Commentary David Hanger: PIPS: THE END GAME BEGINS - On the evening of Monday, August 15, 2005, Bryan and Sharon Marsden, the two founding "cockroaches" of PIPS International, were taken into custody by Malaysian authorities.  "Cockroach" is the preferred term used by law enforcement types to describe this kind of scammer.  The Marsden's passports have been confiscated, and they have been incommunicado since that time.  Charges are pending. - More... Sunday - August 21, 2005 News Alaska: Alaska orders fines against PIPS securities violators - The State of Alaska's Administrator of Securities, Mark Davis, of the Division of Banking and Securities, issued a final order against People In Profit System or "PIPS" (also commonly known as Private Investment Profit System).- More... Thursday pm - August 18, 2005

Ketchikan: Alaska Shield/Northern Edge Concludes With Mass Casualty Event By DICK KAUFFMAN - In a fictitious scenario set in Ketchikan for a large scale Alaska Shield/Northern Edge training exercise, "Charles Smedley" sets off some homemade potassium cyanide bombs at Alaska Marine Highway System headquarters Thursday killing several people and injuring many others. "Smedley" aimed to do in his wife "Martha" and have it blamed on the terrorists who were recently in Ketchikan to poison the salad bar. - More...
Friday am - August 19, 2005

Ketchikan: High fire danger burning restriction lifted - The U.S. Forest Service Ketchikan Misty Fiords Ranger District has lifted the very high fire danger burning restrictions, effective today. According to Stanley McCoy, Fire Management Officer of the Ketchikan Misty Fiords Ranger District. The burn ban had been in effect since August 11th.

McCoy said burning restrictions are now lifted for Revilla Island and the Ketchikan area for all district timber sale, road construction, and precommercial thinning operations and campfires. - More...
Friday - August 19, 2005

Ketchikan: "Everyone's an Asset Builder": Community Leadership Workshop Announced - A workshop scheduled for August 31st will introduce participants to Search Institute's developmental assets and invite participants to become asset builders in their personal and professional lives. PATCHWorks Director Karen Eakes stated in an announcement, "It will be specifically directed at people who are genuinely interested in improving the lives of young people in our community." - More...
Friday - August 19, 2005

Alaska: McCain, Clinton probe melting Arctic By LIZ RUSKIN - Sens. John McCain and Hillary Clinton, touring Alaska this week to view melting permafrost and shrinking glaciers, said the evidence is mounting that global warming is real and human activity is significantly to blame.

"The question is how much damage will be done before we start taking concrete action," McCain, R-Ariz., told reporters at the Hotel Captain Cook Wednesday morning. "Go up to places like we just came from. It's a little scary." - More...
Friday - August 19, 2005

Alaska: Ice turning to mush in Alaska By DOUG O'HARRA - Interior Alaska's permafrost has warmed in some places to the highest level since the ice age ended 10,000 years ago, its temperature now within a degree or two of thawing.

Earth frozen since woolly mammoths and bison wandered Interior steppes has been turning to mush. Lakes have been shrinking. Trees are stressed. Prehistoric ice has melted underground, leaving voids that collapse into sinkholes. - More...
Friday - August 19, 2005

Election 2005 List of Candidates Filed For Office Assembly & School Board City Council Viewpoints Opinions/Letters PIPS: THE END GAME BEGINS By David Hanger - Sunday Not naive By Suzan Thompson - Friday "Exercise: It Beats Prozac" By Su Curtis - Friday Newtown By Jane Davidson MaliK - Friday Significant victory for people of Southeast Alaska By Dave Sherman - Friday IT WAS PUBLIC MONEY By Chris Herby - Friday Social issues By Cecelia Johnson - Friday "How arrogant are these guys?" By Brian Bergeron - Friday Update about Chris By the Ashcraft Family - Friday More Viewpoints/ Letters Publish A Letter Highway Construction Delays Larry Wright, The Detroit News Distributed exclusively to subscribers by Cagle Cartoons, Inc. Political Cartoonists Ketchikan Calendar, Meetings, Events The Ketchikan School Board will hold a regular meeting on August 24, 2005. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 6:00 pm in the City Council Chambers. Agenda (pdf) 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: Alaskan judges now free to speak their mind By TATABOLINE BRANT - A rule barring state judges from expressing opinions on controversial issues outside the courtroom is unconstitutional, according to a ruling issued by a federal judge in Anchorage.

