Alaska: On a wing and a prayer; Alaska researchers seek clues to bird flu - While Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" made many of us uneasy at the sight of amassing gulls years ago, today public health officials around the world are beginning to cast an equally uneasy eye toward migratory birds, especially in Alaska, following recent outbreaks of avian influenza in Southeast Asia and, last week, in Siberia.

Alaska is at the intersection of the Asian and North American flyways for migratory birds and scientists say that could provide an unusual mixing ground for the evolution of new strains of bird flu - strains that could spread to lower latitudes and possibly jump to other species, including humans. - More...
Monday - August 15, 2005

Alaska: Warming most evident at high latitudes, but greatest impact will be in tropics - The impact of global warming has become obvious in high latitude regions, including Alaska, Siberia and the Arctic, where melting ice and softening tundra are causing profound changes. But, contrary to popular belief, the most serious impact in the next century likely will be in the tropics, says a group of researchers headed by a University of Washington ecologist.

Scientists have noted warming at higher latitudes that already appears to be causing some flowers to bloom earlier than usual and seems to be altering some wildlife migration and hibernation patterns. - More...
Monday - August 15, 2005

National: Pot pipeline comes from the north By JON TEVLIN - Marijuana production has become a major enterprise in Canada, where penalties for possession are slight. The mayor of Vancouver has even advocated legalization. Forbes magazine estimates the crop's value at $7 billion in British Columbia. In Minnesota's border province, Ontario, authorities say B.C. bud is a $1 billion crop. - More...
Monday - August 15, 2005

National: Roberts against clemency for clinic bombers, papers reveal By MARY DEIBEL - As a young Reagan administration lawyer, John Roberts strongly advised against White House clemency for abortion-clinic bombers and cautioned against dealing with a California doctor who sought to bury aborted fetuses at Arlington National Cemetery.

Memos detailing Supreme Court nominee Roberts' involvement on these and other hot-button legal issues were among the first 5,393 pages documenting his Reagan-administration work that were released Monday at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, Calif., and the National Archives in Washington. - More...
MOnday - August 15, 2005

Viewpoints Opinions/Letters Why consolidation is important By Ben Rosenfeld - Monday An open letter of apology By Richard S. Cropp - Monday Benefits of Fitness By Ami Hasty - Monday My final words on the bond By Thomas Ferry - Monday Not "department" but "process" re: Borough By Roberta McCreary - Monday Please Vote "Yes" By Dave Lieben - Sunday I'M VOTING NO on Tuesday By Bill Thomas Sr. - Sunday Exercise your right to vote By Tom LeCompte - Sunday Vote YES on Proposition No. 1 By Clay Keene - Saturday About time Newtown gets some notice! By June Allen - Saturday We're like the children of dysfunctional parents By Gail Person - Saturday Christopher Ashcraft Medical Fund By Vicki O'Brien - Saturday Port Berth Expansion Project By John Hansen - Saturday Two Good Reasons to Vote NO! By Robert D. Warner - Saturday Further opinion regarding the dock expansion project By Rick Grams - Saturday More Viewpoints/ Letters Publish A Letter Chances of Iran Using Nuclear Technology Cam Cardow, The Ottawa Citizen Distributed exclusively to subscribers by Cagle Cartoons, Inc. Political Cartoonists Ketchikan Calendar, Meetings, Events The Ketchikan Borough Assembly is scheduled to meet Monday, August 15, 2005. The meeting begins at 5:30 pm in the City Council Chambers. Agenda & Infomation Packets The Ketchikan City Council is scheduled to meet Thursday, August, 18, 2005. The meeting begins a 7:00 pm in the City Council Chambers. Agenda & Information Packets. Today's Forecast City Police Report AK Troopers Daily Dispatch Classifieds & Announcements August 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

Bill Steigerwald: Arthur Laffer - the Happy Supply-Sider - Last time I talked to economist Arthur Laffer was in 1979 when I interviewed him at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. In those miserable economic times, before he was dubbed "The Father of Supply-Side Economics," Laffer was considered a kook by the liberal econ-establishment for pushing his idea that cutting taxes in certain circumstances can simultaneously stimulate economic growth and put more tax revenue into government coffers. Today his famous "Laffer Curve" is no longer ridiculed, and the former member of President Reagan's Economic Policy Advisory Board is famed for sparking a worldwide tax-cutting revolution. - More...
Monday - August 15, 2005

Will Durst: Intelligent Is As Intelligence Doesn't - Taking valuable time from clearing brush on what apparently is the most brush-infested ranch in the country, President Bush spoke to members of the press encouraging our country's school districts to incorporate both sides of the debate regarding the development of humanity into their teaching plans:

Evolution, the theory that man descended from an infinite number of apes typing on an infinite number of typewriters, and intelligent design, the idea that an unseen force (not necessarily god - but not ungodlike either) nudged our genes with big, giant, invisible fingers to the point where no child is left behind. Or something like that. - More...
Monday - August 15, 2005

Star Parker: New ideas? - A group of wealthy Democratic Party partisans has announced a new partnership called the Democratic Alliance, through which millions of dollars will be funneled to a network of new and existing liberal think tanks to compete with conservative organizations. Reported commitments are $80 million over the next five years, with a goal of reaching $200 million.

According to press reports, these investors are frustrated at recent Democratic setbacks, most recently John Kerry's loss to President Bush last November. Democratic strategist Simon Rosenberg calls conservative think tanks that have emerged over recent years an "information-age Tammany Hall" with which Democrats have not been adequately equipped to compete. - More...
Monday - August 15, 2005

Marsha Mercer: Bush battles growing trust deficit - President Bush says the economy is strong and getting stronger - with low unemployment, decent job growth and record levels of home ownership.

And yet 60 percent of people say the country is on the wrong track.

The president assures the nation we're making progress in Iraq, advancing the cause of freedom and making America safer. But military officials paint a gloomier picture with an increasingly elusive exit strategy. - More...
Monday - August 15, 2005

Michael Reagan: Hatefest In Atlanta - It was billed as a civil rights march to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the signing of the Voting Rights Act, but there was nothing civil about it.

The march in Atlanta was, as my fellow talk show host Mychal Massie described it, "a pep rally for hatred." He blasted the participants, who included U.S. Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., the Rev. Jesse Jackson, U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., "judge" Greg Mathis and singer Harry Belafonte, all of whom charged that economically-disadvantaged blacks were being held down by the Bush administration in a racist America. - More...
Monday - August 15, 2005

Dale McFeatters: One nation indivisible with shoes - The Transportation Security Administration, under its new chief Edmund "Kip" Hawley, is undertaking a broad review of its airport screening procedures with an eye toward making them faster and less intrusive. This is a welcome - and overdue - development.

One change being contemplated is elimination of the humiliating ritual in which passengers are routinely required to remove their shoes. (The TSA Web site insists that passengers are NOT REQUIRED - their capitals - to remove their shoes, but then carves out exceptions for virtually every kind of footwear that a normal person would consider "shoes.") - More...
Monday - August 15, 2005