Ketchikan: Beimler: Local Blacksmith & Teacher of Viking Ways Interview and photos by Kathleen Star Stack, Story by Louise Brinck Harrington - People swarm around the blacksmith shop located next to Salmon Landing in downtown Ketchikan. A sign above the shop reads "Local Blacksmith." The blacksmith in his leather apron, old hickory shirt and suspenders draws locals and tourists alike. His wares, made from bright copper and shiny steel, glitter on the table.

Kevin Johnson nets 8th place with his 39.7-pound king salmon. Photo by Misty Pattison

"It's in my blood that's the best way I can describe it," says Jake Beimler, taking a break to talk about blacksmithing and how he got started. "My great-grandfather was the last working smith in the Kallispell area of Montana. His stuff is still in the museum there."

Though Beimler did not get the chance to know his great-grandfather, he inherited his metal-working genes. "Ever since I was a little kid growing up in Montana I'd stick nails in fireplaces, heat them up and beat them flat," he says. - More...
Monday - June 13, 2005

Ketchikan: 49.7-pound King Wins of 58th Annual King Salmon Derby - The unofficial results have been announced for the 3rd and final week of the 58th King Salmon Derby. And it looks like the big prize winner is Craig Cannon with a 49.7-pound king. Claiming second place is Michael Benson with a 47.6-pound king. Val Strassel who held first place on the ladder for the first two weeks is now in position three on the ladder with a 43.6-pound king.

This family event which is sponsored by the Ketchikan CHARR membership has remained a grass roots effort over the 58 years of its existence and attracts over a thousand participants of all ages annually. - More...
Monday - June 13, 2005

National: Bush meets with African leaders By BILL STRAUB - President Bush on Monday tied Africa's economic progress to its willingness to adopt democratic principles as he hosted five elected sub-Saharan leaders who, he said, bring "hope and prosperity to their people."

"We believe Africa is a continent full of promise and talent and opportunity, and the United States will do our part to help the people of Africa realize the brighter future they deserve," Bush told reporters after meeting with the officials.

Bush said the five - Festus Mogae of Botswana, John Kufuor of Ghana, Hifikepunye Pohamba of Namibia, Mamadou Tandja of Niger and Armando Guebuza of Mozambique - have made "a strong statement ... about democracy and the importance of democracy on the continent of Africa." - More...
Monday - JUne 13, 2005

National: Victims' families line up on both sides of asbestos dispute By GREG GORDON - Mary Lou Keener and Sue Vento share a common anguish. Both lost loved ones to mesothelioma, a rare, asbestos-related cancer.

That's also where they part company.

Keener, the daughter of a World War II veteran, and Vento, the widow of a Minnesota congressman, have lent their voices for more than a year to opposing sides of an all-out lobbying battle over a proposed $140 billion congressional settlement of the nation's asbestos injury suits - a bill now headed to the Senate floor. - More...
Monday - June 13, 2005

National: Measuring driver inattention By AMANDA MILKOVITS - When you're at the wheel and talking on the phone, are you really watching the road? Do you notice the oncoming traffic, the road signs, the bystanders waiting to cross? Can you tell that another driver is trying to pass you, or that the car up ahead is hitting its brakes? Manbir Sodhi wants to know.

The chairman of the industrial-engineering department at the University of Rhode Island is now studying the attention span of motorists who talk on the phone while they drive.

This is familiar ground for Sodhi, who studied the matter in 2000 and found that drivers with cell phones weren't as attentive to the road as those who were phone-free. - More...
Monday - June 13, 2005

National: Surgeon who served in Afghanistan being sent to Iraq By JACK PALMER - Dr. Nathan Fogt, a U.S. Army reservist who returned 18 months ago from a deployment to Afghanistan, has been called back to active duty.

This time his destination is even more scary - the Abu Ghraib district in Iraq. He is expected to arrive in Iraq in the next 10 to 14 days. - More...
Monday - June 13, 2005

The welder at work is Sgt. Baret Weatherford... Photo by Maj. Richard Sater

Ketchikan - Metlakatla: The Big Fix: Vehicle Maintenance for Operation Alaskan Road By Maj. Richard Sater - The road won't road if the dozers and graders and compactors can't doze and grade and compact. That's the way it is.

The Hemlock Bay maintenance crew ensures that the vehicles - from pickup trucks to five-tons and ambulances - are road-ready and running, and that keeps Operation Alaskan Road running too. It's a big job, a big responsibility, a dirty-cool job.

