Ketchikan: Federal appeals court throws out plan that favored logging - The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Friday that the Forest Service must correct serious problems in the 1997 Tongass National Forest Land Management Plan.

The court's decision states, "Common sense ... tells us that the Forest Service's assessment of market demand was important for its determination . . . of how much timber is allowed to be cut. Given the competing goals to be accommodated under NFMA, it is clear that trees are not to be cut nor forests leveled for no purpose." - More...
Saturday am - August 06, 2005

Ketchikan: Pet and Doll Parade Kicks-off Blueberry Festival - Approximately 140 participants, both big and small, participated in the Pet and Doll Parade Friday kicking-off Ketchikan's Blueberry Arts Festival which is scheduled for this weekend. - More...
Friday PM - August 05, 2005

VISTA Steven Alvarez

Ketchikan: Alvarez's Year Long Service In Ketchikan Positive By M.C. Kauffman - VISTA Steven Alvarez will be celebrating his one-year anniversary in Ketchikan by leaving Ketchikan. Alvarez said, "That sounds terrible, I guess."

Alvarez wonders if he will be leaving Ketchikan better than when he began. Has he strengthened efforts to eliminate and alleviate poverty? Alvarez said, "I'd like to think so, but I suppose the hungry are just as hungry as I leave." He said, "Yet I have begun something that I believe will, with time, decrease the poverty of lost promise in the youth of this community - and for me the poverty of 'no see ums' is the greatest lack any and every community faces."  

Alvarez serves in AmeriCorps' VISTA (Volunteers in Service to America) program which is a thirty-year-old federal program begun by President Lyndon Johnson. The program is geared toward eliminating poverty in our nation by supporting non-profit and other social service agencies fighting the war against hunger, lack of education, and, generally speaking, all disenfranchisement. As a VISTA, Alvarez said his job was to help to recruit and train volunteers, and to assist those agencies attempting to assist the public at large. "Never heard of my organization or me? Not surprising, as it seems to me most of your community hasn't. Let's not get off on a bad foot, I had never heard of Ketchikan before I moved here last August, " said Alvarez. - More...
Friday - August 05, 2005

Ketchikan: Listen to this KRBD story.... The Ketchikan Gateway Borough Thursday afternoon auctioned off about 220 acres of borough property in Ward Cove, Carroll Inlet and Mud Bay. The borough's auction netted approximately $3.3 million, however several sales totaling about $1.2 million are subject to assembly approval. Deanna Garrison has this report. KRBD - Ketchikan Public Radio - www.krbd.org -Thurday PM - August 04, 2005

Thorne Bay: New Ranger Selected for Thorne Bay District - A new ranger has been chosen to guide one of the Tongass National Forest's districts on Prince of Wales Island.

Jason Anderson, public affairs officer and partnership coordinator for the Bridger-Teton National Forest in Jackson, Wyo., was recently named the new Thorne Bay District Ranger. He's scheduled to report to his new job Sept. 6. - More...
Friday - August 05, 2005  

Alaska: A New Idea About Orderly Arctic Lakes By NED ROZELL - For more than 50 years, scientists have wondered why the lakes of arctic Alaska are so similar to one another. The lakes are long, thin, and point in the same direction, like salmon swimming upstream.

A scientist from Tucson has a new theory about this order among disorder on Alaska's North Slope. Jon Pelletier studies geomorphology-the study of how landforms come to be-at the University of Arizona. He wrote a paper about the oriented arctic lakes that appeared in the June 30, 2005 issue of the Journal of Geophysical Research. - More...
Friday - August 05, 2005 

Alaska: Floating radar station prepares to sail for remote island By PAULA DOBBYN - A massive floating radar station that detects enemy missiles will sail soon to Adak, a remote island in the Aleutian chain. The $815 million X-band radar platform is a key part of the Bush administration's multibillion-dollar missile-defense program.

The sea-based radar platform - the only one of its kind in the world - was assembled in Texas by defense contractors Boeing and Raytheon. The self-propelled station sits 21 stories high and is as wide as a football field, rendering it too gigantic to squeeze through the Panama Canal, according to Boeing publicity materials. - More...
Friday - August 05, 2005

Alaska: Governor Signs Insurance Competition Bill - Alaska Governor Frank H. Murkowski signed into law House Bill 216, a bill to substantially modernize state regulatory oversight of the insurance industry in Alaska. The bill will change the way insurance companies receive authorization to implement revisions to insurance products and premiums.

