Ketchikan Pioneers: Margaret Griffin McCombs: "Free to Roam" A Feature Story By LOUISE BRINCK HARRINGTON - "In my memory I've been revisiting the old family homestead which was located two miles from the village of Kasaan," Margaret Griffin McCombs wrote in her 1989 memoirs. "A footpath through stands of timber followed the beach leading to the 'ranch.' Someone had built a one-room log cabin on this site, and then abandoned it. So the Griffin family moved in and tried to eke out a living"

Margaret Griffin McCombs: "Free to Roam" Reuben and Margaret McCombs at Kasaan Photo courtesy of Margaret McCombs

In 1917 when Margaret arrived at Kasaan with her family she was 10 years old. Her parents, Patrick and Julia Griffin, had seven children; Margaret was "number three after two older sisters."

The Griffin family came from Washington State, where times were hard and jobs scarce. To make things worse, Margaret's father, a sawmill worker, had suffered an injury and could not work.

It so happened that her mother's father, Jacob Leibrandt, had been homesteading, prospecting and logging on Prince of Wales Island in Southeastern Alaska. Grandpa Leibrandt wrote to his daughter and told her to come. Near a village called Kasaan, he said, was a piece of land with an old log cabin that was available to homestead.

When the Griffins arrived, however, they realized the log cabin needed more room for a family of nine-and repair work besides. They all pitched in and made the best of a bad situation, falling trees, splitting shakes, converting the cabin into "a three-room dwelling. Bunk beds solved the problem of sleeping so many children," Margaret wrote.

The Griffin homestead stretched over 23 acres, five of which were cleared of trees, "the roots dug out with shovels, mattocks and axes." Margaret's mother Julia planted a garden and the Griffin kids were assigned daily chores-weeding, hoeing, hauling water from the well, chopping and splitting wood, raising and feeding chickens.

The developed beach-front property facing Kasaan Bay came to be known as the Griffin Ranch.

With "the Saw Tooth Mountains in the distance, the view from our home was magnificent," wrote Margaret, who today lives in Ketchikan's Sea View Terrace Apartments. - More...
Monday - April 16, 2007

Top Stories U.S. News U.S. Politics Alaska Ketchikan

National: Va. Tech not the worst in horrific history of school massacres By LISA HOFFMAN - The massacre at Virginia Tech University Monday ranks as the worst such mass college killing in American history. But it is not the deadliest rampage at a U.S. school.

That terrible distinction belongs to the horror that befell the Bath Consolidated School in Bath Township, Mich. nearly 80 years ago.

On May 18, 1927, school board member Andrew Kehoe went on a rampage apparently triggered by his anger over a property tax that had been levied to build the school. Blaming the tax for pushing his farm into foreclosure, Kehoe killed his wife and torched his farm buildings. He turned next to the school building, where he had surreptitiously hidden dynamite over several weeks, and detonated the explosives.

When rescuers arrived, Kehoe drove to the school and detonated a firebomb he had with him in his car, killing himself and the school superintendent. Most of the 43 others killed in the bombings were children.

Here is a look at other mass killings at American schools:

- Sept. 15, 1959 - Disgruntled father Paul Orgeron in South Houston, Texas became enraged that he could not enroll his son, Dusty, at Edgar Allan Poe Elementary School because he lacked a birth certificate for the child. That morning he brought his son and a brown briefcase to the school, called children to gather into a circle around him, and then detonated the satchel. Six died - two students, a custodian, a teacher, Orgeron and his son.

- Aug. 1, 1966 - Architectural engineering student Charles Whitman ascended the 27-story tower at the University of Texas in Austin, from which he used a rifle and other firearms to pick off victims on the ground during a 96-minute spree that left 13 dead and 31 wounded. Whitman had killed his mother and wife the night before, and was himself shot dead atop the tower by police fire. - More...
Monday - April 16, 2007

Alaska: Alaska Senate makes good on commitment to forward funds education - This morning the Alaska Senate made good on its commitment to Alaska's school children by forward funding education. The Senate voted 19-0 for Senate Bill 61. The bill deposits a billion dollars of surplus general fund revenue into the Public Education Fund for the fiscal year 2009 operating budget.

