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National: Pentagon identifies remains of World War I soldier By MICHAEL COLLINS - A piece of a size 5-1/2 military boot found at a construction site in France helped Pentagon scientists identify the remains of a missing American soldier killed during World War I.

The remains of Army Pvt. Francis Lupo of Cincinnati will be buried with full military honors Tuesday in Arlington National Cemetery nearly nine decades after he was killed during an attack on German forces near Soissons, France.

A French archaeological team discovered Lupo's remains in 2003 while doing a survey in preparation for a construction project not far from Soissons.

The recovered items included bone fragments, dental remains, a wallet with Lupo's name engraved in gold and a piece of a military boot that appeared to be a size 5 or 5-1/2.

By digging through Lupo's personnel file, Army scientists discovered that the young soldier stood just 5 feet tall, weighed 120 pounds and wore a size 5-1/2 boot.

"The 5-foot-high was apparently the shortest recorded stature of any soldier in World War I," said Larry Greer, a Pentagon spokesman who specializes in POW-MIA issues. "That helped in the ID process. The bones, the skeletal remains that they had, indicated that this was a very, very, very short person."

The discovery marks the first time that a Pentagon group charged with finding dead service members has identified the remains of a soldier killed during World War I, Greer said. - More...
Saturday PM - September 23, 2006

National: Bush, senators reach deal on detainees questioning By MARGARET TALEV - he White House and dissident Republican senators reached an agreement Thursday that would allow the CIA's controversial terrorist interrogation program to continue and trials of suspected Islamic terrorists to begin but preserve the Geneva Conventions' prohibitions against mistreating wartime prisoners.

President Bush began asking Congress for new authority to question and try suspected terrorists after the Supreme Court ruled 5-3 in June that his plan for special military tribunals violated both U.S. law and the Geneva Conventions.

If it's approved by the full Senate and the House of Representatives before the end of next week, when Congress is set to recess, Thursday's agreement also could end a weeks-long intra-party rift and unite Republicans around their core national security message as they head into crucial midterm elections.

Final passage of the compromise is likely, but hurdles remain. Most Democrats and Republicans didn't yet know the terms of the agreement Thursday, and House Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., said he had some concerns about detainees gaining too much access to classified information. The White House and CIA voiced no such concerns, however. - More...
Saturday PM - September 23, 2006

Alaska: Governor Calls for House Leaders to Unite on Gas Pipeline This Year - Alaska Governor Frank H. Murkowski on Friday released a letter he sent to Speaker of the House John Harris and House Majority Leader John Coghill, with a copy to Senate President Ben Stevens. The letter restated the importance of completing the proposed gas pipeline contract during this administration and asked legislative leaders to reconsider holding another special session to ratify the contract.

Murkowski also outlined a process for going forward. To start with, the leadership would appoint a working group of its members to monitor negotiations between the administration and the producers.

"It is imperative that the Legislature have a clear understanding of how we are negotiating the issues about which they are concerned," Murkowski said. "That is what the working group would provide. We believe that once the Legislature gets re-engaged in this process, we can negotiate contract changes that will result in a contract that answers their concerns and set up a meaningful opportunity for ratification.

"Alaska needs to complete the gas fiscal contract now," Murkowski said. "By 2016 oil flows will be approximately half of what they are today and there will thus be significantly less state revenue than we now enjoy. Without the gas pipeline, commercial oil operations will cease around 2030. We need to move rapidly toward replacing our oil revenue-based economy with a gas revenue-based economy." - More...
Saturday PM - September 23, 2006

Alaska: Pace CEO: The World Will Not Wait for Alaska - Pace Energy Services President & CEO Timothy Sutherland, in a keynote address to the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation annual dinner last Wednesday night, outlined the state's position and opportunities in the world energy picture.

Governor Frank H. Murkowski announced at the dinner the amount of this year's permanent fund dividend of $1,106.96. He said it is instructive that Sutherland holds the same view on building the gas pipeline as the administration, the producers, and numerous federal officials who have advocated in recent months that Alaska needs to move forward on the project now, or risk never getting it.

One of the world's recognized energy and funds leaders, Sutherland warned there is a real danger of Alaska losing the gas pipeline.

"My advice to you tonight, ladies and gentlemen, is: please, don't blow it," Sutherland told the approximately 200 attendees. "There is indeed much to celebrate this evening. But let's not forget that the prospects for success looked rather bleak many years before the construction of TAPS."

