Ketchikan Arts & Entertainment: First City Players Present Oliver! By BILL HUPE - Lionel Bart's musical, Oliver!, based on the novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens opened last Friday at the Ketchikan High School Auditorium, with a memorable performance by the First City Players.

With sets and props fitting seamlessly into the flow of the musical, the audience was taken back in time to the streets and underground areas of London on a zestful journey with an orphan who runs away from an orphanage and hooks up with a group of boys trained to be pickpockets by an elderly mentor.

The entire cast performed extremely well last weekend. There were a few newcomers among the cast, but one would be hard pressed to differentiate them from the seasoned veterans, and although everyone was excellent in their role from the orphan ensemble to the leads, a few performers did specifically stand out.

Alec Pankow as the lead and title character was perfect for the role, dancing from scene to scene, and circumstance to circumstance, displaying his familiarity with the character, with a winsome innocence. Jeanette Sweetman played the delightful scoundrel, Artful Dodger, was perfect in the role, strutting around the stage as if they owned it. Maria Dudzak was simply so good as Fagin it was impossible not to like the character; it was hard to remember he was one of the bad guys.

The show stealer, however, was the talented Katy Graves as Nancy, with both an incredible singing voice and dancing skills. Graves was an absolute delight to see perform. - More...
Friday AM - November 10, 2006

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National: WWI vets organization on path to extinction By LISA HOFFMAN - At its peak, the "Veterans of World War I of the USA" boasted 800,000 dues-paying members and a full-time staff of 21.

Attendance was so high at one national convention that the vets and their spouses sat shoulder-to-shoulder at the banquet dinner, packed so tightly that there wasn't enough room for all of them to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

Those days are long gone, faded away like the once-mighty ranks of veterans of the Great War, which ended 88 years ago Saturday.

More than 4.7 million Americans were in uniform on Nov. 11, 1918. - More...
Friday AM - November 10, 2006

National: A dozen vets of WWI still soldier on By LISA HOFFMAN - Scrawny but determined to fight in World War I, Howard Ramsey scarfed down banana after banana to bulk up enough to enlist. Today, he is still feisty at 108.

At 16, Frank Buckles lied about his age so he could go to war against the Germans in France. Now 105, he still runs his West Virginia cattle farm.

The son of former slaves, Moses Hardy and his segregated unit battled the enemy in horrific trench combat. Now 112 or 113, he says the only doctor he needs is Dr. Pepper.

These remarkable "Doughboys" - and about two handfuls more - are members of an increasingly fragile fraternity, relics of a world-changing conflagration little remembered today.

Once they stood 4.7 million strong: American farm boys, factory hands and tradesmen itchy for adventure, all called by their country to fight "the war to end all wars." - More...
Friday AM - November 10, 2006

National: Meet the remaining WWI vets By LISA HOFFMAN - Here is a look at the last known living veterans of World War I.

Lloyd Brown, 106, lives in Bethesda, Md. Enlisted in the Navy at age 16 and served on the battleship USS New Hampshire, which patrolled the North Atlantic hunting German submarines. Reenlisted after the war as a Navy musician, then became a Washington, D.C. fireman. Lives alone in a house three blocks from a daughter's residence and uses a golf cart to get around.

Russell Buchanan, 106, lives in Watertown, Mass. Joined the Navy in the last months of World War I, and served Stateside. In World War II, served in the Army's "Yankee Division" in Europe. Credits longevity to staying fit. - More...
Friday AM - November 10, 2006

Ketchikan: The 2006 Salvation Army Food Drive Set for Saturday - The 2006 Salvation Army Food Drive is set to take place on Saturday, November 11th from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM. This year, donations will be collected at three locations in Southeast. Donation collection sites include A.C. Market in Klawock, City Market in Wrangell and Tatsuda's IGA in Ketchikan.

Each year, the Salvation Army provides necessary goods and resources to those in need. Though all services are offered year-round, the fall and early winter proves to be the busiest time of the year for the Salvation Army as more individuals reach out, unable to provide meals for their families during the Holiday Season. As applies during the rest of the year, the Salvation Army relies greatly on donations. - More...
Friday AM - November 10, 2006

Alaska: Alaska exports not always welcomed By NED ROZELL - Three recent studies show links between Alaska and birds in California, air quality in Texas, and icebergs in Antarctica.

Spring 2005 was the first time in decades that Cassin's auklets nesting on the Farallon Islands didn't have baby auklets, and some scientists think weather in the Gulf of Alaska might be part of the reason why.

