Election News: Knowles, Palin in November By KYLE HOPKINS, TOM KIZZIA and KATIE PESZNECKER Anchorage Daily News - Former Wasilla mayor Sarah Palin knocked embattled incumbent Gov. Frank Murkowski out of office in the Republican primary race for governor Tuesday, setting the stage for a general election showdown with former two-term Democratic Gov. Tony Knowles and for a potential shake-up in her own party. - Read this ADN Story... August 22, 2006 Top Stories U.S. News U.S. Politics Alaska Ketchikan

International: Analysts: Expect continuation of status quo from Iran By MATTHEW B. STANNARD - Iran has promised to respond by Tuesday to a Western package of incentives seeking to stop its nuclear enrichment program. But with the date imminent, analysts and Iran watchers say that they aren't exactly holding their collective breath.

Nor is there much likelihood of a breakthrough before - and probably not even after - an Aug. 31 deadline set by the U.N. Security Council for Iran to accept the incentive package or face the possibility of international sanctions.

Instead, several experts said they expect a continuation of the status quo: vague statements from Iran vacillating between threats and promises; reluctance on the part of some or all of the Security Council members to act; and pages falling off the calendar as each side waits for an opening.

"One of the things that makes Iran such an interesting problem is they might well be poor strategists, but they're terrific tacticians," said Kori Schake, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution. "My guess is their larger objective is to string this out as long as possible, to not give us anything to react to ... I think time very much works in Iran's favor."

The incentive package reportedly offers direct negotiations with the United States and Europe and the possibility that Iran could eventually resume uranium enrichment for energy, provided it stops enrichment until the United Nations' International Atomic Energy Agency can verify its claims that the program is peaceful.

Iran has given mixed signals of its plans for Tuesday. Its official news outlet, the Islamic Republic News Agency, quoted Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki on Wednesday as saying that Iran would be willing to discuss suspending enrichment of nuclear fuel, but that article was followed by comments from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad saying Iran would not give up its program and, hours later, a retraction of Mottaki's quote as inaccurate. - More...
Monday PM - August 21, 2006

Alaska: Congress sets more hearings into BP pipeline By LISA ZAGAROLI - Public scrutiny of BP's pipeline maintenance is intensifying, with lawmakers pledging two more congressional hearings to examine how to prevent transmission lines from corroding to the point of failure.

Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, has scheduled a hearing of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, which he chairs, for Sept. 13.

He said in a statement that the panel would call in officials from BP along with federal and state regulators to consider ways to prevent further corrosion problems on low-pressure lines to the Trans-Alaska Pipeline.

Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said he'd hold a hearing, tentatively scheduled for Sept. 12, because he was concerned about the impact on the U.S. oil supply.

"I am particularly worried about what the loss of this oil will mean if the nation faces another difficult hurricane season or a harsh winter," Domenici said. - More...
Monday PM - August 21, 2006

Health-Fitness: Glowing chickens bring hope in fight against cancer By CHARLIE EMRICH - Take a chicken, add a pinch of jellyfish DNA, and you'll not only get a slightly fluorescent bird, but also one that's likely to play an important role in the development of cancer treatment.

The creation of the glow-in-the-dark chicken, described in June in the journal Nature, explained a new method used to easily modify the DNA of chickens.

While cool in a creepy, mad-scientist sort of way, making chickens fluorescent won't cure cancer by itself. But when combined with earlier research methods, it could transform chickens into small, inexpensive laboratories for the production of cancer-fighting human antibodies. - More...
Monday PM - August 21, 2006

Fish Factor: International interest in canned pinks growing fast By LAINE WELCH - World food aid programs can be huge customers for our nation's home grown commodities, but until recently canned Alaska salmon wasn't even included on the shopping list. One year ago a single ton of canned Alaska pink salmon had made its way into global food programs. Today that number has jumped to 1,400 tons in shipments to Cambodia, Guatemala and Guinea ­ and international interest in canned pinks is growing fast.

"It's about two percent of the total canned pink pack. The acceptance has been incredible!" said Kodiak fisherman Bruce Schactler who, at the request of Governor Murkowski two years ago, has shouldered the task to redefine and broaden federal feeding rules.

"Sometimes it's simply a matter of changing one word in a regulation from 48 years ago. It's all an official process," Schactler explained.

There are hundreds of private voluntary organizations (PVOs) engaged in humanitarian assistance and food relief programs, which put in requests to the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture and other agencies. Getting canned salmon included on the international shopping list was just the first step, Schactler said.

"The PVOs have to ask for it, and the granting agency has to agree that it's a good idea to give it to them. You have to convince them all that it's a good product, it ships well, how to open the cans, what they can do with the cans, that it's a sustainable product for feeding programs .every question that can possibly be asked about introducing something new. That takes ongoing marketing," he said.

Most importantly, decision makers must be convinced that canned salmon is something that can be used with local ingredients. "How do you cook the stuff over a fire in a backyard in Uganda? You have to make people comfortable with using it," Schactler said. - More...
Monday PM - August 21, 2006

