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Saturday
January 25, 2014
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Eagle's Last Flight
Likely the most photographed eagle in Ketchikan, the carving was removed Friday morning. This photograph provides a bird's eye view of this eagle's last flight at Berth III. Master Carver Nathan Jackson carved this eagle and he also supervised its removal. Jackson will be carving a replacement eagle.
Front Page Photograph By KATY SUITER ©2014
(Please respect the rights of photographers, never republish or copy
without permission and/or payment of required fees.)
Ketchikan: 2014 Sam Pitcher Scholarship Recipients Announced - The Sam Pitcher Memorial Scholarship Fund announced the selection of four Ketchikan students to receive 2014 Sam Pitcher Music Scholarships. The students are 11th grader Hana Lee Oshima, granddaughter of Steve and Grace Kinney, 10th grader Amber Junker, daughter of Troy and Jennifer Junker, 9th grader Kinani Halvorsen, daughter of Chrissy and Peter Halvorsen, and 9th grader Lily Vaughn, daughter of Brenda Vaughn.
2014 Sam Pitcher Scholarship Recipients
From L. to R. Lily Vaughn, Kinani Halvorsen, Amber Junker and Hana Lee Oshina
The scholarships are for $750 to Hana Lee Oshima to attend Rocky Ridge Music Center in Colorado, and $500 each awarded to the other three recipients to attend the Sitka Fine Arts Camp. Scholarships are awarded on the basis of merit, goals and musicianship. - More...
Saturday PM - January 25, 2014
Fish Factor: Backers keep banning salmon setnetting afloat By LAINE WELCH - A measure aimed at banning salmon setnetting is being held afloat by backers. The ban includes the Anchorage area, much of the Kenai Peninsula, Valdez and Juneau. It would completely eliminate Cook Inlet setnetters and affect roughly 500 fishing families in all.
Lt. Governor Mead Treadwell decided two weeks ago to not allow the question to go before Alaska voters as a ballot initiative in 2016. The newly formed Kenai-based Alaska Fisheries Conservation Alliance followed up with an appeal filed in Alaska Superior Court.
“In a measure based on conservation and Alaska law, our organization will challenge the decision to disallow our proposed statewide commercial set net ban in the urban, non-subsistence regions of Alaska from going to the state voters,” AFCA Director Clark Penney said at a press conference.
Alliance legal counsel Matt Singer called the legal opinion “incorrect.”
“The decision by the Lt. Governor and the opinion by the Attorney General upon which it was based is wrong. They are wrong on the law,” Singer said. “The decision, should it stand. will set a dangerous precedent for Alaska.”
The setnet ban is being driven primarily by the dwindling number of king salmon returning to Cook Inlet, which has curtailed salmon fishing across the board for several years. Removing setnetters would likely shift more fish to sport anglers and the salmon fleet targeting sockeyes.
Treadwell ruled it amounts to fish allocation decisions, which cannot be made through a voter initiative. The Alliance insists, however, that it is a conservation measure. Treadwell urged all users to find solutions, and to let decisions be made by the State Board of Fish. But Matt Singer countered that AFCA has no confidence in the Board.
“The Board has not conserved kings, and the voters have a right to express their will,” he asserted.
Cook Inlet sport fishermen would not oppose restrictions in the name of king conservation, said AFCA President Joe Connors.
“Please keep in mind concerning Kenai River guides that they are at the lowest number in 20 years. Last year there were 284 from a high of 420 guides 15 years ago,” Connors said.
Alliance founder and sport fish icon Bob Penney said he recognizes the importance of commercial fishing in Alaska, but alleged that setnets have the “highest bycatch” of any fishing in state waters. Penney called setnets an “inappropriate gear” when king salmon numbers were steadily dwindling.
“You don’t wait till the kings are gone to say we should have done something,” Penney said. “Now is the time to protect the fish. Conservation of the fish comes first.”
The setnet ban is widely opposed by other Alaska fishing groups and the City and Borough of Kenai. The Alliance hopes to fast track the setnet ban case, Singer said, so that a decision is made in the next few months. - More...
Saturday PM - January 25, 2014
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Alaska Science: The last intact ecosystem on Earth By NED ROZELL- Back from the bottom of the world - where she had just experienced her second winter solstice in six months - Kristin O’Brien parked her shopping cart at the fish counter of a Fairbanks grocery.
An Antarctic toothfish.
Photo by R.Robbins.
