National: Bush refuses to consider withdrawal from Iraq By JAMES ROSEN - As anti-war protesters began flooding into town for weekend demonstrations, President Bush on Thursday emphatically rejected any U.S. withdrawal from Iraq and contrasted his resolve with the responses of previous presidents.

Displaying detailed knowledge of the war's status in different Iraqi regions, Bush portrayed U.S. and Iraqi forces as slowly but steadily pushing insurgents into smaller swaths of the country, saying they are active in four of its 18 provinces.

Bush spoke at the Pentagon after he was briefed on Iraq and his administration's broader anti-terror campaign by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and top generals. The president later discussed Iraq and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at a White House meeting with King Abdullah of Jordan. - More...
Thursday PM - September 22, 2005

National: Hurricane storm surge hard to predict By LEE BOWMAN - Forecasters know Hurricane Rita's winds will generate a tremendous storm surge, but just how high and how wide the devastation will be remains hard to predict as the powerful storm hooks toward the Texas-Louisiana border.

The dome of water pushed toward shore by the winds is the greatest potential killer for any hurricane, experts say. Emergency managers know that the only way to be safe from storm surge is to get out of the way - going higher in a building that may get pounded apart by waves offers no guarantee of survival. - More...
Thursday PM - September 22, 2005

National: Gas may top $4 a gallon if Rita hits hard By DAVID R. BAKER - The Texas shoreline in Hurricane Rita's crosshairs lies at the heart of America's oil industry.

A heavy blow from the storm could cripple the nation's energy production and - in the worst case - drive gasoline prices above $4 a gallon, according to some forecasts.

Refineries that produce almost a quarter of the country's gasoline line the coast from Port Arthur to Corpus Christi. All told, Texas has 26 refineries, 18 of them on or close to the gulf.

Offshore, drilling platforms crowd the waters between Houston and New Orleans, the thickest concentration of oil facilities on the Gulf of Mexico. The gulf accounts for about 28.5 percent of the nation's crude oil production. - More...
Thursday PM - September 22, 2005

Viewpoints Opinions/Letters Re: The Dock - Who Pays? By Lynne Miller - Thursday PM Do The Ward Cove Deal By Rob Holston- Thursday PM Katrina Fund Raiser Concert... By Rob Holston- Thursday PM Ketchikan Water Issues By Rob Glenn - Wednesday PM THE DOCK; WHO PAYS? By Chris Schelb- Wednesday PM Kiss porker's what? By Doug Barry- Wednesday PM Outsourcing Alaska Services By Mary Hemli- Wednesday PM Mike Sallee for borough assembly By Shelley Stallings- Wednesday PM Upcoming Katrina Relief Event By Rob Holston- Wednesday PM Stuffing or pull more hands together? By Kenneth A. White- Wednesday PM Selfish? By Karen S. Hollywood- Wednesday PM Candidates By P. J. Travis- Wednesday PM "Bridge to our future"... By Charlotte Tanner - Wednesday PM More Viewpoints/ Letters Publish A Letter Political Cartoons Hell on wheels Tab, The Calgary Sun Distributed exclusively to subscribers by Cagle Cartoons, Inc. Political Cartoonists E-mail a political cartoon Ketchikan Calendar, Meetings, Events Today's Forecast City Police Report 09/12/05 AK Troopers Daily Dispatch Classifieds & Announcements September 2005 Click on the date for stories and photos published on that day... S M T W T F S   29 30 31 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

National: How Category 5 monster is formed over open sea By KEAY DAVIDSON - Just as an oil fire speeds down an oil slick, a hurricane is fueled, partly guided and intensified by masses of warm, moist air that form over currents of warm ocean water.

That's how Hurricane Rita has grown with frightening speed from a puny low-pressure cell and swelled into a massive, potentially city-busting Category 5 monster as it bears down on the Gulf Coast.

The difference between the formation of ordinary clouds and the generation of hurricanes is partly a matter of degree: Both owe their existence to rising bubbles of warm, moist air. For hurricanes, though, an additional factor is the formation of a huge, spinning low-air-pressure cell that continually refuels itself by sucking in more and more warm, moist air. - More...
Thursday PM - September 22, 2005

National: Disasters giving Americans 'compassion fatigue' By LANCE GAY - The TV images are riveting: the rolling waves swamping people's homes, beams of houses turned into matchsticks, toys covered in seas of mud, a tattered Polaroid picture of a family in happier times, the tears at lives lost or destroyed.

First, the Asian tsunami brought $1.3 billion in charitable donations, then Hurricane Katrina prompted contributions of more than $1.2 billion - and counting. And now here comes Hurricane Rita bearing down on the Texas coast. - More...
Thursday PM - September 22, 2005

National: American Indian hero joins historical figures at Capitol By JAMES W. BROSNAN - For the next six months, statues of George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Thomas Jefferson and other giants of U.S. history will share the Rotunda of the U.S. Capitol with an American Indian medicine man who led a revolt in New Mexico in 1680 that slew 400 Spanish, including 21 priests.

The statue of Po'Pay also will stand for now in front of four large paintings that express conquering sentiments he surely would not have shared - Columbus stepping foot in the "New World," the Pilgrims embarking from Holland, DeSoto's "discovery" of the Mississippi River and the Baptism of Pocahontas.

Po'Pay is a big departure from the 99 other historical figures represented in the Statuary Hall Collection, two from every state. - More...
Thursday PM - September 22, 2005

National: Peace mom's anti-war RV tour pulls into Washington By EDWARD EPSTEIN - One month and 15 days after Cindy Sheehan plopped down outside President Bush's Texas ranch in an effort to discuss her son's death in Iraq with him, she has arrived in the nation's capital as the vanguard of a big anti-war march and concert Saturday.

Sheehan, whose protest in Crawford, Texas, became an August media sensation that lasted until Hurricane Katrina struck the Gulf Coast on Aug. 29, pulled into town Wednesday in one of three 41-foot recreational vehicles that were part of a 51-city, 28-state tour that began just as the storm hit.

Standing a few hundred feet from the Capitol's west front, Sheehan said she was convinced those demanding a withdrawal from Iraq have gained momentum. - More...
Thursday PM - September 22, 2005

Ann McFeatters: Still no answers from Bush on Iraq - As thousands of antiwar protesters began descending on the nation's capital, the nation's president prepared to leave town.

The White House in mid-week said President Bush was scheduled to travel to "TBD" (to be determined) on Friday after leaving Birmingham, Ala., and would be continuing on to "TBD" on Saturday. Clearly, Bush's advisers decided it would not be smart to have the president holed up in the residence, surrounded by a marching sea of angry Americans wearing yellow "Bush lies, who dies?" buttons, especially not with the need to show compassion to victims of yet another hurricane. - More...
Thursday PM - September 22, 2005

Deroy Murdock: GOP leaders don't even try to cut spending - In "Crash," Hollywood's finest movie so far this year, a prosperous black filmmaker tells a black gangbanger: "You embarrass me. You embarrass yourself."

As a Republican, I say to the even more rapacious GOP Congressional leadership: "You embarrass me. You embarrass yourselves."

Not long ago, the Republican Congress at least pretended to be serious about keeping federal spending plausibly sane. While they hurled massive expenditures in every direction, at least their rhetoric honored the grassroots-Republican expectation that they would respect taxpayers' money. - More...
Thursday PM - September 22, 2005