Southeast Alaska: Forest Service Chief Tours Tongass with Murkowski - U.S. Forest Service Chief Tom Tidwell has been touring the Tongass National Forest with U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski with stops including a lumber yard, Bell Island and Anan Bear Observatory. Friday's schedule also included a flyover of the proposed Niblack Mine. Chief Tidwell and Murkowski also held meetings with tourism, air taxies, mining and timber interests.
After touring communities of the Tongass, Murkowski said she hopes Tidwell leaves with a recognition that in his role, it's not just about management of the trees, it's about management of the economy of a region. The visit to Southeast Alaska will give Tidwell an opportunity to observe first-hand some of the challenges faced by those living on the country's largest national forest.
“I’m hopeful that what the chief will see is that when we’re talking about the Tongass, it’s not just about timber harvesting,” Murkowski said. “It’s about economic development and economic prosperity for a region that needs affordable energy and that needs jobs.”
Meeting with the press Friday morning in Ketchikan, Murkowski and Tidwell highlighted two recently awarded woody biomass grants to organizations in Haines and Ketchikan.
The grants, comprising $180,000 collectively, will fund wood-to-energy projects using timber from the Tongass National Forest and surrounding areas.
The stop was part of a two-day trip to learn, listen and engage with small and emerging rural businesses in rural communities throughout Southeast Alaska. Murkowski met with Tidwell to be briefed on the progress of numerous opportunities and investments in Southeast communities and also to work to bring strategic investments and well-paying jobs to the region.
“The communities of Southeast have always been dependent on the responsible harvest of timber from the Tongass, which covers nearly every mile of the Panhandle. Unfortunately, for a number of reasons, the forest industry has been in decline for the past 20 years. We simply must find a way to increase the amount of timber we harvest from the Tongass to ensure that these communities remain viable. Small projects like the biomass ones we’re talking about today are part of the solution, but they are not the complete answer,” Murkowski said. - More...
Tuesday PM - August 13, 2013
Southeast Alaska: Coast Guard, State of Alaska monitoring grounding - Coast Guard and State of Alaska personnel are monitoring a 65–foot fishing tender grounded near Shoup Bay, four miles west of Valdez, Sunday.
Coast Guard personnel monitor the 65-foot fishing tender, Fate Hunter, after it grounded near Shoup Bay, approximately four miles west of Valdez.
(U.S. Coast Guard photo by Marine Safety Unit Valdez)
The owner of the 65–foot fishing tender, Fate Hunter, is working with Coast Guard Marine Safety Unit Valdez and State of Alaska personnel to minimize environmental impact from the grounding and refloat the vessel.
Coast Guard Sector Anchorage command center watchstanders received a call Sunday morning from the crew of the Fate Hunter, reporting the vessel had run aground near Shoup Bay with four persons on board. The good Samaritan fishing vessel Akemi responded to the scene to assist and safely transported all four persons back to Valdez. No injuries or major structural damage to the vessel were reported. - More...
Tuesday PM - August 13, 2013
Alaska:ON-FARM FOOD SAFETY WORKSHOPS AVAILABLE TO FOOD GROWERS STATEWIDE - The Alaska Division of Agriculture has been offering On-Farm Food Safety Workshops throughout the state over the past year and will hold additional workshops based on community interest. The purpose of these workshops is to educate growers about food safety practices in the field and after harvest to minimize risk of food-borne illnesses.
These workshops provide information, resources, and if possible, on-site examples for producers to learn about good agricultural practices to ensure food safety practices at a farm or garden. The workshops also will help educate farmers about the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Food Safety Modernization Act.
The workshops target growers selling to retail stores or farmers’ markets, home gardeners, and anyone else who is interested in learning more about how to grow, handle, and distribute fresh produce safely. - More...
Tuesday PM - August 13, 2013
Alaska - Nationwide: Public’s Assistance Sought: New Information Released in Serial Killer Case - After Israel Keyes was arrested for the murder of 18-year-old Samantha Koenig in Alaska in 2012, authorities realized that the man they had in custody was a prolific serial killer. Keyes freely admitted as much.
Israel Keyes - Deceased
Photo courtesy FBI
During conversations with investigators, the 34-year-old sometime construction worker revealed the names of two additional victims - along with tantalizing clues about other murders he had committed around the country over a period of years. But last December, Keyes killed himself in his Anchorage jail cell, leaving a trail of unanswered questions and unidentified victims.
Those victims have not been forgotten and the FBI is now releasing new information in the hopes that the public can help them identify others who died by Keyes’ hands. The information includes extensive videotaped conversations with Keyes in jail and an interactive map that contains a detailed timeline of his known movements beginning in 1997.
“He gave us a number of clues,” said Special Agent Jolene Goeden in the Anchorage FBI Division. “He talked openly about some of the homicides, but much of what he said only hinted at the things he had done. So we are trying to get information out there about what he did tell us. We are letting the public know the types of cars he rented, towns he visited, campgrounds he frequented. Anything that might spur someone’s memory could help us,” Goeden said. - More...
Tuesday PM - August 13, 2013
Southeast Alaska:AMHS Announces 50th Anniversary Event in Sitka - The Alaska Marine Highway System (AMHS) announced Monday that the system will celebrate its 50th Anniversary in Sitka October 16-18, 2013 as part of the Alaska Day Festival.
The weeklong festival begins October 11 with museum openings, road races, essay contests, and much more. At 7 p.m. on October 16 AMHS will host Trivia night at the Bayview Pub, located 407 Lincoln Street. AMHS invites anyone interested to enter the contest as a team or as an individual for a chance to win fun Marine Highway prizes. - More...