The biologist who studies “icefish” in the ocean surrounding Antarctica saw behind the glass a chunky filet of Chilean sea bass. She asked the man at the display if he realized why the store should not be selling it.
No, he said, but customers had told him the cold-water, fatty fish tastes good. O’Brien then explained how the unique animal from the other side of the globe is at the heart of a fight for what many consider the last intact ecosystem on Earth.
O’Brien is a professor at the University of Alaska Fairbanks at 64.8 degrees north. Every other year, during Alaska’s early summer and Antarctica’s autumn, she travels to Palmer Station, 64.7 degrees south. There, she and her colleagues study icefish that live in the frigid waters of the Southern Ocean. The pale, almost transparent fish have white blood, which indicates a lack of hemoglobin, a protein in blood that transports oxygen. Unlike every other animal with a backbone, the fish can do without hemoglobin because frigid water has more dissolved oxygen than warmer water.
“They survived because they live in the Southern Ocean (which features salt water below the freezing point),” O’Brien said. “There’s not a lot of competition there, either.”
O’Brien studies icefish for what they can tell us about oxygen delivery to living tissues. She catches the fish aboard a ship off Palmer Station and studies them there. She also sends the hearts and other tissues back to her Fairbanks lab, where she and UAF students tease apart the mysteries of this organism so different from us. - More...
Saturday PM - January 25, 2014 |
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 Jeff Lund: Filling the hours - One would think that with fewer obligations it would be easier to attack the day and accomplish lists of tasks before tapering down to dinner then reading a chapter from a book about fly fishing in Chile before bed.
With a gap in my substituting schedule looming, that’s exactly what I thought. A couple Saturdays mid-week would be perfect for adding to word counts, practicing my D-loop at the river, and whatever else needed to be done.
But what I found was after waking up at my usual time incase there was a call, I spent the next hour or so puttering around in my own thoughts, sort of working on a column, kinda focused on my weekly grad school readings then bringing in firewood. By the time I got serious about a specific daily mission it was already mid-morning.
I would be more inclined to have one foot in work shoes one in my waders, but I’ve got a fussy left foot. I don’t know how I hurt it, that is, there was no sudden trauma. It’s far from debilitating but has been a nuisance for two weeks now. Based on my symptoms, Web-MD says that it could be a stress fracture...or rheumatoid arthritis, or plantar fasciitis, or that something bit me, or a burn (which I probably would have remembered), poison ivy (which we don’t have), or aortic regurgitation which is when a leak in the aortic valve of the heart causes blood to flow backward. - More...
Saturday PM - Janaury 25, 2014
 MONEY MATTERS: MUTUAL FUNDS FOR INVESTMENT SUCCESS By MARY LYNNE DAHL, Certified Financial Planner™ - If you noticed that people who were invested in the stock market during 2013 did very well with their investments, you may have now decided to join them and become a serious market investor yourself in 2014. If so, congratulations! This is step one to investment success: getting started. The question is, where do you start and how do you do it wisely?
The answer, for ordinary people, is usually to start with mutual funds. Set a goal for how much cash you can invest and divide that amount by 12 and begin by investing that amount every month for a year. Repeat that the following year and continue until you reach a long term goal. When setting a long term goal, it helps to be very specific and target a goal that has a purpose, like retirement. A good tip to be aware of is that for every $5,000 of income you will need in retirement, you should have accumulated about $100,000 in principal in your nest egg. If you do not adhere to this rule of thumb, you risk running out of money by overspending this nest egg. The reason for this is that you do not know how long you will live during retirement. People are living to much older ages now than in the past, so we all need more money to be able to produce the income during those years. - More...
Saturday PM - January 25, 2014
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the editor at editor@sitnews.us or call 617-9696
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 Focus on maintaining political clout By Tom Schulz -
All too often we only hear bad news in the media. The fact is that lots of good things are happening in Southeast Alaska thanks to work by our Senatorial delegation and some local representatives. - More...
Wednesday PM - January 22, 2014
Let me know when the war on drugs starts By Ken Lewis - Drug Problem? Come on people, problems should be solved not managed. What came first the drug test, or the American who chose not to do dope? With all due respect to those who think drug testing little pockets of certain types of employees is the solution to the problem, you're wrong. If drug testing were a solution to our state/national drug problem, DMV would be used and make drug testing mandatory to operate a vehicle. Time out, not fair, what about my rights, can you hear them marching in solidarity. Them being the ones not tested, who think its funny to see a highly paid ball players go down the tubes for failed Pee-Pee samples, and then excuse the coolness of the other entertainers and artists that blatantly use enough dope to kill a horse. - More...
