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Monday
April 28, 2014
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The Win
Douglas Cook wining the 110 meter hurdles during the Ketchikan track meet on Saturday, April 26th. Cook is a Junior at Ketchikan High School.
Front Page Photo By ANDY MATHEWS ©2014
(Please respect the rights of photographers, never republish or copy
without permission and/or payment of required fees.)
Ketchikan: Southeast Alaska Music Festival Held in Ketchikan By ANNA WARMUTH - The three-day long Southeast Alaska Music Festival was recently held at Ketchikan High School. This popular fete, which took place mid-April, rotates between Juneau, Sitka, and Ketchikan . “Music festival is special because it’s not a competition and everyone comes for the same reason’’, says Tommy Varela. He is one of the many young musicians from Ketchikan High School. Varela, who participates in the Concert Choir and Jazz Choir, says his favorite part of this year’s festival was preforming with the Jazz Choir. “We worked really hard and it paid off’’’.
Some of the participants of the Region-5 Southeast Alaska Music Festival
Photograph by Carol Warmuth
The Region-5 Southeast Alaska Music Festival had approximately 600 students participating from 11 schools around the region. This festival is unique compared to other music festivals around the country. In the morning on Thursday and Friday solos and small ensembles were preformed. Students could go to any performance of interest. In the afternoon, adjudicators and volunteers set up clinics for students to attend. Each clinic was contoured to a certain skill such as; sight reading, succeeding, oboe technics, guitar, music history, and intonation. At night, southeast Alaska school music groups performed concerts. The adjudicators evaluated the performances to determine if the performances were either a superior or comments. - More...
Monday - April 28, 2014
Ketchikan: 15 Years Later, "The Giving Tree" Re-dedicated - Fifteen years after planting "The Giving Tree" at Ketchikan High School, a re-dedication ceremony took place last Tuesday attended by Mille Campbell from Florida whose idea spawned the project. Campbell's daughter Jessica Mathews, a Ketchikan resident for many years, also attended the re-dedication and read the short story "The Giving Tree", which was also read at the time of the planting in 1999.
The story of the "The Giving Tree" began in 1999, with a project idea to share information between Campbell's students and students in Ketchikan. Campbell enlisted the aid of her daughter, Jessica Mathews, to arranged a contact for Campbell and a Ketchikan teacher Krys (Martin) Jurbelon. Once a working contact was established the project came to fruition. The two teachers set up a "giving" project for the first grade students of Jurbelon's of Ketchikan and Campbell's first grade students from Alta Vista Elementary school in Haines City, Florida.
Every month during the school year the students of the two schools would share information about the areas they lived in, writing about their area's history, weather, animals and habitats, lakes, their writing projects and just general conversations with their pen pal partners. - More...
Monday PM - April 28, 2014
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Ketchikan: Laird Jones Elected to Serve on National Johnson O’Malley Association Board - Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska announced that Vocational Training and Resource Center Manager Laird Jones was elected to serve as Vice President of the National Johnson O’Malley Association (NJOMA) Board of Directors during the 2014 NJOMA Conference recently held in Denver, Colorado.
Laird Jones Elected to Serve on National Johnson O’Malley Association Board
Photo courtesy Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska
“I am excited to serve in this capacity and advocate for the educational needs of our Native students,” said Jones.
Jones has been employed with Tlingit Haida since 2007. He received his Master's Degree in Business Administration from the University of Washington and his Bachelor of Science Degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He is the son of Mary Jones and the late Willard Jones of Ketchikan, Alaska and is married to Francine Eddy-Jones.
Jones is responsible for the administration and development of all training programs and certificates offered through the Vocational Training and Resource Center (VTRC) and provides management oversight of Tlingit Haida’s Johnson O’Malley and Higher Education programs. - More...
Monday PM - April 28, 2014
Alaska: Workers Memorial Day: Alaska Work Fatalities at Record Low - National Workers Memorial Day today recognizes workers who died or sustained work-related injuries or illnesses during the previous year.
“Fatal work injuries in Alaska decreased from 38 in 2011 to 30 in 2012, and preliminary data from 2013 show another record low for Alaska at 17 fatalities – but even one death is one too many,” said Grey Mitchell, assistant commissioner of the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development. Alaska also saw 17 fatalities in 2009.
The majority of Alaska fatalities are in the transportation industry, although the heli-skiing industry’s recent fatalities are of concern, he said.
“While workers Memorial Day provides an opportunity to remember and honor those who lost their lives on the job, it’s also a time for a commitment from Alaska employers and workers to eliminate these tragedies,” Mitchell said. “Workplace fatalities can be avoided through adequate training and equipment.” - More...
Monday PM - April 28, 2014
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Science: Scientists pack lab for testing water safety into a simple pill By Wade Hemsworth - Inspiration can come in many forms, but this one truly was a breath of fresh air.
A McMaster team has reduced the sophisticated chemistry required for testing water safety to a simple pill, by adapting technology found in a dissolving breath strip. Want to know if a well is contaminated? Drop a pill in a vial of water and shake vigorously. If the colour changes, there’s the answer.
