'Spring Gardens of Ketchikan' Photo Feature #1     Photo Feature #2 Front Page Photo & Photo Feature by Carl Thompson    Viewpoints Opinions/Letters RE: Another Solution by Marya Tyler - Ketchikan - 05/29/04 Opportunity to discuss options for White Cliff by Kathy Paulson - Ketchikan - 05/29/04 Modular Buildings/Portable Classrooms by Robert D. Warner - Ketchikan - 05/29/04 Protect our eagles by Susan and Gary Clardy - Homer, AK - 05/29/04 Kindness Appreciated by Gigi Pilcher - Ketchikan - 05/29/04 Read More Viewpoints Publish A Letter May 2004 Click on the date to read the stories & to view photos published on that day... S M T W T F S 25  26  27 28   29  30 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               Ketchikan & Statewide: Alaska is relatively less expensive than it used to be - Alaska has a well-earned reputation as an expensive place in which to live, but a growing number of U.S. cities have become even more expensive according to information recently released by the Alaska Department of Labor & Workforce Development. A survey released in 1997 placed four Alaska cities, Kodiak, Juneau, Fairbanks and Anchorage, among the nation's eight most expensive places to live. Now the current version of the same survey ranks just two of those communities, Juneau and Kodiak, in the top 20 at 16th and 17th respectively. The cost of living in Alaska is examined in the June 2004 issue of Alaska Economic Trends. Economists Neal Fried and Dan Robinson explore a variety of cost of living issues facing Alaska, from recent trends in inflation to the overall cost of living around the state and nation. Among communities where housing costs were measured, Juneau tops the list and the Wrangell-Petersburg area and the Mat-Su Borough were the lowest. When housing affordability was estimated by comparing the cost of housing and the average earning power of area residents, Fairbanks was the most affordable community. Bethel ranked the least affordable with Ketchikan second to Bethel in least affordability. - Read more... Saturday - May 29, 2004

'The Face of Spring' Front Page Photo by Mary Lynn Dahl Ketchikan: Listen to this KRBD story... For the second time in two years, Greenpeace says it is planning to tour southeast Alaska. As Deanna Garrison reports, the environmental group says the purpose of the upcoming visit is to highlight Bush Administration logging policies and their effect on the Tongass National Forest. KRBD - Ketchikan Public Radio - linked Saturday - May 29, 2004 Ketchikan: Enjoy this Memorial Day holiday, boat smart and safe - As you're getting your boat out of mothballs and ready for this Memorial Day holiday weekend take a few minutes to make sure you and your family and friends are also ready. - Read more... Saturday - May 29, 2004

Smooth Sailing These graves on Beechey Island in the Canadian Archipelago mark the misfortune suffered by Englishman Sir John Franklin and 128 crewmembers who perished in their 1845 search for a passage through the Canadian Arctic Ocean to Asia. Now scientists say the Arctic Ocean is likely to be ice-free in summer by the middle of the century if the climate continues to become warmer. Photograph courtesy of Dr. Russell A. Potter Sir John Franklin web pages Arctic Science Journeys: Smooth Sailing - A group of international scientists predict the Arctic Ocean could be largely ice-free by 2050, making trans-Arctic shipping common.... Explorer Sir John Franklin was 200 years ahead of his time. In 1845, Franklin set out from England to find an ice-free route across Canada's Arctic Ocean, the so-called Northwest Passage. A journey over the top of the world would have greatly shortened the trading distance between Europe and Asia. Franklin never found a way through. Instead his ship was beset in ice. He and all 128 crewmembers died during one of the worst Arctic winters on record. - Read more... Saturday - May 29, 2004 Columnist Dick Morris: The World's Firefighter - The horrific human, financial and political cost of the occupation of Iraq suggests a need to review our nation's role in the post-9/11 world: The United States can't be the world's policeman - but must be the world's firefighter. President Bush has been quite right to articulate the need for pre-emptive action to stop terrorists from getting sufficient traction and weaponry to attack the United States. To wait for an attack to respond would be to court disaster. - Read more... Saturday - May 29, 2004

The June Allen Column is made possible in part by these sponsors. Cick on each name to visit each web site. June Allen Alaska's Deepwater Highway; A part of Alaska history - When the first Alaska state ferry sailed northbound through the Inside Passage of Alaska on its maiden voyage in January of 1963, there was rejoicing along the entire route from Ketchikan to Haines at the head of Lynn Canal! At last! Cars and even trucks and vans could now travel to and from isolated island-bound towns all along the 450-mile length of Southeastern Alaska's Panhandle. At either end they could roll off the ferry's ramp onto terra firma, connected to road systems north or south! The roadless towns of the famed Inside Passage finally had a "highway" from Prince Rupert B.C. to Haines, Alaska - even if it happened to be paved with salt water and used marine charts instead of road maps. - Read the rest of this story by June Allen... Friday - May 28, 2004 Ketchikan's American Legionnaires; Here's to 'the boys' of Post #3 - Ketchikan's Cruise Ship Industry; A light-hearted look at its origins Ketchikan's First City Players; Did you hear that applause? A biography of Alaska's herring: A little fish of huge importance... Read more stories by June Allen...

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