Regular Election Unofficial Results October 02, 2018 10/03/18 Canvas Board Final Results (PDF) Voter Turnout 24% Final Votes as reported by the Canvass Board on Oct. 3. Must be certified by City Council & Borough Assembly Ketchikan City Council Candidates 3-Year Term, 2 Seats to Fill 10/03/18 Canvass Board Final Results Janalee L. Gage Final 836 Sam Bergeron Final 695 Dragon London Final 355 Spencer Strassburg Final 428 Ketchikan City Mayor 3-Year Term, 1 Seat to Fill Unchallenged 10/03/18 Canvass Board Final Results Robert (Bob) Sivertsen Final 1,045 Ketchikan Assembly Candidates 3-Year Term, 2 Seats to Fill 10/03/18 Canvass Board Final Results Dan Bockhorst Final 760 Austin Otos Final 1,086 Danielle "Dani" Pratt Final 280 Sven Westergard Final 1,138 James Montgomery Final 312 Felix Wong Final 1,345 Ketchikan School Board 3-Year Term, 3 Seats to Fill 10/03/18 Canvass Board Final Results Matt Eisenhower Final 1,511 Sonya Skan 1,300 Rachel Breithaupt Fianl 1,274 Bridget Mattson 1,210 Lana Boler Final 807

Ketchikan: Man Charged in Shooting; Bail Set at $200,000 - According to a press release issued by the Ketchikan Police Department today, approximately 3:45 AM Tuesday morning, the Ketchikan Police Department responded to the 300 block of Edmonds Street responding to a report that a male had been shot.

According to the press release, upon arriving on the Edmonds Street scene officers gave emergency medical treatment to a person they identified as the victim who had been shot in the arm. The injured male was then transported by ambulance to Peace Health Ketchikan Medical Center and later transported to Anchorage by Med Evac for emergency surgery.

The Ketchikan Police Department identified the suspect in the shooting as Jeffery K. Craig, age 53.

This morning at approximately 8:00 AM, Ketchikan Police Department Officers with assistance from the Alaska State Troopers executed a search warrant on a residence in the 12000 block of North Tongass Highway and took Craig into custody. - More...
Tuesday PM - October 02, 2018

Alaska: NATIONAL IPAWS TEST WEDNESDAY - The national test sending a Presidential Alert to broadcasters and nearly all cell phones in the United States will happen tomorrow. The Federal Emergency Management Agency in coordination with the Federal Communications Commission had originally scheduled the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) test for September 20th. The test moved to October 3rd to avoid confusion with the response efforts to Hurricane Florence.

At 10:18 a.m. AKDT on October 3rd, cell phones on participating wireless carriers will make a loud alert tone and receive a message that will read “THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed.”

Two minutes later at 10:20 a.m. AKDT television and radio stations will broadcast an Emergency Alert System test message. - More...
Tuesday PM - October 02, 2018

Alaska: U.S. DOL Awards Alaska $3.35 Million to Prepare Alaskans for Work in High-Growth Industries - The U.S. Department of Labor awarded $3.35 million dollars to the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development in Trade and Economic Transition Dislocated Worker Grants (DWGs). This two-year funding will expand the capacity of dislocated worker training and employment programs that prepare Alaskans for occupations in the state’s fastest growing sectors: health care, construction, and maritime industries.

“It is critical that we invest in Alaskans who seek training to be first in line for these high-paying jobs on major projects, such as the Alaska LNG Gasline,” said Alaska Governor Bill Walker. “This funding will assist as we grow our own skilled workforce to fill essential occupations; from welders and pipefitters, operating engineers, to truck drivers, laborers, electricians and mechanics.”

