 Contact 
Call 617-9696
Webmail
Letters
News Tips
Copyright Info
Archives
Quick News
Search
Alaska
Ketchikan
SE Alaska
Alaska News Links
Columns
- Articles
Dave Kiffer
Fish
Factor
Money Matters
Historical
Ketchikan
June Allen
Dave
Kiffer
Louise
B. Harrington
Ketchikan
Arts & Events
Ketchikan
Arts
Ketchikan
Museums
KTN Public
Library
Sports
Ketchikan Links
Public Records
FAA Accident Reports
NTSB
Accident Reports
Court Calendar
Court Records Search
Wanted:
Absconders
Sex Offender Reg.
Public Notices
Weather,
Webcams
Today's
Forecast
KTN
Weather Data
AK
Weather Map
AK Weathercams
AK Earthquakes
TV Guide
Ketchikan
Ketchikan
Phone Book
Yellow
Pages
White
Pages
Government
Links
Local Government
State & National
|
|
Thursday
December 11, 2014
|
Deer Mountain
Deer Mountain, elevation 3001 feet, is likely one of the most summited mountains in Alaska. Magnificent views can be had from the summit. The Deer Mountain Trail is conveniently located a short distance from downtown Ketchikan. The official difficulty level of the trail is classified 'difficult'.
Front Page Photograph By FLOYD McCLELLAN ©2014
(Please respect the rights of photographers, never republish or copy
without permission and/or payment of required fees.)
Ketchikan: Young adult novel inspired by stories told around galley tables in Ketchikan - The recently published young adult novel, Fast Hands, was inspired by stories told around galley tables in Ketchikan's Thomas Basin, back when Leroy Miller fished the Velvet, Fred Athorp the Auk, Jim Bodding the Ocean Storm, and Canadians out of Prince Rupert still fished American waters.
Author John Pappenheimer arrived in Ketchikan in 1971, when Grumman gooses were still landing on their bellies in front of the town, a sawmill operated day and night on the waterfront, and fishermen, loggers, cold storage and mill workers defined the town.
“I wanted to see the Alaska’s coast up close,” Pappenheimer reminisced. “I could have paid to see Alaska from a cruise ship—but they only provide distant balcony seats. I wanted a ring side seat and I figured a fishing boat with a few feet of free board and a knee high railing was the ticket. I was not disappointed. - More...
Thursday PM - December 11, 2014
Alaska: Alaska Foster Youths' Homelessness, Graduation, Incarceration Rates Higher Than Peers; Foster Care Reforms To Be Pushed - Wednesday, two former foster youth, Representative Les Gara (D-Anchorage) and foster care advocate Amanda Metivier, released sobering numbers for the growing number of Alaska youth in foster care. They are also calling for attention to the over 2,400 foster youth for which the state is the legal guardian.
"No parent or guardian would accept it if their children faced staggering levels of homelessness, incarceration, and poor high school graduation numbers," said Rep. Gara citing UAA Institute of Social and Economic Research and Federal "National Youth in Transition" studies.
Gara and Metivier stress that they do not blame an understaffed and underfunded Office of Children’s Services or social workers in that office who often work long hours to make up for the shortage of staff.
Gara and Metivier have teamed up on numerous foster care reforms over the past 6 years and they have worked with the Legislature to pass them. These reforms have increased the availability of job training, college scholarships, and bolstered homelessness prevention efforts. The reforms have also kept siblings from being separated while in foster care, extended foster care to age 21 for youth who need stability after an unstable childhood, enhanced the ability of youth to stay in their home communities, and kept youth from bouncing between schools. - More...
Thursday PM - December 11, 2014
Alaska: Alaska’s tourism outlook is rosy - Gideon Garcia, chief operations officer for CIRI Alaska Tourism, told a full house during the opening session of the Resource Development Council’s conference in Anchorage recently that the tourism industry welcomed a record 1.96 million visitors in 2014.
Nationally, tourism gained 4 percent over 2013 and grew to a $887.9 billion spend in the same time period. International travel has grown more than twice that, up 11 percent over 2012. With multiplier effects taken into consideration, tourism has a $2.1 trillion economic impact on the United States.
