatives backing a new plan to use the Social Security surplus for individual investment accounts said this week that they believed the idea could unite their party and possibly peel off enough Democrats to plant the seeds of private accounts in the nation's government retirement program.

No Democrat has indicated interest so far, but Republicans contend the plan strikes a nerve with voters angered that Congress has spent an estimated $1.7 trillion of surplus Social Security payroll taxes on other things for the past two decades.- More...
Friday - June 24, 2005

National: As criticism of war builds, Kennedy calls for Rumsfeld to resign By MARGARET TALEV - Sen. Edward M. Kennedy's call on Thursday for Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to resign - delivered before television cameras in a one-on-one confrontation at a hearing - was only the latest note in a crescendo of criticisms against the Bush administration as polls show Americans souring on the war in Iraq.

And while the defense secretary showed no inclination to march to Kennedy's orders, he and other top administration officials might be shaping their rhetoric in response to the shifting public sentiment.- More...
Friday - June 24, 2005

Week In Review: U.S. deaths in Iraq ... Durbin apology ... Bolton still out By BILL STRAUB - The number of U.S. military personnel killed in Iraq since March 2003 has reached 1,730. On Thursday, a suicide car bomber slammed into a U.S. convoy in Fallujah, killing at least two Marines. Three Marines and a sailor were listed as missing after the attack. Another 13 Marines were wounded in the Thursday-night bombing. - More...
Friday - June 24, 2005

Washington Calling: Another long, hot summer ... Fireworks safety ... More By LANCE GAY - ith polls showing that the popularity of politicians is plunging, spats are breaking out all over the place.

A few days ago, it was Republicans pressuring Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., to apologize for comparing America's treatment of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detainees to "Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime - Pol Pot or others." He did apologize. - More...
Friday - June 24, 2005

Wallet Watch: How baby boomers are likely to affect stock market By MARY DEIBEL - It's happy half birthday to the first of 76 million baby boomers who turn 59 1/2 on Friday July 1 and can take money out of their retirement accounts without paying a 10 percent early-withdrawal penalty. - More...
Friday - June 24, 2005

Scientists with the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory spill about 2,000 gallons of hot crude oil on the forest floor north of Fairbanks on Feb. 26, 1976. Photo by Terry McFadden

Alaska: Oil Spill Persists for Nearly 30 Years By Ned Rozell - On a cold day in February 1976, about 2,000 gallons of steaming Prudhoe Bay crude oil spilled over the snow and percolated into the frozen floor of a black spruce forest. Much of that oil spill remains today, even after a wildfire burned through the area last summer.

The 1976 oil spill that killed more than 40 black spruce trees and almost all the vegetation around them was no accident. Scientists with the Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory dumped the oil on the muskeg in both summer and winter that year to simulate what might happen if the soon-to-be-built trans-Alaska oil pipeline sprung a leak in a black spruce forest underlain by frozen soil, a common environment in Interior Alaska. - More...
Friday - June 24, 2005

Alaska: Gas Pipeline Work the Subject of D.C. Trip - Alaska Governor Frank H. Murkowski made a visit to Washington, D.C. this week to advance progress on gas pipeline negotiations.

"After waiting more than 30 years to develop our natural gas resources, we have no less than three applicants to ship North Slope gas to market. We are working to progress all three projects so that ultimately we can decide which one is in the best interest of the state. Completing these negotiations is the state's top priority," Murkowski said. - More...
Friday - June 24, 2005

Viewpoints Opinions/Letters SCHOENBAR SCHOOL SHOULD BE "TOGETHER" NO MATTER WHAT HAPPENS By Lynne Miller - Saturday Our corner of the world By Yeda Hicks - Saturday We can not save the world By Robert McRoberts - Saturday Our water and cancer By Bob Allen - Saturday Proud of You By Linda Hansen - Saturday Downing Street Memo By Josh Cook - Saturday Axe-Thrower By Barry Trudeau - Saturday More Viewpoints/ Letters Publish A Letter Retire No More By: Jeff Parker Florida Today 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 06/23/05 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

Laine Welch: Guaranteeing Younger Fishermen A Future - Younger fishermen will be guaranteed a future thanks to a new program being crafted in Bristol Bay that will keep fishing permits in the hands of local residents. The effort stems from a unique regional, state and federal partnership that will provide permit loans to the next generation of salmon fishermen.

A cornerstone of the lending program is a $750,000 grant awarded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Rural Development. Administered by the Bristol Bay Native Association (BBNA), applicants will be able to borrow money from a "community development bank" to be used as a down payment on a permit. The program also got a huge boost from the state Division of Investments, when Director Greg Winegar "came riding in on a white horse," according to Terry Hoefferle, chief executive office of BBNA. - More ...
Saturday - June 25, 2005

Dave Kiffer: Vox Populi #4 - For those of you all playing along at home, the PBY on EBAY ("Going Once..") didn't get a high enough bid to meet its unkstated reserve, but I received a lot of feedback on that column. If we all chip in a buck we might be able to get it after all. Some internet research indicates that there are quite a few old PBYs sitting in Moses Lake after all. It seems that someone was trying to corner the world market in the old amphibians. Go figure.

As an aside, someone has been selling reproduction PBY flight manuals on EBAY recently. The perfect gift for armchair travelers who don't want to get wet when the bubble leaks.

There was also a lot of interest in my column about teaching Latin in the local schools ("Progress"). My statement that it hadn't been in my lifetime was not correct. Respondents indicated that Latin in some form was still alive and sort of well at Kayhi into the early 1970s. I was also reminded that in the late 1960s a high school student came into one of my classes at Houghtaling Elementary and taught us Latin for a few weeks. I don't remember any of the Latin, but I remember the high school student had long dark hair and was very, very, very pretty. I also remember her name, but I won't embarrass her! - More...
Friday - June 24, 2005

Stewart Elliott: CCC camp boys planted more than trees - When Bishop, one of our bunkmates, came in well after lights-out, he stumbled around in the dark but found only an empty space where his cot should have been.

"Now who was the dirty thief that stole my cot?" he said, turning the air blue (much of our Civilian Conservation Corps language was unprintable, then and now).

"Ah, pipe down! We're trying to get some sleep," someone yelled back. And someone else threw a shoe in his direction. - More...
Friday - June 24, 2005

Linda Seebach: On hobbits, monkeys and bats - "Hobbit," with a nod to J.R.R. Tolkien, who invented the term for a not-quite-human species inhabiting Middle Earth, is the affectionate nickname bestowed on a not-quite-human species whose bones were discovered on the Indonesian island of Flores.

When researchers announced the discovery in October, 2004, they chose for this creature the scientific name Homo floresiensis - that is, another species of the same genus as Homo sapiens. - More...
Friday - June 24, 2005

Thelma Domenici's Practical Advice: Fly flag proudly -- and correctly - Dear Thelma: With the Fourth of July coming up, can you share information on flag etiquette?

Answer: While many people bring out the Stars and Stripes every day in honor of our national heritage, there is an abundance of flag-flying on Independence Day.

If you are displaying a flag on an angled or horizontal staff from the front of your home, the blue field of stars, called the union, should be at the peak of the staff. - More...
Friday - June 24, 2005