October 1, 2019 Ketchikan Local Election Sample Ballots & Propositions Ketchikan Borough Mayor Candidates 3 Year Term, 1 Seat Open Rodney Dial Filed 08/05/19 Candidate's Statement 08/27/19 Sidney Hartley Filed 08/08/19 Candidate's Statement 08/31/19 Michelle O'Brien Filed 08/23/19 Candidate's Statement 09/03/19 Borough Assembly Candidates 3 Year Term, 2 Seats Open Austin Otos Filed 08/01/19 Candidate's Statement 08/28/19 David Landis Filed 08/01/19 Jeremy T. Bynum Filed 08/26/19 Candidate's Statement 09/08/19 Ketchikan School Board Candidates 3 Year Term, 2 Seats Open Bridget Mattson Filed 08/06/19 Candidate's Statement 09/05/19 Jordan Tabb Filed 08/20/19 Ketchikan School Board Candidates 1 Year Term, 1 Seat Open Leslie Becker Filed 08/15/19 Candidate's Statement 08/29/19 Hilary Kvasnikoff Filed 08/16/19 Candidate's Statement 08/27/19 Paul Robbins, Jr. Filed 08/16/19 Candidate's Statement 09/02/19 Kathleen Yarr Filed 08/23/19 Candidate's Statement 09/15/19 Ketchikan City Council 3 Year Term, 2 Seats Open Lew Williams III Filed 08/05/19 Judy Zenge Filed 08/05/19 Spencer Strassburg Filed 08/26/19 Candidate's Statement 09/15/19 This is the 17th year, SitNews has provided FREE unfiltered web exposure to all local Ketchikan candidates to tell the voters why we should elect you. Tell your possible future constituents about your background, work experience, qualifications for the position, etc. Please send a photo. Links to your contact and social media page accepted: Email to editor@sitnews.us Submit Your Statements By: 09/15/19 The sooner the better; absentee voters may vote as early as 15 days prior to the Borough election - absentee voting begins Sept. 16th. Last day to register to vote in the local election is September 1, 2019. Ketchikan: Public Meetings Ketchikan: Upcoming Events Ketchikan: Announcements Ketchikan: Classifieds CLASSIFIEDS Publish Your Ad Click Here Historical Ketchikan June Allen Dave Kiffer Louise B. Harrington Ketchikan Weather Ketchikan's Forecast August Daily Records 2019 July: Daily Records 2019 Ketchikan July 2019 Data Ketchikan June 2019 Data Ketchikan May 2019 Data Ketchikan April 2019 Data Ketchikan March 2019 Data Ketchikan Feb. 2019 Data Ketchikan Jan. 2019 Data Nat Weather Service KTN Ketchikan Tides & Currents Sunrise - Sunset Ketchikan Search the News Ketchikan Alaska

Southeast Alaska: Oct 1st May Not End AMHS Prince Rupert Route: Rep. Ortiz Travels to BC to Meet with Canadian Officials By MARY KAUFFMAN - Prince Rupert, BC – The Alaska Marine Highway System announced on September 4th that it would be ending service to Prince Rupert on October 1st. And this week, Representative Ortiz (Ketchikan) visited Prince Rupert, British Columbia, Canada to meet with Canadian officials.

Ortiz met with Royal Canadian Mounted Police Inspector Blake Ward Chief Financial Officer for Prince Rupert Corinne Bomben, Member of Legislative Assembly Jennifer Rice, City Councilors, and Mayor Lee Brain. Quoting a news release from Rep. Ortiz, the intent of these meetings was to find a solution to the current AMHS Prince Rupert port of entry requirements.

Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is requiring the Alaska Marine Highway Sysem to secure a Canadian law enforcement presence to protect Customs and Border Protection’s personnel in Prince Rupert while inspection tasks are performed. According to ADOT, all avenues for local law enforcement were pursued, but AMHS was not able to secure the staff necessary to fulfill this requirement. The new requirement specifies a Canadian law enforcement presence with the ability to make arrests in Canada, which is not a duty that AMHS staff are able to perform.

Last spring, Customs and Border Protection began requiring a Canadian law enforcement presence in Prince Rupert. AMHS was granted a waiver through Sept. 30, 2019. Over the summer, AMHS worked with the City of Prince Rupert and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to meet this requirement, but according to the ADOT neither of these entities have staff available to perform the duties necessary to comply with the new requirement thus the announcement the Alaska Marine Highway System would be ending service to Prince Rupert on October 1st.

After conversations in Prince Rupert, Representative Ortiz said he has been reassured that fulfilling the requirement is feasible and possible solutions will be presented to the Department and the Administration next week during meetings in Juneau.

“I’m very heartened by the overwhelming sense of support from all of the government officials here in B.C. and their commitment to maintain AMHS access to Prince Rupert. I look forward to Mayor Brain’s visit to Juneau next week; it’s my expectation that he will come forward with very viable options for the State of Alaska to maintain year-round AMHS access to Prince Rupert,” said Representative Ortiz.

