Ketchikan: Fast Ferry "Southeast Express" Begins Service Between Juneau and Ketchikan - The Alaska Marine Highway System will inaugurate fast vehicle ferry service three days per week between Juneau-Petersburg-Wrangell-Ketchikan on Thursday, November 3. The M/V Fairweather will depart Juneau at 8 a.m. on each of its runs and the M/V Chenega will depart Ketchikan at 7:15 a.m. on two of its service days, and 8:15 a.m. on the third. The ferries will meet in Petersburg to trade passengers and vehicles at mid-day. Each ferry will return to its homeport by early evening.

"The basic idea of arranging our fast ferry routes to form a 'couplet' that connects at Petersburg is to provide a one-day, express ferry ride between Ketchikan and Juneau," said Robin Taylor, the state's director of marine transportation. "We believe this will give much-needed scheduling options to a number of organizations, businesses, schools, and southeast residents." - More...
Wednesday - November 02, 2005

Alaska: BEWARE OF "JURY DUTY" SCAM - Alaska Attorney General David W. Márquez issued a warning Tuesday for Alaskans to be on the lookout for a new scam involving phone calls from someone representing themselves to be an official from the court or jury clerk's office.

The Attorney General has received reports of scam artists calling consumers and identifying themselves as an officer or employee of the local court or jury clerk's office. The scammer tells the victim a bench warrant was issued for their arrest for failure to report for jury duty. The shock caused by this news makes consumers more susceptible to the scam. The victim will rightly deny knowledge of any such claim; that no jury duty notification was ever received. - More...
Wednesday - November 02, 2005

Alaska: ADF&G Releases Summary of the 2005 Salmon Season - Monday, the Alaska Department of Fish and Game's Division of Commercial Fisheries posted its preliminary end-of-season estimates of commercial harvest and value for the 2005 salmon season.

This season, commercial fishermen harvested 206.1 million salmon, which had an estimated total value of $295.3 million. The harvest was about 26 million fish above the preseason forecast, was the third largest harvest on record, and was well above the most recent 10-year average of 167 million fish.  The 2005 statewide harvest marks the third year since 1960 that the number of salmon caught has exceeded 200 million fish.  The total exvessel value of the 2005 salmon harvest was $23 million higher than in 2004, and similar to the most recent 10-year average of $294.4 million. - More...
Wednesday - November 02, 2005

Alaska: Alaska's First Cold Case Prosecutor Selected - Alaska Attorney General David Márquez announced Tuesday that Juneau Senior Assistant District Attorney Richard Svobodny has been selected to become Alaska's first cold case prosecutor.

"Some cases present unique challenges that inhibit the investigatory process. Dedicating an experienced prosecutor like Rick to follow up on these cases ensures that the state is doing all it can to prosecute all cases, no matter how much time has gone by," said Márquez. - More...
Wednesday - November 02, 2005

Alaska: Governor Murkowski to propose $3 million to fight substance abuse, $500,000 to enhance FAS prevention programs - Alaska Department of Health and Social Services (DHSS) Commissioner Karleen Jackson announced Tuesday during her opening remarks to the 2005 FAS Summit at the Egan Convention Center in Anchorage Governor Murkowski's fiscal year 2007 budget proposals to prevent youth substance abuse and enhance the state's initiatives to combat Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD). - More...
Wednesday - November 02, 2005

Viewpoints Opinions/Letters Pandemic influenza preparedness By Martin J. Blaser - Wednesday am Mobbed by Trick-or-Treaters By Tori Jackson - Wednesday am Enough By Valerie Brooks - Tuesday am For Maximum Growth From Evergreens, Don't Poison Alders By D.L. Finney - Tuesday am Needs of Homeless vs Pork Barrel Spending By Stefan Hovik - Tuesday am What about us? By Robert McRoberts - Tuesday am Is fishing industry properly managing catch? By Lisa Fiel - Tuesday am Billions in profits for the world's fat cats By Michael P. Moyer - Monday AM Is the tech industry starting to catch on? By Rick Grams - Monday AM Maybe the best thing for your health is... By Rob Glenn - Monday AM Volcker Report By Shashi Shekhar - Monday AM More Viewpoints/ Letters Publish A Letter Political Cartoonists Political cartoons Ketchikan Calendar, Meetings, Events Today's Forecast City Police Report AK Troopers Daily Dispatch Classifieds & Announcements Oct. - Nov. 2005 Click on the date for stories and photos published on that day... S M T W T F S 25 26 27 28 29 30 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 02       Front Page Archives

