Ketchikan: KIC Member Again Participates in Annual PATHSTAR Alcatraz Swim - Native Americans from Washington, California and Ketchikan, Alaska, participated in the 10th annual PATHSTAR Alcatraz Swim Week held each year in San Francisco and Bay area locales.  This year, local resident and Ketchikan Indian Community member, Clarita (CJ) Seludo took part in this event which focuses on healthy nutrition and physical fitness.

Clarita (CJ) Seludo practices for her Alcatraz to San Francisco swim.
Photo credit:  PATHSTAR

This year’s event took on added significance as efforts nationwide to fight obesity, including efforts to tax sugary drinks, have increased attention on the importance of a healthy lifestyle. A leading risk factor of diabetes, obesity is affecting American Indian/Alaska Natives, especially youth, at an alarming rate.  According to the National Indian Health Board, 1 in 3 Native children are overweight or obese before their 5th birthday.

Those participating in the PATHSTAR experience make a yearlong commitment as ambassadors for healthy change, sharing their swim week experience with family and community. Swim week participants have developed community and school gardens, coached high school and community sports, worked on anti-obesity initiatives and fitness and diabetes prevention programs as well as providing leadership and a living example of the benefits of healthy lifestyle changes.

Seludo has two girls and a boy, aged 8, 7 and 3. "The swim week was a good motivation for me to get myself into healthier eating and exercising more to be healthier for my kids. I want to exercise every day, “she said. - More...
Wednesday - October 24, 2012

Southeast Alaska: Big Thorne Project DEIS To Be Released for Review & Comments – The Tongass National Forest will be releasing the Big Thorne Project Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for a 45-day review and comment period. The comment period is expected to start once the Notice of Availability (NOA) is published in the Federal Register on Friday, October 26.

This DEIS proposes to harvest timber from approximately 5,000 acres in Southeast Alaska on Prince of Wales Island south of Coffman Cove, around the community of Thorne Bay and out to the Control Lake area north of Klawock.

“The importance of this project cannot be overstated,” said Forest Supervisor Forrest Cole. “It is the first project in many years that has real potential to provide stability to the local timber industry in Southeast Alaska, and the rural communities that benefit from that industry.”

An objective of the Big Thorne Timber Sale is to offer relief to those communities affected by a declining timber industry. This project would supply timber to local sawmill operators for up to ten years.

The Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) evaluates a no-action alternative and four action alternatives that would provide between 93 and 189 million board feet (MMBF) of timber available for harvest. Three of the five alternatives include over 2,000 acres of older young-growth treatments. None of the alternatives include entry into inventoried roadless areas. The significant issues addressed by the alternatives include: timber supply and economics; old-growth habitat land use designation; wildlife and subsistence use; and watershed effects. - More...
Wednesday - October 24, 2012

Alaska: Woman Indicted for PFD Fraud - The Alaska Commissioner of Revenue announced that Nevada resident Tyrene Stallworth, 38, was indicted by an Anchorage grand jury on six counts of theft in the second degree and 15 counts of unsworn falsification in the first degree for actions taken relevant to applications for the Permanent Fund Dividend program.

According to the October 17, 2012, indictment, Stallworth and her four children allegedly were living and receiving benefits in Nevada between February 2002 and May 2009. Stallworth is alleged to have failed to disclose her absence or that she was no longer a resident of Alaska on the PFD applications she submitted for herself and her children between 2003 and 2009, with the result that Stallworth received and cashed or deposited a total of $44,515.60 in Permanent Fund Dividends that she was not eligible to receive.

The State of Alaska originally filed charges against Stallworth in November 2009, and a warrant issued for her arrest at that time. Stallworth was arrested in Nevada in July 2012, where she pled guilty to felony theft based on her failure to disclose the income received from the Alaska Permanent Fund Program in the context of her public assistance case in Nevada. After sentencing, Stallworth was extradited to Alaska on the 2009 warrant. - More...
Wednesday - October 24, 2012

Viewpoints
Commentary
Opinions/Letters
Basic Rules &
Freedom of Speech

This election is about freedom By A. M. Johnson - Headline: Chavez, Castro, Putin: Four More Years! (Washington Times - October 2, 2012)... Yep, the three amigos of socialism and communism have endorsed our dear leader. What a tribute to the Democrat Party. How telling this is. I mean, the rot of socialism has not only hit the leader proven by these endorsements, has by party association, trickled down to the State and local level just being a Democrat. - More...
Monday PM - October 22, 2012

