Ketchikan: Slow Down... Icy Roads - "North Tongass Volunteer Fire Department stands ready to respond to any and all calls when people in trouble need us, but PLEASE, ask people to slow down and take the road seriously," said NTVFD Chief David Hull. "We do not want the disastrous winter we had last year. I have seen a lot of people driving faster on these icy roads to 'somewhere' than I am allowing my personnel to drive in an emergency," said Hull. - Page...
Friday - November 17, 2006

Alaska: Study finds forest fires useful to combat global warming By LEE BOWMAN - The carbon soot of forest fires contributes to global warming, right?

Not necessarily when the fires occur in the northern forests of Alaska, Canada and Siberia, according to a new study published online Friday by the journal Science.

Although the forest fires "release greenhouse gases that contribute to climate warming, inseparable changes in the forest canopy cause more sunlight to be reflected back into space during spring and summer for many decades after a fire," said James Randerson, an associate professor of earth science at the University of California-Irvine and lead author of the study.

"This cooling effect cancels the impact of the greenhouse gases, so the net effect of fire is close to neutral when averaged globally, and in northern regions may lead to slightly colder temperatures." - More...
Friday - November 17, 2006

Governor Sends Interim Fiscal Interest Finding on Gas Pipeline Project to Legislature Alaska Department of Revenue Commissioner Bill Corbus smiles as Alaska Governor Frank H. Murkowski addresses reporters during a press conference Thursday at the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation's Headquarters in Juneau. The Murkowski Administration transmitted to the Legislature the Interim Fiscal Interest Finding for the proposed Stranded Gas Development Act contract negotiated with oil producers BP PLC, ConocoPhillips and ExxonMobil. Photo by Will Vandergriff/ Office of the Governor News in Photos Alaska Governor Frank H. Murkowski, Dept. of Administration Commissioner Scott Nordstrand, and Governor's Press Secretary John Manly listen to reporters questions during a press conference Wednesday at the State Capitol. The governor and Commissioner Nordstrand outlined the administration's reasons for calling a special session to implement court-ordered benefits for same-sex partners of state employees. Photo by Will Vandergriff/ Office of the Governor

Alaska: Governor Sends Interim Fiscal Interest Finding on Gas Pipeline Project to Legislature - Alaska Governor Frank H. Murkowski on Thursday transmitted to the Alaska Legislature a 350-page Interim Fiscal Interest Finding (IFIF), a document that provides the economic analysis and arguments for construction of a natural gas pipeline from the North Slope into Alberta, Canada, following the Alaska Highway.

The IFIF also includes a draft limited liability corporation contract, under which the project would be built and operated by a partnership of the State of Alaska and the three North Slope producers. A third component of the IFIF is the May 24, 2006 draft contract, along with changes needed to respond to legislative and public comments the Department of Revenue has gathered in the past six months.

"This document represents the future of Alaska," Murkowski said. "For the past 30 years, we have been the very fortunate recipients of a bonanza based on North Slope oil production. It has literally built our cities, schools, transportation networks, relieved us of taxes, and put money in everybody's bank account. But the oil runs out in a few short years if we do nothing. We must transition our oil-based economy to one based on gas production.

"The Interim Fiscal Interest Finding and the associated documents we are transmitting to the Legislature today will provide the basis for deliberations the Legislature, the producers, and Governor-elect Palin will need to enter into very soon. The responsibility for making the needed changes to the contract and the LLC now rests with the Legislature and the new governor. We have moved this project forward over the past two years. It is now up to the Legislature and the new governor to complete the process. - More ...
Friday - November 17, 2006

National: Tsunami-wary town wants to know why it wasn't warned By PETER FIMRITE - Earl Hensel rushed to the Crescent City Harbor just in time to see water gushing in from the sea, sweeping away everything in its path. The most devastating tidal wave to hit the California coast in four decades washed away docks, damaged boats and spread debris all over the harbor.

Hensel was relieved that his own boat was spared Wednesday, but the next day he could not get one thing out of his mind as he and a dozen other fishermen mulled over the damage inside the harbor.

"They say there was a warning call, but there was no siren or general alarm," said Hensel, who is in his 80s. "It's a pretty somber group here looking at the damage."

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had warned officials in Crescent City that a small surge from an 8.1-magnitude earthquake near Japan was likely. But fishermen and harbor officials said the tsunami was stronger and lasted longer than anyone expected - details that an official from the federal agency did not convey to the city's harbormaster. - More...
Friday - November 17, 2006

