Flag gif

Sitnews - Stories In The News - Ketchikan, Alaska - News, Features, Opinions banner

Flag gif

Friday
April 16, 2004

   

Front Page Photo by Kip Tyler©2004

9th Annual Alaska Hummingbird Festival
April 16-18, 2004
Front Page Photo by Kip Tyler

Ketchikan Charter Commission - Ketchikan, Alaska

Ketchikan: Ketchikan Charter Commission Conducts Survey - Click here to complete the survey... Survey published Tuesday -03/23/04

Survey ends Sunday, April 18th

Viewpoints
Opinions/Letters

letter Comparing the Big Dig & Gravina/Pennock Island Bridge by Don Hoff Jr. - Hixson, TN - 04/16/04
letter Frightening What Is Found In Ditches! by Jerry A. Cegelske - Ketchikan - 04/16/04
letter RE: Gentlemen by Charles A. Mackey - Ketchikan - 04/16/04
letter RE: Extinct Gentlemen by Lynden Cothary - Ketchikan - 04/16/04
letter AMHS Building -- Ward Cove, Alaska by David Landis - Ketchikan - 04/16/04
letter Photos of Ketchikan by Lee Marmon - Laguna. NM - 04/16/04
letter Are single gentlemen extinct? by Brandi Conway - Ketchikan - 04/16/04
letter Gravina Bridge by Thomas Ferry - Ketchikan - 04/16/04
letter Read more Viewpoints
letter Publish A Letter

April 2004
Click on the date to read the stories & to view photos published on that day...
S M T W T F S
  29 30 31 1 2 3
4 5 6 7 8 9 10
11 12 13 14 15 16 17
18 19 20 21 22 23 24
25 26 27 28 29 30  

arrow Today's Front Page
arrow Front Page Archives
         

Ketchikan: 9th Annual Alaska Hummingbird Festival - Celebrate the return of migratory birds from Central and South America to the southern panhandle of Alaska. The male Rufous hummingbirds begin arriving in Ketchikan in mid-March and are seen at feeders and flowers throughout Ketchikan by mid-April.

Festival events include guided bird hikes, art shows, a bird-banding station, and activities for children. Schedule: 9th Annual Alaska Hummingbird Festival - April 16-18, 2004

For more information, call festival headquarters at the Southeast Alaska Discovery Center at 907-228-6220. - Photo & Hummingbird Web Movie....
Friday - April 16, 2004

Alaska: Revenue Forecast Shows Highest Ever Oil Prices, But Continuing Deficit for State Budget Should be a Call to Act - Department of Revenue Commissioner Bill Corbus on Thursday released the spring revenue forecast for the State of Alaska, which shows a record all-time high price for Alaska North Slope crude oil at an average of $30.64 per barrel through March in FY2004. It projects the high prices will continue through FY2005, with an average price of $28.30.

"Alaska has been blessed by high crude oil prices, which have provided us with more than $520 million in revenue over what we would have received under OPEC's baseline of $22 per barrel," Corbus said. "However, even with the high prices, Alaska faces a budget deficit that needs to be solved now."

"This forecast document presents no reason to postpone closing the fiscal gap. If it shows anything, this forecast shows the high volatility of oil prices. Therefore it, is in reality a call to action to adopt a plan this legislative session that matches recurring revenues with expenditures going forward."

The Constitutional Budget Reserve Fund, the cash reserve the state uses each year to balance the budget, is now forecast to hit $1 billion in September 2007, and be depleted in May 2008, based upon a $2.3 billion annual budget. Several aspects of the annual revenue shortfall are to be found in the forecast document.

The purpose of the forecast is to provide the Governor, Legislature and citizens of the State of Alaska with a summary of state revenues and a forecast of future revenues. The revenue forecast is categorized into four major components: oil taxes, non-oil taxes and fees, federal dollars, and investment revenues. The forecast contains projections through FY2015. - Read more...
Friday - April 16, 2004

click here...