Dislocated Worker Grants (DWGs) support state, tribal, and non-profit entities that implement innovative skills training and career services for people seeking reemployment as the economy and corresponding workforce needs change. Alaska’s aging workforce (PDF )will increase demand for qualified workers across all sectors, in addition to the growing number of jobs in health care, construction, and maritime industries. This funding will boost existing training and support services provided by the Department of Labor and Workforce Development’s Job Center Network. - More...
Tuesday PM - October 02, 2018

Alaska: Walker Administration commits $12 million investment in tourism industry – Governor Bill Walker announced Monday plans to increase funding for the Alaska Travel Industry Association (ATIA) after years of substantial budget cuts. Due to the fiscal crisis, ATIA has been operating at a reduced level, forgoing the opportunity and revenue that comes from a robust investment in one of Alaska’s most important industries: every dollar spent on tourism promotion generates $58 of visitor spending, $21 in income for Alaskans, and $2.84 in state and local revenue. 

Quoting the Governor's news release, re-investing in Alaska tourism marketing comes at a time when visitor interest is on the rise, and new international markets, especially in Asia, are growing quickly. Increasing funding for Alaska tourism means establishing representation in markets where we’ve had to pull back over the last four years (before the fiscal crisis, ATIA was funded at $16 million), and taking advantage of opportunities for Alaska to participate in the tourism boom.

The Opportunity Alaska: China Trade Mission earlier this year highlighted Alaska’s rising appeal to visitors from across the Pacific. Alaska’s traditional tourist season is the summer, but new visitor markets are equally interested in what Alaska has to offer in the winter, from skiing and snowboarding to hot springs and Northern Lights. Pan-pacific cargo flights continue to increase, and direct China-Alaska flights are on the horizon, growing opportunities for visitors. A portion of these funds will be used to make these direct flights a reality.

“With more than 80 percent of the deficit fixed, it’s time to start re-investing in Alaska and grow the economy,” Governor Walker said. “We need to let the world know that we are open for business.”  

Tourism is the cornerstone for many small businesses in Alaska according to the news release. Restaurants, breweries, sightseeing, guiding, hotels, B&B’s, car rentals, gold panning operation in small towns and urban centers all benefit from tourism marketing to the rest of the United States and across the globe.  - More...
Tuesday PM - October 02, 2018

Alaska: New Study Sheds Light on Mysterious Movements of Rarest Great Whale - The eastern North Pacific right whale is the rarest of great whales: after decades of legal and illegal whaling, 30 are thought to remain. They are seldom sighted, and little understood. No one knows where they go in the winter, or where they breed and calve--essential knowledge for their management and recovery.

A new NOAA Fisheries study sheds light on the mysterious lives of these Critically Endangered whales.

The eastern population of North Pacific right whales (NPRW) is known to live in the southeast Bering Sea. But a previous study found that the whales disappeared in winter from acoustic recordings made in the Bering Sea. Based on that winter silence, as well as evidence from old whaling records, migration patterns of other right whale populations, and sightings of one NPRW in both the Bering Sea and Hawaii, scientists suspected that the whales were migrating south for the winter.

Rarest Great Whale...
An eastern North Pacific right whale surfacing for air.
Photo courtesy NOAA

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Finding the Right Whale

To test their migration hypothesis, scientists analyzed acoustic recordings from 2009-2015 in Unimak Pass, the most plausible passage from the eastern Bering Sea south through the Aleutian Island chain. They listened to audio and visually scanned spectrogram data in search of characteristic NPRW  “upcall” and “gunshot” calls.

“There was quite a lot of noise from vessel traffic, so it took time and focus to go through all the data for potentially faint NPRW calls. There were also a lot of calls from talkative humpback whales throughout the dataset, which meant we had to be very diligent going through the data to separate the two species,” says marine mammal biologist Dana Wright, who led the study.

What they did hear validated the migration hypothesis-- and raised major concerns.

“The first time we found NPRW calls was very exciting. Hearing calls during winter/spring in multiple years was even more exciting, because it supported the idea of a migration,” Wright says. “But pervasive vessel noise throughout the study highlights the potential for interactions between whales and vessels, from ship strikes to noise interfering with the whales’ ability to communicate.”