Forward funding provides school districts with a firm amount of money to base their budgets on instead of having to estimate how much money will be coming from Juneau.

"Education funding is one of the cornerstones of the legislative process," said Senate President Lyda Green (R - Wasilla). "What the Senate did today will provide some peace of mind to school administrators and school board members when they sit down to write their budgets next year." - More...
Monday - April 16, 2007

Alaska: Cook Inlet beluga hunt dropped for 2007 - Faced with a declining beluga whale population in Cook Inlet, Alaska Native hunters from the Native Village of Tyonek have agreed to step down from their subsistence hunt in 2007, NOAA Fisheries Service announced today. Hunters were to have taken two beluga whales this year.

"NOAA Fisheries recognizes the importance of Cook Inlet beluga subsistence harvests to Alaska Natives, and have strongly advocated these traditional hunts," said Kaja Brix, who leads the Protected Resources Division of NOAA Fisheries' Alaska Region. "Unfortunately, even subsistence harvests must take a back seat to the need to recover depleted marine mammal stocks, especially those which have been severely reduced in numbers, such as these whales."

NOAA Fisheries is expected to announce soon whether or not the agency will propose that the Cook Inlet beluga whale population be listed under the Endangered Species Act.

The 2006 population estimate of 302 belugas confirms an annual 5.6 percent population decline since 1994 and a 4.1 percent annual decline since 1999, when beluga harvest was regulated.

"The latest population abundance estimates confirm a continuing decline," said Brix, "It will be difficult, if not impossible, to meet the dual goals of maintaining a subsistence harvest for the near term while recovering the population itself." - More...
Monday - April 16, 2007

National: Consumers buy carbon credits to allay greenhouse guilt - When Cal Broomhead drove to the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone last summer on vacation, he felt pretty bad about the carbon dioxide emissions from his Volvo station wagon.

So he paid $100 to a company that then subsidized a wind energy project that generates electricity without producing greenhouses gases. Broomhead was told his contribution made up for a year of driving about 12,000 miles as well as his household's annual use of electricity and natural gas.

In the new vernacular, Broomhead and his family were "carbon neutral."

"It makes me feel good. It means I'm walking my talk," he said.

A new green fever is sweeping the nation, much of it fueled by worry over global warming. Broomhead and tens of thousands of others are using Internet calculators to determine their "carbon footprint" and then paying to "offset" that damage.

Still to be determined is whether carbon offsets are the new commodity that will truly help the environment - or merely salve the consciences of people who don't want to give up the luxury of big cars, jet travel, overheated homes, blazing lights and gluttonous appliances. - More...
Monday - April 16, 2007

Cleanup Readies White Cliff for Public Auction Lions in the photo are from L to R Dick Coose, Chere Klein, Steve Corporon, Courtney Klein, Randy Cooper and Steve Sherva. Front Page Photo by Merek Corporon

Ketchikan: Cleanup Readies White Cliff for Public Auction - A small yet determined pack of Ketchikan Lions got a head start on Ketchikan's annual cleanup week and pounced on the former White Cliff School grounds this past Saturday morning. The end result was a pile of 10 garbage bags full of broken bottles, cans, fast food containers, candy wrappers and miscellaneous trash.

According to the Ketchikan Gateway Borough the former school and grounds have been declared surplus by the Borough Assembly and are scheduled for public auction May 31. - More...
Monday - April 16, 2007

Politics: Long-shot GOP hopefuls seek to break out in Iowa By M.E. SPRENGELMEYER - The real barn burner in the Republican presidential contest is the spot just below the three men in the "top tier."

There hasn't been this fierce a fight to become "fourth man" since 1962, when Ringo Starr nudged aside Pete Best and became drummer for the Beatles.