Monday PM - January 20, 2014
State Legislative Seat By Peter Bolling - Dan Ortiz, a resident of Southeast Alaska for almost 50 years, is running for the District 36 House seat. I can think of no better person to represent the diverse communities of Southern Southeast Alaska. Dan has lived in Ketchikan and Hydaburg and his work has brought him often to Metlakatla and Wrangell. - More...
Monday PM - January 20, 2014
Delete some Federal Holidays By A.M. Johnson - There is little doubt among my acquaintance that I harbor fear from my Government. There is excess overreach by the Federal government into our personal lives far beyond what Natural Law represents. when something comes along that tugs at my frustration with a bit of common sense it is accepted with as a moment of fresh air. The Governor of Maine, Paul La Page is purported to have said in a public speech regarding following Federal laws. - More...
Monday PM - January 20, 2014
Open Letter: LAND USE; WATER RIGHTS By Rick Gustin -
To all Senators and Representatives who have supported HB77 or may support it's Senate bill counter part, I wanted to see if I could change your mind on how you vote regarding HB77. I understand the previously stated reasons for supporting this bill. I get that industry and perhaps some of the people in state government see our current permitting system as, complex, sometimes confused, perhaps at times overbearing and above all slow. I realize that many state employees and business leaders would like to see quicker more wide spread resource development throughout the state. This is seen as providing more jobs and more revenue for the state which is seeing declines in tax revenue and jobs in the oil industry. I totally get all of that. I also feel that there are many citizens of this state, that do not understand the permitting process, may not care about it, but do care about the natural resources that they use each year, (may take them for granted but will sure bitch like hell if they are gone). - More...
Monday PM - January 20, 2014
10% “Tithe” Tax By Stephen C. Eldridge -
Mr. Brooks and the FairTax machine continue to spew out mere propaganda! The “Fair Tax” is a Fraud – we need a 10% “Tithe” Tax! - More...
Monday PM - January 20, 2014
Stop wasting our time By James R. Donnell -
A 2011 study by noted economist Art Laffer estimates that U.S. taxpayers wasted 3.16 billion hours and shelled out $431.1 billion just to comply with the income tax code. This excludes the opportunity costs due to lost productivity, and it costs our economy $216.2 billion annually. - More...
Monday PM - January 20, 2014
WHAT CAN YOU DO? By Diane Gubatayao -
Last October, Dr. Andre Rosay from the UAA Justice Center released data from the Alaska Victimization Survey done here in Ketchikan. Shockingly, the results revealed that 50% of adult women in Ketchikan report being victims of domestic or sexual violence in their lifetimes. That means, statistically speaking, that one out of two women that might be shopping at the store, or attending a Kayhi basketball game, or living in your neighborhood, has been a victim of DV or SA. One out of two! Most of us know someone who has been a victim, and we often ask ourselves, “what can I do?”. - More...
Wednesday PM - January 15, 2014
Open Letter: Unemployment By Forrest A. Mackie - Attn: Lisa Murkowski and Don Young and all Alaska Yahoo politicians; I am an unemployed yahoo who worked the better part of my life working my way up to one of the best jobs at Ketchikan Pulp Company! KPC was the largest employer in this territory and later the state, and the fishing and the logging and the pulp industry were the largest revenue producers for 30 plus years!! Now I am 70 years young, and due to the whim of you politicians that I watch on TV, now I am constantly disgusted by what I see going on in the Whitehouse in the guise of politics. I am totally bewildered at what I see!! - More...
Wednesday PM - January 15, 2014
US Congess shows its True Colors By Michael Spence -
Having just read about the approval of the budget omnibus bill in which the US House of Representatives approved a "over 1 Trillion Dollar" spending bill out of which there is 520 billion dollars in discretionary defense related spending. - More...
Wednesday PM - January 15, 2014
There's a FIX to the U.S. decline in the Economic Freedom Index By Wiley Brooks -
The 2014 Index of Economic Freedom reveals that the United States has dropped out of the top 10 freest economies in the world. Five years ago the U.S. was ranked 6th. Now it is 12th. The FIX is called the FairTax. - More...
Wednesday PM - January 15, 2014
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