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Ketchikan: Alaskans participate in 2005 White House Conference on Aging - Seven Alaskans participated in the 2005 White House Conference on Aging (WHCOA) in Washington D.C. Dec. 11th-15th. White House Conferences on Aging are decennial events designed to make recommendations to the President and Congress on national aging policies for the future.

Ed Zastrow from Ketchikan, Kathleen "Mike" Dalton from Fairbanks, Laraine Derr from Juneau, Elmer Feltz from Wasilla, Gloria McCutcheon and Dr. George Charles from Anchorage, and Pat Branson from Kodiak joined 1200 delegates selected by Governors, Members of Congress, National Congress of American Indians and the WHCOA Policy Committee in the 5th WHCOA and the first in the 21st century. - More...
Thursday AM - December 29, 2005

Petersburg: Coast Guard to hold meeting, courtesy exams in Petersburg - The Coast Guard Captain of the Port for Southeast Alaska will host a town meeting in Petersburg at the city council chambers at 7 p.m. on Jan. 20, 2006.

The town meeting will address participation in the courtesy dockside examination program, crab fisheries safety, and fishing vessel stability and overloading.

The Coast Guard encourages all commercial fishermen, and anyone else interested in the meeting's topics, to attend. - More...
Thursday AM - December 29, 2005

Alaska: Predictions anticipate more permafrost melt By DOUG O'HARRA - Warming temperatures could melt the top 11 feet of permafrost in Alaska by the end of the century - damaging roads and buildings with sinkholes, transforming forest and tundra into swamps, and releasing vast amounts of greenhouse gases into the air.

This meltdown forecast comes amid other signals that Arctic climate has been changing fast: shrinking sea ice cover, warmer temperatures and shifting vegetation.

A new federal study released applied one of the most sophisticated supercomputer climate models ever developed to the future of permafrost. The results were startling. - More...
Thursday AM - December 29, 2005

Alaska: Magnetic pole drift could shift northern lights By PETER PORCO - Glaciers receding, ice pack thinning - can the image of the Far North hold out for much longer? Now Alaska may be losing its northern lights.

No joke.

Scientists at a recent convention in San Francisco warned that the aurora may move to Siberia over the next 50 years because Earth's magnetic north pole is drifting that way. And doing it mighty fast, as these things go.

Sayonara, aurora. But don't blame this on global warming. - More...
Thursday AM - December 29, 2005

National: Old isn't what it used to be By CATHERINE CLABBY - Forget that notion that old age promises only frailty, disease and death.

Many elderly people feel quite well, thank you, a Duke University study has found. That includes people 85 years and older.

And evidence suggests that simple changes - better glasses, high-quality hearing aids or a more active social life - could help even more feel fit.

"You hear the most about elderly people who are sick and disabled. But many elderly people are living a high-quality life until a very old age," said Dr. Truls Ostbye, a Duke Community and Family Medicine professor. - More...
Thursday AM - December 29, 2005

National: 'Ear bud' headphones can cause hearing loss, experts warn By LEE BOWMAN - All those ears ringing from newly gifted iPods and MP3 players may not be able to hear next year's Christmas bells as well if music lovers aren't careful, hearing specialists are warning.

"We're seeing the kind of hearing loss in younger people that's typically found in aging adults," said Dean Garstecki, an audiologist and professor at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. - More...
Thursday AM - December 29, 2005

A Ketchikan 'Auld Lange Syne' By JUNE ALLEN West End, 1953 Photographer: Paulu T. Saari; Donor: Paulu T. Saari, Photograph courtesy Ketchikan Museums

Ketchikan: A Ketchikan 'Auld Lange Syne' By JUNE ALLEN - The familiar strains of that New Year's anthem play over and over again in my mind as I think of the new year, brand new 2006, fast approaching. The lyrics of Auld Lane Syne simply remind listeners not to forget old friends and places. I myself don't need reminders to remember good old Ketchikan and all my old friends as I sit here at the computer keyboard in far away Palmer, Alaska. I could  never, ever forget Ketchikan or that first impression of Ketchikan that awaited me when I arrived! It was a long time ago. 
 