A group of McMaster researchers has solved the problem of cumbersome, expensive and painfully slow water-testing by turning the process upside-down.
Instead of shipping water to the lab, they have created a way to take the lab to the water, putting potentially life-saving technology into the hands of everyday people.
The team has reduced the sophisticated chemistry required for testing water safety to a simple pill, by adapting technology found in a dissolving breath strip. Want to know if a well is contaminated? Drop a pill in a vial of water and shake vigorously. If the colour changes, there’s the answer.
The development has the potential to dramatically boost access to quick and affordable testing around the world.
“We got the inspiration from the supermarket,” says Carlos Filipe, a professor of chemical engineering who worked on the project.
The idea occurred to team member Sana Jahanshahi-Anbuhi, a PhD student in Chemical Engineering who came across the breath strips while shopping and realized the same material used in the dissolving strips could have broader applications.
The technology is expected to have significant public health applications for testing water in remote areas and developing countries that lack testing infrastructure, for example. - More...
Monday PM - April 28, 2014
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Columns - Commentary
DAVE KIFFER: I hold in my hand, the final envelope… - I’m still trying to figure out how much Deer Mountain weighs.
I tried using a quadratic equation a few days ago to come up with a number. I haven’t used a quadratic equation since high school and I wanted to show the value of quadratic equations in real life. (not really!)
Unfortunately, I didn’t get a good number. I didn’t get any sort of number at all. It was just another quadratic equation with lots of silly variables.
So next week I will use a montanocinquatic equation and see if I have better luck.
In the meantime, I keep thinking it’s one of those “width times height times times the square root of half Pi things.” But for the life of me, I just can’t come up with Pi. Something about a Bengal tiger and a life boat, I gather.
Math, ugh. Go figure.
Why am I even bothering?
You will be sooooo glad you asked!
A few years back, a visitor asked how much Deer Mountain weighed. - More...
Monday PM - April 28, 2014
JEFF LUND: Summer's on its way, at least for me - It’s almost 8 p.m. and there is so much light I can’t help but throw up celebratory fists in triumph over my first Alaskan winter since I moved back.
I don’t know if I expected to be locked into a never-ending tussle with the cold damp darkness of winter, or I was just surprised at how quickly the mild season passed. I guess there wasn’t a question that I would make it, but I wondered if my psychological integrity would be compromised. You know, get a little cabin fever, put on a hawaiian shirt, crawl into the fetal position under my desk with a flashlight, flip-flops and stroke my California driver’s license like it’s The Precious.
But I never developed that need for sunlight or depression when it was 3:05 and the sun was already set. The sun just went away, and I spent the next seven hours not coaching basketball, not playing outside, not hunting and not fishing. I think back and wonder, what did I do? I did some reading, some writing some fly-tying and some grad school classwork. I don’t think I watched a lot of TV, but who knows. Either way, somehow the hours passed, the days went and here we are just weeks from June. There are some, some steelhead, Dolly’s and trout in the creeks and the alpine will start its white, to brown to green transition. Not to mention there are a few kings milling around out there. - More...
Monday PM - April 28, 2014
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Viewpoints
Commentary
Opinions/Letters
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the editor at editor@sitnews.us or call 617-9696
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Thank you everyone for your patience. I am most appreciative.
 End of Session By Vic Fischer - The legislative session is over, and things aren’t looking good for Alaska’s budget. After passing the Oil Giveaway last year, now Alaska has a $2 billion annual deficit. Yes, “billion” with a “b.” At the rate we’re going, all of our savings will be gone soon. - More...
Monday PM - April 28, 2014
Weiss Ball Fields By Jamie May - I just have to say as a coed softball player and a dog owner I'm well aware of the feces problem on the Weiss ball fields. Not only do I take my two dogs there on occasion for a good contained run, but surprisingly I also use the fields for what they were intended for, softball. - More...
Monday PM - April 28, 2014
Consequences of legalization of Marijuana By Marvin Seibert - When the voters of the great state of Alaska consider legalizing marijuana for recreational use they should look to Colorado and what is happening there for guidance in their vote. Remember Colorado has had pot legal for 4 short months and look at what has taken placed. - More...
Monday PM - April 28, 2014
RE: Proposed law to legalize marijuana By Craig DeBoer - Mr. Marvin Seibert, it is clear that you have not done any research on marijuana. Not only is alcohol more addictive, it is deadly whilst there has not been one overdose from marijuana ever. Yes, small children have found their parents' stash and ingested it. Whose fault is that? What about the children who get into their parents' prescription meds? Booze? Even firearms! All three are proven to be deadly with misuse, unlike marijuana. - More...
Monday PM - April 28, 2014
Ethanol - a ticking time bomb! By Joey Garcia - I am not a savvy to gases or additives in their terminology, rather see, feel and use, whatever in this world seen on more in advantages, rather than the opposite. - More..
