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National: History repeating itself' for U.S. officials in Lebanon crisis By LISA HOFFMAN - For Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney, the current crisis in Lebanon might seem to be a "been-there, done-that" situation.

That's because, in essence, it is. When the United States evacuated American civilians from that war-wracked country in 1976 - almost exactly 30 years ago - Rumsfeld was secretary of defense and Cheney was a key part of the White House inner circle that oversaw the emergency rescue.

There even was a George Bush who took part in the decision-making, albeit the current president's father, George H.W. Bush, who was director of the CIA in late June 1976, when U.S. Marines evacuated about 250 Americans and foreign nationals as Lebanon's civil war worsened. - More...
Monday - July 17, 2006

Alaska: Stevens mocked for Internet 'tube' speech By LIZ RUSKIN - Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, is enduring no end of ridicule in the blogosphere for his recent explanation, in a Commerce Committee debate, of how the Internet works.

"The Internet is not something you just dump something on. It's not a truck. It's a series of tubes," he said during a June 28 committee session.

"And if you don't understand, those tubes can be filled. And if they are filled, when you put your message in, it gets in line and it's going to be delayed by anyone that puts into that tube enormous amounts of material, enormous amounts of material." - More...
Monday - July 17, 2006

National: Democrats hope minimum wage push pays off By EDWARD EPSTEIN - House Democrats' election-year persistence in trying to force a vote on raising the federal minimum wage for the first time in almost a decade looks as if it could bear fruit.

The Democrats have seized on the issue, which polls show is overwhelmingly popular with voters, as a building block in their effort to retake both houses of Congress in November. Their effort in Washington is moving forward as organizers in several states push ballot initiatives for the fall election to adopt or increase state minimum wages, measures that the Democrats hope could boost turnout of voters likely to lean their way. - More...
Monday - July 17, 2006

Science - Technology: Researchers work to thwart crafty cyber scammers By CORILYN SHROPSHIRE - The magnitude of menaces lurking on the Web - crooks, thieves, predators, worms, scam artists - are increasingly clever and multiplying, duping computer users by cloaking themselves in seemingly benign disguises.

It doesn't help that experts are saying that most security breaches are the result of human failures, not technical ones. These include frequent use of easily breakable passwords, outdated anti-viral software, and sometimes even clueless computer users not knowing what do.

"It's hard for the average computer user to keep track" of all the potential pitfalls, said Lorrie Cranor, director of the Usable Privacy and Security Laboratory at Carnegie Mellon University "It's just hard for people to know out what's out there." - More...
Monday - July 17, 2006

Youth Camp At Orton Ranch Provides Christian Camping Experience Orton Ranch Children's Camp Group Photograph courtesy Leslie Randall

Ketchikan: Youth Camp At Orton Ranch Provides Christian Camping Experience - Forty-four children and twenty-three adult leaders, representing three different churches, recently participated in a children's youth camp for five days at Orton Ranch. The South Tongass Alliance Church hosted the camp on Naha River, which was their first such experience.

According to Leslie Randall, who has been involved in Christian camping since 1974, Westview Christian Church, Spartanburg, South Carolina, and First Christian Church, Titusville, Florida, both sent a mission team to teach the local church volunteers the ins and outs of running a Christian youth camp. The mission teams, comprised of volunteers with Christian camping experience and who are all active with the youth in their home congregations, planned and organized a structured camp program for the youth of Ketchikan. They worked closely with the South Tongass Alliance volunteers, teaching them as the week progressed, and sharing helpful advice. Randall said, "This is nothing new to the folks from the Florida church, as they have been helping local congregations here in Ketchikan with camp since 2001. - More...
Monday - July 17, 2006

Alaska Flag Presented To Family of Local Resident Serving in Iraq Pictured: First Lady Nancy Murkowski, Gov. Frank H. Murkowski, Sara Maplesden & boys, and Rep. Jim Elkins On the Web: Our Troops

Ketchikan: Alaska Flag Presented To Family of Local Resident Serving in Iraq - During a visit to Ketchikan last Friday, Governor Frank H. Murkowski and First Lady Nancy Murkowski, along with State Representative Jim Elkins presented an autographed Alaska State Flag to local resident  Sarah Maplesden and her three sons - Davis 11, Mitchel 7, and Levi, 2.