It was late August of 1964 when the state ferry Malaspina tied up at the dock in Alaska's First City. It was about midnight or thereabout that I herded my exhausted family, one mother, one father, and five kids into a more-or-less single unit as we waited to step off the ferry and onto terra firma. My husband and I carried the heavy, essential  suitcases. The eldest child held the hand of the two-year-old, the next-down teenager held the hand of the four-year-old and the eight-year-old toted the shopping bag carrying the collection of crayons, coloring books and (usually banned) comic books, Kleenex, a toy or two, half-eaten candy bars, sticky wrappers and an assortment of just plain miscellany. - More...
Thursday AM - December 29, 2005

Viewpoints Opinions/Letters How about an alternative? By Rick Grams - Tuesday PM Portal to somewhere! By David Hull - Tuesday PM RE: Unanswered Questions By Peg Travis - Tuesday PM Vote for Rob Sanderson Jr. - Where experience counts!! By Kevin Kristovich - Tuesday PM "Indigenous" By Janelle Hamilton - Tuesday PM Vote for Rob, He's the man for the job!! By Kevin Kristovich - Monday PM Unanswered Questions By Jay Jones - Monday PM Remember the men and women in uniform By David M. Korkowski - Monday PM Letter To Santa By Jerry Cegelske - Friday PM Holiday Blues & Networking By George Miller - Friday PM Town Tree is Beautiful By Al Johnson - Friday PM Holiday Wishes By Karen & Charlie Jones - Friday PM Heartfelt Thanks for Those who Supported the Toy Drive! By Tyla Williams - Friday PM Thanks to KTGW/KTKN - Gateway 106.7 By Samantha Kuzakin - Friday PM 2005 By Joseph Branco - Friday PM Ketchikan Youth Court By Karen Lybrand - Friday PM Guard Rails & Free Speech By Penny Eubanks - Friday PM More Viewpoints/ Letters Publish A Letter Political Cartoonists Political Cartoons Ketchikan December Calendar Ketchikan Arts This Week Today's Forecast Current AK Weather Map City Police Report 12/12/05 AK Troopers Daily Dispatch Classifieds & Announcements December 2005 Click on the date for stories and photos published on that day... S M T W T F S   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 Front Page Archives

Jason Love: Construction - They're building homes across the street. Still. Every day. Forever.

It begins at seven when my alarm clock, a tractor, goes off. BEEP, BEEP, BEEP, BEEP.

Did you know that tractors beep when they move? I myself did not. They're like Fisher-Price toys from hell.

I also didn't realize how much shouting goes into a house. The foreman, great grandson of Bam-Bam, gives direction over the saw blades.

"Leo ... Leo! Hey, LEO! It's over there ... No, there... LEO!..."

As a man, I am supposed to know about erection. Of houses. But for some reason I never understood drill bits or power saws or what are those things ... jobs. I'm the guy who gets so confused in Home Depot that a clerk finds him cowering in the fetal position behind the two-by-fours... - More...
Thursday - December 29, 2005

Will Durst: White House Report Card - The bipartisan 9/11 Commission released a report card on the administration's efforts in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, and to say the news wasn't good is like saying abandoned minefields make for lousy hot air balloon staging grounds.

George Bush ought to thank his lucky stars he doesn't have to take this report card home to Poppy and Babs, because I'm betting he'd be grounded for at least a semester and have the keys to his Porsche 944 turned over to Jeb. Needless to say this is not the kind of card that greases the skids for entrance into Yale, but that never bothered a Bush. - More...
Thursday - December 29, 2005

Steve Brewer: How to live low-tech and prosper - If your wish list this season centered on the hottest new electronic gizmo, then you may be what marketers call an "early adopter," the type who must have the latest toy available.

Early adopters drive the world electronics market. They're the people who are never satisfied with last year's model. They're willing to spend top dollar rather than wait for prices to fall.

They're the ones who push manufacturers to make products smaller and faster and ever more complex. They have to be first so they can gloat and strut.

They are, in short, a big pain in the neck. - More...
Thursday - December 29, 2005

Sharon Randall: Lessons learned from last year's calendar - At the end of the year, I like to look back on where I've been by following an ink-smeared trail that looks as if a chicken had trotted across the pages of my calendar. I retrace its path from January to December, and then when I'm finished, I try to picture where it'll trot to next?

This is no easy task. I've been working on it for years and it's not getting easier.

For one thing, the chicken tracks are getting harder to decode. Either my handwriting is getting lazier or the chicken feed is starting to ferment. - More...
Thursday - December 29, 2005

Clifford May: An old-fashioned War - To be fair to our enemies, they are only doing what comes naturally. We are the historical oddballs.

Wars have been fought since time immemorial. The vast majority have been over power and resources, to defeat rival civilizations, to vanquish hated "others."

Why did Spartans, Persians, Macedonians and Romans fight? What motivated Bonaparte to take on the Austrians, the Ottomans, the Russians and the English? What caused Imperial Japan to attempt to conquer Asia? Almost a thousand years ago, Genghis Khan provided a candid and classic answer: "Man's highest joy is victory: to conquer his enemies; to pursue them; to deprive them of their possessions; to make their beloved weep; to ride on their horses; and to embrace their wives and daughters." - More...
Thursday - December 29, 2005