When Iowa Republicans began chowing down on $75-a-plate pork loin Saturday night at the party's annual Abraham Lincoln Unity Dinner here, there was little doubt which ones entered as front-runners. - More...
Monday - April 16, 2007

Public Meetings The Ketchikan Borough Assembly will hold a regular meeting on Monday, April 16, 2007 at 5:30 pm in the City Council Chambers. Agenda & Information Packets The Assembly/School Board Liaison Committee is scheduled to meet on Thursday, April 19, 2007, at noon in the City Council Chambers, 334 Front Street. The committee will be discussing items of mutual concern to the Assembly and School Board. The public is invited to attend. Viewpoints Opinions/Letters Basic Rules McCombs: Free to Roam By Amanda Chandler - Monday PM Jim Elkins By Taylor Gregg - Monday PM Honesty and character By Al Johnson - Monday PM Do We Really Need a New Public Library? By Robert D. Warner - Monday PM Ketchikan Garbage By Sonia Streitmatter - Monday PM World Port, Superintendent, Library... By Robert McRoberts - Monday PM Schools etc. etc. By Bill Thomas Sr. - Saturday Open Letter: TLMP By Robert Pickrell - Saturday DISCLOSURE APPROPRIATE By Pete Ellis - Saturday Faith By Gregory Vickrey - Saturday Chamber Lunch By Laura Plenert - Saturday New Library building By Signe Markuson - Saturday Thanks for Making Ketchikan Better! By Jerry Cegelske - Saturday "Do we really need a new public library?" By Robert Fruehan - Saturday Alaska Coins By Tom LeCompte - Saturday Swan death: What a shame By Amanda Martin - Saturday New Running Track! By Becky Maynard - Wednesday PM A Time to Refocus By Michael Spence - Wednesday PM Do We Really Need a New Public Library? By Robert D. Warner - Wednesday PM Driving Team Announced! By Tom LeCompte - Tuesday PM Don Young Guest of Honor at Pork Dinner By Carol Cairnes - Tuesday PM Tongass Roads By Joan Hurliman - Tuesday PM Swan Death over Easter By Terri-Lee Gould - Tuesday PM In the interest of "facts" By Penny Marksheffel - Tuesday PM Thanks Jim for your caring... By Anita Hall - Tuesday PM A Bridge to Somewhere By John Maki - Tuesday PM Trash By Rebecca Simpson - Tuesday PM Bridge to Where? By Charlotte Tanner - Tuesday PM Coming Home to Ketchikan By Aisha Marshall - Tuesday PM Facts, not opinions By Joel Galli - Sunday PM Tongass Coast Aquarium/ Oceans Alaska By Rob Holston - Sunday PM School, etc By Alaire Stanton - Sunday PM K-town in general By Richard Harney - Sunday PM 70% of the community? By Soren Wuerth - Sunday PM Bridge to Somewhere!! By Forrest A. Mackie - Sunday PM The Liberating Truth By George Miller - Sunday PM Traduced By Chris Elliott - Sunday PM Open Letter to Sitnews By Patti Fay Hickox- Sunday PM Mutt Breeders By Vickie Hansen - Sunday PM 70 percent of our population? By Kevin Mackey - Sunday PM More Viewpoints/ Letters Publish A Letter Ketchikan Police Report Updated AK Troopers Daily Dispatch Today's Forecast Satellite Today's Weather Images Marine Forecasts Ketchikan Weather Data Current AK Weather Map CLASSIFIEDS Publish ad Please select the proper category before posting. CLASSIFIEDS' CATEGORIES Announcements For Sale / Free Stuff Garage Sales Homes / Apts/ Property Pets Wanted Lost & Found Local Services Publish your ad April 2007 S M T W T F S 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           More Front Page Archives

Dave Kiffer: Beware the 'Curse' of the State Quarters - Alaskans have until April 22 to weigh in on which design they think is best for the Alaska state commemorative quarter that the US Mint will produce a year from this fall.

