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Southeast Alaska’s Native people wait 40 years for return of their land By Rosita Worl - Over-regulation and anti-Native bias seem to touch every aspect of life for Native peoples in Southeast Alaska, from how our people make teddy bears to whether the U.S. will keep its promise to restore 85,000 acres of our homelands to us. - More...
Wednesday - June 15, 2011
Fisheries science is more complex than opponents of Sealaska land bill say By Douglas Martin - Restoring nearly 85,000 acres of Tongass National Forest land to the Sealaska Corporation, in accordance with the 40-year-old Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, won’t damage salmon runs. - More...
Wednesday - June 15, 2011
Sealaska Bill a Can of Worms By Rebecca Knight - Jaeleen Araujo, Sealaska vice-president and general counsel recently denied in a Juneau Empire op-ed piece that the other 11 regional corporations could use their proposed legislation as precedent to reopen land claims in Alaska. Sealaska is “perplexed” that this remains an issue. However, her comments in various public forums tell a different story. - More...
Wednesday - June 15, 2011
Pellet Boilers? Pellet Heat? Public Buildings? Your Home? You Betcha By Samuel Bergeron - The design team on the public library wanted about $80,000 to do a feasibility study on the viability of biomass wood pellet heat. That's like doing feasibility study on using propane heat or electricity. Biomass wood pellet heat is an established technology that has been in use in major metropolitan cities throughout the world for over 30 years with a stellar track record of clean burning emissions, low cost fuel, and great systems reliability. You don't need a feasibility study to see if this is a proven technology, just do the math. - More...
Monday - June 13, 2011
Section 17(b) of ANCSA & Public Access By
Florian Sever - I want to clear up a claim that Sealaska representatives always make when they address the issue of public acess, regarding public the 3,600 acres of prime anchorages, sockeye streams, cabin sites, and camping areas they want to make under the guise of Cultural, Sacred, Enterprise and other classifications, under the terms of Senator Lisa Murkowski’s, S. 730 “The Sealsaka Lands Bill”.- More...
Monday - June 13, 2011
Property Tax increase amount By
Marty West - The Ketchikan Daily News was wrong. The increase was 0.1 mills ($10 per $100,000 of assessed property Value) not 1.0 mills ($100 per $100,000 as reported). - More...
Monday - June 13, 2011
KPU By
Joey Garcia - I admire KPU's repair technicians in our verbal calls, mostly from residents of the Tongass Towers Condominium, because of tilling, loss of power if you subscribe to three services like telephone, Internet and cable. - More...
Monday - JUne 13, 2011
Taxes, round two By
Rodney Dial - Council Member West indicated that the tax increase the Ketchikan City Council passed will result in a $25 increase for the owner of an average home. In my letter I reported that the tax increase would result in a $250.00 increase. - More...
Saturday - June 11, 2011
“Southeast Alaskan Native Land Entitlement Finalization and Job Protection Act.” By
Jeff Sbonek - We heard Sealaska's Byron Mallott speaking before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources recent hearing on S-730 say, “We were here first”. This is plain and simply not true. DNA analysis of the 9600 year old human remains found in “On Your Knees Cave” on north Prince of Wales Island SE Alaska 15 years ago, and of over 200 present day native volunteers of SE Alaska show no genetic link. It seems pretty clear that the Tlingits, Haidas and Tsimshians were not the first people of SE Alaska. The truth is that humans have been migrating since the beginning of humanity. The man from “On Your Knees Cave” is ancestor to ALL of us. This land belongs to ALL of us. - More...
Saturday - June 11, 2011
Open Letter: Proposed “enterprise” site on Martin Creek By
Bonnie Demerjian - As a long time resident of Wrangell and author of a book on the Anan Creek Bear Observatory, I am concerned about the proposed “enterprise” site on Martin Creek near the observatory. Increased fishing pressure in the area may impact the well being of the bear population at Anan Creek. Not only is this important in itself, but the observatory is a prime tourist attraction for visitors to Wrangell. Wrangell has worked hard and continues to strive to diversify its economy with tourism being an important component of that effort. A lodge at Martin Creek may well divert visitors from Wrangell, who generally include a visit to Anan Creek in their plans and are transported their by local charter operators. - More...
