National: Nominee fits Bush's conservative agenda By DAVID WESTPHAL - In his four-and-a-half-year presidency, George Bush has rarely gone against his conservative instincts and the fundamental interests of his political base. Tuesday night he stayed true to form, nominating a conservative favorite, appellate court Judge John Roberts, to the U.S. Supreme Court. - More...
Tuesday PM - July 19, 2005

National: Roberts offers conservative credentials, little paper trail By MARY DEIBEL - John Roberts is hardly a conservative firebrand with a lengthy record of court opinions and law review articles that could kindle a scorched-earth confirmation fight for the Supreme Court.

As a 50-year-old white male, Roberts doesn't meet the hopes of first lady Laura Bush, who had said she would like President Bush to appoint a woman to replace retiring Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. O'Connor was the first woman named to the Supreme Court in its 215-year-history and the justice at the center of a closely divided court. - More...
Tuesday PM - July 19, 2005

National: Officials call on Pentagon to close more bases By LAWRENCE M. O'ROURKE - The Pentagon's plan to shut down and consolidate U.S. military bases at home and overseas could cost taxpayers about as much as the Defense Department hopes to save, members of the independent base-closure commission said Monday.

Top military officials told the commission that base closures such as the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard in Kittery, Maine, and changes such as downsizing Pope Air Force Base in North Carolina were needed and acceptable. But expanding the base-closure list could jeopardize the nation's ability to deter terrorism or prepare for future wars, they warned. - More...
Tuesday - July 19, 2005

National: Canadian cattle enter U.S. for first time in 26 months By TIM LAI - Live Canadian cattle are crossing the U.S. border for the first time in 26 months, but ranchers are concerned that the beef industry's recovery could be short-lived. - More...
Tuesday - July 19, 2005

National: High court nominations take on political campaigns' trappings By MARGARET TALEV - In the 1984 race for president, Ronald Reagan's and Walter Mondale's campaigns each spent between $65 million and $70 million. In the next few months, advocacy groups could spend that kind of money in the confirmation battle over President Bush's first nominee to the Supreme Court.- More...
Tuesday - July 19, 2005

National: Green groups target ExxonMobil in change of tactics By BILL STRAUB - Environmental groups, repeatedly finding themselves on the outside looking in on the Bush administration and chilled at the prospect of oil drilling in an Alaska wildlife refuge, are switching tactics and exerting pressure on ExxonMobil, the formidable oil giant they accuse of feeding the White House agenda. - More...
Tuesday - July 19, 2005

Science: Scientists discover secret of bittersweet taste buds - Things are always bittersweet for a select group of taste buds that researchers have found do double duty in discerning what's sweet and what's bitter.

The secret lies in two different chemical messengers that send the brain different signals depending on what kind of substance lands on the tongue. - More...
Tuesday - July 19, 2005

'Totem Bight Sunset' Front Page Photo by Carl Thompson

Ketchikan: August Training Exercise Joins Local, State and Federal Agencies - Area residents will see an increase in emergency response and law enforcement activity in the coming weeks as Ketchikan prepares for Alaska Shield/Northern Edge 2005, August 15 - 19, 2005.

City of Ketchikan Public Safety Director Rich Leipfert said that Ketchikan is one of 13 communities in the state that will test its abilities to respond to a terrorist incident during the month of August. He anticipates locally, approximately 400 people representing more than 40 local, state and federal organizations will participate in this large-scale training exercise. - More...
Tuesday - July 19, 2005

Alaska: Commissioner Edgar Blatchford Resigns - Commissioner of the Department of Commerce, Community and Economic Development Edgar Blatchford submitted his letter of resignation to Governor Frank H. Murkowski July 18, 2005. The department's Deputy Commissioner Al Clough has been named Acting Commissioner.

The Commissioner's resignation letter cites the events of the last several days, as reflected in a recent newspaper story, as the reason for the resignation. - More...
Tuesday - July 19, 2005

Tim Ewest - University of Alaska Southeast Ketchikan Campus Assistant Professor of Business Photo courtesy UASK

Ketchikan: UAS Faculty Completes Six Sigma Quality Management Certification - University of Alaska Southeast Ketchikan Campus Assistant Professor of Business Tim Ewest successfully completed an eight-week course in the Six Sigma quality management discipline.  

Six Sigma is a measurement standard in product variation that was first referenced in the 1920's by Walter Shewhart who showed that three sigma from the mean is the point where a process requires correction. Many measurement standards in production have followed this finding. In the 1980's Motorola coined the term "Six Sigma" as a way to measure defects in greater detail than previously available. Motorola developed the new standard and created the methodology. Motorola improve their bottom-line results with more than $16 billion in savings documented as a result of the Six Sigma efforts. - More...
Tuesday - July 19, 2005

Ketchikan: Coast Guard Cutter Acushnet Changes Command - The Coast Guard Cutter Acushnet is holding a formal Change of Command Ceremony at noon Thursday, July 21st, 2005. Commander Marc D. Stegman will be relieving Captain Paul E. Wiedenhoeft as Commanding Officer of the cutter during the ceremony.