Russ Bradley works for PRBO Conservation Science in Petaluma, California. The organization devoted to, among other things, preservation of the Farallon Islands that are 27 miles west of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. In May 2005, biologists noticed that a species of small gray sea birds known as Cassin's auklets abandoned their breeding colony on the southeast island. "For the first time in 35 years, reproductive success was zero," the scientists wrote in a recent issue of Geophysical Research Letters.

The auklets also did poorly in British Columbia. Bradley said the timing of a shift in location of the Aleutian Low, a major Alaska weather feature in the Bering Sea and North Pacific, may be to blame for the failed breeding season on the Farallon Islands.

"The Pacific jet stream shifted south by over 1,000 miles during early May," Bradley said. The Aleutian Low then moved south from the Gulf of Alaska and altered ocean currents as far south as California. - More...

101 Unknown Soldiers are buried at the Luxembourg American Cemetery Photo courtesy Matthew Perry

Jerry Cegelske: Veterans Day - This past summer Matthew Perry toured Europe with the Sound of America Honor Band. At the end of their trip they visited the Luxembourg American Cemetery and Memorial where they had an informal memorial service and trumpet players played taps.

The Cemetery and Memorial is one of 14 permanent cemeteries created from the 83 temporary cemeteries in Africa, Italy, and the rest of Europe. There are 5,076 American dead buried there, among them 22 sets of brothers buried side by side, there are 101 "Unknowns" whose remains could not be identified.

From the entrance may be seen, in profile, the Memorial. The dedication on it reads "IN PROUD REMEMBRANCE OF THE ACHIEVEMENTS OF HER SONS AND IN HUMBLE TRIBUTE TO THEIR SACRIFICES THIS MEMORIAL HAS BEEN ERECTED BY THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" - More...
Friday AM - November 10, 2006

Viewpoints Opinions/Letters Basic Rules Consolidation By Al Johnson - Thursday PM This Cannot Be Happening! By Valerie Cooper - Thursday PM Ketchikan's High Gas Prices By Kelly Needham - Thursday PM Re: Consolidation Voter Fraud By Dave Kiffer - Wednesday PM RE: COMMON SENSE OR STUPIDITY By Cathy Geer - Wednesday PM Re: Upsetting Halloween Experience By Suzan Thompson - Wednesday PM A Sea Of Blue Across America By Ken Levy - Wednesday PM Civilized? Hate; Greed: And Fear By Steven McLaren - Wednesday PM Hate, Greed and Bush invades Canada By Ken Lewis - Wednesday PM The Piers to Nowhere By Samuel Bergeron - Tuesday AM Consolidation: We All Owe Thanks To Rodney Dial By Dave Person - Tuesday AM Upsetting Halloween Experience By Amy Schmitt - Tuesday AM Voting for the best candidate: Tony Knowles By Michael Spence - Tuesday AM Consolidation Ballot Due By Nov. 21st By Cheryl Henley - Tuesday AM Knowles for Governor By Marty West - Tuesday AM Majority Whip; Does it Really Matter? By Virginia E. Atkinson - Tuesday AM COMMON SENSE OR STUPIDITY By Marie L. Monyak - Tuesday AM Desecration Bridge By Don Hoff Jr. - Tuesday AM Why John Kerry Still Matters! By Robert Freedland - Tuesday AM Pro Knowles By Dave Kiffer - Tuesday AM Heeeere's Tony! By Chris Elliott - Tuesday AM Admiration & Support for US Armed Forces -- from a Veteran By Ronald Lee Lamb - Tuesday AM Time to vote again By Robert McRoberts - Tuesday AM RE: The Real Problem with Families By Janelle Hamilton - Tuesday AM RE: John Kerry By Ben Rosenfeld - Tuesday AM Something fishy in Palin mailer By Kate Sangster - Tuesday AM Power corrupts but this is rediculous! By Mark Neckameyer - Tuesday AM Reponse to Hate, Greed and Fear By Alan Miller - Tuesday AM Revilla Road Trashed By William C Thomas - Tuesday AM More Viewpoints/ Letters Publish A Letter Political Cartoonists Political Cartoons Ketchikan Ketchikan Police Report AK Troopers Daily Dispatch Today's Forecast Satellite Today's Weather Images Marine Forecasts 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 For Sale / Free Stuff Garage Sales Homes / Apts/ Property Pets Wanted Lost & Found Local Services SitNews Archives November 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     More Front Page Archives

Tom Purcell: The Veteran's Soul - Veterans Day, is a great day to read a book titled Chicken Soup for the Veteran's Soul.