'New Look'
Photo by Carl Thompson

Ketchikan: The appearance of the old Ben Franklins' building is slowly changing. The 'Five and Dime' was in business for decades before closing down in the fall of 2003. - More...
Friday - April 16, 2004

Alaska: Local 71 Members Ratify 2-1/2 Year Contract with State - The Murkowski administration announced Thursday that the tentative agreement recently reached with Public Employees Local 71 has been ratified by the union membership. The new agreement provides for status quo in the first year and two percent general increases in the second and third years of a two and one-half year agreement that expires December 31, 2006. The agreement is pending approval by the Legislature.

Local 71 represents approximately 1,500 state employees in the Labor, Trades, and Crafts bargaining unit. These employees are responsible for maintaining and operating state facilities, roads, docks, and airports. - Read more...
Friday - April 16, 2004

click here...Ketchikan Columnist

Dear Crabby: STABLE SISTER and FRIEND OF PROCRASTINATOR - I need help! Tourist season is starting soon, and my parents want to send my younger brother up here to stay with me and work. They know I can get him a job, because I've lived up here for 4 years and have worked at the same place in the summer for 3 years.

The problem is the way he acts. He owns the movie, "Boyz in the Hood" and loves Rap music. He idolizes Eminem, Snoop Dog, Master P and all the rest of the rappers. He wears big baggy jeans and talks like they do. He is a middle class Caucasian kid, and no one up here acts like that anyway. He embarrasses me. When I lived down south, I had friends. They didn't like him, and once they learned he was my brother, they became stand-offish. - Read more...
Friday - April 16, 2004

The June Allen Column
is made possible in part by these sponsors. Cick on each name to visit each web site.

June Allen Column Sponsors

June Allen Column

PhotosKetchikan's First City Players; Did you hear that applause? - The 40th anniversary of the founding of Ketchikan's renowned First City Players is fast approaching. That community theater of volunteer actors, directors and stage hands laid the foundation of a tradition that has become the city's longest-lived, continuously active thespian society. It began when a small group of amateur actors with a little theater experience got together and said, "Let's put on a show!" And did so, and then put together another show, and another to become in time Ketchikan's first long-term little theater group as well as one of Alaska's most respected amateur theater organizations. In the larger picture and looking back to the town's beginnings, the First City Players added their talents to a long tradition of drama and comedy in the story of the small town on the shores of Tongass Narrows. - Read the rest of this story by June Allen...
Tuesday - March 30, 2004


More stories by June Allen...

arrow A biography of Alaska's herring: A little fish of huge importance...

arrow Nulato AK: a small village but big in history...

arrow Ketchikan's Creek Street Dance Hall; echoes of music from the past...

arrow Ketchikan's Volunteer Legacy; Buckets to hydrants to hi-tech...

arrow Read more stories by June Allen...


 E-mail your news tips, stories, news releases & photos to:
arrow editor@sitnews.org

E-mail large photo files to
arrow photos@sitnews.org

Edited by Dick Kauffman:
arrow editor@sitnews.org

E-mail the Webmaster:
arrow webmaster@sitnews.org

Copyright Applies - Please obtain written permission before reproducing photographs, features, columns, etc. that are published on Sitnews.

Published online since
August 2000

Sitnews
Stories in the News
©1999 - 2004
Ketchikan, Alaska

Lewis Motors - Ketchikan, Alaska

Tongass Business Center - Ketchikan, AK

My Sisters Place - Ketchikan, Alaska

Ketchikan Tours -Awesome Adventures of Alaska

Ubid Alaska - Anchorage, Alaska

Alaskans for Drug Free Youth - Ketchikan,AK

Bergeron Construction Company LLC - Ketchikan, Alaska

Joann Flora, Acupressure... Ketchikan, Alaska
The Adventures of Stuart Little
Spring Fling Swing May 1st

Web Works Express - click here

Support Our Troops
'Our Troops'

 Wanted
Freelance Writers

Sitnews is interested in purchasing news and human interest stories about Ketchikan. For more information, e-mail the editor or call 247-8590.

fireworks gifThe Greater Ketchikan Chamber of Commerce would like your help in nominating this year's Theme and Grand Marshall. - Download the 2004 Fourth of July Parade Nomination Formpdf