Southeast Alaska: 80th Annual Tribal Assembly Adjourns - The Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska (Central Council) brought to a close its 80th Annual Tribal Assembly on April 17, 2015 at the Elizabeth Peratrovich Hall in Juneau, Alaska. Tribal Host Herman Davis Sr. of Sitka and Tribal Hostess Shirley Kendall of Anchorage joined 115 Delegates from Southeast Alaska, Anchorage, San Francisco, and Seattle. Central Council is a regional federally-recognized tribe governed by 137 Delegates representing nearly 30,000 enrolled tribal citizens. Delegates are elected to a two-year term and are the governing body during Tribal Assembly that possess the sovereign and plenary power to legislate for and govern, conduct and manage the affairs and property of Central Council.

“Our Way of Life is Our Future” was chosen as the theme for this year’s assembly to honor the importance of customary and traditional foods and to continue to draw attention to the current threat to rivers in Southeast Alaska (Taku, Stikine, and Unuk) by upriver transboundary mining development in British Columbia, Canada. Central Council has been diligently working to address the transboundary mining issues through the United Tribal Transboundary Mining Work Group, State of Alaska, and United Nations.

A special welcome from Alaska Governor Bill Walker was received on the first day of Tribal Assembly. Delegates used the opportunity to voice their concerns directly on budget cuts to the Alaska Marine Highway System (AMHS) and hastened the adoption of a resolution requesting the Alaska State Legislature to give the highest level of priority to continue funding AMHS operations and vessel replacement planning. - More...
Monday PM - April 20, 2015

Ketchikan: Ketchikan Man Sentenced For Receipt And Possession Of Explosive Materials By A Felon - A Ketchikan man was sentenced in federal court in Ketchikan earlier this month for receipt and possession of explosive materials by a felon.

Joseph Duane Brown, 40, of Ketchikan, Alaska, was sentenced on Apri 7th by United States District Court Judge Timothy M. Burgess, to a five-year term of probation, 30 days in a halfway house, and 300 hours of community work service.

According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Jack S. Schmidt, who prosecuted the case, the charges arose from an investigation conducted by the Ketchikan Police Department (KPD) related to the detonation of a series of explosive devices inside the Ketchikan Tunnel on July 4, 2013. The explosions temporarily knocked out the central communications records management system for the KPD dispatch center, as well as scared the driver of a vehicle who drove through the tunnel, as their vehicle was “rattled” during the explosion. The driver stated that the explosion was not a mere firework, but something “super dangerous.”

The investigation was later transferred to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATFE). They determined that the explosive devices were perchlorate explosive mixture (seal bombs) and cap sensitive ammonium nitrate mixture (binary explosive mixture) that is typically used in exploding targets. The investigation revealed that Joseph Duane Brown, a convicted felon, had assembled at least 20 one-pound explosive devices and daisy chained them together with a common fuse. Brown used the perchlorate explosive mixture (seal bombs) as a detonator to set off the one-pound charges of cap sensitive ammonium nitrate mixture (binary explosive mixture). Brown admitted that he purchased and assembled the ingredients to make the explosive devices and he was the one responsible for setting off the devices inside the Ketchikan Tunnel. - More...
Monday PM - April 20, 2015

Columns - Commentary

DANNY TYREE: Mind Your Own Biscuits -- Up To A Point - Last year I wanted to smack myself for missing the chance to write about the Kacey Musgraves country song "Follow Your Arrow."

Luckily, Musgraves has now released the similarly themed "(Mind Your Own) Biscuits."

Both the former (about the futility of changing to please others) and the latter (about the futility of trying to judge/ change others) follow in the tradition of crowd -pleasers such as "Mind Your Own Business" (Hank Williams, Sr.), "Family Tradition" (Hank Williams, Jr.), "Long-Haired Country Boy" (Charlie Daniels) and "Garden Party" (Rick Nelson).

All of these songs have a point to make, but our disdain for prudes and busybodies can tempt us to give the points too broad an application. Although some songwriters tend to pander to the "rowdiness is next to godliness" set, please think of this column as a corollary rather than a rebuttal.

Following your arrow/ dream/ urges is a bedrock part of America, but the principles espoused in the aforementioned songs cannot be treated as absolutes. If your "thang" happens to be running the state's biggest meth lab or setting a record for drugging and raping coeds or shooting unarmed suspects in the back, obviously there is a problem. - More...
Monday PM - April 20, 2015

JEFF LUND: Dreaming of the next fish - I’m almost always fishing. Even when I’m not, because I’m always thinking about the next trip to new or familiar water.

I went to an unnamed river and caught some steelhead this past weekend. All social media apps want to reveal my location to everyone, so I decided to be defiant and change the location to the Los Angeles River before my obligatory Facebook post. It was the most ridiculous, steelhead-free body of water I could imagine. If you’re not familiar with the Los Angeles River, it’s where the big car race in Grease happens and where John Connor flees the Terminator. The LA River corridor is home to over 1 million people. That’s combat fishing.

Anyway, the fishing where I really was, was great. I landed a 33-inch steelie with two deep-red racing stripes and a couple which were just losing their chrome glow. Others weren’t quite as pretty, but a native steelhead is a native steelhead, especially when people down south spend hours and hours hoping for just one pull or live next to a riverbed of concrete. - More...
Monday PM - April 20, 2015