Saturday - June 11, 2011
Thanks to the Naushon By Jerry Cegelske - For those of us who frequently get out on the water close to the Bar Harbor marina, we get to see some of the material that the wind and tides have deposited on the breakwater as well as the shoreline around the harbor. For many, the area didn’t look bad as seen from the harbor or shore as the material was deposited on the windward side of the breakwater, but it was very visible from the water. - More...
Wednesday - June 08, 2011
E-Verify By
Byron “Chilly” Whitesides - Friends and neighbors, recently I sent an open letter to Senator Bert Stedman and Representative Kyle Johansen to be published on Sitnews. I have been contacting them recently this year, as there were political leaders attempting to pass a law in our state to require businesses to use E-Verify on employees and applicants to assure only legal workers were being employed (Supreme Court: AZ Can Require Employers to Verify Citizenship Status of Workers ) that the legislature had failed to pass this legislation, and found this news very distressing. - More...
Wednesday - June 08, 2011
Re: Ketchikan's Tax Burden By Marty West - The Council increased the property tax by 0.1 mills. Not by 1.0 mills. - More...
Wednesday - June 08, 2011
BE THE FIRST TO KNOW By
Karl Amylon - The purpose of this memorandum is to remind citizens that by signing up for FlashAlert you will receive ‘real time’ text messages and/or email messages from the City of Ketchikan and/or KPU with up to date emergency information, news releases, power outages or other important information. - More...
Wednesday - June 08, 2011
Ketchikan's Tax Burden By
Rodney Dial - I was optimistically hopeful that Ketchikan government spending was leveling off, and our elected officials were going to cool it on the insane spending over the last few years. I truly thought… what else can they spend money on?... just about every group has received something, lately, and government spending has been increasing by millions per year even though our population has been declining. - More...
Monday - June 06, 2011
M/V Tongass Ranger By
P.J. Travis - Now with the M/V Tongass Ranger declared "unsafe" who is going to monitor timber sales, mining, recreation cabins, mooring buoys, archaeology sites, etc.? - More...
Monday - June 06, 2011
E-Verify and Drug Enforcement Problems UNSOLVED... By Joey Garcia - I agree with Byron Whitesides on his topic of E-verify format. Not only that, why does the City of Ketchikan not comply with the drug test for new hires and old hands thereby corrupting other non-drug users/pushers to continue their trade within our city? I do not blame the Office of the Ketchikan City Mayor, but the office of the Gov. Parnell, referring to the response made by a certain Ms. Lien that the Office of the Governor has no jurisdiction in Ketchikan. - More...
Monday - June 06, 2011
RE: 400 By
Charles Mackey -
David Hanger, Thank you for your letter "400". You are one of many vigilant individuals in the country yet one of few brave enough to speak out using the last little bit of freedom we truly have. The Freedom of Speech. - More...
Monday - June 06, 2011
RE: The 400 By
Chris Elliott - The richest man in America according to Forbes magazine's 2010 annual list of the 400 richest Americans is Bill Gates. His fortune is estimated at $54 billion. - More...
Monday - June 06, 2011
THE 400 By David G. Hanger - According to CNN reports on February 20, 2011, four hundred individuals in this country now earn more than the combined earnings of half the people. In other words 400 self-proclaimed living ‘gods’ earn more than 160 million Americans combined. A few tens of thousands earn much of the rest. ‘Earning’ is a relative term in this respect, for much of what is being “earned” is via deceit, graft, and corruption. - More...
Thursday PM - June 02, 2011
8th grade class of 2011 By
Judith Green - The 8th grade class had their "Continuation Ceremony" tonight in their new school building auditorium - KAYHI. They move from being Knights to being Kings - as SBA president, Brendan Stanton, mentioned in his welcome to the new freshman class. - More...
Thursday PM- June 02, 2011
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