Viewpoints Opinions/Letters Basic Rules Consolidation By Glen Thompson - Sunday PM Consolidation By Al Johnson - Sunday PM Clear the Air, then Solve Pension Crisis By Sen. Bert Stedman & Sen. Lyda Green - Sunday PM Sharing the land By Craig Moen - Sunday PM Cherished Beaches Threatened By Ardath Piston - Friday RE: Deception, deviousness and consolidation By Bill Thomas Sr. - Friday Re: Alaskans investing in Alaska By Rudy McGillvray - Friday A quick question for the Consolidation Commission... By Gavin Piercy - Friday Airport Parking Lot By David Zenge - Friday Airport By Rob Glenn - Friday Consolidation is bad for Ketchikan. Please vote no. By Rodney Dial - Friday Can Democrats tackle Social Security? By Mary J. McLaughlin - Friday Not Your Land By Don Hoff Jr. - Friday Level the field of freebies By Nevin Appel - Friday "Adaptation of the fittest" By Valerie Cooper - Friday Airport lot parking fee By Ty Walker - Wednesday Re: Deviousness, deception and consolidation By Debby Otte - Wednesday Alaskans Investing in Alaska By Jerilyn Lester - Wednesday Our land By Rick Watson - Wednesday Re: Consolidation Voter Fraud By Ken Bylund - Wednesday Happy Living In Ketchikan By Mike Graham - Wednesday It is time for Alaskans to invest in Alaska's future. By Patrick Jirschele - Monday Let's make a Deal By Rodney Dial - Monday Deviousness, deception and consolidation By Bill Thomas Sr. - Monday It's about money and control. By Myrna Gardner - Monday All-volunteer 'Greatest Generation' By Sen. Ted Stevens - Monday Re: This Can Not Be Happening By Robin Anderson - Monday Here's a New Idea By Marie Monyak - Monday Open Letter to the President By Mike Jones - Monday RE: Ketchikan's High Gas Prices By Floyd Crocker - Monday RE: The value of Sealaska stock is not monetary By Don Hoff Jr. - Monday We need a Governor for the people. Not a governor for the party! by Edward Brown - Monday Waiting an Hour in Traffic By Charlotte Tanner - Monday More Viewpoints/ Letters Publish A Letter Political Cartoonists Political Cartoons Ketchikan Ketchikan Police Report AK Troopers Daily Dispatch Today's Forecast Satellite Today's Weather Images Marine Forecasts Ketchikan Weather Data Current AK Weather Map CLASSIFIEDS Auto-post your ad in the proper category, or email your ad & photos to ads@sitnews.us  CLASSIFIEDS' CATEGORIES Announcements For Sale / Free Stuff Garage Sales Homes / Apts/ Property Pets Wanted Lost & Found Local Services SitNews Archives November 2006 Click on the date to read the stories published on that day. S M T W T F S       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     More Front Page Archives

Kid's Corner: A LITTLE EGG By Bob Morgan - Once, there was a little egg lying on the ground in a farmer's pasture.

The little egg was all by himself and he didn't know who he was. His parents had already left him to grow up all alone as a lot of birds and animals do. - More...
Friday - November 17, 2006

Jay Ambrose: Time for seriousness on Social Security - OK, congressional Democrats, here's your chance - find a way to fix Social Security in bipartisan cooperation with President Bush and the Republicans, and then reap the blessings of voters because you helped improve what FDR started.

The last thing you want to do, now that you've captured the House and Senate, is to keep playing the demagogic, obstructionist game in which you bash every proposal anyone comes up with while refusing to commit yourself to any ideas whatsoever, or refusing to concede - as some of you do - that there's really much of a problem at all.

Believe me, there is a problem, summed up by the fact that the number of Americans over 65 will double over the next quarter of a century - as some observers have put it, we are on our way to being a nation of Floridas. The entitlement bill will be enormous if nothing is done to restructure Social Security and Medicare, either requiring that workers pay incredibly high taxes, that we vastly reduce virtually every other program in the federal budget or that we borrow ourselves into economic obliteration. - More...
Friday - November 17, 2006

Marsha Mercer: Good old golden rule days - "I truly believe in the golden rule," Senate Majority Leader-elect Harry Reid said last week. "And that means we're not going to treat them like they treated us."

What's that? Refraining from tit-for-tat behavior against the Republicans is laudable and it may be surprising on Capitol Hill, but it's hardly the golden rule.

The golden rule calls for more than rising above revenge. It's doing unto others as you would have them do unto you.

This isn't the first time a politician has gotten tangled up in the golden rule. Here's President Bush in Springfield, Mo., in 2004:

"The true strength of America is found in the hearts and souls of people like Travis, people who are willing to love their neighbor, just like they would like to love themselves."

These days, even gold isn't the gold standard. Some business manuals advise that it's not good enough to treat people as you would like to be treated. You need to treat people as they would like to be treated. Author Dr. Tony Alessandra calls this "the platinum rule." - More...
Friday - November 17, 2006

Dale McFeatters: A loser of a first impression - Nancy Pelosi's first act as speaker-elect of the U.S. House was to stumble badly.

A child of Baltimore's machine politics broke an old rule of those politics by picking a fight that she should have known she would lose - and lose big.

Late in the game, she suddenly endorsed John Murtha for the post of House majority leader, in effect her top deputy, over the consensus favorite, Steny Hoyer. Hoyer won, 149 to 86.

So much for a display of Democratic unity. The great crush of press outside the Democratic caucus was there for the Hoyer-Murtha fight, not the Pelosi coronation.

In the short term, Pelosi's rebellious charges did her a favor. Hoyer is a skilled and popular legislative operative who will, as the saying goes, make the trains run on time.

The more roughhewn and blunt Murtha would have been a constant target for Republicans, who have it in for the former Marine who became the first authoritative lawmaker to say that the Iraq war was a failure and the United States should withdraw.

One of the House Democrats' strongest issues in the election was that they would restore high ethical standards that corrupt Republicans had allowed to lapse.

Murtha, who had a near-death experience with a corruption scandal 26 years ago - resurrected once he announced for the leadership - would have been viewed as a repudiation of that pledge. He derided as "total crap" Pelosi's ethics reform package, but said that as leader he would work to see that it passed anyway, showing a certain flexibility of principle that voters find all too common in politicians. - More...
Friday - November 17, 2006