In it, John McCain shares a story about a fellow named Mike, shot down in 1967 and captured by the Vietnamese. Mike grew up poor in Alabama, wrote McCain. "He didn't wear shoes until he was 13 years old. Character was his only wealth."

Mike made a needle out of a piece of bamboo and gradually sewed scraps of red and white cloth into an American flag. He sewed the flag onto the inside of his prisoner's shirt. Every afternoon, the American prisoners hung Mike's flag onto the wall and said the Pledge of Allegiance. - More...
Friday AM - November 10, 2006

Dave Kiffer: Flying the 'Fiendly' Skies - Alaska Airlines is celebrating its 75th birthday next year by printing heartwarming stories from passengers on its website.

If you log on now you can read about "how a flight attendant once brought a blanket for a newborn" or "how a pair of 'big' girls enjoyed their flight to San Francisco" or "how the planes were clean and the flight crews were friendly."

That sure sounds like something to really "warm your cockles" to quote my mother, who likely has her own Alaska Airline stories to tell.

Our family has been flying Alaska Airlines ever since it swallowed up Alaska Coastal -Ellis Airlines in the late 1960s. Not that we've had much of the choice. Over the years there has been sporadic competition from Pacific Northern, Western, Wein Air , Mark Air and a few others, but Alaska has always prevailed. And that's not always been a bad thing, but it did seem a little "cheesy" when they used to say "thank you for choosing Alaska." As if!

In fact, we can even remember back when it was known for its "Golden Samovar Service" and offered "snacks" that were better than other airlines "meals." Now of course, Alaska Air's "meals" are remarkably snack-like.

Come to think of it, we can even remember when Alaska Airlines was actually from Alaska, rather than - to quote the media - a "Seattle-based carrier." - More...
Thursday AM - November 09, 2006

Preston McDougall: Chemical Eye Up in the Sky - In a galaxy far, far away, one of the building blocks of proteins, an amino acid, was synthesized in a chemical reaction that occurred a long, long time ago.

This is not the very, very beginning of the Star Wars fantasy. Rather, it is a typical conclusion that astrochemists might reach after studying data collected, and relayed back to Earth, by the Hubble Space Telescope.

This eye in the sky is affectionately referred to simply as "Hubble", after the American boxer, Rhodes Scholar, and finally astronomer who, in 1929, the year the Stock Market crashed, had the nerve to claim that the entire universe was expanding! Hubble has been orbiting in Earth's sky since 1990, passing in and out of Earth's shadow. For thirty-six of its ninety-seven minute days, or orbits, Hubble is in the dark. When it is shadowed from the Sun by the Earth, and free of the "noise" of man-made light, thanks to its heavenly perch, Hubble casts a sensitive, and deep, gaze on the universe that surrounds us, much farther than the eye can see. During its daytime, Hubble "catches some rays" and recharges its batteries. - More....
Thursday AM - November 09, 2006

Bonnie Erbe: Message to Democrats: Beware hubris - Message to Democrats on winning the U.S. House: this was no mandate. Republican ineptitude handed House control to Democrats, not Democratic superiority.

Just as President Bush deserves Olympic gold for overreaching (he called himself a uniter and governed like a seismic divider) Democrats run the risk of legislating from the extremities and living to regret it.

Democratic candidates who picked up GOP-controlled House seats were centrists, not extremists. As of this writing, five states approved amendments suggesting gay marriages be banned and another five voted to join the roster of states that would require employers to pay higher minimum wages than the federal minimum of $5.15 per hour - all indications of a centrist electorate, not a liberal one. - More...
Thursday AM - November 09, 2006

John Hall: The 'Get It Done' election - The Democrats have scored an impressive victory based largely on public misgivings about a Republican White House and its handling of the Iraq war.

This will put pressure on both the White House and the new Democratic-heavy Congress that begins work next year to produce results on this war.

How are they going to do that? There is no sign so far that either the Democratic leadership or President Bush has a workable plan to disengage U.S. troops under near term honorable conditions.

In the closing days of the campaign, the Democrats let loose a media blitz implying that the election of a Democratic Congress would provide a way out of Iraq.

Without Bush's cooperation, however, the Democrats know that delivering on any contract to end the war will be next to impossible. - More...
Thursday AM - November 09, 2006