Matt Olsen for State House District 33 By Joni Koerner - It is becoming increasingly unpopular to support fairness. If you believe in fairness and integrity, please vote for MATT OLSEN, candidate for State House District 33. - More...
Monday PM - October 22, 2012

Vote Matt Olsen on Nov. 6 By Joann Flora - We need direct representation in the State House. Matt Olsen from Ketchikan is running in this election and is our only chance for Ketchikan's presence in the legislature. As one of the largest cities in Alaska, Ketchikan must have a seat in the 2013-2014 State Legislature. - More...
Monday PM - October 22, 2012

MATT OLSEN on Nov. 6 By Lois Munch - To get the best out of your vote for District 33 Representative, vote for MATT OLSEN on Nov. 6. - More...
Monday PM - October 22, 2012

Political humor By A.M. Johnson - The political season is really becoming hot,hot,hot. There is no doubt that both sides are heavily invested in the bid for a favorable outcome. As a part of this contest are the debates. Both sides offer their spin on who did what and who won. - More...
Monday PM - October 22, 2012

Adopt The FairTax By Glen E. Terrell - During the second presidential debate, Mitt Romney pointed out that Canada’s tax on businesses is only 15% while that of the US is 25%.  Then he raised the question: “If you wanted to start a new business, would you rather start it in the US or Canada?”  Both Romney and the president agreed that the income tax on businesses should be lower but they differ on HOW TO TWEAK THE INCOME TAX CODE to achieve this.  Forget the income tax code; replace it with the FairTax!  There’s been a FairTax proposal before congress for more than a decade; it’s not been voted on yet. - More...
Monday PM - October 22, 2012

No, no, no By Wieslaw Czajkowski - No Bridge to Nowhere, no Commercial Cultural Complex, both for Ketchikan, and no for the New Alaska Capitol in Juneau because my project for a Capitol 12 miles West of Juneau imbedded into a hill, resembling a glacier with a Shopping Center beneath, was a project by an outsider with no money, even for presenting drawings of the Capitol. - More...
Monday PM - October 22, 2012

Formula for Disaster: Governor’s Timber Task Force By Lindsey Ketchel - The report of the Governor’s Timber Task Force, released this week, is a formula for disaster. The grandiose and unrealistic plan would remove over 2 million acres from the Tongass National Forest and remove federal protections for salmon streams and other vital habitat. The recommendations are based in confrontational politics and a misguided nostalgia for times past. The small group that made these tired and familiar recommendations was not representative in any way of the diverse stakeholders of the Tongass. The extreme overreach of this report will exacerbate the conflict over land management in Southeast Alaska, leading to a dangerous stalemate that will hurt the people who are actively working on the public land of the Tongass today and diminish their chances for a prosperous future. - More...
Saturday - October 20, 2012

VP Debate By Rob Holston - CNN Wolf Blitzer, commenting on the VP debate, said one issue was “women’s right to abortion.” Is there anyone else out there who actually recognizes the liberal left wing position that Blitzer demonstrates with this supposedly “neutral” (CNN) comment? - More...
Monday PM - October 15, 2012

Support Rep. Peggy Wilson By Linda Koons Auger - I will be voting for Representative Peggy Wilson for House District 33 on Election Day, Tuesday, November 6th.  For those of you that seem to be worried about a candidate being “LOCAL”, I would say that “SENIORITY” is what you should be concerned about! Losing one House seat due to re-districting places our community and Southeast Alaska in a potentially precarious position in the Legislature. In a 40-member House of Representatives, the SENIORITY Representative Wilson brings to the table is invaluable.   - More...
Monday PM - October 15, 2012

Theft By Jeff Lundberg - I must proclaim my disgust to the person who stole the donation jar from the Craig library on October 11 during business hours. - More...
Monday PM - October 15, 2012

Timely President's speech By A. M. Johnson - As a staunch conservative constitutional voting citizen who has NEVER voted Democrat for the obvious philosophical reasons allows me to suggest that a speech by this Democrat given in today's strain of Democrats would have current Democrats screeching much as finger nails on a black board to attempt shutting out the words. Doubt me? Then listen to that speech and you draw your conclusions of what the Democratic Party was and where it is today. - More...
Monday PM - October 15, 2012

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