Ketchikan: Ketchikan Home Lost in Easter Fire; No injuries, pets saved By M.C. KAUFFMAN - No one was home at the time of the fire which destroyed the home of Robert and Vicki Inkster at 52 Carlton's Drive.

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The fire in the Pond Reef area north of Ketchikan was first discovered in its early stages by a neighbor, Derek Flom, who acted quickly and called 911. North Tongass Volunteer Fire Department Chief Dave Hull said the report of the fire came in at 12:30 pm Sunday, Easter day. Hull was on dispatch at the time and took the call. He said, "The report was of a fire on the outside front of the house that was building fast."

Hull said, "Confirmation of a structure fire came at 12:33 and that brought with it another tone out for 'automatic aid' from South Tongass Volunteer Fire Department and Ketchikan Fire Department in the form of water tankers and crew."

"Our first arriving North Tongass Volunteer Fire Department unit arrived on scene at 12:36 and immediately requested a 'mutual aid' response of additional firefighting personnel from STVFD and KFD." said Chief Hull.

Hull said, "The first arriving North Tongass Volunteer Fire Department personnel were successful in attacking the fire quickly from the outside and knocked the fire down on the first floor of the structure." He said, "They were also able to establish a water supply with a 3,0000 gallon water tank and filled it with water from our tanker 8." - More...
Tuesday AM - April 18, 2006

National: When leaders aren't in lockstep By MATTHEW B. STANNARD - An embattled secretary of defense, accused of arrogance and incompetence, determined to carry forward his plans for cutting costs and embracing new technologies. Angry flag officers, some resigning in protest, going public with criticisms of the civilian leadership. The military future of the United States in the balance.

It was the summer of 1949, a contentious debate that came to be known as "The Revolt of the Admirals."

That battle is just one of many examples from American history in which struggles between the military and its civilian leadership spilled into the public sphere, historians say. - More...
Tuesday AM - April 18, 2006

National: The Great Quake: 1906-2006 By CARL NOLTE - On Saturday night - three days after the April 18, 1906, earthquake and fire had wrecked San Francisco - a hard rain fell on the city.

Steam rose from the ruins. The city lay in absolute darkness. No lights were permitted, no fires.

What was left was "thousands of acres of quiet desolation," William Bronson wrote in his classic, "The Earth Shook, the Sky Burned."

"Only scattered marks of a great city remained. The City Hall and its records, the libraries, the courts, and jails, the theaters and restaurants, had vanished," Bronson said. "The heart and guts of one of the world's best loved cities were gone."

To be specific, 522 city blocks, four square miles of the city, 2,593 acres, 28,188 buildings - all destroyed. For 99 years, until Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, the San Francisco earthquake and fire stood as the largest natural disaster in U.S. history.

The year 1906 was at the beginning of a terrible century of wars, but after the fires went out 100 years ago, it looked as if San Francisco had been bombed. The steel and concrete buildings were burned-out hulks; the streets in the burned district stood out amid the shells of a city. - More...
Tuesday AM - April 18, 2006

Market St., looking east - San Francisco 1906 Ruins after the San Francisco earthquake. Photograph Courtesy Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C.

Ketchikan: J.R. Heckman, Captain Sayles and the San Francisco Earthquake By DAVE KIFFER - A century ago today, a massive earthquake devastated San Francisco area. It - and the fires that followed - wiped out more than half of the city of 400,000 people. More than 28,000 buildings and 500 city blocks were destroyed. Contemporary accounts downplayed the loss of life, but modern estimates place the death toll at nearly 4,000 people.

The ripples from the 8.3 magnitude quake would be felt more than 1200 miles away in the small, growing village of Ketchikan.

In later years, longtime resident Henry Henn would talk about surviving the quake as an 11 year old boy. Prominent local merchant J.R. Heckman and local sea Captain Jimmie Sayles also had a survival story to tell and they relayed it to pioneer printer and newspaperman Richard Bushell.