The decision, spurred by an anti-abortion group, comes on the heels of similar rulings and changes considerably the limits on Alaska judges' interaction with special interest groups - at least for now. - More...
Friday - August 19, 2005

Week In Review: Israel withdraws from Gaza - Tens of thousands of Israeli army troops served eviction notices on settlers and oversaw evacuations of communities in Gaza and part of the West Bank. Soldiers had to drag some sobbing settlers out of their homes. On the West Bank, an Israeli took a gun from a security guard and opened fire, killing three Palestinians and wounding two. The exodus marked the first time since Israel's withdrawal from the Sinai Peninsula in 1982 that it relinquished Jewish settlements to Arab control. After a series of violent confrontations, the situation calmed somewhat toward the end of the week.

Rockets fired at U.S. ship

Rockets were fired from Jordan, one just missing a U.S. Navy ship that was docked. No U.S. sailors or Marines were injured in the attack by militants. Authorities said the rockets were fired from a warehouse in the port of Aqaba. - More...
Friday - August 19, 2005

Washington Calling: Do-not-call list grows ... IRS ... Dishing on Roberts ... More By LANCE GAY - The Do-Not-Call Registry is a ringing success, in spite of skeptics who said it wouldn't work. The Federal Trade Commission says that this month it hit the 100 million household mark of Americans registering their phones off-limits to telemarketers.

But enjoy the peace at dinnertime while you can: Telemarketing is so lucrative that some companies have set up operations offshore, where they will be free of U.S. regulation. - More...
Friday - August 19, 2005

Dan Thomasson: Bush caves on spending - One of the benefits of not having to worry about re-election is that presidents in their lame-duck terms tend to do things that aren't always politically expedient, to show some courage that the first term precluded if another bite of the apple was in the future.

So why then didn't President Bush veto the outlandish highway transportation bill that, with all this country faces, including the war in Iraq, amounts to a callous disregard of fiduciary responsibility? The $295 billion boondoggle is in direct contradiction of the president's pledges for spending restraint and puts his party into the high-roller category once reserved for Democrats. - More...
Friday - August 19, 2005

Linda Seebach: Graduate programs for school leaders don't make the grade - Arthur Levine, president of Teachers College, Columbia University, describes graduate programs for school leaders - principals and superintendents - as being in "a race to the bottom."

Competing for students who primarily want a credential so they can qualify for bigger salaries but want it to cost as little as possible in money or effort, universities lower their admission standards, weaken their degree requirements and course standards, and rely more and more on low-cost adjuncts to teach courses that have little or nothing to do with what school leaders need to know. - More...
Friday - August 19, 2005

Star Parker: Mexico, U.S. must solve immigration problem - A Spanish-speaking academic friend tells me that the Spanish roots from which the name of my home state, California, is derived mean "hot as an oven." This is quite apt these days. California is a seething cauldron on the issue of illegal immigration.

The Pew Hispanic Center in Washington reports that there are 10.3 million illegal immigrants in the United States today. More than half, 57 percent, are from Mexico. The largest concentration - 25 percent of the total - is in California. - More...
Friday - August 19, 2005

Dale McFeatters: Finally, chemical weapons in Iraq - U.S. troops have finally found chemical weapons in Iraq.

According to The Washington Post, U.S. troops raiding a warehouse in Mosul discovered 1,500 gallons of precursor agents for making chemical weapons along with assorted containers, tubing, hoses and a vat. - More...
Friday - August 19, 2005