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Wednesday
January 05, 2005

Front Page Photo courtesy Ketchikan Museums

Marconi Telegraph Station, circa 1915
Photograph courtesy Ketchikan Museums

    

Columns/Commentary

Martin Schram: Islam vs. Islam - When we look back, one year from now, we will see that the big story of 2005 was nothing like the mild, myopic goulash that the print pundits and TV chattering heads just dished us as New Year's predictions about Bush-this, Hillary-that, Iraq-this, Social Security-that. - More...
Wednesday - January 05, 2005

jpg Dale McFeattersDale McFeatters: Is poker harmful and should we care? - Thanks to the improbable popularity of televised poker tournaments and the ready availability of poker online, that fine old American card game has made a booming comeback, especially with teenage males who presumably should be off playing Grand Theft Auto. - More...
Wednesday - January 05, 2005

Michael Fumento: The lives we can still save - You've seen the horrific images of walls of water rushing up beaches, sweeping away everything - and everyone - in its path. You've seen the dead piled up like cordwood, wounded survivors and persons collapsing upon hearing their entire family has vanished. Alas, you may not have seen the worst. - More...
Wednesday - January 05, 2005

jpg Kats & SilverbergConfidentially Yours: Don't keep guy hanging ... Great expectations - Dear Jewel:I got a new boyfriend last week. But he keeps following me, and then stops when he sees me. My mom says I'm weird because most girls want their boyfriends to hang on their every word, but I don't like it at all. What should I do? - More...
Wednesday - January 05, 2005

Viewpoints
Opinions/Letters

letter Galileo the heretic by Ken Lewis - Wednesday
letter Where to Put Students Next Year by Dave Lieben - Wednesday
letter For Our Viewing Pleasure by Jerry Cegelske - Wednesday
letter A MESSAGE TO GRAVINA'S WILDLIFE by Mike Sallee - Wednesday
letterFrom Thailand by Duane King - Wednesday
letter Lack of recreation for the young adults 18+ by Archie Inoncillo - Wednesday
letter Ketchikan Dance Club by Joseph Branco - Wednesday
letterYOUTH IN OUR COMMUNITY... by Bobbie McCreary - Wednesday
letter Entertainment by Charlotte Glover - Wednesday
letter Nothing, Oh Nothing, to do by Peter Bolling - Wednesday
letter Harsh words in support of Milosevic by Emily Katz - Wednesday
letter More Viewpoints/ Letters
letter Publish A Letter

January 2005
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ACS Bids for KPU Telecom:
ACS a longtime presence

By June Allen

It was big news in little Ketchikan recently when giant Alaska Communications System (ACS) expressed interest in buying the citizen-owned KPU Telecom division. Because the Ketchikan's utility systems are owned by the municipality, such a sale would require a vote of the residents of the isolated island town of 8,000 located on the shores of Southeastern Alaska's Inside Passage.

It was not the first such offer. In 1996 the city's voters turned down a similar bid, a $30.2 million offer for the phone company, from PTI Communications, which later became part of ACS. So it appears that KPU Telecom is a money-maker, and would the voters approve such a deal?  Have the people given up enough of their habitual mistrust of the city fathers to trust them to negotiate the deal? Are the people interested enough and savvy enough to vote on such an offer? - Read the rest of this story by June Allen...
Wednesday - January 05, 2005

National: Congress set to consider a variety of immigration reforms - Striking early in the new Congress, the influential chairman of the House Judiciary Committee is introducing a package of immigration reforms that includes stronger national standards for driver's licenses and stricter rules for granting asylum. It's a measure with some high-level support.

"We need to strengthen our borders, reform our asylum laws, and improve national standards for drivers licenses," House Speaker Dennis Hastert said Tuesday in his inaugural speech of the 109th Congress. "The terrorists who attacked us did so by exploiting gaps in our border security system (and) by abusing our immigration laws. ... We must fill those gaps."

Upward of 100 lawmakers already have signed on to the legislation set for formal introduction Wednesday. The package fulfills a promise Judiciary Committee Chairman James Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., made last month after his preferred policies were dropped from an intelligence agency reform bill. - More...
Wednesday - January 05, 2005

Careers: Where to find new jobs in 2004 - During the last two years, the United States experienced some of the strongest economic growth in its history. Unfortunately, the increase in employment was not as robust as many economists predicted.- More...
Wednesday - January 05, 2005

Alaska: State To File Suit Against Federal Government Over Federal Reserved Water Rights - The State of Alaska will sue the U.S. Departments of the Interior and Agriculture challenging the application of regulations implementing the Katie John decision dealing with subsistence management and asserting federal jurisdiction over certain waterways. The suit will be filed in U.S. District Court on Friday.

"Every governor since statehood has recognized the need to protect the state's control of its navigable waters. I promised the Alaskan people that I would defend the state's right to manage its own resources, whether fish or game, riverbed or seabed. That duty transcends personality and politics," said Governor Frank H. Murkowski.

"This case does not challenge Title VIII's subsistence provisions or the Katie John decision. It simply represents my commitment to vigorously defend Alaskans against an over-reaching federal government."

The statute of limitations requires that the regulations be challenged before January 9, 2005, or they will be immune to legal challenge. - More...
Wednesday - January 05, 2005

Alaska: Murkowski Sworn In To U.S. Senate - Senator Lisa Murkowski began her first full term in the United States Senate Tuesday. At a ceremony on the Senate Floor, Vice President Dick Cheney administered the Oath of Office and swore in Sen. Murkowski, the first individual born in Alaska to represent the state in the Senate, and the first woman elected in her own right to Alaska statewide office. - More...
Wednesday - January 05, 2005

Alaska: Young Sworn In For 17th Term In House of Representatives - Alaska Congressman Don Young was sworn in Tuesday for his 17th term as Alaska's only Congressman. In a ceremony Tuesday afternoon, Congressman Young took an oath administered by Speaker of the House Dennis J. Hastert to begin the 109th Congress. - More...
Wednesday - January 05, 2005

June Allen Column Sponsors

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June Allen Column

photosBetty King the Dog Lady; Ketchikan's one-woman humane society - There is an alley in downtown Ketchikan named Betty King Alley. It's a very narrow little mid-block lane that begins on Dock Street and cuts through to Mission and then to Mill Street. Mill is a comparatively new (1972) street named for the sprawling and now-gone Ketchikan Spruce Mill that buzzed and rumbled with activity at the site for some eighty years. A few years back, the previously anonymous alley was finally named. The name chosen was Daly Alley, chosen to honor one of the Spruce Mills pioneer families. It was a dubious honor, actually. And at least one member of that family may not have been delighted with the tribute. - Read the rest of this feature story by June Allen...
Wednesday - December 01, 2004

arrow Ketchikan, Alaska - Let There Be Light! -- Citizens Light & Power and then KPU

arrow The State Capitol and Its Marble and keeping the capital in Juneau

arrow A Legendary Mountain of Jade; Just one of Alaska's Arctic Wonders

arrow John Koel, Baker to Banker; An eccentric philanthropist

arrow Harold Gillam: A Tragic Final Flight; Ketchikan remembers the search

arrow Ketchikan's 'Fish House Tessie'; She was proud of the nickname

arrow Fairbanks: Golden Heart City; A story of its founding

arrow Remembering 'Swede' Risland (1915-1991);The town's most memorable logger

arrow Read more feature stories by June Allen...


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