Bushell's manuscript "Mary and I in the Alaska Panhandle" is in the archives of the Tongass Historical Museum. It was written sometime between 1916 and 1920, after Bushell and his wife returned to Washington state after running the Ketchikan Miner newspaper in the middle part of the 1910s. The story of J.R. Heckman, Captain Jimmie Sayles and the great San Francisco earthquake takes up almost the entire third chapter. - More...
Tuesday AM - April 18, 2006

Youth Friendly Award Presented to Ketchikan Business Left to right, Russell Thomas, Anthony Chavarria, Karen Eakes and Colin Ayers. Front Page Photo by Marie L. Monyak

Ketchikan: Youth Friendly Award Presented to Ketchikan Business By MARIE L. MONYAK - Acting on behalf of Spirit of Youth in Wasilla, Karen Eakes, Executive Director of PATCHWorks in Ketchikan, presented Russell Thomas, owner of Alaska Sportsfishing with a Youth Friendly Business Award on Wednesdasy April 12th during the Greater Chamber of Commerce luncheon. Spirit of Youth promotes opportunities for youth involvement in the community and recognizes them in the media.

The Youth Friendly Business Award recognizes and honors those businesses that

• Treat youths with great respect.
• Hires youths and prepares them for the future and for careers.
• Supports community activities for youths.

This past March, Spirit of Youth held a banquet in Anchorage where youths from around the state were honored for their contributions to their communities and 10 businesses were also honored. - More...
Tuesday AM - April 18, 2006

Juried Art Show Attracts 64 Entries Gayle Nixon, Branch Manager of the Alaska Natural History Association Book Store, and Leslie Swada, Education Specialist for the Forest Service. Front Page Photo by Marie L. Monyak

Ketchikan: Juried Art Show Attracts 64 Entries By MARIE L. MONYAK - The Eleventh Annual Hummingbird Festival in Ketchikan had been well underway for several weeks when the Juried Art Show held its opening reception this past Friday at the Ketchikan Visitors Bureau on Front Street.

This is the first year that the festival included a Juried Art Show and to say the results were a tremendous success would be an understatement. The opening reception was complete with hors d'oeuvres and beverages and the room was crowded with those anxious to see the wonderful and creative art submitted from all over the state.

The show was sponsored by the Tongass National Forest, the Alaska Natural History Association and the Ketchikan Visitor's Bureau. Leslie Swada, Education Specialist for the Forest Service is to be commended for her tireless effort in putting together an extensive month long list of activities, events and presentations with a schedule that flowed effortlessly.

Gayle Nixon, Branch Manager of the Alaska Natural History Book Store deserves recognition as well for her assistance and participation in the show. Twenty-five percent of all monies raised by the book store are returned to the public in the form of educational programs. It's these funds that were used as awards for the seven winners of the art show. - More...
Tuesday AM - April 18, 2006

Viewpoints Opinions/Letters Kind and Generous People By Jerry Cegelske - Tuesday PM The "Younger crowd By Rick Grams - Tuesday PM To All of my Eagle-Eyed Readers By Bob Ciminel - Tuesday PM RE: Plug Into Shore Power By Dave Kiffer - Tuesday PM Thought Provoking By A.M. Johnson - Tuesday PM Immigrants/Amnesty By Virginia E. Atkinson - Tuesday PM The Oil in the ground belongs to the people of Alaska, not BP By Samuel Bergeron - Monday AM Alaskans should not be overly concerned as bird migration resumes By Matt Robus - Monday AM Night of High School Music-ians! By Judith Green - Monday AM God Speed, Lisa By Dave Kiffer - Monday AM Aerial pesticide spraying of Long Island By Carrie L. James - Monday AM Re: Drug abuse affects everyone By Catlin Rettke - Monday AM Plug In To Shore Power By Steve Smeltzer - Monday AM Kudos to Sen. Ted Stevens By Rudy McGillvray - Monday AM Open Letter to Sen. Stevens By Mike Jones - Monday AM Abortion- Last resort, or murder? By Catlin Rettke - Monday AM Immediate crisis of rising and high CO2 By Russ George - Monday AM Fancy propaganda ads will not cover the truth By Mike Moyer - Thursday PM Plug into shore power By Carrie James - Thursday PM Legislature in process of limiting personal rights By Carey Crawford - Thursday PM Protect our children By Carrie James - Thursday PM Opposed to the idea of my government deciding By Catlin Rettke - Thursday PM Thanks By Neil Gray - Thursday PM More Viewpoints/ Letters Publish A Letter Political Cartoonists Political Cartoons Ketchikan April 20, 2006, Thursday - 7:00 pm - Ketchikan City Council regular meeting. City Council Chambers Agenda & Information Packets April Calendar Arts This Week Today's Forecast Ketchikan Weather Data Current AK Weather Map City Police Report AK Troopers Daily Dispatch Classifieds & Announcements April 2006 Click on the date to read the stories published on that day. S M T W T F S 26 27 28 29 30 31 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

