Two of Ketchikan's native sons honored Photo courtesy Ketchikan Police Dept.

Ketchikan: Two of Ketchikan's native sons honored - Public Safety Director Rich Leipfert has announced the graduation of Ketchikan Police Department Officer Mark Sivertsen from the Alaska Public Safety Academy in Sitka. The academy began August 7 and graduated November 17th. The Academy is a 17 week course that includes academic subjects such as law and ethics, and extensive practical classes in firearms, arrest control and law enforcement driving.

Attending the graduation ceremony were parents Bob and Terry Sivertsen, Mark's wife, Sara, and Deputy Chief John Maki. Colonel Julia Grimes of the Alaska State Troopers was the keynote speaker. - More...
Tuesday - November 22, 2005

National: Stevens complains about press coverage, funding for Alaska By LIZ RUSKIN - Sen. Ted Stevens said he and Alaska have been under constant assault these days, and the bombardment is hurting the state's flow of federal money.

"You were here. You see the attacks that are being made on us daily," he told Alaska reporters last week. "Look at the (Alaska) things that are being reduced in the appropriations bill. Every single appropriations bill has been reduced."

But John Katz, the Alaska governor's representative in Washington, doesn't think the picture is so bleak for the state.

Katz said that as he reviewed the annual spending bills "there have been pleasant surprises and also some disappointments." - More...
Tuesday - November 22, 2005

National: Libby hires expert in criminal law on national secrets By JAMES STERNGOLD - Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who is charged with obstructing justice and lying in the CIA leak case, has hired a leading expert in using classified information in criminal trials, giving an early hint of his possible defense strategy.

Libby, who was Vice President Dick Cheney's chief of staff until his indictment last month, has retained John Cline, an unusually experienced attorney in cases involving classified information. Cline is a San Francisco-based partner with Jones Day, a major national law firm. - More...
Tuesday - November 22, 2005

National: Thousands line up to see -- and smell -- botanical superstar By B. BLAIR DEDRICK - The odor is rank and invasive, yet thousands of flower lovers are flocking to the U.S. Botanic Garden to see - and smell - the fantastic bloom of the rare titan arum plant.

"Rotten fish," said Emily Hawver, 7, who came from Annapolis, Md., with her sister Abby, 10, and plant-enthusiast mother Janice, 44. "I didn't really get a whiff when I was smelling it, but eventually this huge smell of rotten fish came up." - More...
Tuesday - November 22, 2005

Alaska: Recruiting for 350 Alaskan seafood workers begins now - Seafood processing industry employers are recruiting now through Dec. 9 for more than 350 Alaska workers needed for the Pollock "A" season, the state's largest commercial fishery. Recruiting is also starting for the opilio crab and Pacific cod seasons, according to employment specialists at the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development. Seafood processing work is expected to begin early in January in the Bering Sea area, including Dutch Harbor and St. Paul, and will last through late April. - More...
Tuesday - November 22, 2005

Ketchikan: Grants Available for People with Welding Experience - People with welding experience or education may be eligible for a State Training and Employment Program (STEP) grant that will pay for advanced level welder training in the upcoming spring semester at the Ketchikan Campus of the University of Alaska Southeast.

Unemployment insurance (UI) funds the STEP grants for people who fall into several categories of eligibility: those who have exhausted UI, are presently collecting UI, or who are unemployed or working part time but have worked in a job covered by UI in the last three years. Other qualifications for the program include previous welding experience or education. - More...
Tuesday - November 22, 2005

International: Initiative Would Provide $100 Laptop to World's Poorest Countries By Tim Receveur - A nonprofit group seeking to develop a $100 laptop computer for children in developing countries unveiled its first working prototype November 16 at the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) in Tunis, Tunisia.

One Laptop per Child (OLPC), a U.S.-based organization created by faculty members of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab, seeks to distribute the low-cost computers through ministries of education, according to Nicholas Negroponte, chairman and co-founder of the MIT Media Lab and Wiesner professor of media technology at MIT. - More...
Tuesday - November 22, 2005

Viewpoints Opinions/Letters The earmarks for the bridge are gone By Patrick Jirschele - Tuesday PM Americans coming into Canada for All Native Tournament By Roberta Aiken - Tuesday PM Criticizing our commanders... OH, YAWN! By David Hanger - Tuesday PM Those who criticize our commanders By Erin Bellon - Tuesday PM "Why not me?" By Brenda Bratley - Monday am THANK YOU By Ken Levy - Monday am Glenn/Metzenbaum debate By David Landis- Monday am To Those Who Criticize... and Patriotism By Gregory Fast- Monday am The Bridge Battle By Don Hoff Jr.- Monday am Better come up with another plan By Robert McRoberts- Monday am More Viewpoints/ Letters Publish A Letter Political Cartoonists Political Cartoons Ketchikan November Calendar Today's Forecast Current AK Weather Map 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

Linda Seebach: Literary marathon takes creative fun and runs with it - Encountering a whole new world of people intensely engaged in some activity I've never given much thought to, and getting to tell readers about it, is one of the nicest benefits of writing a column. When they are people helping each other meet the challenge of realizing a long-held ambition, so much the better.

I am therefore very pleased to tell those of you who don't already know that November is National Novel Writing Month. It's a Web-based effort for people who have always longed to write a novel. Participants sign up by pledging to write a complete novel, of at least 50,000 words, between Nov. 1 and Nov. 30.

This has been going on for a while - it started in 1999 in Oakland, Calif., with 21 writers and six winners who passed the 50,000-word finish line - but I hadn't heard about it, probably because I don't aspire to write fiction. - More...
Tuesday - November 22, 2005

Michael Fumento: Chicken Little's pandemic panic - "The indication is that we will see a return of the 1918 flu virus," warns the nation's top health official. "The projections are that this virus will kill one million Americans . . ."

A quote ripped from today's headlines about an impending "bird flu" pandemic? No, the year was 1976 and the prediction regarding the "swine flu" fell 999,999 deaths short.

That's something to remember as we endure the current hysteria. Another is that we've been here before with the same virus everybody is currently squawking about - avian influenza type H5N1 - which hit Hong Kong in 1997. Typical headline: "Race to Prevent World Epidemic of Lethal 'Bird Flu.' " I was there too, with a piece that was anti-hysteria (and therefore grossly irresponsible).

The world death toll from that "wave?" Six. - More...
Tuesday - November 22, 2005

John Hall: A slippery Senate bill - Senators say they want to make 2006 a year of "significant transition" in the Iraq war. But what's transitional about a request for information that Congress should be getting anyway?

Passed by the Senate 79 to 19 last Tuesday, the Senate's new plan on Iraq was cast as a shot across the bow at the Bush administration's handling of the war. But it is hard to see it as criticism when the White House embraced it and its terms are inconsequential and slippery.

The goal next year would be "creating the conditions for the phased redeployment of United States forces from Iraq." That could mean most anything. - More...
Tuesday - November 22, 2005

Betsy Hart: Learning to drink responsibly, or not - A study just out says that, contrary to popular myth, European youth, meaning 15-and 16-year olds, "drink more often, drink more heavily, and get drunk more often than American teens."

It's long been the belief in certain quarters that children and teens who "learn to drink responsibly in the home," supposedly what goes on with our European counterparts, will be less likely to drink outside the home. (The study, "Youth drinking rates and problems: A comparison of European countries and the United States," was sponsored by the U.S. Justice Department.)

Is such thinking why fully one in four U.S. parents of teenagers says teens should be able to drink at home with their moms and dads present? - More...
Tuesday - November 22, 2005