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Monday
October 09, 2013
Guard Island Lighthouse
Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, Guard Island Lighthouse, established in 1904, is located approximately nine miles north of Ketchikan. Photographed as she passed by the lighthouse is the F/V Pamela Rae.
Front Page Photograph By CARL THOMPSON ©2013
(Please respect the rights of photographers, never republish or copy
without permission and/or payment of required fees.)
Alaska: Nikiski chosen as lead location for Alaska gas liquefaction terminal By
MARY KAUFFMAN - ExxonMobil, BP, ConocoPhillips and TransCanada announced today the selection of a site in the Nikiski area on the Kenai Peninsula as the lead site for the proposed Alaska LNG project’s natural gas liquefaction plant and terminal.
According to the announcement, more than 20 locations were evaluated based on conditions related to the environment, socioeconomics, cost, and other project and technical issues.
“This is a step forward for the Alaska LNG project and shows continued progress toward building Alaska’s energy future,” said Steve Butt, senior project manager. “The work that we have put into the site selection process gives us confidence that the Nikiski site is the lead location for the LNG plant and terminal. The Nikiski site also results in a pipeline route that provides an access opportunity to North Slope natural gas by the major population centers in Fairbanks, Mat-Su Valley, Anchorage and the Kenai Peninsula.”
In response to today's announcement, Alaska Governor Sean Parnell said in a prepared statement, “This is real progress toward our administration’s goal of getting a natural gas pipeline to provide lower cost energy for Alaskans,” Governor Parnell said. “This project is taking shape and the companies’ commitment will help bring Alaska’s gas to Alaskans and markets beyond. This presents a new opportunity for synergy and alignment among the producers and the project being pursued by the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation.”
U.S. Senator Mark Begich (D-AK) called the selection of Nikiski as the site for the new LNG Plant “Great News”.
Begich said, “The decision by Alaska’s major oil and gas producers to move ahead on a new project to deliver to market Alaska’s enormous natural gas reserves is great news for our state. This demonstrates that America’s leading energy companies have full confidence in their ability to economically produce Alaska’s natural gas resources."
“A Nikiski area liquefaction plant and export terminal will be a multi-billion investment and huge shot in the arm to both Alaska’s economy and confidence in our state’s energy future," said Begich. "A gasline from Prudhoe Bay to the Kenai Peninsula can meet Alaska’s in-state energy needs while supplying the energy-thristy countries of the Asia Pacific," he said.“
Begich said he is keeping up his work in the U.S. Senate to advance an Alaska gas project. "I already have introduced legislation to extend the benefits of the federal gasline coordinator’s office to any such gas project, including this LNG proposal. That legislation is significant to an LNG gasline, a pipeline to the Lower 48 through Canada or an all-Alaska gasline.”
In Southeast Alaska, the City of Valdez has made a case for the Port of Valzez to be the site chosen for the proposed Alaska LNG project’s natural gas liquefaction plant and terminal.. When learning of the selection of a site in the Nikiski area, the City of Valdez Manager John Hozey said in a prepared statement, “Like all Alaskans, we are excited to learn Alaska’s major North Slope producers are one step closer to building a large-diameter natural gas pipeline for export."
Hozey said, "Alaskans have waited far too long to realize the dream of commercializing our abundant North Slope natural gas in ways that lower the cost of energy in state, while providing critically needed additional revenues to fund so many important state projects and programs. Taking this project to the next step, by determining the route and terminal locations, is in the best interest of all Alaskans; and we strongly encourage all parties to actively continue advancing this effort."
Hozey said that Valdez has been working with industry for decades to successfully deliver North Slope crude to market despite traversing one of the world’s most challenging environments. He said this was largely possible due to the many unique attributes Valdez offers as a terminal location. The city will therefore continue working with the project managers to insure they have all the best information when finalizing this decision.
Hozey said the City of Valdez will continue to make the case for its port. "It is much more important for all Alaskans that the ‘right’ project is actually built; wherever the route and terminal are eventually located.”
Representative Eric Feige (R-Chickaloon) was disappointed with the selection. In a prepared statement he said, “The selection of Nikiski by the Alaska Pipeline Project for the terminus is a disappointment to me and the constituents I represent. I have made it clear during many committee hearings that I support, and will continue to support, a gasline through the Richardson Highway corridor." - More...