Sutherland, who worked as an oil industry analyst in 1973, noted the difficulties Alaska faced at that time in convincing the nation that the oil pipeline should be built. Since 1977, the Trans Alaska Pipeline has carried billions of barrels of North Slope oil to Valdez, where it is shipped out on tankers. Without it, oil production would not be possible on the North Slope, and, as a consequence, there would be no Permanent Fund or dividend. - More...
Saturday PM - September 23, 2006

Viewpoints Opinions/Letters Ketchikan School Board's Motion To Extend Superintendent's Contract By Karen Hanson Pitcher - Sunday Never been a Democrat... By Rick Krueger - Sunday Spraying on Long Island and the Haloacidic acid drinking water problem in Ketchikan By Ralph Mirsky - Saturday White Cliff YES! We all need a place to play! By Tom LeCompte - Saturday Republican Primary By Rick Krueger - Saturday Pesticide Spraying By Frances C. Natkong - Saturday 3,000 miles from Ketchikan By Don Hoff Jr. - Saturday White Cliff By Frank H. Seludo - Friday Permanent Fund Celebrates 30 Years By Gov. Frank H. Murkowski - Friday More White Cliff Confusion and Reasons to Vote NO By Robert D. Warner - Friday White Cliff is good for seniors and our community By Ed Zastrow - Thursday White Cliff -Why a Partnership of Senior and Arts Groups? By James A. Van Altvorst - Thursday Re: Open letter to all candidates By Gregory Vickrey - Thursday White Cliff a multi-usage facility By Gretchen Klein - Thursday No aerial spraying of pesticides on Long Island By Frances C. Natkong - Wednesday White Cliff--Tear it down By Pete Lapinski - Wednesday White Cliff By Scott Kline - Wednesday WARS and CONFLICTS - A Republican Legacy? By Johnnie Bustamante - Wednesday Visitors to Alaska By Jenna Phillips-Buster - Wednesday Open letter to all candidates local, regional, and statewide By Carrie L. James - Tuesday Yes To White Cliff Ballot Initiatives By Laurie Booyse - Tuesday Thank you USPS By Paul Perry - Tuesday Stop Schoencliff 2 By John Beck - Tuesday "Thousands" By Elizabeth Nelson - Tuesday Reply to "Start from Scratch" By Alan Miller - Tuesday Yes to White Cliff By Mary Ellen Haseltine - Monday Vote YES on ballot 1 and 2 By Kerri Roepke Willoughby- Monday White Cliff By Al Johnson- Monday Yes to White Cliff Project By Juanita Diamond - Monday Start from scratch By Don Hoff Jr. - Monday Yes to White Cliff By Elizabeth Nelson - Saturday White Cliff Sales Tax By Jon Hurley- Saturday White Cliff: Join Me In Voting Yes By Charlotte L.Glover- Saturday Whitecliff, old or new By Laura Lowell - Saturday $50.00 Cruise Tax By Wayne H. Farnum - Saturday More Viewpoints/ Letters Publish A Letter Political Cartoonists Political Cartoons Ketchikan City Police Report AK Troopers Daily Dispatch Arts This Week Today's Forecast Ketchikan Weather Data Current AK Weather Map Classifieds Post your own or e-mail your ads & photos to ads@sitnews.us     Announcements /Services For Sale Garage Sales Homes / Apartments Pets Wanted Calendar E-mail meetings & events to editor@sitnews.us 09/27/06 - Wednesday - 6:00 pm: Ketchikan School Board meeting - City Council Chambers - Agenda (PDF) SitNews Archives September 2006 Click on the date to read the stories published on that day. S M T W T F S 27 28 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

Washington calling: No more 'Ground Zero Cafe'...new Air Force campaign..more By LISA HOFFMAN -  It's curtains for an unassuming building in the middle of the Pentagon's central courtyard that stars in an amusing, if apocryphal, bit of Cold War lore.

The plain structure has served over the years as a lunch spot, where workers grabbed a hot dog or ice-cream cone and relaxed amid the manicured landscaping of the parklike expanse.

The story goes that the Soviets, monitoring satellite images of the Pentagon, noticed that military officers would head to the building every workday at about the same time.

The Kremlin figured this building, cocooned as it was at the center of the Pentagon, must be where top U.S. commanders met to plot and scheme. Little did they know the officers were only there to get lunch.