Earlier on September 5th, Mayor Brain released a prepared statement announcing that he would be heading up to Juneau the week of Sep 16 to meet with top Alaskan officials in the Department of Transportation and the Governor's office. According to Brain, a variety of solutions have been identified that could see a permanent resolution to this issue, and Prince Rupert officials have been collaborating with various different organizations and institutions that are involved with this matter.  - More...
Saturday AM - September 14, 2019

Fish Factor: "Unpredictable" is the word for Alaska's 2019 salmon season By LAINE - “Unpredictable” is the way salmon managers describe Alaska’s 2019 salmon season, with “very, very interesting” as an aside.

The salmon fishery is near its end, and a statewide catch of nearly 200 million salmon is only six percent off what Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game number crunchers predicted, and it is on track to be the 8th largest since 1975. 

The brightest spot of the season was the strong returns of sockeye salmon which produced a catch of over 55 million fish, the largest since 1995 and the fifth consecutive year of harvests topping 50 million reds. The bulk of the sockeye catch – 43.2 million – came from Bristol Bay, the second largest on record. 

It was a roller coaster ride in many regions where unprecedented warm temperatures threw salmon runs off kilter and also killed large numbers of fish that were unable to swim upstream to their spawning grounds. Many salmon that made it to water faced temperatures of 75 degrees or more in some regions.

“The hot dry weather for most of the summer resulted in low and warm water conditions in many of the important spawning systems around the state. The salmon had to spend more time in saltwater than they normally would, in the terminal areas near the stream mouths,” said Forrest Bowers, deputy director of the ADF&G commercial fisheries division. 

Despite the heat stress, escapement goals were met in most Alaska regions.

“The runs returned in large enough numbers to make that happen. So that's a bright spot,” said Bowers, a nearly 30 year salmon management veteran. 

It’s been difficult to get a good census on how many salmon might have perished in the heat wave, Bowers said, but managers are assessing potential impacts on future fish.

“We've been taking reports from the public and we've had staff out in the field trying to collect information on the extent of those die offs,” Bowers said.  “We're looking at all the data, but from what we've seen, the magnitude is relatively small and we don't believe it has been significant enough to impact escapement.”

“Now, whether the warm water and low water conditions will result in reduced viability of offspring from the fish spawning this year or increase overwintering mortality, that remains to be seen. But those are possibilities,” he added.

The same environmental conditions are playing out favorably for salmon in westward regions, which adds to the unpredictability.  

“Particularly north of the Alaska Peninsula and the Bering Sea have been really favorable for salmon production at Bristol Bay, the Yukon, Norton Sound and Kotzebue,” Bowers said. “And we're starting to see salmon move even further into the Arctic. On the North Slope, we're seeing sockeye and pink salmon up there.”

It’s a sign of the times, Bowers added, and the unpredictability brings new challenges to salmon managers. 

“It's difficult to count on traditional run timings,” he explained. “We have so much run timing data for Pacific salmon and Alaska that go back over 100 years for some of the stocks that we rely on for in season management decisions. With a very compressed run such as at Bristol Bay, even a deviation of a few days creates a lot of uncertainty. Does that mean the run is late or not as large as forecast?

So that's what we're seeing in the last couple of years, this increased uncertainty in terms of run time and size.” - More....
Saturday AM - September 14, 2019

Alaska: UA Board of Regents clarifies stance on restructuring effort; Votes to consider options for single and multiple structures and establishes inter-university review teams – Recognizing the importance of the budget and academic issues facing the university, the UA Board of Regents voted Friday to clarify its earlier position on university structure to make clear it wants to consider both single and multiple university accreditations in the work to redefine UA’s structure as it works to strengthen programs and meet state funding reductions.

“We want to be sure that the message from the regents is clear,” said Regent Mary K. Hughes, who chairs the board’s subcommittee on restructuring, “we are open to all of the options or even a hybrid. We are open to the discussion of keeping the University of Alaska accredited and of maintaining all our 16 campuses, but understand that change is necessary.”

“Now I want to see Team UA out there going forward to try to make us better,” she said.

UA President Jim Johnsen supported the change in direction saying: “we will prepare a plan that includes consideration of multiple options.”

The stakes are high, Johnsen said, “… and while we strive to listen to all the voices, not everyone feels heard; while we use good data… we will not have all the data needed to satisfy everyone; while we communicate openly, not everyone will be satisfied with what has been shared; while we are taking time to evaluate the options, we will not have the time we would like to have; while we strive for perfection, none of us is perfect and there will be mistakes; and, while we focus on what’s possible, we hang on desperately to what we have.”