Monday PM - April 28, 2014
Let the public vote on minimum wage By Betsy Chivers - Fellow Alaskans, please urge all senators to oppose HB 384, the minimum wage bill! I’m pleased that the legislature has finally looked at the salary of a full-time minimum wage worker and realized that a person living on $16,120 lives in poverty. However, low-wage workers have been disregarded for so long that they have a right to be wary when the legislature all of a sudden sees the light and embraces an increase to the indecently low minimum wage. Is their intention just to snatch this issue off the ballot? I believe so. - More...
Tuesday AM - April 22, 2014
RE: Annoying sign holders By David Jensen - The "sign holders" had less to do with me as an individual who believes that ending a human life for convenience is "Murder" than Marie Zellmer's letter that called anyone that does not agree with her opinion "Idiots". I would like to apologize to the organizers and participants of the "Forty Days For Life" demonstration if I didn't make this fact abundantly clear in my first letter. - More...
Tuesday AM - April 22, 2014
Completeing an anti-abortion thought By Marie Zellmer - I have refrained from using names in my postings, to be sensitive to other people's lives, but I must say one last thing to Rob Holston. I believe that anyone who would post the insensitive and horrible things you have posted needs to see a councilor. I am speaking not about his cause, because everyone has the right to believe what they want, and if he wants to think abortion is murder, that is his right. What I have an issue with is how he is presenting his beliefs. I mean wanting to chop up living, breathing puppies is a bad sign. Calling me a murderer, who is duped by the medical profession and science means that something does need to be addressed, but not by me. - More...
Tuesday AM - April 22, 2014
Proposed law to legalize Marijuana By Marvin Seibert - Once again another state, namely Alaska will vote on the opportunity to play Russian roulette with 2 bullets in the chamber instead of one. I have always heard the argument that Alcohol is more addictive than Marijuana, even if that was true do we really need another legal way to get stoned and check out of a useful life in society? - More...
Tuesday AM - April 22, 2014
Ball fields By Susan Dornblaser - Mr. Lanham, I have walked at North Point Higgins and Weiss fields and the trail to Coast Guard beach for 7 years now every morning before or at daybreak. Ardie and I kept all the feces and ball players disgusting refuse picked up for a minimum of 5 years. You have noticed the excess feces but that is a very limited amount of refuse left out there. I clean up duck heads and duck bodies with duck tape on them out of the field also. No one will ever teach the geese to pick up after themselves. - More...
Tuesday AM - April 22, 2014
Ketchikan's north end dogs By Paul Alberts - I was set aback by this letter as I read one complain about dog crap so much. Spend a little more time with your family and push spay and neutering (or pay to help someone's pet) instead of spending all of your time on some dumb hunting dog stuff. No mention of actually hunting with your dogs or family. what a waste of time and money for one's family. - More...
Tuesday AM - April 22, 2014
Minimum Wage: Let the People Have a Voice By Daniel Repasky - We, the Citizens of Alaska, by initiative have made the effort to see a modest minimum wage increase placed on the ballot for Voters to decide in election. We believe it that important. It’s not often that the people express their desire for a change in law by petition although this year seems to be a banner year, what with SB21, the Marijuana Initiative, and minimum wage all headed for a vote of the people. AO-37 was another such issue. Over 20,000 voters made the effort to change a bad law. The Assembly majority in Anchorage and Mayor Sullivan did everything it could to frustrate Anchorage’s votes (at taxpayer expense) and successfully delayed this vote until November. Our hope is that those 20,000 voters who signed the initiative/referendum will remember this and vote accordingly whenever Mayor Sullivan’s name appears on a ballot. - More...
Wednesday AM - April 16, 2014
Shopping dogs... By Dixie Rhodes - After reading the letter sent in by Laura Attwood, I decided to put in my own two cents. I've noticed a trend recently for people to bring their small dogs into grocery stores while they shop. I know that there are certified therapy dogs and service dogs in Ketchikan. I understand that there are people that need the help that therapy / service dogs provide. I have no problem with that. My problem is when I see people inside a grocery store with their puppy or small breed dog. Clearly, these are not service or therapy dogs. - More...
Wednesday AM - April 16, 2014
North End Dog Owners By Joseph Lanham - I love dogs by choice. I think you would be hard pressed to find more than a hand full of people that spend more time training and working with their dog than I do. I am commanded by God to love their owners ☺. This is more difficult. - More...
Wednesday AM - April 16, 2014
Alaska Fair Project By Michael Goodner - My name is Michael Goodner, and I am a third grader from Anselmo-Merna School in Merna, NE. I am nine years old. My class is having a States Fair and I have drawn your state to research. - More...
Wednesdsay AM - April 16, 2014
For the birds By Victoria McDonald - After years of picking up dead birds that have broken their necks after hitting my windows, I might have found something that will prevent their deaths. - More...
Wednesday AM - April 16, 2014
Prohibitions on same-sex marriage are inconsistent with freedom, justice, liberty and equality By Hollis French - Life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. These simple words, found in the Declaration of Independence, helped forge the ideals embedded in the United States Constitution -- a constitution that is the envy of the free world. Why? Because it stands as the finest example of humanity's commitment to freedom and equality. - More...
Wednesday AM - April 16, 2014
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