Alaska: House Leaders Abandon Plan To Open ANWR To Drilling; However, legislation is not dead - Late Wednesday evening, House Republican leaders decided to abandoned a contested plan to open the Alaska National Wildlife refuge to oil drilling.

The decision by House Republican leaders to drop ANWR from the spending-reduction bill came after Republican moderates said they would oppose the bill if ANWR drilling was kept in the bill. With opposition by Republican moderates, the House Republican leaders feared it could jeopardize the overall bill. - More...
Wednesday PM - November 09, 2005  

Ketchikan: Job market looks bright for Alaska's youth says Governor by DICK KAUFFMAN -  Alaska Governor Frank H. Murkowski spoke to the students at Ketchikan High School Tuesday morning about what Alaska's job market might offer them in the future. Murkowski said, "There are some exciting things in the offerings that many of you might want to look at."

Governor Murkowski said, the future of Alaska lies in the development of its economy and by developing Alaska's resources. Building an economy in a big hunk of real estate like Alaska that's one-fifth the size of the United States with a small population of under 700,000, brings up two questions said Murkowski. "How do you build an economy, and what do you do with it after you build it?" - More...
Wednesday - November 09, 2005

Alaska: ANWR a point of contention in budget bill By LIZ RUSKIN - While House Republican leaders scout for the votes they need to pass their five-year budget package, a section that would open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling is becoming a divisive headache.

"I'm not prepared to give up on ANWR yet," Majority Leader Roy Blunt told Capitol Hill reporters Tuesday.

On Tuesday, some 25 Republican moderates sent House leaders a letter asking them to remove ANWR from the budget reconciliation bill. Several of them, including three members from Connecticut, have said they'll never vote for the budget bill as long as ANWR is in it. - More...
Wednesday - November 09, 2005

National: Following Reagan playbook, Bush turns to tax reform By DAVID WESTPHAL - Twenty years ago, a newly re-elected Ronald Reagan put his fresh store of political capital behind a cause many people thought would never happen - a top-to-bottom overhaul of the federal income tax system. But happen it did, smack in the middle of the 1986 congressional campaign.

George W. Bush is about to try it again. Looking for a new economic cause after failing to muster support for his Social Security project, Bush is following Reagan's lead in turning to the tax code for a second-term centerpiece. And just as Reagan did, Bush will pitch it as a bid to simplify an overwhelmingly complex system, to reward savings and investment, and to slash away at the maze of tax preferences that affect everything from home ownership to charitable contributions. - More...
Wednesday - November 09, 2005

National: New standards require Kansas teachers to question evolution By BILL STRAUB - The Kansas State Board of Education has once again thrown itself into the middle of the debate over evolution, adopting new science-curricula standards for the state's 445,000 public-school students that openly question Darwinian theory.

The new standards, adopted Tuesday in a 6-4 vote after hours of sometimes hostile debate, are seen as a victory for religious fundamentalists even though the regulations don't require that Bible teachings be presented as an alternative to the theories of Charles Darwin, who said species evolved from a common source. Scientists and other foes assert that evolution is more than a theory, and that the new standards will prove an impediment to education. - More...
Wednesday - November 09, 2005

National: Tennessee school shooting leaves one dead, two wounded By DON JACOBS and LOLA ALAPO - A 15-year-old Campbell County high school freshman allegedly killed one school administrator and seriously wounded two others Tuesday when confronted by educators checking a report the boy was armed, authorities said.

Kenny Bartley Jr., a freshman at the school, allegedly shot Assistant Principal Ken Bruce in the chest, said Campbell County Sheriff Ron McClellan. Bruce was transported to St. Mary's Hospital in LaFollette, Tenn., where he was pronounced dead. - More...
Wednesday - November 09, 2005