Dale McFeatters: Should complexity be the price of lower taxes? - We may fast be approaching the day when everybody's tax returns will be done by somebody - or something - else.

This year, over 60 percent of American taxpayers paid someone else to do their returns, and if you include those who used computer programs to do them, it climbs to over 90 percent.

Other people did President Bush's and Vice President Cheney's tax returns. The Associated Press polled Congress' top tax writers and found only one who did his own returns - Rep. Bill Thomas, R-Calif., chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee - and he's something of a maverick anyway. It is estimated that, even with a computer, the average taxpayer needs 37.8 hours - almost a workweek - to fill out a 1040. David Keating of the National Taxpayers Union suggests that congressional tax writers spend at least 20 hours each trying to fill out the forms before throwing in the towel and handing them over to a professional. - More...
Tuesday AM - April 18, 2006

Peter Callaghan: Most U.S. voters aren't red or blue - try purple swirl - Red state vs. blue state has never been an accurate way to explain American politics.

Common, yes. Illuminating, not so much.

The problem is it assumes the country is divided into two camps: Republican or Democrat, liberal or conservative, Bush or Kerry. It looked good on post-election maps. But it was always dependent on polls and elections forcing people with a variety of viewpoints into a bipolar world.

It shoves the deeply committed in with the ambiguous and calls it good.

Yet the red state-blue state idea lingers, probably because it is so easy. It might not be an accurate theory, but it is a theory nonetheless, and people take comfort in certainty.

A study released last week by the Pew Research Center might cause some discomfort along the red-blue border. - More...
Tuesday AM - April 18, 2006

Bob Ciminel: What Happened to Quality? - When I was a youngster, my mother used an old Maytag wringer washer to do the family laundry. If you don't remember wringer washers, or have never seen one, here's a picture. And, no, that's not my mother; she was prettier.

These things were a bit dangerous, as I can attest to after having my fingers pinched in the rollers several times before learning not to play with the wringer. However, they did a good job of washing clothes. They would not be safe for today's synthetic fabrics, but they were great for cotton fabrics.

Mom's washing machine lasted a long time. My wife and I moved it into our basement after we married in 1971, and we used it for about a year before I took pity on Alice and bought her a new Maytag automatic washer and gas dryer. In 1976, we moved to Beaumont, Texas and had to replace our gas dryer with an electric one. We bought another Maytag. - More...
Tuesday AM - April 18, 2006

Steve Brewer: As simple as a pass through airport security - Simplicity's all the rage these days, and many lifestyle gurus urge us to simplify our lives.

We're told we should get more exercise by walking everywhere like our simple ancestors, the hunters and gatherers. We're told we should maintain the diet of simple Mediterranean goatherds. We're told we should embrace the simplistic, old-fashioned values of South Dakotans and other primitive peoples.

Mostly, we're advised to own less stuff. All our swanky possessions and elaborate electronic gizmos drag us down, the gurus say, leading us to want more, more, more of everything, while denying us the spiritual fulfillment that comes from leading a simple life. - More...
Tuesday AM - April 18, 2006