National: Bush calls for conservation as gas prices soar By JAMES ROSEN - President Bush asked Americans on Thursday to limit gasoline purchases to essential needs, while congressional leaders threatened gas-price gougers and energy-commodity speculators with federal prosecution.

With reports of looming gas shortages because of Hurricane Katrina's damage to refineries and pipelines, drivers formed long lines at stations and prices spiked well over $3 a gallon in some areas.

In a first for a former Texas oilman who has long stressed production over conservation, Bush urged motorists to "be prudent" in purchasing gas. - More...
Thursday PM - September 01, 2005

National: Bush, Congress respond to disaster from Katrina By MARGARET TALEV - As lawlessness, distress, disease and death settled in on New Orleans and other affected areas, President Bush and Congress took steps Thursday to restore order and blunt criticism that the federal government's response to Hurricane Katrina has been slow or inadequate.

The president, on the defensive, appeared twice on television. On ABC's "Good Morning America" he acknowledged victims' anxiety and sense of urgency but promised "there's a lot of help coming," and he asked his critics to "not play politics."

In the afternoon at the White House, he was flanked by his father, George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton. The two former presidents successfully raised money to help the tsunami relief effort for South Asia earlier this year. Now, the president has tapped the bipartisan team to lead private fund-raising efforts for Katrina relief and to defend the administration's response. - More...
Thursday PM - September 01, 2005

Alaska: Alaskans Ready for Call to Aid in Hurricane Response; Type 1 Command Team Expects Deployment Order within Hours - Members of Alaska's Type 1 incident command team have been informed that they are to deploy to help with the national emergency response to Hurricane Katrina. The mobilizations are expected to last for up to 21 days each.

The 33-member Type 1 team is one of about 16 national teams available on short notice to manage and direct responses to fires, floods and other natural or man-made disasters. Members work for a variety of state, federal and local governments.

"Our Type 1 teams response to the shuttle explosion, and to the World Trade Center response, Hurricane Ivan last year and to floods and oil spills have been a source of pride for Alaska," Murkowski said. "Our thoughts and prayers will be with them during this deployment just as they are with the victims of this terrible natural disaster." - More...
Thursday PM - September 01, 2005

National: U.S. troops on Gulf Coast to number nearly 30,000 By LISA HOFFMAN - The ranks of U.S. troops engaged in rescue, relief and security duty in hurricane-wrecked Gulf states will soon near 30,000, bolstered by pledges of aid from National Guard outfits from every state except Hawaii.

That total - which amounts to more than half the 58,000 Guard and Reserve troops now at war in Iraq - is just the personnel part of a far-flung Pentagon effort to mobilize a comprehensive array of equipment and technology to help the overwhelmed victims and local officials in southern Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. - More...
Thursday PM - September 01, 2005

National: Katrina may not be hurricane-season finale By KEAY DAVIDSON - As bad as Hurricane Katrina is, it may not be the last such devastating storm of what promises to be a ferocious hurricane season through much of autumn, meteorologists say.

The Gulf, Florida and East coasts could also be in for a decade or more of similar coastline-battering storms, they say. And, according to some experts, global warming might be generating much more intense hurricanes than in the past.

In their seasonal hurricane forecast issued earlier this year, William Gray and his colleagues at Colorado State University estimated that the odds were one-third higher than normal of a major hurricane making landfall on the Gulf Coast from Pensacola, Fla., to Brownsville, Texas. - More...
Thursday PM - September 01, 2005

Election 2005 List of Candidates Filed For Office   Assembly & School Board Final 09/02/05   City Council Updated 09/02/05 Viewpoints Opinions/Letters How arrogant can an elected body get? By Walt Bolling - Thursday PM KETCHIKAN KATRINA RELIEF EFFORT By Rob Holston - Thursday PM HURRICANE KATRINA RELIEF CONCERT By Melva Olson - Thursday KATRINA AID By Dave Hanger - Thursday Katrina Aid By Vicki O'Brien - Thursday Youth, Taxes, and "luxuries" By Richard Cropp - Thursday Diaster aid By Christyne Bell - Thursday Exercising By Shirley McDonald - Thursday More Viewpoints/ Letters Publish A Letter Hurricane and Osama Cam Cardow, The Ottawa Citizen Distributed exclusively to subscribers by Cagle Cartoons, Inc. More Political Cartoonists Ketchikan Calendar, Meetings, Events Ketchikan City Council is scheduled to meet Thursday, September 01, 2005. The meeting begins a 7:00 pm in the City Council Chambers. Agenda & Information Packets Today's Forecast City Police Report AK Troopers Daily Dispatch Classifieds & Announcements August - Sept. 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 31 01     Front Page Archives

National: Gulf Coast struggles to provide for medically needy By LEE BOWMAN - Tens of thousands of people with advanced medical needs have been displaced by Hurricane Katrina, and thousands more are hurt or will sustain injuries and illnesses during the long recovery ahead for the four-state zone hammered by the storm.