A separate study estimated that 1,961 deep-draft vessels involved in international trade made 4,615 transits through Unimak Pass in 2012. Of these transits, the majority of vessels were cargo and container vessels. The study excluded fishing, military, ferry, tugs and barges, and smaller vessels. - More...
Tuesday PM - October 02, 2018

Alaska: First North American co-occurrence of Hadrosaur and Therizinosaur tracks found in Alaska - A new study published in Scientific Reports provides more evidence that Alaska was possibly the 'superhighway' for dinosaurs between Asia and western North America 65-70 million years ago.

An international team of paleontologists and other geoscientists has discovered the first North American co-occurrence of hadrosaur and therizinosaur tracks in the lower Cantwell Formation within Denali National Park, suggesting that an aspect of the continental ecosystem of central Asia was also present in this part of Alaska during the Late Cretaceous.

This comprehensive cross-disciplinary effort has resulted in a paper - entitled "An unusual association of hadrosaur and therizinosaur tracks within Late Cretaceous rocks of Denali National Park, Alaska" - published in Scientific Reports, an online open access scientific mega journal published by the Nature Publishing Group, covering all areas of the natural sciences.

Anthony R. Fiorillo, Ph.D., chief curator and vice president of research and collections at the Perot Museum of Nature and Science in Dallas, Texas, is the lead author. 

Fiorillo and a colleague published on a distinct single footprint in Denali National Park in 2012 that they determined to be made by a therizinosaur, an unusual predatory dinosaur thought to have become an herbivore. Therizinosaurs are best known from Asia. Upon his return in 2013 and 2014, they conducted a more detailed analysis of the area, and he and his colleagues unearthed dozens more tracks of therizinosaurs. What surprised Fiorillo and his team most was the co-occurrence of dozens of hadrosaurs, also known as duck-bill dinosaurs. 

"Hadrosaurs are very common and found all over Denali National Park. Previously, they had not been found alongside therizinosaurs in Denali. In Mongolia, where therizinosaurs are best known - though no footprints have been found in association - skeletons of hadrosaurs and therizinosaurs have been found to co-occur from a single rock unit so this was a highly unusual find in Alaska, and it prompted my interest," said Fiorillo. "From our research, we've determined that this track association of therizinosaurs and hadrosaurs is currently the only one of its kind in North America." 

An international team of paleontologists and geoscientists has discovered the first North American co-occurrence of hadrosaur and therizinosaur tracks within Denali National Park in Alaska.
Illustration by Masato Hattori ©2018

The plant-eating therizinosaurs are rare and unusual creatures in the fossil record. The strange-looking dinosaurs had long skinny necks, little teeth, a small beak for cropping plants, and big torsos accompanied by large hind feet and long arms with "hands like Freddy Krueger." 

Though therizinosaurs are known from Asia and North America, the best and most diverse fossil record is from Asia - even up to the time of extinction - and therein is the connection. Fiorillo has long postulated that 

Cretaceous Alaska could have been the thoroughfare for fauna between Western North America and Asia - two continents that shared each other's fauna and flora in the latest stages of the Cretaceous.  - More...
Tuesday PM - October 02, 2018

Analysis: How is 'new NAFTA' different? A trade expert explains By AMANDA M. COUNTRYMAN - On Sept. 30, the U.S., Canada and Mexico reached a deal to scrap NAFTA and replace it with a new trade accord, narrowly meeting a self-imposed deadline for consensus.

Although U.S. President Donald Trump plans to sign the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement in 60 days, the new accord has a long road ahead as lawmakers in all three countries must still pass it before it goes into effect.

Still it is an astounding feat, considering Mexico and the U.S. were all but ready to go ahead with their own deal without Canada only a month ago, after a year of three-party negotiations. And Trump repeatedly said he was ready to scrap the deal entirely, which in my opinion would have been the worst outcome.

