Ketchikan: Native groups form a nonprofit, hope for land By BRITTANY RETHERFORD JUNEAU EMPIRE - Leaders of five "landless" Alaskan Native communities formed a nonprofit corporation last month with the hope Congress will hear their united call for federal recognition. - Read this Juneau Empire story... www.juneauempire.com Alaska: Alaskans and the war By Raegan Scott, CBS 11 News Reporter - The War on Terror hits home especially hard this week. Alaska is seeing the largest deployment since World War II, as thousands of troops head overseas to fight in Iraq. - Read this CBS 11 KTVA story... www.ktva.com Top Stories U.S. News U.S. Politics Alaska Ketchikan

Ketchikan: September Ketchikan's Second Rainiest Month In 2006 By DICK KAUFFMAN - September was indeed one of the rainiest months of 2006 in Ketchikan. According to information provided by the Federal Aviation Flight Service Station at Ketchikan International Airport, there were 24 days of precipitation in September for a total of 18.36 inches of rainfall recorded for the month. The month's rainiest day was September 9th with 3.26 inches of precipitation recorded on that day.

As of today's date, September ranks second this year as the month with the highest amount of rainfall for 2006 with April ranking first with a total of 19.56 inches for the month. Thus far this year, March 2006 has recorded the least amount of rainfall with a total for the month of 4.23 inches.

From January 2006 through September 2006, there have been 189 days with precipitation in Ketchikan and a total of 100.46 inches for the nine month period.

The highest amount of rainfall on record for the month of September was recorded in 1912 at 28.07 inches. The most rain on any one day during September occurred on September 22, 1949 with 7.55 inches of rainfall recorded on that one day, according to the National Weather Service Alaska Region Headquarters' unofficial reports. - More...
Saturday PM - October 07, 2006

Alaska: Alaska Division of Elections Asked to Explain Changes to 2004 Electronic Election Data - The Alaska Democratic Party on Friday asked the Division of Elections to explain why changes were made in July of 2006 to the electronic database that contains the results of the 2004 General Election.

A review of the audit trail of the GEMS database for the 2004 elections shows that modifications were made to the database on July 12 and July 13, 2006, according to a news release from the Alaska Democratic Party .

The Democratic Party recently obtained the electronic GEMS file by suing the Division of Elections in State Superior Court. The Division of Elections had refused for more than nine months to release the public records, but did so late last month just before a hearing was scheduled to begin in the case.

"We do not understand why 2004 election results would be manually modified in 2006 after the complaint was filed asking that you produce the database," Jake Metcalfe, chair of the Alaska Democratic Party, said in a letter to Division of Elections Director Whitney Brewster. "Data from the 2004 election may have been altered," Metcalfe said. - More...
Saturday PM - October 07, 2006

Alaska: For some, a tough transition to fall's early darkness By SARAH HENNING - Check all that are true:

[] On colder, darker mornings, escaping prison seems easier than getting out of bed.

[] You used to start snoring during Letterman. Now your jammies are on before the 6 o'clock news.

[] During the workday, you feel sluggish and sense that you're supposed to be somewhere else: namely, between your headboard and your footboard. - More...
Saturday - October 07, 2006

Alaska: Governor Creates Office in DNR for Better Oil & Gas Infrastructure Oversight - In the wake of oil pipeline maintenance problems on the North Slope in March and August of this year, Governor Frank H. Murkowski today signed an administrative order creating a Lease Monitoring and Engineering Integrity Coordinating Office within the Department of Natural Resources. The LMEICO is charged with coordinating the oil infrastructure oversight efforts of a multitude of state, federal and local agencies stretching from the North Slope fields to the Alyeska marine terminal at Valdez.

"Based on the two incidents in the Prudhoe Bay Unit earlier this year, it has become very clear that the State of Alaska should have a more comprehensive oversight program for the oil and gas production and transportation infrastructure that carries crude oil from the wells to the Trans Alaska Pipeline System," Murkowski said. "That enhanced oversight program is what we are putting in place today. The new LMEICO will coordinate efforts between the state, the North Slope Borough and federal agencies. - More...
Saturday PM - October 07, 2006

Week In Review: The week's top stories By RICHARD POWELSON - House page scandal and Hastert's fate

House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., continued to feel the heat of the page scandal since his office was notified several months ago - and perhaps as long as three years ago - about improper e-mails from Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., to teenage males who had served as House pages. Hastert said Thursday he has no intention of resigning. Meanwhile, Foley, who resigned Sept. 29, said Monday through his attorney that he had checked into a rehabilitation center for alcoholism, that he is gay, and that he was abused by a clergyman when he was 13, 14 or 15. He did not identify a clergyman.

High death toll for U.S. soldiers in Iraq

The holy month of Ramadan has fanned sectarian and insurgency violence in Iraq. A U.S. military spokesman said the past week had seen the highest number of car bombs and roadside bombs in Baghdad this year. At least 24 U.S. soldiers were killed in Iraq since Sept. 30, one of the deadliest periods since the formal end of combat operations. The total death count on Wednesday was at least 2,727 U.S. soldiers dead since the beginning of the war in March 2003, according to the Defense Department. Iraqi authorities pulled a brigade of 700 policemen out of service Wednesday in a move to uproot troops linked to death squads that have terrorized Sunni minorities.

Amish children slain in Pennsylvania

A 32-year-old truck driver took over a one-room Amish schoolhouse in Bart Township, Pa., Monday, ejected the boys and adults and shot 10 girls multiple times. Five had died by Friday. The gunman killed himself at the scene. The shooter, Charles Carl Roberts, had called his wife from the school to say he was troubled over memories of abusing two young relatives 20 years earlier and was fearful he would soon repeat the crime. There was no evidence he sexually abused the Amish girls. The Amish said they forgave the killer.