The board also voted to authorize Johnsen, working with the chancellors, to establish 13 inter-university teams to conduct expedited program reviews of eight academic programs and five other areas to determine how best to streamline or discontinue them. In addition, the board clarified its original motion to allow for a longer timeline to conclude the reviews. - More...
Saturday AM - September 14, 2019

Four U.S. Military Dogs Receive Nation's Top Honors for Valor; Alaska Home to One
Honoring our warriors’ best friends (left to right): American Humane President & CEO Dr. Robin Ganzert, philanthropist Lois Pope,
USAF TSgt Robert Wilson and MWD Troll, USMC Colonel Scott Campbell (Ret.), Patrolman Eric Harris and MWD Emmie, Caroline Zuendel and Sgt. Yeager, Luchian Burke and K-9 Niko, Crown Media Family Networks President and CEO Bill Abbott, and USMC Brigadier General Robert C. Fulford.
Photo credit: Beth Caldwell for American Humane

Alaska: Four U.S. Military Dogs Receive Nation's Top Honors for Valor; Alaska Home to One – K-9 Niko, a four-footed warrior who undertook 600 missions for the U.S. Department of State now living out the rest of his years on the Alaska frontier; an intrepid Dutch Shepherd (Troll) who helped safely evacuate a critically injured soldier; a brave black Lab (Sergeant Yeager) who was wounded in action while uncovering IEDs in Afghanistan; and an Improvised Explosive Device Detector dog (Emmie) who protected those who protect us at the Pentagon have all been chosen as the 2019 recipients of American Humane's Lois Pope K-9 Medal of Courage.

The awards, presented at a Capitol Hill ceremony on the eve of 911, are the nation's highest honor for military working dogs for extraordinary valor and service to America.  They were created under the aegis of American Humane, which has worked with the U.S. military for more than 100 years, and internationally renowned philanthropist and veterans advocate Lois Pope. 

The awards were conferred upon the courageous canines by some of the country's foremost military leaders and animal advocates, including American Humane President and CEO Robin Ganzert, PhD, United States Marine Corps Brigadier General Robert C. Fulford, United States Marine Corps Colonel Scott Campbell (Ret.), former Commanding Officer of the Wounded Warrior Regiment in Quantico, Va., Crown Media Family Networks President and CEO Bill Abbott, and philanthropist Lois Pope.

A dozen members of Congress and hundreds of congressional staffers attended the packed event. 

"I'd like to thank everyone for joining us as we honor some of our bravest, most courageous heroes," said Rep. Gus Bilirakis, co-chair of the Congressional Humane Bond Caucus, which hosted the event. "By helping locate enemy positions, engage the enemy, and sniff out deadly IEDs and hidden weapons, military dogs have saved countless lives in the fight for freedom. I consider it a moral responsibility to support America's veterans and military working dogs, both during their service and in retirement."

"Military working dogs are invaluable members of their units," said Rep. Henry Cuellar, co-chair of the Congressional Humane Bond Caucus. "Their deeds deserve recognition, their names deserve to be heard, and their service remembered."

"I cannot think of a better reason for all of us to come together – whether we are Democrats or Republicans or Independents....whether we are civilians or in the military or are veterans.... than to honor courageous canines who have served in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines, Coast Guard or National Guard," said internationally renowned philanthropist and veterans' advocate Lois Pope. "My thanks to all the members of Congress and leaders of the Armed Services branches who have taken time from their extremely busy schedules to join us."      

"Military dogs are vital to protecting those who protect our freedom," said American Humane President and CEO Robin Ganzert, PhD. "At American Humane, which has been supporting the U.S. military and military animals for over 100 years, we believe it is important to recognize and honor the extraordinary feats and acts of devotion these heroic animals perform every day."

More about this year's medal winners: More...
Saturday AM - September 14, 2019

TOM PURCELL: Scholars to Hide Behind 'Fake Names' on Intolerant Campuses - When my retired professor friend told me about it, my alarm bells went off.

According to The Chronicle of Higher Education, three academics founded a cross-disciplinary, peer-reviewed journal to encourage scholars to present contentious arguments.

Though anyone should welcome The Journal of Controversial Ideas, here's what alarms me: It will allow publication of controversial ideas under fake names (pseudonyms).

Why would academics choose to publish carefully pondered ideas under pseudonyms?

The Chronicle says "such a policy would allow an untenured academic to publish a controversial paper" without fear of consequences.

Translation: Pseudonyms would prevent academics from being fired for sharing ideas that might offend someone - which is all too easy to do in these touchy, highly intolerant times.

Take Bruce Gilley, a Princeton-educated political science professor at Portland State University (PSU). He had a long and distinguished career - until he published a scholarly article arguing that colonialism had certain social benefits. 

The Chronicle says "he wrote that colonialism had improved many lives, whereas 'a century of anticolonial regimes and policies' had taken 'a grave human toll.'"

Whatever you think of his premise, you'd expect that robust academic debate about it would be the proper response in a free and open society. But that isn't what happened.

Within days, a petition to retract his article gathered more than 10,000 signatures, 15 members resigned from the editorial board of the journal involved, and its editor received death threats. Gilley withdrew his article. - More...
Saturday AM - September 14, 2019

Political Cartoon: Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
By Jeff Koterba ©2019, Omaha World Herald, NE
Distributed to paid subscribers for publication by Cagle Cartoons, Inc.