 Contact 
Call 617-9696
Webmail
Letters
News Tips
Copyright Info
Archives
Quick News
Search
Alaska
Ketchikan
SE Alaska
Alaska News Links
Columns
- Articles
Dave Kiffer
Fish
Factor
Money Matters
Historical
Ketchikan
June Allen
Dave
Kiffer
Louise
B. Harrington
Ketchikan
Arts & Events
Ketchikan
Arts
Ketchikan
Museums
KTN Public
Library
Sports
Ketchikan Links
Public Records
FAA Accident Reports
NTSB
Accident Reports
Court Calendar
Court Records Search
Wanted:
Absconders
Sex Offender Reg.
Public Notices
Weather,
Webcams
Today's
Forecast
KTN
Weather Data
AK
Weather Map
AK Weathercams
AK Earthquakes
TV Guide
Ketchikan
Ketchikan
Phone Book
Yellow
Pages
White
Pages
Government
Links
Local Government
State & National
|
|
Wednesday
May 14, 2014
|
Crown Princess
The Crown Princess made her fist visit of the season to Ketchikan on Monday.
Front Page Photo By STEVE SPEIGHTS ©2014
(Please respect the rights of photographers, never republish or copy
without permission and/or payment of required fees.)
Ketchikan: New Interactive Website for KGB - The Ketchikan Gateway Borough announced that it launched its new website this week.
“The website redesign is part of a concerted effort on the part of the Borough to improve citizen engagement and customer service by offering additional online services,” said Borough Manager Dan Bockhorst.
According to a news release, the new website has undergone a complete re-design and is now more functional, cleaner and easier to navigate.
“The new website delivers cutting-edge customer service, usability and accessibility whether individuals are using a computer, tablet or cell phone,” said Dan Bockhorst. “We are pleased to offer residents unparalleled access to their Borough government.”
The new site is designed to allow citizens to directly engage Borough staff through the new “Let Us Know” module. Among other things, citizens can utilize “Let Us Know” to: - More...
Wednesday PM - May 14, 2014
Alaska: Governor Signs Alaska’s Education Opportunity Act into Law Providing More School Funding - Yesterday, Surrounded by more than 100 students, teachers, principals, parents and school board members at Mat-Su Central School, Governor Sean Parnell signed his comprehensive education legislation, House Bill 278, Alaska’s Education Opportunity Act into law. This bill is said will create more educational opportunities for Alaska’s children including charter, correspondence, home and residential schools, and vocational training, while also providing a substantial increase in funding to classrooms across the state.
“Alaska’s future is brighter today as a result of Alaska’s Education Opportunity Act being signed into law,” Governor Parnell said. “I commend legislators, as well as the parents, teachers, students and administrators who made their voices heard, and for their commitment to the future of our state. Alaska’s children will benefit from more educational opportunities such as career and vocational training, a substantial increase in funding in classrooms, and increased access to charter and residential schools. Without a doubt, our work this past legislative session will ensure Alaska’s students are better prepared for life and work.”
The Alaska Education Opportunity Act will increase the Base Student Allocation (BSA) by $150 million over three years, while also including $150 million in additional funding that can go toward innovation and new educational opportunities.
The breakdown for the increase in the Base Student Allocation (BSA) will be a $150 increase in the first year, with a $50 a year increase each year for the two following years. Since 2004 the BSA has increased from $4,169 to $5,680 in 2011. This will be the first BSA increase since 2011.
With this bill, Governor Parnell has also made efforts to better secure teachers’ pensions by paying down Alaska’s debt. As a result, $2 billion will be infused into the Teachers’ Retirement System from the Constitutional Budget Reserve Fund. - More...
Wednesday PM - May 14, 2014
|
|
Alaska Science: Scientists Test Hearing in Bristol Bay Beluga Whale Population; First published study on hearing in wild cetaceans - The ocean is an increasingly industrialized space. Shipping, fishing, and recreational vessels, oil and gas exploration and other human activities all increase noise levels in the ocean and make it more difficult for marine mammals to hear and potentially diminish their range of hearing.