Alaska: Alaskans "Go to Washington" with the help of AT&T Alascom Teleconferencing - More and more businesses, educational institutions, medical facilities and government agencies across Alaska are turning to video teleconferencing as a cost-effective and more efficient way of holding meetings and sharing critical, time-sensitive data. The technology also reduces or eliminates travel times, which is critical in Alaska, and also makes communication more personal. - More...
Wednesday - November 02, 2005

National: A 'starting place' in effort to reform tax code By MARY DEIBEL - The panel that President Bush asked to help carry out his campaign pledge to streamline the tax code has, in its final report, recommended two options that would rewrite most tax laws to lower rates and limit deductions in the name of simplification.

Treasury Secretary John Snow called the proposals "a starting place for what we will recommend to the president" by early next year. "Now it's up to us," he said Tuesday in accepting the 272-page draft. - More...
Wednesday - November 02, 2005

National: A look at Bush's plan to fight bird flu By LEE BOWMAN - President Bush wants the federal government to spend more than $7 billion to prepare for an outbreak of flu virus that so far doesn't seem to spread from person to person.

While acknowledging during at speech Tuesday at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., that there's currently no influenza pandemic in the United States or the world, Bush echoed concerns raised by public health officials around the globe that "at some point we are likely to face another pandemic" arising from bird flu. - More...
Wednesday - November 02, 2005

International: Experts: Canadian bird flu virus likely a benign form By GLORIA GALLOWAY - An avian flu in the same family as the virus that has spawned fears of a pandemic has been detected in ducks in Quebec and Manitoba, but experts say it is likely a benign form of the disease that is commonly found in wild-bird populations.

Even so, there is some fear that the acknowledgment of the presence of an H5-type of influenza in Canadian birds could cause some countries to invoke trade restrictions. - More...
Wednesday - November 02, 2005

National: Both sides prepare for fight over Alito By MARC SANDALOW - President Bush's nomination of Samuel Alito Jr. for the Supreme Court sets up a direct clash with Senate Democrats, finally igniting the momentous judicial battle that both parties have been anticipating for years.

Republicans see an opportunity to install a lasting conservative majority on the high court as they characterize Democrats as obstructionists who try to accomplish in court what they cannot accomplish through legislation. - More...
Wednesday - November 02, 2005

Jay Ambrose: Shallow thought about the court - Leftist pundits like to chuckle about how thin the thinking of conservatives is on the Supreme Court. But catch the act of the leftists - of Senate minority leader Harry Reid, minority pressure groups, various liberal blog sites and large numbers of editorialists - and you will find an ideological narrowness and shallowness of thought that would be laughable if not so sad. - More...
Wednesday - November 02, 2005

Dale McFeatters: Change partners and rant - Even for Washington, D.C., the speed with which the two sides swapped positions on failed Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers and the newest nominee, Samuel Alito, was neck-snapping.

The White House said it was a plus that Miers had gone to university and law school at Southern Methodist University, that she would bring to the court a needed perspective from outside the elitist Ivies. Prominent in the nomination of Alito was that he had gone to Princeton and Yale law. - More...
Wednesday - November 02, 2005

James Derek: Virus control, spyware and backups: What you need to know - I think if there were a hall of fame for letters that I receive it could be on three topics. One would be virus control, one is spyware and the other is backups.

So I thought I would cover them all in one column to give people the basics. - More...
Wednesday - November 02, 2005