During Captain Wiedenhoeft's two-year command, Acushnet completed eight deployments as far west as Providenya, Russia; patrolling the Maritime Boundary Line between Russia and the United States in the Bering Sea. The patrols revolved around the enforcement of vessel safety standards, domestic fisheries regulations, and international treaties. The past two years also included trips south to for a dry dock period in Bellingham, WA, and for training at Naval Station Everett, WA. While in homeport, the crew of Acushnet has been involved with a number community events and services, including the Partnership in Education Program at White Cliff Elementary School, Big Brothers Program, and the Ketchikan Running Club. - More...
Tuesday - July 19, 2005

Alaska: State Flags Lowered for former Mayor, Legislator Don Gilman - Alaska Governor Frank H. Murkowski Monday ordered state flags lowered to half-staff from Tuesday, July 19 to Tuesday, July 26 in honor of former state senator and Kenai Peninsula Borough mayor Don Gilman. - More...
Tuesday - July 19, 2005

Viewpoints Opinions/Letters Open Letter: 4th of July Car Show Thanks By Lee Caskey - Tuesday TURNING THE OTHER CHEEK By Joey Shinn - Tuesday City government fiasco By Neil Gray - Tuesday Cheap political posturing By Dennis Oakland and Penny Nixon - Tuesday Hiring locally By Dawna Vigil - Tuesday More Viewpoints/ Letters Publish A Letter Worldcom Sentence By: Tab The Calgary Sun Distributed exclusively by Cagle Cartoons, Inc. Political Cartoonists Ketchikan Calendar, Meetings, Events Today's Forecast City Police Report AK Troopers Daily Dispatch Classifieds & Announcements July 2005 Click on the date for stories and photos published on that day... S M T W T F S 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

Jason Love: Medicated - My grandpa is 83 years old. I'm sorry -- 83 years, 5 months (he's back to counting in halves). That is four years past the life expectancy of American males. I know so because he tells me every time I visit.

For grandpa death isn't a concern; it's a lifestyle. He schedules his week around dates with Dr. Mioto, whose BMW he has personally financed. It starts every morning at six, when grandpa hits the obituaries.

"See there," he points. "80 years old, heart failure. Right on schedule." - More...
Tuesday - July 19, 2005

Steve Brewer: A teenager's guide to avoiding chores - Dear Parents:

I found the following on the Internet. We'd always suspected a conspiracy. Here's the proof:

Teenagers' guide to chore avoidance

By "2 Lay-Z"

Yo, dude. If your parents are like mine, they're always laying some trip on you about doing "chores." - More...
Tuesday - July 19, 2005

Sharon Randall: Eye-rolling kids can drive you wumpsy - Once again, God rest her soul, my mother has proven herself to be right. I hate it when she does that. I especially hate having to admit it. She's not around to cackle, "I told you so," but I still hear her crowing.

We used to argue about, well, everything. Maybe I shouldn't call it "arguing." Nobody, not even God and his angels, could argue for long with my mother. - More...
Tuesday - July 19, 2005

John Hall: Pak Man, Nuke Man - One of the most important intelligence breakthroughs of the past decade by our battered CIA was forcing Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi to rat on the underground nuclear trade network being run out of Pakistan.

The mastermind of this scheme was the father of Pakistan's nuclear bomb, A.Q. Kahn, whose motives appeared to be sheer profit. - More...
Tuesday - July 19, 2005

Ann McFeatters: Top government auditor tells it like it is -- bad - If Diogenes were stumbling about Washington with his lantern looking for an honest man, sooner or later he would bump into David Walker.

Walker, who wears monogrammed shirts and takes his children on cruises, is comptroller general of the United States, the official auditor of the federal government, and runs the Government Accountability Office. What he has to say will make your hair stand on end. - More...
Tuesday - July 19, 2005

Dan Thomasson: A draft is the wrong answer - The Bush administration's commitment to stay the course in Iraq no matter how long it takes, a drastic slowdown in military recruitment and Pentagon efforts to compile a database of high-school and college-age Americans have heightened parental concerns about the possibility of reinstatement of some form of national service.

Should they be worried? The Defense Department and the White House both say absolutely not, emphasizing that there is little need or public support for such a move. But the heads of organizations like Mothers Against the Draft don't believe the denials. MAD national chair Janine Hansen puts it this way: - More...
Tuesday - July 19, 2005

Dale McFeatters: Spring forward, fall back, summer muddle - Congress is quietly about to extend daylight-saving time by two months. If President Bush signs on - and, after all, it is his energy bill - DST will end the last Sunday of this November and resume on the first Sunday in March.

Since 1986, DST has begun on the first Sunday in April and ended the last Sunday in October. - More...
Tuesday - July 19, 2005