National: Debate just beginning over Katrina relief and taxes By BILL STRAUB - President Bush and congressional leaders are committed to rebuilding a storm-ravaged New Orleans, but the argument over how to pick up the tab for the region - already estimated to reach at least $200 billion - is just getting started.

Assessing the storm damage and its impact on the federal budget last week, Bush declared that the natural disaster will be addressed without raising taxes or delaying congressional efforts to make permanent several tax cuts implemented earlier in his administration. - More...
Tuesday PM - September 20, 2005

National: Tom DeLay and Don Young Named Co-Porkers of the Month - Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) today named House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) and Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Chairman Don Young (R-Alaska) Co-Porkers of the Month for their response to requests to offset the costs of Hurricane Katrina relief.

According to a Sept. 14 Washington Times article, Rep. DeLay declared an "ongoing victory" in the effort to cut spending, and that the Republicans had "pared (the government) down pretty good." While claiming to be receptive to proposed offsets, DeLay said that "nobody has been able to come up with any yet." He added that cutting the 6,000 earmarks in the recently-passed $295 billion Transportation Equity Act - A Legacy for Users (TEA-LU) would adversely affect "important infrastructure" and the economy, and it would be "right" to borrow the money to pay for Katrina relief.

Rep. Young had a much more curt response when asked by a Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reporter about redirecting the combined $450 million for the Gravina Island and Knik Arm (renamed Don Young's Way) bridges to hurricane victims: "They can kiss my ear." He then called such a request the "dumbest thing I've ever heard." - More...
Tuesday PM - September 20, 2005

National: After Roberts, who's next? By MARGARET TALEV - Now that John Roberts has sailed through his confirmation hearings, the White House, Congress and ideological activists are shifting focus to a second opening on the Supreme Court - and how President Bush should fill it.

For a number of reasons, several conservatives say they believe the president is adjusting his short list of nominees from one dominated by conservative, white men to one dominated by conservative women and minorities, with a particular emphasis on blacks and federal judges who had been based in New Orleans until Hurricane Katrina. - More...
Tuesday PM - September 20, 2005

Alaska: Details trickle out about fishy deal by Alaska's Stevens By RICHARD MAUER - tate Sen. Ben Stevens held a secret option to buy into an Alaska seafood company at the same time his powerful father, U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens, was creating a special Aleutian Islands fishery that would supply the company with pollock worth millions of dollars a year.

The pollock allocation alone was projected to provide the company with $1.5 million in profits this year and $3.7 million in 2006, the company's founder said in an affidavit in March, before problems involving the company and the availability of fish cast doubt on those numbers. Under his deal, Ben Stevens would have been entitled to one-fourth of the profits of the company, Adak Fisheries. - More...
Tuesday PM - September 20, 2005

'Rainbow' Front Page Photo by Lisa Thompson

Ketchikan: Scholarship Winners Announced - Fall 2005 scholarship winners were awarded recently to University of Alaska Southeast Ketchikan students. The scholarship awards range from $300 to $1400 each.

Sherrity Kelly was awarded the PEO Chapter H scholarship as well as the Edward Siemon Math-Science Scholarship. Kayleigh Hoyt was awarded a $1000 Beck Writing Award. Karen Ramsey received $750 from the UAS Alumni Association Ketchikan Chapter. This is the first year of the award by the recently established group. - More...
Tuesday PM - September 20, 2005

Alaska: New Poll Shows Public Support Growing To Open Arctic Coastal Plain to Oil & Gas Development - Saying Americans increasingly understand the nation's need for more domestic production of oil and natural gas after seeing the price aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski said she is certain Congress will follow suit and vote to open the Arctic coastal plain to environmentally sensitive oil and gas development later this fall.

Citing a Pew Research Center for the People & the Press national public opinion poll that was released last Thursday afternoon, Murkowski said that, "Americans today clearly favor opening the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas development." - More...
Tuesday PM - September 20, 2005

The Alaska skate, Bathyraja parmifera. Photo: NOAA Fisheries

Alaska: Scientist peers into skate nurseries in Alaska - NOAA scientist Gerald Hoff is looking into the places and ways that skates propogate in Alaska's ocean waters.