In Alaska, tourism grew to a record high of 1.96 million visitors in 2013, a 7 percent gain over 2012 – the biggest since 2005-06. The year looks to be strong, nearly at or above 2013 levels. Visitor spending in Alaska rose to $3.9 billion in the same time period (2012-13). - More...
Thursday PM - December 11, 2014 |
|
Alaska: National Report: Alaska Ranks 2nd in Protecting Kids from Tobacco - Alaska ranks 2nd in the country in funding programs that prevent kids from smoking and help smokers quit, according to a national report released today by a coalition of public health organizations. Alaska is one of only two states, along with North Dakota, that currently fund tobacco prevention programs at CDC-recommended levels.
The report challenges states to do more by shining the spotlight on Florida, which has cut its high school smoking rate to a record low 7.5 percent. The report details the lives and health care dollars each state could save if it brought its teen smoking rate down to Florida's.
If Alaska reduced its high school smoking rate from the current 10.6 percent to 7.5 percent, it would prevent 9,940 kids from becoming adult smokers, saving 3,500 lives and $174 million in future health care costs. Today in Alaska, tobacco annually claims 600 lives and costs the state $438 million in health care bills.
Other key findings for Alaska include:
• Counting both state funding and a federal grant, Alaska will spend $11 million this year on tobacco prevention and cessation programs, which meets the recommended funding level set by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
• Alaska will collect $98.1 million this year from the 1998 tobacco settlement and tobacco taxes and will spend 9.9 percent of the money on tobacco prevention programs.
• Tobacco companies spend $18.5 million per year to market their products in Alaska – twice what the state spends on tobacco prevention.
Today's report, titled "Broken Promises to Our Children: A State-by-State Look at the 1998 State Tobacco Settlement 16 Years Later," was released by the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids, American Heart Association, American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network, American Lung Association, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Americans for Nonsmokers' Rights. - More...
Thursday PM - December 11, 2014
|
Alaska Science: Mastodons long gone from the north By NED ROZELL - A long, long time ago, a hairy elephant stomped the northland, wrecking trees and shrubs as it swallowed twigs, leaves and bark. These mastodons left a few scattered teeth and bones in Alaska and the Yukon, reminders of an immense mammal that lived as far south as Honduras. A recent look at far-north mastodons shows the creatures vanished from the Arctic thousands of years earlier than researchers thought.
A mastodon, compared beneath to a woolly mammoth.
Illustration by George Rinaldino Teichmann, courtesy of Grant Zazula, Yukon Palaeontology Program.
New carbon dates of mastodon fossils confirmed the doubts of Grant Zazula and others who study vanished landscapes of the north. Zazula is with the Yukon Palaeontology Program in Whitehorse. Co-authors on the recent mastodon paper are Alaskans Patrick Druckenmiller, Pam Groves, Dan Mann and Michael Kunz.
Zazula got interested in what he thought were way-too-recent dates on mastodon bones when Earl Bennett of Whitehorse donated a partial mastodon skeleton in 2007. Miners had found it in the early 1970s when a gold dredge clunked into it on a Yukon creek.
Zazula doubted earlier reported dates on mastodon teeth found in a northern Alaska river and in northern Yukon that suggested the animals lived here when no forest existed. That did not mesh with what researchers think the mastodon was. Mastodons had pointy teeth that belonged in a wood chipper. Twigs, cones and leaves were in fossilized stomach and manure remnants found farther south.
Researchers at the University of Oxford and the University of California radiocarbon dated 36 teeth and bones for the new mastodon study. They tested the protein collagen within the samples, avoiding varnish and glues applied by museum workers that may have contaminated the results before. - More...
Thursday PM - December 11, 2014
|
|
Alaska: The Exxon Valdez - 25 Years Later By JULIE COHEN - In the years following the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in the Gulf of Alaska, scientists have monitored the impacted areas to understand the effects of the spill on the ecosystem and to assess and promote recovery of affected species.