OAR is accomplished by a joint force of Reserve and active-duty component troops - Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps - building a 14.5-mile road through rugged terrain on this island, Alaska's only federally-recognized Indian reservation. When completed, the road - known locally as Walden Point Road - will connect the town of Metlakatla with a ferry boat dock on the north end of the island that will provide quick and easy access to Ketchikan, Alaska's fifth-largest city, across the bay.

Approximately 12 miles of road are under construction in various phases, with military teams clearing the land and then drilling, blasting, filling, compacting, and installing culverts in preparation for final surfacing, which will be handled by the Federal Highway Administration. - More...
Monday - June 13, 2005

Viewpoints Opinions/Letters Summer break By Cecelia Johnson and Tom Skultka - Monday Magical Alaska By Neil Gray - Monday Bridges, Oil and Jet By Don Hoff Jr. - Sunday Thanks for the memories... By Peggy Hendricks Mackey - Sunday Team effort put out the fire By Chief David Hull - Saturday The BIG birds By Harley Bray - Saturday Awsome article By Bill Thomas Sr. - Saturday Going once, going twice... By Debbi Swaim - Friday Boats, Floats, and Trash! By Jerry Cegelske - Thursday Re: Not what the country needs By Rick Grams - Thursday Bridge to Gravina By Bill Thomas Sr. - Wednesday Thank you By Andrea Quinto - Wednesday Not what the country needs! By David Ferrall - Wednesday Pretty Flowers by Jerry Cegelske - Tuesday Yellow Ribbons By Gavin Finley - Tuesday More Viewpoints/ Letters Publish A Letter Howard Dean's vision By: Larry Wright The Detroit News Distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons, Inc. Political Cartoonists Ketchikan Editorial Cartoonist Roger Maynard Ketchikan Calendar, Meetings, Events Today's Forecast Ketchikan Police Report AK Troopers Daily Dispatch Classifieds & Announcements June 2005 Click on the date for stories and photos published on that day... 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     Front Page Archives

Bob Ciminel: Next Door Neighbors - My wife puts a flowery wreath on our back door every spring to celebrate winter's end. And every spring the birds pull apart the wreath as they gather material for their nests. They particularly like the Spanish moss.

We've had a family of nuthatches nesting in our yard for the past eight years, ever since I put up bird feeders. They really liked the fire station birdhouse I put on a pole under the red bud tree, until an ice storm dropped about three tons of pine branches on it and smashed it to smithereens. - More...
Monday - June 13, 2005

Bonnie Erbe: The administration's hot air over global warming - Americans who care about our environment are suffering from more than a mite of "outrage fatigue."

These past five years, we have witnessed wholesale environmental plunder. We've watched the destruction of formerly protected lands, the relaxation of air- and water-pollution standards and the erosion of a network of federal laws and rules designed to protect species in danger of extinction. - More...
Monday - June 13, 2005

Dan Thomasson: Bush gives new intelligence czar real power - Finally there is a president willing to exert some influence over the FBI at least when it comes to intelligence if that isn't an oxymoron. Throughout most of its modern history, the FBI has managed to avoid most calls for reform even when they made sense and particularly when they came from the White House. - More...
Monday - June 13, 2005

Bill Johnson: Remembering a fallen soldier - He was one of the first soldiers I saw when I finally climbed from the shattered Humvee. He grabbed me by the right shoulder, looked me up and down, seeing if I was still in one piece, and started laughing.

That was two months ago. I hope the roadside bomb that killed Staff Sgt. Justin Vasquez on June 5 took him quickly, without suffering. - More...
Monday - June 13, 2005

James Glassman: An overblown bubble - It's rare that Alan Greenspan, the man who guards the sanctity of the dollar, speaks in Congress on a subject that most Americans understand and truly care about. He did last week when he addressed real estate.

Freddie Mac, a major provider of the money for mortgage lending, just reported that home prices rose at an annual rate of 9.6 percent in the first quarter of the year. - More...
Monday - June 13, 2005

Dale McFeatters: In a forgiving mood - Recognizing that 18 of the world's poorest nations are unable to repay their international loans and that trying to collect the money would only drive them deeper into poverty, the finance ministers of the world's wealthiest industrialized democracies, the G-8, agreed last month to cancel $40 billion in debt.

The rough outlines of the deal were worked out last week when British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who has adopted Africa as his signature cause, came calling on President Bush. - More...
Monday - June 13, 2005