Tuesday PM - August 13, 2013
Potholes
By
Mike Keefe, Cagle Cartoons
Distributed to subscribers for publication by Cagle Cartoons, Inc.
Columns - Commentary
DAVE KIFFER:Mr. Pickrell’s Miserable Mile - Work has finally started on the “improvements” to North Tongass between the Ward Cove Bridge and Sunset Drive.
It’s probably about time. Locals look at those pictures of Florida sinkholes and just sigh. They know what it’s like to drive over one. Nothing like feeling the earth collapse beneath you twice a day, heading to "Town" and back.
Really, that part of North Tongass has been a “sinkhole” for much of the past two or three decades. Once upon a time, it was pummeled by big trucks coming and going from the Pulp Mill. Now, it is hammered by tour buses crunching back and forth from Totem Bight.
And yet, the State remains far more concerned that we remove our snow tires promptly, otherwise they “damage the roadbed.” Really?
MPMM - so named because of the efforts of long-time Refuge Cove Estates (the Beverly Hills to Wackerville's West Hollywood) resident Bob Pickrell to draw attention to it - has remained a vehicular goat path as the State Department of Transportation and Public Facilities has turned its attention to other more important issues facing the department.
- More...
Tuesday PM - August 13, 2013
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911 Proposed Call Fees By Andy Rauwolf - Regarding the City of Ketchikan seeking to charge Borough residents a fee for 911 emergency calls outside the city limits. It’s time that the public be informed of the history and perspective on this subject. - More...
Sunday AM - August 11, 2013
On the Death of Our Beloved Son By Cody & Kathy Evans - There used to be a sign painted on the roof of an old barn between Eugene and Reedsport, Oregon. It said “Soldiers of the Cross ARMOR UP.”
For years I drove past that barn and thought just being a good Christian meant being “ARMORED UP.” Over the last few days I have come to realize it means much more, it means war. On 08-03-13, our beloved son died after being tormented by a person he went to Ketchikan High with - used to be buddies with and probably even did some drugs with. His friend has become a drug dealing monster with no soul. He tormented our son, broke into his home and beat him while asleep in bed, but our son refused to press charges, saying “You don’t understand he used to be a friend of mine. Maybe he has it out of his system now.” - More...
Sunday AM - August 11, 2013
KPU By Joey Garcia -
I would like to get a clarification on the kind of billing the Ketchikan Public Utilities (KPU) has for the sake of enlightenment to what I need to know. When my wife forgot to pay a month after receiving a statement from the KPU Office last July 2012, she was appraised of a penalty for late payment of $50 for cable and $50 for internet. Having to note that these penalties chunked down so as to save our hard earned cash for budgeted expenses relevant to the "take it or leave it" Ketchikan style of revenue economy, when I inquired personally, a KPU personnel told me that this penalty can be applied to billings for one year from date of payments, e.i. I have to soften my kind of reasoning to my wife that at least, we can have a rest when July of 2013 comes around. - More...
Sunday AM - August 11, 2013
No Bridge By Samuel E. Bergeron -
I was a proponent of the bridge to Gravina back when the bridge made sense; today it’s laughable to consider putting $250-300 million, or more, into a project of that magnitude. - More...
Wednesday PM - August 07, 2013
Highway Robbery? By Chris Elliott -
My daughter, her husband and my two grandsons recently visited Ketchikan. After driving from Phoenix to Bellingham, they arrived on the M/V Columbia with a camper on their truck and a dog. The round trip cost on the AMHS? I was shocked and appalled. $3,831.00. Thank goodness the driver rides free. Individual fares were $239.00. The dog was $25.00. The camper was $994.00. - More...
Wednesday PM - August 07, 2013
FALSE PROFITS - In the nineteenth and the early twentieth century we brought the “chink” and the “wetback” to the factory via massive in-migration. In the early twenty-first century we have reversed the process and now via outsourcing bring the factory to the “wetback” and to the “chink.” The intent in both instances is, nonetheless, the same, to degrade labor to the point of a peonage as close to slave labor as is humanly possible. - More...
Wednesday PM - August 07, 2013
Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortia By Barbara Haney -
Please contact the Governor's Office and your state legislators and ask the State to cancel the agreement with Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortia (SBAC). While appearing to be a mere vendor for a test, the consortium is a governance structure that ends state sovereignty over educational issues. - More...
Wednesday PM - August 07, 2013
Business deal By Dominic Salvato -
Sealaska's land allotment isn't a Native rights issue. It is a business deal with the intent to make millions for the executives of the Sealaska Corporation. Tlingit,Haida and Tsimshian citizens of the United State already own the land. - More...
Wednesday PM - August 07, 2013
Odds and Ends... By Joey Garcia -
Quoting Mr. Kiffer re Ketchikan as a Fantasy Island is quite absorbing and educational. It doesn't matter who came and visited our Salmon Capital of the World or Gateway City, I already belonged to the group of this Fantasy Island...- More...
Wednesday PM - August 07, 2013
Stand your ground By Duane Hill -
The last letter I sent was on the subject of the murderous thug Trayvon Martin and only incidentally about Stand Your Ground. The editor changing the subject line from "Trayvon Martin" to "Stand your ground" really confused what I was talking about. - More...
Wednesday PM - August 07, 2013
Dr. John McMichael Sloan By Janis Morritt Vodden -
I am seeking information about Dr. John McMichael SLOAN who went to Nome, Alaska in the early days and was there for many years. He was the son of Andrew.W. & Agnes SLOAN. A.W. was an prominent apple grower in the Blyth, Huron Co., Ontario area of Canada. It is my understanding that he went to Nome, Alaska, probably around the 1890s and lived there for many years. - More...
Wednesday PM - August 07, 2013
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