The red area shows the extent of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill.
Photo Credit: Exxon Valdez Oil Spill Trustee Council
UC Santa Barbara’s National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis (NCEAS) has collaborated with investigators from Gulf Watch Alaska and the Herring Research and Monitoring Program to collate historical data from a quarter century of monitoring studies on physical and biological systems altered by the spill. Now, two new NCEAS working groups will synthesize this and related data and conduct a holistic analysis to answer pressing questions about the interaction between the oil spill and larger drivers such as broad cycles in ocean currents and water temperatures.
“Enormous efforts have been made to monitor and collect information about the Gulf of Alaska in the past quarter century since the Exxon Valdez oil spill and now that data are being put to new use in these long-term synthesis efforts,” said NCEAS Director Frank Davis. “By bringing together these diverse data and analyzing them using state-of-the-art modeling and statistical techniques, these multidisciplinary working groups can gain new insights into the coupling between oil impacts on the Gulf of Alaska ecosystem and human communities that directly rely on it, as well as increase our understanding of the relationships between ecological recovery and biological diversity.”
One working group — Understanding Changes in the Coastal Gulf of Alaska Social-Ecological System: Analysis of Past Dynamics to Improve Prediction of Future Response to Natural and Anthropogenic Change (CGoA Futures) — will determine how the structure, productivity and dynamics of socioeconomic and ecological systems in the Gulf of Alaska responded to anticipated changes in environmental conditions and human disturbances. - More...
Thursday PM - December 11, 2014
|
POLITICAL CARTOON: Jolly Old Congress
By Rick McKee, The Augusta Chronicle
Distributed to subscribers for publication by Cagle Cartoons, Inc.
US Congress passes $1 trillion spending bill - USAToday.com - Read the story...
|
Viewpoints
Commentary
Opinions/Letters
Basic
Rules &
Freedom of Speech
Questions, please contact
the editor at editor@sitnews.us or call 617-9696
Sitnews reserves the right to edit.
 Timber Economics By Owen Graham - Let's talk about real timber economics. For years we have been listening to various environmental groups and others talk about Tongass timber sale subsidies. The reality is there are none; no matter how many times the falsehood is repeated. If the federal government provides billions in wind production tax credits; that's a subsidy. When corn farmers and ethanol producers receive billions in tax credits and have their products supported with an ethanol gas mandate; that's also a subsidy. However, if a local lumber yard or an appliance store spends more money selling lumber or appliances than it receives, that does not mean their customers are subsidized; it just means that the lumber yard or appliance store will soon go broke. Likewise, the timber industry is not subsidized when it purchases timber from the Forest Service. The industry is not responsible for, nor can it control how much a federal agency spends. - More...
Monday PM - December 08, 2014
The Missing Christmas Deer By Ted Cabot - Let me start by saying I am writing this letter for my wife. Every year she waits patiently for the Holidays, especially Christmas, her absolute favorite. In our house, she without question is in charge of decorating the outside of our home, she does the inside as well, but her real joy is doing the outside. We live on lower Fairy Chasm Rd. so I'm sure there are many of you who know which house it is. She enjoys many, many compliments from the good people of Ketchikan every year, so you can see what motivates her to decorate the way she does. And yes, the house looks great every Christmas. She does try to do different things each year. And always does a great job. - More...
Monday PM - December 08, 2014
Nut Cracker Performance By A. M. Johnson - The performance of the Nut-Cracker this year is one for the record books. The performance of the children and young adults in learning the parts, learning their marks, and presentation in tune with the music score was absolutely outstanding. There was not a glitch, nor a miss in the timing, The set design was superb reflecting long backstage hours in preparation. To see the continued depth of adult thespians in accompanying roles in this production reflects the continued outstanding level of talent viewed in First City Player productions. - More...
Monday PM - December 08, 2014
Joy to the World By Judith Green - This past week end the Ketchikan Community Chorus, under the direction of Stephen Kinney, shared their music and talents with "The Songs of the People-around the world" as the title "Joy to the World" would suggest: Israeli, Serbian, American, French, Ukraine, Africa. - More...