Viewpoints Opinions/Letters Get out and Vote! And support Postal Ballots By Michael Spence - Monday PM Yes! Yes! Yes! on Cruise Ship Ballot Initiative #2 By Carrie L. James - Monday PM Watch out for Proposition 2 By Anita Hales - Monday PM Eye of the Beholder By Chris Elliott - Monday Obvious flaws exposed by Mr. Dial By A. M. Johnson - Monday Let's make a change By Michael Moyer - Monday Consolidation and Other Community Based Issues...exercise your vote By Bobbie McCreary - Monday DUMP MURKOWSKI IN MIDSTREAM By Charlotte Tanner - Monday Little girls should look like little girls and not like a streetwalker!!! By Delaine Broome - Monday RE: KPU - For the people? By Floyd Crocker - Monday Alaskan vote could raise taxes on cruises By Rob Glenn - Monday MURKOWSKI VOTE NEEDED By Pete Ellis - Sunday Vote for Jim Elkins On August 22nd By Larry Buster - Sunday Cruise Ship Industry Tax By Dave Person - Sunday YES! for Proposition 2 By Susan Walsh - Sunday YES VOTE ON 2 ESSENTIAL By Pete Ellis - Sunday Cruise Ship Industry & Taxes By Alan R. McGillvray - Sunday No to Consolidation By Don Hoff Jr. - Sunday Scrap the Swan Lake -Tyee Lake Project By Don Hoff, Jr. - Sunday "Yes" on 2 By Patricia Hickox - Sunday KIC Tribal Health Clinic's Mission By Rose Johnson - Sunday KPU for who? By Charlie Reynolds - Sunday American Pit Bull Terrier Day By Scott Fulton - Sunday American Pit Bull Terriers By Tina Greenup - Sunday Thank you Mr. Hupe By Nathan Buendia - Saturday YES on Proposition 2 Cruiseship Initiative By Eric Muench - Friday Pro Elkins By David Hull - Friday Good govenor? By Janelle Hamilton - Friday More Viewpoints/ Letters Publish A Letter Political Cartoonists Political Cartoons Ketchikan City Police Report AK Troopers Daily Dispatch Arts This Week Today's Forecast Ketchikan Weather Data Current AK Weather Map Classifieds & Announcements August 2006 Click on the date to read the stories published on that day. S M T W T F S   31 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: This Will Only Take A Minute! - We all like to be thought of as important.

That's why it is so hard to turn down a chance to be "surveyed".

We like to believe "our opinions matter" and that's just what the surveyors tell us.

In the last five months, I have been phone surveyed five different times. It's like jury duty, they say you are randomly selected but - truth is - once you answer a survey or show up for jury duty - you seem to find yourself being "selected" again and again.

For example, I went years without being called for jury duty and then I was called for four straight years. Random coincidence? I think not. But as usual, I digress.

So, for the most part, phone surveys are not really a problem for me. I'm always willing to give an opinion, although it does seem like they always call around face stuffing time and "this will only take a couple of minutes" usually means 10 minutes at the least. - More...
Monday PM - August 21, 2006

Preston MacDougall: Chemical Eye on Plutonic Angels - Once upon a time, theology scholars argued about how many angels could stand on the point of a pin. This isn't just a saying; numerous medieval scribes actually burned the midnight oil copying out proceedings of such debates.

Nowadays, via the internet, bloggers tell us all about an ongoing conference in Prague, where astronomy scholars are debating how many planets orbit our sun.

At a meeting of the International Astronomers Union being held in the Czech capital, there are passionate supporters for popular answers such as "8", "9", and "12", as well as some authoritative voices positing "53 and counting".

Based on some of the questions that are popping up in my browser, I'm not sure what the bloggers are burning. Consider what Paul the Hermit has to say: "If Mickey Mouse's dog can have one (a planet named for him), why can't I?" - More...
Monday PM - August 21, 2006

Bob Ciminel: Flake on a Plane - The latest airline scare, not counting the bomb threat on a British airliner, involves a 59-year-old ex-Hippie from Vermont. (I swear the acid rain must be doing something to the maple syrup up there in New England because we are getting more and more crazies coming out of those states.) Virginia Mayo (I know that's not her name, but this is my article, so deal with it) kind of went a little crazy on a United flight from London to Washington, D.C. I'm not sure why someone from Vermont would fly to DC to go to Vermont. Maybe she needed the frequent flyer points? In the end, it worked out well because the plane landed in Boston, which is closer to Vermont than Washington. (I wonder if she knew that?)

I've heard several reports about what exactly she did on the plane, but let it suffice to say that she exhibited abnormal behavior. Now, based on the many flights I've taken over the past couple of years, any passenger whose behavior is termed "abnormal" by everyone else on the plane has to be bouncing-off-the-walls crazy. I mean, "Normal" behavior by airline passengers is a far cry from the social mores I learned at home and in school. (I attended parochial schools from fifth grade through high school, and improper behavior was corrected by a ruler across the knuckles or a wooden paddle when I acted up in high school. Dad, on the other hand, would just thrash me to within an inch of my life. I got the message.) - More...
Monday PM - August 21, 2006

Rob Holston: 10-Year-Old Microcosm - I feel compelled to write about a little girl I met recently. I met her at work and we visited for parts of the two hours that she was with me in the wheelhouse during our excursion. I'll call her Chayleene. She was bright and talkative for a girl of 10 years of age. She's going into fifth grade and seemed in many respects to be a typical American girl for her age. It didn't take long for me to notice that Chayleene suffered from the abnormality of a deformed extremity at birth. But it didn't seem to slow her down at all as she handled her binoculars well when she used them to spot eagles or harbor seals along the way. Her outgoing personality soon had me looking well beyond what most people would consider a life changing "handicap". Chayleene had adjusted well to the hand she had been dealt, so to speak but in the time we spent together I learned she had problems far greater than her birth defect to deal with.

In a sense, I saw this child as a microcosm for her generation. Chayleene comes from a large family in more ways than one and Chayleene suffers from obesity. Through the windows surrounding us, I could see her dad and step-mom among the other guests. Chayleene was describing her family tree and it was anything but traditional. She has four brothers, all of them step brothers. She has sisters and half-sisters, a mom, a dad, a step-mom and a step-dad. She had just seen her brother who is in the army and whom she had not seen for a full three years! Our visiting was a little bit lop-sided as this young girl went on and on, unsolicited about her family and the vacation that she was on. - More...
Monday PM - August 21, 2006