"Skates deposit their eggs in specific nursery areas" said Hoff. "Virtually nothing is known about skate nursery grounds in Alaskan waters yet they are very important for the successful propagation of the greater than twelve species known to exist there." - More...
Tuesday PM - September 20, 2005

Alaska: Satellite observations used to investigate 'greening' trends across Canada and Alaska - Recent research results from scientists at the Woods Hole Research Center suggest that 'greening' has begun to decline in the high latitude forested areas of North America. The work, which represents an important advance by incorporating the full extent of the latest satellite observational record to document unique vegetation responses to climatic warming, and then projecting those trends forward in time, is now being extended to circumpolar forests. The research will be highlighted in upcoming issues of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) and in Geophysical Research Letters. - More...
Tuesday PM - September 20, 2005

Viewpoints Opinions/Letters ANYONE NEW OUT THERE WORTH VOTING FOR? By David G. Hanger - Tuesday PM Common Sense for our Democracy By Mark "Thor" Hearne - Tuesday PM Vote Lunde For City Council By Thomas Fisher - Tuesday PM Public opinion can still make a difference By Loren Prosser - Tuesday PM One Nation Under God By Richard Cropp - Tuesday PM Free Airport Ferry Rides for 60 Years or More! By Doug Barry - Tuesday PM Food for thought... By Neil Gray - Tuesday PM More Viewpoints/ Letters Publish A Letter Political Cartoons Government Is The Problem And The Solution RJ Matson, The St. Louis Post Dispatch- Distributed exclusively to subscribers by Cagle Cartoons, Inc. Political Cartoonists E-mail a political cartoon Ketchikan Calendar, Meetings, Events Today's Forecast City Police Report 09/12/05 AK Troopers Daily Dispatch Classifieds & Announcements September 2005 Click on the date for stories and photos published on that day... S M T W T F S   29 30 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    Front Page Archives

Health: Gum disease develops early in life, study finds By LEE BOWMAN - Gum disease develops much earlier in young adults and may have more health implications than dentists and other health professionals have realized, particularly when those twentysomethings still have their wisdom teeth, according to a set of studies presented Tuesday.

Periodontal disease develops when bacteria grow in the gums and hidden roots of teeth, damaging the tissue and causing gaps to form around the roots, eventually loosening the teeth. Infection can spread to other teeth and other parts of the body more easily in people with gum disease. - More...
Tuesday PM - September 20, 2005

Jay Ambrose: Spending is the problem - This nation is going to rebuild a major city - New Orleans - and that won't come cheap. Some say the federal government's contribution alone could end up being $200 billion, and some also say there's just one way to come up with the money: Raise taxes.

That's wrong, even though worries about the federal deficit are right. The shortfall this fiscal year is put at $314 billion, and analysts have estimated the amount could go up by another $200 billion in several years when you throw in the costs of resurrecting the Gulf Coast from Katrina's devastation. The borrowing to finance such a deficit can increase interest rates to ill economic effect, but taxes are not the answer. - More...
Tuesday PM - September 20, 2005

Barbara Bova: Midlife doubts deal blows to men and women alike - "Is this it? Is this all there is?" These are the questions we all ask ourselves at least once in our lives.

One day we look in the mirror and suddenly see the span of years on our faces and in our eyes. We're struck with the thought that the dreams we had 20 years ago remain largely unrealized. We look into the future and see nothing more than the same old things. - More...
Tuesday PM - September 20, 2005

Steve Brewer: Talking with Dr. Feel - Voiceover: "They get rich trafficking in human misery. They prey on the poor and the stupid and the immoral. Drug dealers? No, an even worse form of lowlife: daytime talk-show hosts. Today on 'Dr. Feel.' "

(Theme music plays. Camera pans hopeful crowd before settling on large bald man.) - More...
Tuesday PM - September 20, 2005

Dale McFeatters: Ensuring one voter, one vote - Our elections of course should be fair, but it is also vital that they be seen to be fair.

Voting irregularities have impinged on the last two presidential elections, and after the 2000 Florida debacle, many die-hard Bush opponents never did concede the legitimacy of his first term.

Thus, the recommendations of a private commission on election reform, co-chaired by former President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker, are worth heeding. - More...
Tuesday PM - September 20, 2005

Michael Woods: Sanitizing a soon-to-be discarded computer - One of the most frequently asked questions from readers involves the best way to "sanitize" an old computer before bidding it farewell.

These readers are not concerned about other people catching germs from their keyboard or mouse. They're worried that someone may see emails, letters, financial documents, passwords and other personal information on the hard disk drive. - More...
Tuesday PM - September 20, 2005

James Derk: 'Crimeware' joins other online hazards - First there were viruses. Then came spam, then adware and then spyware.

Now comes "crimeware," the growth of which is really scaring some security officials because it parallels the growth of online banking and the growing practice of entering credit card data online.

It gets on your PC when you click on a link in an e-mail, via an attachment, via an infected instant message or via an infected Web page. What it does is log your keystrokes when you log on to a banking site or other secure location and send that data to a crook over the Internet. - More...
Tuesday PM - September 20, 2005