Monday PM - December 08, 2014
Parking Failures By Chris Elliott - Donita O'Dell's letter prompts this response. Lighten up! If someone is having a heart attack & you park outside the lines at PeaceHealth, I don't think your photo's going to show up. If you park your little tiny Prius in the cart return lane, you deserve a little attention. If you're a jerk and you park like a jerk then you're going to respond to this "shaming" like a jerk. If you're a normal person who, for one reason or another, misparked your car, you're going to take it like a normal person and chuckle at being "outed." - More...
Monday PM - December 08, 2014
Too Much, For Too Few, For Too Long By Ray Austin - I have always felt that culture is important to our identity; for decades I have been an advocate for culture, education, and employment of Alaska Native people. As a shareholder, I hoped that Sealaska Corporation would share my goals, as well as Sealaska Heritage Institute (SHI), the non-profit affiliate. Sealaska Corporation was founded as part of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, and currently serves over 20,000 shareholders across the country. The Sealaska Heritage Institute has become the face of Tlingit, Haida and Tsimshian culture and hosts a biennial celebration in Juneau, Alaska, which is a source of great pride for the people. I have always worked for the betterment of our people through my involvement with Celebration as stage manager; an independent candidate for the Sealaska Board; and the originator of the Sealaska shareholders Facebook website. - More...
Thursday PM - December 04, 2014
Ketchikan Driving By A.M. Johnson - In response to Rodney Dial's fine response to Ketchikan driving suggestions, I would like to contribute. Often while visiting our boat moorage behind the VFW lodge, one will find at high traffic conditions the frustration of awaiting departing cars at the exit attempting to make a left hand turn North. Over time one will have discovered that time and frustrations can be eliminated if the driver will turn RIGHT with the traffic and motor down to the KPU or Third Ave. to Alaska Car Rental. Make a U-turn and head North. You will find this move is a better use of time and traffic flow of those behind you waiting to access Tongass from the harbor parking. - More...
Thursday PM - December 04, 2014
RE: Anonymous naming-and-shaming on social media By Donita O'Dell - I want to take a minute to thank Rodney Dial for his constructive and respectful comments about driving (and parking) problems that he sees affecting our community. - More...
Thursday PM - December 04, 2014
Fergerson By A. M. Johnson - After the many days of watching and hearing all sides of the tragic situation that developed and played out in Ferguson one has to make each a personal observation and draw his/her conclusion to the results of the social conclusions that were represented in all the information released to the public. - More...
Thursday PM - December 04, 2014
Riots By Edwin Slaten - It is time for the news media to become honest and admit that they are responsible for the riots all over the country concerning the Ferguson situation. They were also responsible for the Zimmerman, Trayvon Martin deal in Florida. I saw on TV when Martin was on top of Zimmerman beating his head against the concrete sidewalk. - More...
Thursday PM - December 04, 2014
Prostate Cancer and Energy Poverty By Isaac Orr - Smoking, obesity, exposure to toxic chemicals: Which of these factors do you think plays the biggest role in determining how deadly prostate cancer will be in a given situation? The correct answer is none of them. The most life-threatening factor in prostate cancer is poverty, coupled with a lack of access to electricity. This condition, called “energy poverty” by the World Bank, is the reason all illnesses – including prostate cancer – are far more devastating to people in poor nations than in the developed world. - More...
Thursday PM - December 04, 2014
Webmail your letter or
Email Your Letter To: editor@sitnews.us
|
Articles &
photographs that appear in SitNews may be protected by copyright
and may not be reprinted or redistributed without written permission
from and payment of required fees to the proper sources.
E-mail your news &
photos to editor@sitnews.us
Photographers choosing to submit photographs for publication to SitNews are in doing so, granting their permission for publication and for archiving. SitNews does not sell photographs. All requests for purchasing a photograph will be emailed to the photographer.
|
|
Weekly Specials |
The Local Paper is now available online.
Click here for this week's printed edition.
|
|
|