Each of the four designs has something to recommend it.

You can choose either the polar bear/midnight sun coin or the grizzly bear catching a salmon coin.

You can choose either the dog sled/Big Dipper/McKinley coin or the gold panner/McKinley coin. I favor the latter two designs but I'm sure that some of my good friends in the "Save the Sculpin" community would prefer we celebrate an Alaskan free of any human habitation.

As someone who was born shortly after Alaska became a state I think it is important to celebrate the fact that people (both Native and White) have created the state that we all enjoy. Without them, Alaska would be about as noteworthy as Greenland.

But, as usual, I digress.

Still, before you reach out and click Governor Palin to her your preference, keep in mind that at least some folks out there think the quarter series is CURSED! - More...
Monday - April 16, 2007

Tom Purcell: Why Spring Taxes Me - I hate spring. I hate the sunny weather and chirping birds and neighbors smiling and humming, while they spread mulch in their planters.

I hate the buds on the trees and the sweet smell in the air. I hate the way the sun falls gently over the hills at dusk.

I hate everything about spring, because I'm self-employed.

Every year this time I'm a nervous wreck about my taxes. I worry that I'll owe more than I think I will, and I will. I worry that I'll not get everything organized and tallied up for my accountant in time, and it's always close.

This is because our income tax system is complex. It is complex because drunk people (members of Congress) designed it so that a bureaucracy (the IRS) will convert the incomprehensible into the unfathomable (the tax code) in order to punish productive Americans (the self-employed) all in the name of good fun.

To comply with our onerous tax rules, I have developed a highly effective accounting technique: the Big Box Methodology. From the beginning of January through the end of December, I toss every bill, receipt, expense, etc. into a big cardboard box. - More...
Monday - April 16, 2007

Michael Reagan: National Health Care Can Kill - John Edwards and his rival for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination, Hillary Clinton, may disagree on some things but they both support a universal health care system, their way of describing what is really socialized medicine.

Anybody who is fighting any disease, including cancer, would be smart not to vote for John Edwards. That includes his wife Elizabeth, because if she votes for her own husband and he establishes universal health care, her chance of survival will decrease by 20 percent.

This startling statistic is borne out in a blockbuster article in The Wall Street Journal by Dr. Scott Gottlieb. Dr. Gottlieb, a physician and resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, served recently in senior roles at the Food and Drug Administration and the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services.

Noting that more than 260,000 women will be diagnosed with some form of breast cancer this year, he explains that thanks to earlier detection and clinical research, survival rates have never been higher.

Writes Gottlieb: "Between 1990 and 2002, deaths from breast cancer declined 2.3% annually. Today nearly 98% of women with early-stage breast cancer survive at least five years. Many will live long, full lives." - More...
Monday - April 16, 2007

Dale McFeatters: AMT, the stealth tax increase - Congressional Democrats are prepared to take on - or at least they're talking about taking on - a tough issue that President Bush and the Republicans ducked for the past six years, the alternative minimum tax.

The AMT is a stealth tax that unless Congress, as it usually does, patches it on a year-by-year basis, imposes higher taxes on a growing number of people. Last year, it snared 3.4 million taxpayers; this year the number is 23 million.

The AMT was enacted in 1969 in a spasm of outrage over a handful of millionaires who legally escaped paying any income tax. The AMT would ensure that every taxpayer paid at least some income tax; in that, it more than succeeded.

The problem was that the AMT was never indexed for inflation or adjusted for Bush's tax cuts. Thus, its reach keeps growing and for some tax brackets will completely gobble up the Bush cuts.

The AMT is generally described as a parallel tax code. When taxpayers reach a certain income level, they are required to fill out two income-tax forms, the AMT and the regular 1040, and pay whichever is higher, almost inevitably the AMT. The AMT disallows most exemptions and deductions and permits only limited medical deductions. It is especially punitive to large families in high tax states. - More...
Monday - April 16, 2007