So what’s changed from the 25-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement and why should you care?

The text of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement is 1,809 pages long – about 100 more than NAFTA – and includes numerous tweaks from its predecessor, both big and small. I believe three are especially noteworthy.

Since 1994, the U.S. and Canada have dropped tariffs and other trade restrictions on most agricultural products, but there were a few exceptions, most notably dairy.

Dairy was a particularly problematic sticking point in the recent negotiations as the U.S. and Canada both have long histories of protectionist policies such as subsidies to dairy farmers, import quotas on milk and Canadian tariffs that range from 200 percent to 300 percent for exporting too much of a given product.

The new NAFTA begins to change that, representing a big win for both countries, especially the U.S. - More...
Tuesday PM - October 02, 2018

MONEY MATTERS COLUMN: HOW TO INVEST WHEN THE MARKET MAKES YOU NERVOUS By MARY LYNNE DAHL, CFP® - The market is making some people nervous. Maybe it will crash, they say. Maybe the economy will turn down and go sour, they say. Maybe the bull market will end and we will be in a bear market, they say. Maybe the time to get out has come, they say. Maybe our planet will get whacked tomorrow by a giant asteroid that will destroy all life on earth, too. This kind of thinking is a waste of time and just fosters stress and anxiety. If this reflects your thinking, let’s ask the right questions and get some answers.

If the market is making you nervous, what should you do? Should you worry, get out, dump your stocks and buy bonds, go to gold or hunker down with cash? What should you do?

How about getting some factual information first and studying before you make an uninformed or emotional decision? How about learning what history can tell us about how the market actually works? Studying the long historical records of the market is where to start. Getting the facts before making an important financial decision is just common sense, but for some reason, when it comes to money, some of us leave our common sense at the door and rely on our feelings…..of fear, greed, anxiety and other emotions that trigger bad financial decisions. There is a better way, however.

What does history tells us? Let’s look at the facts.

01. Since the crash of 1929 to 2017, the broad market of US stocks (small, medium and large size companies) combined has enjoyed an average annual return of just under 10%.

02. For almost 100 years, US stocks have earned between 9% and 12% per year on average, in spite of negative years, market crashes and economic recessions in the US.

03. When measured in 10 year increments, the market has been positive for 28 of 32 of these 10 year periods. Of the 4 decades that were negative, 3 of them were in the 1930s.

04. People have not lost money in the market if they hold for 10 years or more.

05. A dollar in 1930 is the equivalent of $20.64 today (2018, at 3.5% inflation). = More...
Tuesday PM - October 02, 2018

DAVE KIFFER: Put Down Your Danged Blinky Toy! - The other day a very, very  long time friend noted that life is "pretty cool" because now all of us have "Star Trek Communicators." 

Natch, I didn't burst his bubble by telling him I didn't have a "smart" phone. But his point is valid. Where once the idea of a personal communicator was science fiction, now  pretty much every has one on his or her person at all times.

That's where I buck the tide. I do indeed have a cell phone, but it is one  of the those cheap a-- Go phones that sits in a drawer unless I am traveling, which is pretty much impossible these days without some sort of personal communication device.

So why don't I carry a fancy-dancy blinky toy around like apparently every other carbon-based life form ( I learned that phrase from Star Trek!)?

Well, first of all, I am almost always within reach of a land line.

Second, if I am driving my car or in the bathroom, I do not want to talk to you. I am otherwise engaged.

Three, where I work cell phones are verboten. Besides, I am usually either teaching a class, talking to someone, or engaged in a work related task. I can't (WON'T) just drop whatever I am doing to talk to you. Send me an email. I will answer it when I have a minute.

And four, I would miss so-so-so much of life, if I spent it staring at a little screen in my hand.

But I digress.

I was thinking the other day, about the various things that one misses if they just stare endlessly at their modern day "palm pilot."  - More...
Tuesday PM - October 02, 2018