The story goes - although Moscow has never substantiated the claim - that the Soviets had no less than two missiles trained at all times on the carryout. Pentagon wags dubbed it the "Ground Zero Cafe."

Now, work has begun to tear the building down. In its spot will rise a $1.2 million eatery with seating for 50 and a catering service for office gatherings.

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Willie Nelson is anything but alone: New FBI statistics show that police arrested a record 786,545 people for marijuana violations last year - the most ever reported. About 88 percent of them were charged only with pot possession. The National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws notes that the number of marijuana arrests exceeds the total of U.S. collars for all violent crimes combined - including murder, rape and robbery.

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The latest volley in the "Who You Calling a Fascist?" insult-fest was lobbed at President Bush, who drew criticism a few weeks back when he referred to al Qaeda and its ilk as "Islamic fascists." A symbolic retort greeted Bush this week as he left a New York City meeting with French President Jacques Chirac. As Bush's motorcade passed, three young men served up a fascist salute, in the straight-armed, "Heil Hitler" style, according to a report by the White House press pool. - More...
Saturday PM - September 23, 2006

Week In Review: A deal on detainees and a bad week for spinach By THOMAS HARGROVE - Republicans reach deal on treatment of terrorists

Maverick Senate Republicans and the White House hashed out a compromise Thursday on the contentious issue of treatment of terrorism detainees, ending two weeks of infighting within the GOP leadership. President Bush said the compromise "protects the single most potent tool we have" in the nation's war on terrorism. The deal gives Bush authority to "interpret the meaning" of the Geneva Conventions, empowers the creation of military tribunals to try detainees, and allows coerced testimony in some circumstances. The deal is scheduled for floor votes next week.

Little hope for U.S. troop cuts soon in Iraq

Gen. John Abizaid of U.S. Central Command said Tuesday the nation's troop strength assigned to Iraq will have to stay at about 147,000 or even be increased, at least through spring, because of mounting sectarian violence. The gloomy forecast means Pentagon planners soon must decide whether to make more frequent activations of National Guard and Reserve troops or further expand the active-duty Army, both expensive and politically unpopular acts. "If we have to call in more forces because it's our military judgment that we need more forces, we'll do it," Abizaid said.

DNA tests identify body of World War I 'doughboy'

Army Pvt. Francis Lupo, of Cincinnati, Ohio, will be coming home soon. He was killed during a World War I assault on the German lines near Soissons, France, at the age of 23. A French archaeologist discovered Lupo's body in 2003. Scientists from the Pentagon's Joint POW-MIA Accounting Command and the Armed Forces' DNA Identification Laboratory identified him this year, the first time these units have identified a soldier from "The Great War." Lupo will be buried next week at Arlington National Cemetery.

Farmers plow under spinach harvest

Vegetable growers in California - which proclaims itself the "world's salad bowl" - began plowing under their spinach crops this week in the wake of an E. coli outbreak that killed a Wisconsin woman and sickened at least 157 in 23 states. Federal health investigators have yet to pinpoint the source of the infection, prompting the Food and Drug Administration to continue its call that Americans completely refrain from eating raw spinach. Slightly more than half of people known to have contracted the disease have been hospitalized, many with kidney failure.

Newborn recovered safely after Missouri attack

A woman who recently lost her unborn child through miscarriage was arrested Tuesday as police recovered 11-day-old Abigale Lynn Woods, kidnapped after her mother was attacked and slashed in their Union, Mo., home. Shannon Beck, who lives near the Woods' home, told friends she had given birth. But her sister-in-law, Dorothy Torrez, became suspicious when she found makeup on Abigale's forehead, hiding a strawberry-red birthmark that was widely publicized after the sensational kidnapping. Doctors said Abigale is in excellent condition.

Nightclub owners sentenced in pyrotechnics fire

Two owners of The Station nightclub in Providence, R.I., pleaded no contest to involuntary manslaughter chargers in connection with a 2003 fire that killed 100 people during a rock band performance. Only one owner, Michael Derderian, will go to jail with a four-year sentence at a minimum-security facility. The other received a suspended sentence. The fire started when a pyrotechnic display was used during a performance by the heavy metal band Great White, igniting foam soundproofing on the stage. Several relatives of the dead complained that the sentences were too lenient. - More...
Saturday PM - September 23, 2006

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