Mrs. Maplesden will mail the flag to her husband, CWO2 Nate Maplesden, a Black Hawk helicopter pilot, presently serving on active duty with the Alaska Air National Guard in Iraq.

CW2 Maplesden flies a UH-60 Blackhawk. Maplesden and along with about 54 other Alaska Army National Guard personnel are currently stationed in Tall Afar, Iraq and have been on active duty since June 2005. Alaska Army National Guard men and women are also currently serving in Afghanistan. - More...
Monday - July 17, 2006

Fish Factor: Crewmen making sure they are included in groundfish quota share program By LAINE WELCH - Access without ownership is at the core of a novel plan that Alaska fishermen will present to fishery managers later this year.

As managers craft another quota share program ­ this time for groundfish in the Gulf of Alaska - crewmen are making sure that this time, they are included in the give away. The "rationalization" program being developed could include roughly 25 groundfish species (cod, pollock, rockfish, flounders) for all gear groups (trawl, longline, pots, jig).

"Why should the privilege stop at the wheelhouse door," has long been the question posed by Terry Haines, a professional fisherman, activist and columnist who "writes about the world of Alaska fishing as seen from the deck."

Haines is co-founder of the Kodiak-based Crewmen's Association (CA), a group that believes it has a solution to a problem in past QS programs (halibut, sablefish, Bering Sea crab) that has essentially privatized the poundage into the hands of mostly absentee owners and large seafood companies. Those shares were based on how much of the catch had passed through the hands of their crew, but that vital industry component received nary a crumb when the lucrative lots were doled out by federal managers.

As outlined by Haines, the CA plan calls for a percentage of the Gulf's yearly groundfish catch quotas to be linked to a pool of working fishermen (skippers and deckhands) through a co-op mechanism. The fishermen, with a required minimum of two years in the industry, would be assigned points according to experience, and receive QS accordingly.

The structure of the co-op is still being crafted, said CA president Steve Branson, but rules so far call for quota to be linked to a working fishermen who would be free to harvest it on any boat operating under certain criteria, specifically, no linkages to any processing company. The co-op would be managed by an objective third party hired by an elected board of directors. The plan also outlines that fishing vessels that are unable to minimize bycatch would build a history that would exclude it from future access. As skippers and deckhands leave the fishery, they would be enrolled in a retirement program, funded by a self imposed tax.

"Linking harvest quota to local working fishermen and their communities puts the resource in the hands of its most able and obvious stewards ­ those who live on the water and whose kids will too," said Branson.

To Terry Haines, that's the whole point. - More...
Monday - July 17, 2006

Viewpoints Opinions/Letters Little League: Get Involved in the Process By Dave Timmerman - Tuesday It's called competition By Dinah Pearson - Tuesday Difficult Visitors By Trene' Elliott - Monday Independence Day - For the Record. By Rick Watson - Sunday Dockside Diner By Laurie Price - Sunday School Superintendent By Jon Hurley - Sunday Hooray for FREEDOM loving people By Charlotte Tanner - Sunday Cruise Ship Taxes By Alan R. McGillvray - Saturday Dissent in the 4th of July Parade By John Harrington - Friday It's all about FREEDOM: the 4th of July Parade By Jacquie Meck - Friday Become more active in Ketchikan Little League By Sharyl Whitesides - Friday All Star Selections By Neil Gray - Friday Selection Process for All Stars ByTami Linne - Friday Tax and Spend - Why does government think they are entitled? By Marvin Seibert - Friday Looking for mini dachshund By Frances Natkong - Friday Parade Entrants By Vicki OBrien - Friday Poor choice by the parade committee! By Rick Watson - Thursday More Viewpoints/ Letters Publish A Letter Political Cartoonists Political Cartoons Ketchikan Arts This Week Today's Forecast Ketchikan Weather Data Current AK Weather Map City Police Report AK Troopers Daily Dispatch Classifieds & Announcements July 2006 Click on the date to read the stories 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 31            Front Page Archives

Dave Kiffer: Digging the dirt on Revilla Man - A zillion years ago I was sitting in a college literature class and the teacher said a strange thing.