Yet over much of the affected Gulf Coast region, hospitals, nursing homes and group homes have been left so damaged or cut off from supplies that they must be abandoned. Some 4,800 patients have been evacuated to other cities, or are still trying to get out of the disaster zone in and around New Orleans, officials said.

Staff and patients at Charity Hospital in New Orleans who were trying to leave Thursday faced sniper fire, according to several reports. - More...
Thursday PM - September 01, 2005

National: Animal-rescue teams helping abandoned pets on Gulf Coast By LANCE GAY - Animal-rights organizations surveying hurricane-stricken regions of Mississippi and Louisiana say they are battling a crisis with abandoned and hungry pets on the loose, and health issues related to animals killed in the storm.

Several groups have sent teams of animal-rescue specialists to the hardest-hit regions. Louisiana and Mississippi have "huge animal concerns," said Melissa Seide Rubin, vice president of field and disaster services for the Humane Society of the United States.

"I think it's going to be absolutely enormous and the worse we've seen," Rubin said. - More...
Thursday PM - September 01, 2005

Alaska: Experts recommend against subsidy for Alaska gas pipeline - Experts working for the Alaska Legislature said this week that oil companies stand to make a lot of money from a natural gas pipeline and there's no reason for the state to offer tax breaks or other concessions to make it happen.

"It's a profitable venture, certainly very economically viable. . . . It would not appear concessions would be necessary," said Barry Pulliam, senior economist for Econ One Research.

Gov. Frank Murkowski is negotiating with the three major oil companies on the North Slope over a contract for what the state taxes and royalties would be if the gas pipeline were built. Legislators said that, given the information from Econ One, the governor shouldn't offer the oil companies too much for a pipeline.

"We are not going to pay just any price to get it done," said North Pole Republican Sen. Gene Therriault, chairman of the Legislative Budget and Audit Committee. - More...
Thursday PM - September 01, 2005

Alaska: Ferry System to Contract for Service to N. Panhandle Communities While LeConte is in Overhaul - The Alaska Department of Transportation and Public Facilities has issued an invitation to bid (ITB) to provide alternative transportation services to seven northern Panhandle communities for about one month while the M/V LeConte is out of service for its annual overhaul.

The ITB asks for replacement passenger service between Juneau, Angoon, Sitka, Hoonah, Tenakee Springs, Kake, and Petersburg starting on October 13, and lasting about five weeks through mid-November when LeConte is expected to return to service. The contracted service will cover the LeConte's published schedule for passengers. Contracted vehicle service will be limited to Saturday and Monday Juneau-Angoon-Juneau sailings only. Limited Kake and Hoonah vehicle traffic will be provided by the M/V Taku. - More...
Thursday PM - September 01, 2005

Science: Fossils place chimp, pre-human in same habitat By DAVID PERLMAN - Anthropologists working in East Africa's Great Rift Valley, where Earth's crust split apart millions of years ago, have discovered the first fossil evidence that chimpanzees, our closest genetic relatives, once lived side by side with the direct ancestors of modern humans.

The evidence consists of only three teeth - a single tiny molar and two pointed incisors. But they show clearly that some 500,000 years ago - and probably much further back in time than that - both chimps and a race of human forebears inhabited a verdant region marked by streams filled with fish, turtles and crocodiles and by forests and marshes abounding with buffalo, elephants, hippopotami, monkeys, ancestral antelopes and other animals.

Until now, scientists believed that the creation of the Great Rift Valley about 15 million years ago - caused when Earth's vast crustal plates began splitting chunks of East Africa apart - would have confined the chimps to more verdant areas well west of the region. But it appears from the findings that the land to the east was both forested and well-watered, and that both chimps and our human ancestors thrived together there. - More...
Thursday PM - September 01, 2005