A trio of Belugas traveling in Bristol Bay. NMFS permit number 14610. (
Photo courtesy of Alaska Dept. of Fish and Game
“Hearing is the main way marine mammals find their way around the ocean,” said Aran Mooney, a biologist at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI). It’s important to know whether and to what extent human activity is negatively impacting them.
But how can we get marine mammals living in the wild to tell us what they’re able to hear?
“Same way we do it with human infants,” said Mooney. “You play a sound, then you measure the brain's response to the sound.”
Though Mooney makes it sound easy enough, he and his colleagues are the first to publish a study of hearing in wild marine mammals, with multiple marine mammals. The paper, “Baseline Hearing Abilities and Variability in Wild Beluga Whales (Delphinapterus leucas)” was published today in The Journal of Experimental Biology, on May 14.
In addition to Mooney, the research team included the paper’s lead author Manuel Castellote, from the Alaska Fisheries Science Center, which is part of the National Marine Fisheries Service, and the North Gulf Oceanic Society, and their colleagues from Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Alaska SeaLife Center, and the Georgia Aquarium.
The researchers worked over a two week period in southwest Alaska during the summer of 2012, capturing and testing seven Bristol Bay beluga whales, one of six subpopulations of beluga whales in the U.S. Enabling this study are recent advances in portable field testing equipment, rugged enough for field work. To conduct their hearing tests, the team temporarily maintained the individual animals as part of physical health exams. They used suction cups to attach a small speaker to its jaw—which in whales and dolphins conducts sound to both ears—and placed sensors on the animal’s head and back. - More...
Wednesday PM - May 14, 2014
|
|
Alaska Science: Network for tracking earthquakes exposes glacier activity; Accidental find offers big potential for research on Alaska's glaciers - Alaska's seismic network records thousands of quakes produced by glaciers, capturing valuable data that scientists could use to better understand their behavior, but instead their seismic signals are set aside as oddities. The current earthquake monitoring system could be "tweaked" to target the dynamic movement of the state's glaciers, suggests State Seismologist Michael West, who presented his research at the annual meeting of the Seismological Society of America (SSA) on May 1st.
"In Alaska, these glacial events have been largely treated as a curiosity, a by-product of earthquake monitoring," said West, director of the Alaska Earthquake Center, which is responsible for detecting and reporting seismic activity across Alaska.
The Alaska seismic network was upgraded in 2007-08, improving its ability to record and track glacial events. "As we look across Alaska's glacial landscape and comb through the seismic record, there are thousands of these glacial events. We see patterns in the recorded data that raise some interesting questions about the glaciers," said West.
As a glacier loses large pieces of ice on its leading edge, a process called calving, the Alaska Earthquake Center's monitoring system automatically records the event as an earthquake. Analysts filter out these signals in order to have a clear record of earthquake activity for the region. In the discarded data, West sees opportunity.
"We have amassed a large record of glacial events by accident," said West. "The seismic network can act as an objective tool for monitoring glaciers, operating 24/7 and creating a data flow that can alert us to dynamic changes in the glaciers as they are happening." It's when a glacier is perturbed or changing in some way, says West, that the scientific community can learn the most.
Since 2007, the Alaska Earthquake Center has recorded more than 2800 glacial events along 600 km of Alaska's coastal mountains. The equivalent earthquake sizes for these events range from about 1 to 3 on the local magnitude scale. While calving accounts for a significant number of the recorded quakes, each glacier's terminus – the end of any glacier where the ice meets the ocean – behaves differently. Seasonal variations in weather cause glaciers to move faster or slower, creating an expected seasonal cycle in seismic activity. But West and his colleagues have found surprises, too. - More...
Wednesday PM - May 14, 2014
|
|
Columns - Commentary
TOM PURCELL: On Rudeness and Incivility - What do you mean Americans have gotten ruder?"