"Imagine there was a nuclear holocaust and the only thing to survive was a Harold Robbins novel," he said, ignoring the inconvenient fact that most of my other professors were assuming at that time that both cockroaches and Aaron Spelling would also survive any comprehensive nuclear holocaust.

"Imagine some future archaeologist finding that book and then making all his determinations about our "lost" culture based on the book," he continued. "That's a pretty scary thought indeed."

Indeed.

A couple of quick asides for anyone under the age of 35.

Harold Robbins was a trashy novelist who sold millions of books, primarily about powerful people behaving badly and having lots of graphic sex. - More...
Monday - July 17, 2006

Bonnie Erbe: Communities stepping in to fill federal void on immigration - Once again, local politicians are proving that when the miasmic brume we call Washington fails to provide responsible national leadership, local leaders will jump in to fill the void.

Hazelton, Pa., is not the first town to do so, but on Friday its mayor signed into law one of the toughest city ordinances in the nation designed to diminish the costs of illegal immigration. It punishes people who do business with illegal immigrants, as well as those who hire them and even those who provide them with housing.

On the other coast, the North County Times reports that the California town of Vista passed an ordinance, due to take effect on July 28, that "will require those who hire off-site day laborers to register with the city, display a certificate in their car windows, and present written terms of employment to workers. Critics have called it a transparent attempt to eliminate hiring sites for day laborers." - More...
Monday - July 17, 2006

Rob Holston: Levitra! - You've seen the advertisement on TV; you can see it on the Internet. The facts are alarming. In the United States, 8 million men have Diabetes, 29 million have high blood pressure and 50 million have high cholesterol. What do all of these men share in common? Why it's ED, of course! Erectile Dysfunction is lurking in the bedrooms of millions of men but thanks to Bayer Pharmaceuticals Corporation being unhealthy doesn't need to be a downer, so to speak. Just take this little pill and your love life will be elevated to new levels. You may be overweight, out of breath and near heart failure, but thanks to Levitra your penise will be "healthy?" What is wrong with this picture?

If the millions on men listed as unhealthy and suffering from diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol WERE healthy, the "need" for Levitra and other similar sex enhancing drugs to combat ED would not be there. I am not preaching that the millions now suffering from ill health should be deprived of intimate relationships, but adding Levitra to your routine is a bit like ordering your favorite meal in the dinning room of the Titanic AFTER the iceberg was struck! Much like the Titanic was "pushing the envelope" and taking chances, as it paid the ultimate price of total destruction, so are American men paying the price of ill-health. - More...
Monday - July 17, 2006

Dan K. Thomasson: The monotonous horror of Iraq - In his last column published after his death, the famed war correspondent Ernie Pyle, anticipating the end of World War II, wrote about being overwhelmed by the hideous monotony of death he had witnessed from North Africa to Okinawa. The bodies, he said, seemed stacked one on another over the years of slaughter.

I thought about this the other day as I read the daily accounts of more murder and mayhem in Iraq - dozens dead in yet another mindless bombing of innocent civilians whose particular brand of the Islamic faith apparently was offensive to those who practice a different variety of the same religion, Sunni vs. Shiite. Please don't ask me the difference. Like most non-Muslim Americans, I wouldn't have a clue.

But then I had the same lack of understanding a few years ago when the Catholic and Protestant forces in Northern Ireland - both presumably Christian - were doing the same thing to one another. Finally, the "Troubles" there seemed to have waned, pushed along by a growing revulsion over the meaningless blood spilled in the streets of Belfast that even the most ardent supporters of either cause could no longer stomach. It has taken a long time, however, to reach even the current uneasy accommodation. - More...
Monday - July 17, 2006

Marsha Mercer: Counting the numbers - The great author E.B. White once wrote a short essay called "About Myself" in which he described himself mostly by numbers.

"I am a man of medium height," he began. "I keep my records in a Weis Folder Re-order number 8003 ... My Selective Service order number is 10789. The serial number is T1654. I am in Class IV-A, and have been variously in Class 3-A, Class I-A(H), and Class 4-H."

This was 1945, BIT - Before Identity Theft. - More...
Monday - July 17, 2006