HB216, sponsored by the House Labor and Commerce Committee, gives insurance companies the ability to more quickly change some rates while retaining the state's authority to oversee rate changes. - More...
Friday - August 05, 2005

Viewpoints Opinions/Letters VOTE NO By William Tatsuda - Friday pm Change with the times or get left behind. By Tom LeCompte - Friday pm Consolidation: Every day another good reason By Glen Thompson - Friday pm Join Bill Thomas Sr. By Ted A. Wright - Friday pm Your voice is important By Bill Thomas Sr. - Friday Think Before You Sign By Ken Perry - Friday HELP ME TO UNDERSTAND, THEN COME DOWN AND LISTEN By Marie Monyak - Friday Dock extension issue By Mark Tollfeldt - Friday Dock Bond By Pete Ellis - Friday Providing basic transportation for Alaskans; Public comment sought By Robin Taylor - Friday Another Reason To Vote No By Chris Herby - Friday Fixing Pension Called For Bold Steps by Senator Lyda Green - Friday More Viewpoints/ Letters Publish A Letter Mission Iraq Recess RJ Matson, Roll Call Distributed to subscribers exclusively by Cagle Cartoons, Inc. Political Cartoonists Ketchikan Calendar, Meetings, Events Today's Forecast City Police Report AK Troopers Daily Dispatch Classifieds & Announcements August 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

Alaska: Commissioner Gilbertson to leave state service; Accepting position at Providence Health System - Alaska Region - Alaska Governor Frank H. Murkowski announced Thursday that he reluctantly accepted the resignation of Health and Social Services Commissioner Joel Gilbertson, who will leave state service Sept. 30 to accept a position as Director of Strategic Development and Administration with Providence Health System - Alaska Region. - More...
Friday - August 05, 2005 

National: 93-year-old presses ahead with claim over 1877 Indian raid By MICHAEL DOYLE - Kate Dotson fights on.

The 93-year-old Oakdale, Calif., resident wants satisfaction from the federal government. Still. She's owed money, she says, because Nez Perce Indians stole her father's supplies in the Montana Territory more than 125 years ago. She has piles of evidence and plenty of passion; but that, as she's learned, isn't always enough.

"I don't drive," Dotson said. "I don't have a computer. I don't see very well. I'm sure they just expect me to die."

A retired typing and shorthand teacher with an active mind, Dotson has been battling for years. The gist of her claim is that the Indians stole $654.50 worth of her father's equipment. For that, she says, the federal government must pay. - More...
Friday - August 05, 2005

National: More than half of Americans have reaction to a common allergen By LEE BOWMAN - More than half of Americans ages 6 to 59 have a reaction to at least one of 10 common allergens during a skin test, making them more likely to have asthma, hay fever or eczema, according to a new study by government researchers.

The findings, based on the third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey that included skin tests on about 10,500 people between 1988 and 1994, showed that 54.3 percent had a positive response to at least one allergen. - More...
Friday - August 05, 2005

International: Sudden spike in deaths blamed on operations in Iraq's 'Wild West' By JOHN KOOPMAN - It's been a rough week for the Marines.

The Corps lost 14 men to a roadside bomb Wednesday, six to an ambush Monday, and another to a car bomb a few miles from there.

Except for the Marine killed by the car bomb, the deaths all occurred in the city of Haditha, about 140 miles northwest of Baghdad, halfway between Fallujah and the Syrian border in Anbar province.

Already, more Marines have died in August than all of July, and nearly as many as in the entire month of June.

"The main reason for this is that the Marines are in a bad neighborhood," said John Pike, military analyst with Globalsecurity.org, a defense think tank in Washington, D.C. "The area in and around Fallujah is not a good place to be. " - More...
Friday - August 05, 2005

International: Saudi Arabia dares to hope for reform By MARK MACKINNON - As Ibrahim al-Mugaiteeb watched his new king pledge to pursue "righteousness and justice" and his fellow countrymen swear their allegiance, he hoped the man who ascended to the throne will remember, and keep, the promises he's made.

Al-Mugaiteeb said in 2003 that a group of 40 social and political activists, as well as religious leaders, personally delivered a petition to then-Crown Prince Abdullah, asking that he implement political reforms to move Saudi Arabia from being an absolute monarchy to a constitutional monarchy. - More... 
Friday - August 05, 2005