Monday PM - October 07, 2013
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Southeast Alaska: Coast Guardsman convicted in general court-martial - A Coast Guardsman charged with attempting to commit sexual abuse of a child, failure to obey a lawful order, indecent conduct with a child and possession of child pornography was sentenced by a military judge to seven years confinement, a bad conduct discharge, total forfeitures of all pay and allowances and reduction in pay grade to E-1. The general court martial was held Friday at the Coast Guard’s Seventeenth District Headquarters in Juneau.
Coast Guard Fireman Apprentice Christopher S. Cooley pled guilty at the general court martial to various violations of the Uniform Code of Military Justice as follows: three violations of Article 80 for attempting to commit sexual abuse of a child and attempting to engage in indecent conduct with a child; one violation of Article 92, failure to obey a lawful order for contacting a child after being ordered not to; and one specification of Article 134, possession of child pornography which was of a nature to bring discredit upon the service and prejudicial to good order and discipline. - More...
Monday PM - October 07, 2013
Alaska - Nationwide: Prescription Drug Abuse In The U.S.; With 10 the highest score of promising strategies, Alaska scored 5 - A new report, Prescription Drug Abuse: Strategies to Stop the Epidemic finds that 28 states - including Alaska - and Washington, D.C. scored six or less out of 10 possible indicators of promising strategies to help curb prescription drug abuse.
The report finds that Alaska received five out of 10 possible indicators of promising strategies to help curb prescription drug abuse. Nationally, 28 states and Washington, D.C. scored six or less, with New Mexico and Vermont scoring the highest, with a 10, and South Dakota scoring the lowest with two out of 10.
The report also finds that Alaska has the 29th highest drug overdose mortality rate in the United States, with 11.6 per 100,000 people suffering drug overdose fatalities, according to a new report, Prescription Drug Abuse: Strategies to Stop the Epidemic.
The number of drug overdose deaths - a majority of which are from prescription drugs - in Alaska increased by 55 percent since 1999 when the rate was 7.5 per 100,000. Nationally, rates have doubled in 29 states since 1999, quadrupled in four of these states and tripled in 10 more. - More...
Monday PM - October 07, 2013
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Columns - Commentary
 DAVE KIFFER: Be Wise, Winterize! - The other day, I found a couple of “wooly bears” on my driveway. So what does that mean?
Since one had a narrow orange band and the other had a wider one, I guess that would be like Puxatawny Phil, or Matanuska the Marmot around here, seeing and not seeing his shadow at the same time. Which when you consider all the flashbulbs that go off when Phil is rousted from his slumber, I’m surprised he sees anything for several weeks.
But I digress.
All over the country, people apparently look to wooly bears as a harbinger of winter to come. Just like in some places they measure pig bladders or counts the rings around a Harvest Moon. Oddly enough, I have rarely noticed wooly bears before. I only noticed these two because they appeared to be “racing” across the driveway, in the same way that banana slugs race across our garden at about the same speed as either continental drift or government action.
To be truthful, you don’t usually notice things like wooly bears this time of the year in Ketchikan simply because the rainfall that pours down our driveways and byways in October washes them out to sea.
At any rate, the wooly bears reminded me that it is indeed time to “winterize.”
Now, for many normal people (herewith defined as people who don’t chose to live in Ketchikan during the “rainy season”), that means bringing in the deck furniture, oiling up the snow blower, weather stripping the windows and buying a lovely new (nonwaterproof) down jacket from LL Bean.
The biggest challenge they have is prepping for some cold and snow, maybe a blizzard or two and a frigid day at the local football stadium. A white Christmas, maybe a winter sleigh “drive” to Grandma’s house. You get the drill. - More...
Monday PM - October 07, 2013 |
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 BC mine proposal on Unuk headwaters By Victoria McDonald -
Since 2008, Seabridge Inc of Toronto, Canada has been compiling studies and engineering plans, into a 42 volume, 3,100 page document concerning the KSM mining proposal on the headwaters of the Unuk River. Seabridge was in Juneau in late August to talk to State and federal officials and met with a few tribal officials to give an hour and a half power point presentation. Water quality issues that will result from this massive project were described as one-of-a-kind technology that will be used to treat huge amounts of storm water, ground water and millions of gallons of water expected from three huge pits, all expected to produce acid mine drainage. The EA describes the seismic threat as moderate, but did not address how a seismic event could affect the drainage tunnel s power supply or the power plant necessary to protect downstream water quality. - More...
Monday PM - October 07, 2013
Don Young Asked to Sign Clean Continuing Resolution By Matt Moore -
The Federal Government dominates the news because no budget exists. No short term budget measure or clean continuing resolution has been put on the floor. Our Congressman could end the shutdown if he and others got to work and ended the shutdown. Don Young’s office says he will sign, but his Facebook page says otherwise. Don Young’s office has made no public comment as to whether he will sign a Clean Continuing Resolution. - More...
