Alaska: Why are PFDs down when oil prices and the Fund's value are at all time highs? - The announcement Tuesday evening that the 2005 dividend would be $845.76, the lowest amount since 1988, has left some Alaskans wondering, "Why did dividends go down this year, not up?" - More...
Wednesday PM - September 21, 2005

National: Republicans offer targets for spending cuts By LIZ RUSKIN - House conservatives have added a bit of formality to the popular notion that Americans should give up billions of dollars in highway projects - including more than $450 million for two big bridges in Alaska - to pay for the damage of Hurricane Katrina.

The Republican Study Committee, a group of more than 100 fiscal hawks, launched "Operation Offset" Wednesday with a proposal that they say will strip the national budget of more than $500 billion of unnecessary spending.

Prominent on their 23-page list is cutting $25 billion of transportation "earmarks" - the allocations Congress members got in this summer's highway bill for specific projects in their home districts. - More...
Wednesday PM - September 21, 2005

National: Bush not giving up on Social Security reform By BILL STRAUB - Beset by issues ranging from the double-barreled hurricane recovery to the occupation of Iraq, President Bush nonetheless is laying plans to proceed on the hot-button topic of Social Security reform.

Even though some fellow Republicans are walking away from the politically risky plan to create private accounts for retirees, the president has displayed no sign of backing down and met Wednesday with members of his Commission to Strengthen Social Security.

Scott McClellan, the president's press secretary, told reporters on Tuesday that Social Security remains "an important priority, particularly when we're talking about addressing issues in terms of longer-term cost." - More...
Wednesday PM - September 21, 2005

National: Federal government 'ready for the worst' with Rita By LISA HOFFMAN - No one can predict precisely where Hurricane Rita will slam to shore, but one thing is certain:

The federal government, reeling from an ongoing pummeling for its slow and bumbling response to Hurricane Katrina, is putting on a full-court press now to prepare for the coming 'cane.

"Federal, state and local governments are coordinating their efforts to get ready," President Bush said Wednesday. "We hope and pray that Hurricane Rita will not be a devastating storm, but we got to be ready for the worst." - More...
Wednesday PM - September 21, 2005

Viewpoints Opinions/Letters Ketchikan Water Issues By Rob Glenn - Wednesday PM THE DOCK; WHO PAYS? By Chris Schelb- Wednesday PM Kiss porker's what? By Doug Barry- Wednesday PM Outsourcing Alaska Services By Mary Hemli- Wednesday PM Mike Sallee for borough assembly By Shelley Stallings- Wednesday PM Upcoming Katrina Relief Event By Rob Holston- Wednesday PM Stuffing or pull more hands together? By Kenneth A. White- Wednesday PM Selfish? By Karen S. Hollywood- Wednesday PM Candidates By P. J. Travis- Wednesday PM "Bridge to our future"... By Charlotte Tanner - Wednesday PM 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 BRIDGE TO SOMEWHERE By Mary Ida Henrikson - Monday PM Bridge To The Future By Pete Ellis - Monday PM 'Under God' By Ben Rosenfeld - Monday PM RE: Ketchikan Bridge Funds By Marie L. Monyak - Monday PM Ketchikan Bridge Funds By Kenneth A. White - Monday George W. Bush's "Wager" By Robert J. Freedland - Monday Nation Founded Under God By Linda Williams - Monday Pennock Island + Gravina Island = Desecration Bridge By Don Hoff Jr. - Monday GOD? By Marie L Monyak - Monday 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

National: Top Dems come out for ANWR protest By LIZ RUSKIN - Busloads of college students, dozens of Alaska Natives and one slender man swathed in plastic bags were among hundreds of people who united on the U.S. Capitol grounds Tuesday to protest a plan to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling.

The issue drew some high-profile Democrats to the podium - Sens. John Kerry and Joe Lieberman, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich. The biggest star, based on crowd reaction, was New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, whom the throng greeted with digital cameras and cell phones held aloft. She attacked the argument that drilling in ANWR has become more urgent in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and the gas price hike that followed.

"It makes no sense to respond to a disaster in the gulf by making a disaster in Alaska," she said, to much applause. - More...
Wednesday PM - September 21, 2005

National: Katrina aid donations are outpacing 9/11 By GARY ROTSTEIN - Since Hurricane Katrina struck, Americans have attended fund-raisers, donated online, phoned telethon lines and tossed change into buckets and cans on an unprecedented scale for a major disaster.

Laurie Reinhard, director of disaster relief for the American Red Cross, knows the level of generosity from watching daily donation figures that dwarf even what came in immediately after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks or last year's South Asian tsunami.

Gianna Marie Balsamico, 6, understands what's happening from watching television pictures of New Orleans' victims with her mother, which prompted "Gigi" to sell bottled water to raise money from drivers in her Ross subdivision. - More...
Wednesday PM - September 21, 2005

Health: Researchers find more accurate test for prostate cancer By LEE BOWMAN - Researchers have developed a new blood test that appears to provide more accurate screening for prostate cancer than the one widely used now.

"Initially, we envision this new test could be used as a supplement to PSA" (prostate specific antigen test), said Dr. Arul Chinnaiyan, a professor of pathology at the University of Michigan Medical School and lead author of a report on the test published Thursday in The New England Journal of Medicine. "In the future, I think this could replace PSA." - More...
Wednesday PM - September 21, 2005

Health: In schools, germs lurk where you least expect them By LANCE GAY - Every parent knows that elementary schools are notorious germ factories.

But professional microbiologists associated with the nonprofit "Scrub Club" did an experiment with a typical elementary school this month and found fewer germs in places where they might be expected - restrooms, desk tops and on door handles -and far more where even the professionals didn't expect to find them. - More...
Wednesday PM - September 21, 2005

Dale McFeatters: Not all dead ends lead to unemployment - I am a sucker for lists - top 10 reasons, 10 best buys. And so, trolling the Internet, I came across a list of 10 dead-end jobs and had to check to see if I was holding one.

It turns out that while you may or may not be at a dead end, it's your field of employment that's dying or dead. Farmers and ranchers are taking the worst hit, according to CareerBuilder.com, a field that will lose 250,000 jobs by 2012. This is hardly a news flash. Farming and ranching have been going off a cliff for the last century. Besides, the work is really hard. No wonder people are getting out. But it does make you wonder why agricultural subsidies keep rising. - More...
Wednesday PM - September 21, 2005

John Hall: The American people are sick of it - After a brief surge, President Bush's attempt to rally his sagging fortunes in front of Andrew Jackson's statue in New Orleans seems to be falling back once again under the weight of general public doubt.

Throwing money at Hurricane Katrina victims from a government living on credit wasn't the answer. Finally, spending while in debt is being seen for the ill-considered solution it has been all along - whether for fighting the war in Iraq or using the highway bill as a political pork barrel. - More...
Wednesday PM - September 21, 2005