"Poll after poll has been showing it in recent years. More than 70 percent of the respondents questioned in an Associated Press poll believe people are ruder than they were 20 or 30 years ago."
"Why would that be?"
"Life is moving faster these days. Companies are employing technology that has dramatically increased the speed of change. This technology has enabled competition on a global scale and employees, fearing for their jobs, are working long and hard to keep up."
Yeah, yeah."
"The pace at home is much faster, too. Many couples, having fallen into the big-mortgage trap, are both working. To afford large houses, they've moved further out into the suburbs. They're perpetually sitting in traffic jams, rushing to pick the kids up from day care, and racing to get home to make dinner."
"It's a free country."
"Computers, video games and other gadgets are isolating people from each other. And many people are living far away from their extended families — living among people they are not deeply connected to." - More...
Wednesday PM - May 14, 2014
GREG ALLEN: The Undue Hardships Americans Endure - The hardships many Americans are enduring today are excessive, unwarranted and unjustifiable, but many politicians don’t see it that way.
Hardship dictated by government is oppression no matter how you slice it.
As the White House proclaims a recovery is occurring, and the stock market has a head of steam, millions of Americans are being left out, according to economic indicators.
Perhaps the most troubling, yet least reported, aspect of the so-called US recovery involves the national labor picture. Although the official US unemployment rate is 6.3%, that figure obscures reality, according to an influential Wall Street adviser.
In a leaked memo to clients, David John Marotta calculated the actual unemployment rate to be an astronomic 37%, as opposed to the 6.3% claimed by the Federal Reserve.
History tells us a quarter of Americans were unemployed during the 30s and it was called a Great Depression. However, by today’s standard, a 37% unemployment rate isn’t even considered a recession by ambiguous thinking bureaucrats who try to obscure it all.
It isn’t glamorous to be on government assistance as some politicians have claimed. It’s a miserable hardship, poverty, no matter how you spin it. - More...
Wednesday PM - May 14, 2014
|
|
Viewpoints
Commentary
Opinions/Letters
Basic
Rules &
Freedom of Speech
Questions, please contact
the editor at editor@sitnews.us or call 617-9696
Sitnews reserves the right to edit.
 THE TIME VALUE OF MONEY,
Or How the Rich Are Destroying the American Middle Class By David G. Hanger - For the past several months I have conducted a simple, one-question test that I have presented to dozens of local individuals, all but two of whom answered extremely inaccurately. What this test has demonstrated is a clear disconnect that most of you have in understanding the value of money. The consequences of this lack of cognition are fundamental and quite serious. - More...
Tuesday PM - May 13, 2014
AN OPEN LETTER TO CITY COUNCIL By Teri J. Wilson - I am sick to death of anti-smoking laws, expecially those making smokers unwelcome. In Ketchikan, I am now recduced to eaing at Cape Fox, since all other restaurants have chosen to go non-smoking. Since these business owners have chosen this, as is their right, it's entirely up to them, and no doubt is a boon for the non-smokers. I, however, also choose not to patronioze a place that makes me unwelcome, that is MY RIGHT.. - More...
Tuesday PM - May 13, 2014
Ferry Fare for Lituya By Norma Lankerd - This letter is in regards to the ferry Lituya that runs between Metlakatla (Annette Bay) and Ketchikan on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and Monday. I know when they put in the road the plans were to make trips 3 to 4 times a day (7 days a week) so people from here can seek employment in Ketchikan and travel back to Metlakala at the end of the day. - More...
Tuesday PM - May 13, 2014
FACT: Marijuana does cause violence! By Marvin Seibert - I have seen comments that Marijuana does not cause violence. Just look to Denver Colorado where it is not legal. One example is the Headline Denver man accused of killing wife after eating marijuana candy formally charged with murder The last I checked killing your wife is an act of violence. - More...