Record-size area burned by wildfires

The U.S. Forest Service reported more than 15,000 square miles have burned in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30. That's the most burned areas since 1960, officials said. The firefighting cost was more than $1.5 billion. Last month, federal fire-control efforts topped $12 million a day. If spending continues at this rate, 2006 will be the most expensive year on record for wildfires. The pace of the spending drew concern from Congress and the White House Office of Management and Budget and raised fears it will siphon money from other programs, including reforestation efforts to fix previous fires' damage.

Nobel Prizes awarded to Americans

Stanford University biochemist Roger Kornberg won the top science prize in chemistry. As a child 47 years ago, Kornberg attended the Nobel Prize award ceremony for his father, Dr. Arthur Kornberg, who won the prize in medicine while also a Stanford professor. Scientists John Mather and George Smoot won the prize in physics. Mather works at NASA's Goddard Center in Maryland. Smoot works at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in California. Two others shared the prize in physiology or medicine: Craig Mello of the University of Massachusetts medical school and Andrew Fire of Stanford University's medical school. - More...
Saturday PM - October 07, 2006

Viewpoints Opinions/Letters Election 2006 Stars aligned? By Alan Bailey - Sunday Go East For Development By Walt Bolling - Sunday Klukwan your Cultural Identity is at Stake By Albert K. White - Sunday Excellence in Teaching By Aaron Burns - Sunday Boondoggle Bridge By Don Hoff Jr. - Sunday Seniors are Elders. By Ken Lewis - Sunday Open letter to Congressman Don Young By Mike Jones - Sunday The Hypocrisy By Robert D. Warner - Sunday Why tax increases failed - Global Warming By Marvin Seibert - Sunday Folley flap?? By Mark Neckameyer - Sunday Much Ado About Nothing By Alan Lidstone - Sunday WHITECLIFF NEEDS SO WE CAN VOTE YES By Pete Ellis - Wednesday Proud of the No voters! By Rick Watson - Wednesday Call Dave! By Charlotte Glover - Wednesday Seniors Still need a New Building By Dan McQueen - Wednesday Some words of Thanks By Gregory Vickrey - Wednesday An Uninvited Houseguest By Kim Butler - Wednesday Democrat hypocrisy is a joke in the Mark Folley affair! By Mark Neckameyer - Wednesday One Nation Under Greed by Martha Leftwich - Wednesday 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 Auto-post your ad in the proper category, or email your ad & photos to ads@sitnews.us  Classifieds: Categories Announcements /Services For Sale Garage Sales Homes / Apartments Pets Wanted SitNews Archives October 2006 Click on the date to read the stories 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 31         More Front Page Archives

Washington Calling: Foley fallout ... Troop reductions in S. Korea By LISA HOFFMAN - The Mark Foley sex-via-Internet scandal is sure to bring greater attention to what, until now, had been a relatively minor issue: Whether Internet service providers such as AOL should be required to keep logs longer of who has been visiting which sites online.

As it is now, AOL and other providers keep such data for a short period of time - no more than a month in AOL's case. Privacy advocates have been fierce in warning that the compilation of such long-term records risks Big Brother-like government intrusion.

But the Foley case demonstrates to some in Congress that preserving the data would be a substantial help to those investigating online pedophiles and other sexual predators. Copies of Foley's lascivious e-mails and instant messages, some of which were allegedly sent more than five years ago, now exist, if at all, solely in the computers used by Foley and congressional pages.

When the new Congress comes to Washington next year, Capitol Hill insiders expect they will be met with a clamor to require Internet providers to hold onto the messages for at least a year or two.

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Look for the Pentagon to consider cutting the number of U.S. troops in South Korea even further, and for that to be one of the messages sent by Defense chief Don Rumsfeld when he travels there Oct. 20. As of now, the American force is slated to drop from the current 37,500 to 25,000 by 2008. But the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are such a continuing drain on personnel and budgets that pulling even more U.S. soldiers from South Korea - or pressing that country to contribute more cash to the costs of basing them there - is more and more attractive.

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North Country coincidence? On Wednesday, the U.S. Customs Service announces it will no longer interdict the packages containing small orders of prescription drugs being sent to Americans from Canadian mail-order pharmacies, a longtime complaint of seniors and others. The next day, the Food and Drug Administration announces fast-track approval for the U.S. sale of a Canadian-made version of flu vaccine, called FluLaval. When flu shots were scarce two years ago, there were only two manufacturers for the U.S. market; now there are five.

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The Department of Agriculture just gave farm animals a break - literally. More than 100 years ago, Congress declared that pigs, cows and other farm animals being shipped on trains must be given food, water and rest after 28 hours of transport. But, until now, the agribusiness industry had convinced the feds that such a rule should not apply to farm animals shipped by truck, of which 95 percent are today. A legal petition by animal-welfare groups finally pushed Ag to apply the rule so that the 50 million miserable farm creatures packed tail-to-jowl every year in trucks for longer than a day will finally get some basic care.

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The Army apparently has discovered that women come in different shapes and sizes. Just because a woman has a body type that makes her appear overweight -by, say, carrying extra poundage in the hips - doesn't mean she is fat or out of shape, the service now says. The Army says it also has discovered that, even if she weighs more than the previous maximum allowed weight, that does not mean she is unfit.

As a result, the Army has upped the weight limits for female soldiers. Those 17 to 20 years old and standing 5-foot-7 can now weigh 159 pounds, compared to the previous limit of 145. If she's 21 to 27, she can now tip the scales at 161 pounds instead of the earlier 149-pound maximum. - More...
Saturday PM - October 07, 2006