Viewpoints Opinions/Letters Principles and Legalized Torture By Mark O'Brien - Wednesday pm Future job prospects for Alaska's youth By Blain Anderson - Wednesday pm Alcohol Problem in Alaska By Morgan Doubleday - Wednesday pm Blogging Worries Parents By Christopher Davin - Wednesday pm Missing the point By Danielle Groghan - Wednesday pm We do have humor... By David Anderson - Wednesday pm Fuel Prices By John Fraley - Tuesday pm Weigh Gas Line Deal on its Merits by Ralph Samuels - Tuesday pm Jackson Street Closure By Diana Amundson - Tuesday pm Sense of humor? By Bob Ciminel - Tuesday pm Ease the burden By Connie Williams - Tuesday pm Applaud you for speaking up By Christa & Britt Henderson - Tuesday pm Halloween By Frances Natkong - Tuesday pm Serious questions raised By Sen. Hollis French - Monday am Sealaska pains or gains??? By Michael Nelson - Monday am Support Wildlife... By David Anderson - Monday am We Were All Kids Once; Halloween on Jackson/Monroe Street By Robert D. Warner - Monday am A road and a bridge needed... By Sharon Fraley - Monday am More Viewpoints/ Letters Publish A Letter Political Cartoonists Political cartoons Ketchikan November Calendar Today's Forecast City Police Report AK Troopers Daily Dispatch Classifieds & Announcements November 2005 Click on the date for stories and photos 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       Front Page Archives

National: Veterans living in unexpected places By THOMAS HARGROVE - America's 24 million veterans are not deployed evenly throughout America.

According to the Veterans Administration, there are places in rural Idaho where 1 in every 4 residents is a retired member of the Air Force, Army, Navy or Marine Corps. Then there's the Bronx - New York's fabled tough-guy borough - where only 1 in 25 have ever served in the military. - More...
Wednesday - November 09, 2005

National: A fate worse than hangover for underage drinkers By PATRICK BOURLAND - Heavy or even moderate alcohol drinking during adolescence can impair learning and memory and even interfere with physical development, according to a new report.

The report by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism doesn't bode well for the 12 percent of eighth-graders, 22 percent of 10th-graders and 28 percent of 12th-graders who reported binge drinking in a survey. - More...
Wednesday - November 09, 2005

Ketchikan: Perseverance Theatre Artists Crisscross State Gathering Stories of Raven - Artistic Director PJ Paparelli and Director of Outreach Ishmael Hope, both of Juneau's Perseverance Theatre, will journey across Alaska from November 8th to December 16th, 2005, researching and documenting the stories, cultures, and histories of the Aleut, Alutiiq, Athabascan, Haida, Iñupiaq, Tlingit, Tsimshian, and Yupik people for a new theater production, entitled The Raven Odyssey.

During this initial research and developmental phase of the project, Paparelli and Hope, a Tlingit/Iñupiat storyteller, will interview Alaska Native storytellers and Elders from across cultures and the state, gathering stories of Raven, a trickster figure who features prominently in the mythology of many American Indian and Alaska Native cultures. The stories will eventually be woven together into a full-length theater piece which will also involve Alaska Native dance, song, and visual art and will be performed by an all-Alaska Native cast of performers. - More...
Wednesday - November 09, 2005  

Craig - Thorne Bay: FS Encourages Firewood Harvest on POW - The Craig and Thorne Bay Ranger Districts are encouraging firewood harvest on a number of temporary roads created during recent timber sale activity on Prince of Wales Island. These areas often hold a large amount of available utility wood, ideal for firewood collecting near a road. With the rising cost of fuel oil, the use of firewood to heat homes is an economic activity the Forest Service is pleased to support. - More...
Wednesday - November 09, 2005

Alaska: Pay Alaska Fishermen From Record Profits Says Greenpeace - With congressional hearings scheduled for November 9 on record oil company profits, Greenpeace called upon ExxonMobil Tuesday to fulfill its legal obligation to compensate Alaska fishermen for the ExxonValdez oil spill. Sixteen years after the ExxonValdez dumped 11 million gallons of crude oil into Prince William Sound in Alaska, fishermen and community members still have not been paid the $5 billion awarded by a jury in punitive damages in 1994, according to a Greenpeace release. - More...
Wednesday - November 09, 2005

Technology: Qwest, Comcast, others shoulder into Internet-calling fray By JOYZELLE DAVIS - Internet-based phone service is growing up in a hurry.

Telcos, ISPs - even cable-TV companies - have entered the race to provide voice-over-Internet protocol (VoIP), giving consumers more choices even as the technology continues to evolve. - More...
Wednesday - November 09, 2005

National: A second sticky toilet seat By SARAH LANGBEIN - Bob Dougherty's been in a sticky situation - twice.

The man who's become nationally known as the guy glued to a Home Depot toilet seat reported a similar incident more than a year ago, according to the town of Nederland's former director of operations. - More...
Wednesday - November 09, 2005