Tuesday PM - May 13, 2014
Sexual Assault Charges Always Merit Rapid Response By Bill Walker - As a municipal attorney representing local governments across the state for over thirty years, I deal with complaints of sexual harassment and improper behavior. These cases are investigated post-haste. Sound judgment, if not the law, requires nothing less. Governor Parnell's four year failure to take command of his Alaska National Guard subordinates' sluggish response to dozens of rape and assault reports is inexcusable. No prosecutions have resulted from this torrent of assault claims. Parnell did recently write a letter calling for a federal investigation that may not be concluded until this fall. - More...
Wednesday PM - May 06, 2014
“Choose Respect” is Meaningless in this Administration By Bob Williams - Throughout my campaign, I have met and spoken with so many people whose backgrounds are as varied as Alaska’s landscape. Earlier this year, I will not forget a women I spoke with, and her hesitancy as I thanked her for her service in the Alaska National Guard. - More...
Wednesday PM - May 07, 2014
IRS Employees Treated Differently By James R. Donnell - Time magazine published an article recently exposing the fact that $1 million dollars in bonuses was paid out to IRS employees who owed back taxes. I'm pretty sure if I owed back taxes the IRS would be knocking on my door and threatening to garnish my wages. - More...
Wednesday PM - May 07,
2014
Herring Cove Speed Limit By Marlene Steiner - I was raised and have property in Herring Cove... I would like to know WHY the State of Alaska DOT has to put in their 2 cents on the speed limit from the Hole-in-Wall out to Herring from the speed limit of 45 down to 35 and when you get to Wood Road it goes down to 25. I have never seen it that low. There is no where out of town that the speed limit is 25. I really don't care about these tourist that comes out and disrupt our peaceful area for 6 months for the bears and humpies that comes of the creek. Of all of my years living out there I consider this my home not a tourist trap that comes and goes. Let these bears and humpies live and eat in peace. - More...
Wednesday PM - May 07, 2014
Legalizing Pot By Duane Hill - Consider this: Back when I smoked, I spoke with several friends about legalizing pot. They were opposed. Why? They would make less money selling weed if it was legal. - More...
Wednesday PM - May 07, 2014
Re: Consequences of legalization of marijuana By W Craig DeBoer - Once again I am writing in response to what is in my opinion an uneducated letter about the legalization of marijuana. Marijuana does not make you violent. Anybody who has smoked some reefer or has a friend who does, knows this. If that was the case, we would have ten times the amount of marijuana smokers in prison. Colorado and Washington would not have passed the bill to legalize and, medical marijuana would not be legal anywhere. If that was the case then the president of Uruguay would not have been nominated for the Nobel Piece Prize due to the fact that he legalized weed completely. You can argue that it makes you lazy but, that's not the case. It all depends on you. There are plenty of pot smokers who function just fine on a regular basis because they do not let the pot control them, in the same sense that drinkers who can drink a few beers every night and not become an alcoholic. - More...
Wednesday PM - May 07, 2014
HASH OIL EXPLOSIONS RISE WITH LEGALIZED MARIJUANA By Marvin Seibert - An unintended consequence of legalization are the vast increase of hash oil explosions injuring the guilty party as well as innocence bystanders. Here in Colorado in 2012 we had only 1 injury from an explosion in 2013 that jumped to 11 severely burned and already in the first four months of 2014 that number stands at 10. With that rate we ought to hit 30 burned people by the end of 2014. I guess we should count ourselves lucky since only 10 were injured in 30 hash oil explosions! - More...
Wednesday PM - May 07, 2014
Ethanol - is this an unseen plague that will wipe out a city? By Joey Garcia - My topic recently on the ethanol outburst in San Carlos City in Negros Occidental, Philippines, has gathered momentum when nearly 90 percent of the inhabitants signed a manifesto in a never ending quest for a clean air program format. - More...
Wednesday PM - May 07, 2014
Webmail your letter or
Email Your Letter To: editor@sitnews.us
|
Articles &
photographs that appear in SitNews may be protected by copyright
and may not be reprinted or redistributed without written permission
from and payment of required fees to the proper sources.
|
|
Weekly Specials |
|
|
|