Monday PM - October 07, 2013
We deserve better than the shutdown By Thomas Schultz - We deserve better than the government shutdown we are currently enjoying. Ted Cruz has every right not to support the Affordable Care Act but he and a minority group of Tea Partiers are way out of line when they shut down the government over a law they don’t like; a law by the way, that passed both houses of congress, was signed by the President, upheld by the Supreme Court and apparently approved by the voters who gave the president who pushed it through a second term. The only reason they are shutting down the government is that they don’t have the votes to play by the rules. Apparently they thought they could derail the Affordable Care Act, but early signups proceed, shutdown not-with-standing. - More...
Monday PM - October 07, 2013
The Humpty Dumpty Government Shutdown By J. Leo Baldwin -
All the president's horses and all the president's men couldn't put Humpty Dumpty together again. -- What need have we of bi-partisan systems if this is what it produces? Let's look at party motives: fear and greed or love, caring and compassion? - More...
Monday PM - October 07, 2013
Nonessential -Yep! By A.M. Johnson - You can not improve on this newspaper headline: "Across the country the first signs of a shutdown began to appear, with National Park Service property being shuttered and hundreds of thousands of nonessential federal employees staying home." - More..
Monday PM - October 07, 2013
Why is library closed on Sunday? By Mimi Eddy - I am wondering why the Ketchikan library is closed on Sundays. It would seem to me that school aged kids would be using it to do research and the weekends would be the perfect time for them to do so. - More...
Monday PM - October 07, 2013
Protect and serve By Duane Hill -
To specifically address who the police "protect and serve", the answer is "no individual". Their duty is to the community as a whole, as they interpret their instructions. Get online and search; you will find that the courts have ruled, repeatedly, that police are not required to assist any individual. - More...
Monday PM - October 07, 2013
RE: 9-11 By Marshall Massengale - Thank you Arick for asking about 9/11. It is indeed a pleasure to read your comments and to answer your questions. -- In 2001, I was fifty years old. Harry S. Truman was President of the United States the year I was born. On 9/11/2001, I was working a temporary job--between stints of regular employment but glad to be working just the same. Being on the east coast of the US in the same time zone as New York and Washington, I arrived at work in time to hear the news as it happened. Sensing how America would react to the unbelievable events that were unfolding before our very eyes and ears, our management sent everyone home for the day. I was at work when I heard the first news reports and when the second plane hit the tower. I reached home in time to turn on the television and watch live as the first tower fell . . . and then the second. Over the next several days, as more news and pictures came in, the truth began to sink in. We, as a nation, were at war. The horror of it all was incomprehensible. There were the images of people in sheer desperation plunging from the sides of the buildings, the sound bites of bodies hitting the side walks, endless replays of video of the planes plunging into the sides of the twin towers, glass and debris showering down. You couldn't help wondering what you would have done in the very same situation that people at the scene found themselves in that day. - More...
Monday PM - October 07, 2013
Replace The IRS With A National Sales Tax By Glen E Terrell - Every American citizen; male, female and transgender; religious and not; gay and straight; democrat, republican, libertarian and independent; every skin color; should be telephoning, emailing, snail-mailing and sitting in the office of their congressional representatives and senators' offices demanding they support the FairTax. - More...
Monday PM - October 07, 2013
Consumption tax By David Shipp -
With regard to Mark Curran and his opinion of the FAirTax: Let's keep this simple for Mark Curran's sake. Mark does not seem to understand that the FairTax, H.R.25 is a replacement for the income tax. As such, Federal , State, City, and any other employer, are already paying tax. They pay the required tax for the privilege of having employees. the matching of social security, FICA, the cost of keeping track of all the wages they pay, sometimes needing an entire wing of employees just to accomplish this, and the tax they pay called corporate taxes. All of these taxes and a few others are eliminated by the FairTax. - More...
Monday PM - October 07, 2013
FairTax: HR 25 By Fred Walker -
I have to disagree with the fine print statement of MR. Currans' letter. There is no fine print in HR:25. The sections you seem to be referring too mostly fall under sections 701 704 around page 89 of HR:25. You are somewhat correct in your statements about Governments being subject to taxation under HR:25. However this is a good thing! Talk to anyone who has to compete in business with a Government that is exempt from the taxes imposed on private business and you will understand. This is a very unfair advantage and has lead to much of the hi-cost of Government. - More...
Monday PM - October 07, 2013
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