Philanthropist Reams gives $50,000 for New Library Building

Ketchikan: Norm Reams gives $50,000 for New Library Building - "You might see if you can make it a competition between the classes, and see who can beat the [Kayhi] Class of 1940," said Norm Ream of his $50,000 contribution to the Friends of the Ketchikan Public Library Building Fund.

The $50,000 donation to The Friends of the Ketchikan Public Library Building Fund was greatly appreciated by the organization. The generous donation was received recently in the form of a check from the Ream Family Scholarship Fund.

Ream is well known for his ongoing monetary support of Ketchikan students and the community. For the past several years he has personally funded two Kayhi scholarships each year. He annually hosts a party at his home before the Kayhi Alumni picnic in Washington.

"I have very fond recollections of Ketchikan," says the civil engineer. The Ream family lived in Ketchikan before moving to Kodiak. Norm Ream's brother Joel is a Kayhi graduate of 1939, and his sister, Anna Mae Ream Zugish, graduated in 1942. Their father worked on the Navy base in Kodiak, and when World War II broke out, the Reams were evacuated to Seattle and the youngest sister Betty, graduated from high school in Seattle. - More...
Tuesday AM - December 12, 2006

Top Stories U.S. News U.S. Politics Alaska Ketchikan

Alaska: $50 Million Settlement in Securities Fraud Lawsuit Against America Online, Inc. and Time Warner Announced - The Alaska Department of Law has announced a $50 million settlement in a securities fraud action brought by the Alaska State Department of Revenue, Alaska State Pension Investment Board and Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation against defendants America Online, Inc. ("AOL"), Time Warner Inc. (formerly known as AOL Time Warner ("AOLTW")), Historic TW Inc.

"Protecting Alaska's financial assets is a key priority for the state and the corporate scandals on Wall Street in the past several few years required us to seek recovery of the millions of dollars the State of Alaska lost from its investment portfolios," said Patrick Galvin, Commissioner for the Department of Revenue. "Today's settlement represents a substantial recovery of those losses." - More...
Tuesday AM - December 12, 2006

National: Iraq report gives Bush a chance to change By CAROLYN LOCHHEAD - Much of Washington is looking at President Bush as a man standing on quicksand in Iraq, refusing the branch offered by his father's friend to save his presidency and the country from a historic blunder.

Bush looks at history, too. After the release of a grim assessment of the war by the Iraq Study Group, headed by James Baker, a close friend of Bush's father who served as secretary of state for President George H.W. Bush, and former Democratic Rep. Lee Hamilton, Bush conceded the need for tactical shifts, but he left it to those who follow him into the Oval Office to decide whether to leave Iraq.

"Will we have the resolve and confidence in liberty to prevail?" he asked. That question is "not going to face this government ... because we made up our mind. We've made that part clear. It'll face future governments. There will be future opportunities for people to say, 'Well, it's not worth it. Let's just retreat.' " - More...
Tuesday AM - December 12, 2006

National: Eat your vegetables - at your own risk By THOMAS HARGROVE - Fresh raw vegetables like lettuce, spinach, tomatoes and green onions were responsible for the illness or deaths of nearly 19,000 people nationwide over a five-year period.

Vegetables are nearly as dangerous as under-cooked meat when it comes to transmitting deadly food illnesses like E. coli, salmonella and hepatitis, according to a study of federal outbreak records by Scripps.

eef, chicken, pork and their byproducts were responsible for nearly 22,600 deaths or illnesses, according to the study of 6,374 outbreaks reported from Jan. 1, 2000 through Dec. 31, 2004.

No other foodstuff came close to the threats posed by vegetables and meats, the study found. Seafood like raw oysters and tuna was a distant third, causing fewer than 3,000 deaths or illnesses. - More...
Tuesday AM - December 12, 2006

National: Sizes of bills may change to help blind people By JUSTIN BERTON - After Frank Welte finished a tuna sandwich in a cafe, the 45-year-old blind man opened his wallet and approached the cashier with a twice-folded $20 bill. Welte, like most of the estimated 1 million legally blind Americans, resorts to a folded-bill system to distinguish denominations by touch: One dollar bills lie flat, fives get creased once, tens are folded lengthwise, and twenties get the twice-over.

"Money has a certain feel to it," Welte said outside the cafe as he thumbed the surface of a crisp greenback. "But all money, no matter how much it's worth, feels the same."

That's a problem that could change soon. The Treasury Department has until Tuesday to respond to a federal judge's ruling that would require the agency to reshape dollars to accommodate the nation's legally blind and an additional 2.3 million low-vision Americans. U.S. District Judge James Robertson agreed with lawyers from the advocacy group American Council of the Blind that the current universal shape for all bills - 6.14 inches by 2.61 inches - violates the federal Rehabilitation Act, which prohibits discrimination against the disabled. - More...
Tuesday AM - December 12, 2006

National: World's oldest person dies at age 116 By YOLANDA JONES - Elizabeth Bolden, the world's oldest person and the daughter of freed slaves, died Monday at the age of 116.

Bolden, who died in a nursing home, was the mother of seven children, 40 grandchildren, 75 great-grandchildren, 150 great-great grandchildren, 220 great-great-great grandchildren and 75 great-great-great-great grandchildren. She was born Elizabeth Jones on Aug. 15, 1890, and married Lewis Bolden around 1908.

Even though she was unable to communicate after a stroke in 2004, family members said in August at her 116th birthday party that she enjoyed her favorite treat - ice cream and cake. - More...
Tuesday AM - December 12, 2006

Health - Fitness: Teen abuse of cough medicines soars By SABIN RUSSELL - Abuse of common cough medications by teens has grown spectacularly in recent years, according to researchers, who found a 15-fold increase in calls to poison control centers since 1999 for teens made sick by overdosing on household drugs that can cause hallucinogenic highs.

The ingredient sought in the over-the-counter medications is dextromethorphan, or DXM, which comes in a wide variety of pills and syrups that researchers say are promoted by Web sites telling users how to take them recreationally.

In the teenage subculture of DXM abuse, the most common drug of choice is Coricidin HBP Cough & Cold tablets, which were implicated in two-thirds of the 1,382 calls to the California Poison Control System reviewed in the study. - More...
Tuesday AM - December 12, 2006

Viewpoints Opinions/Letters Basic Rules High Fuel Cost By Joseph J Chadwell - Tuesday AM The price of gas and public officials By Craig Moen- Tuesday AM Ketchikan Community Concert Band concert By Judith Green- Tuesday AM Army Recruitment Ad on Top of Alaska News Page? By Dan Mortenson- Tuesday AM Stopping abuse of any form. By Janelle Hamilton- Tuesday AM High Cost of Oil and Gas - Give us a break! By Janelle Hamilton - Saturday Outrageous Salaries! By Robert D. Warner - Saturday High cost of fuel By R.K. Rice - Saturday Christmas Lights Around Town By Diana Chaudhary - Saturday Ketchikan Lions Club By Jim Sundahl - Saturday Apology owed to NTVFD By Liz Hook - Saturday Will Ketchikan's gas prices ever go down? By Richard John Jr. - Saturday Ketchikan's high gas prices By Jon Van Essen - Saturday RE: House Approves Measure to Preserve WWII Internment Camps By Shirley A. Weiss - Saturday The Sam Pitcher Memorial Scholarship Concert By Judith Green - Thursday Senior center By Gretchen Klein - Thursday RE: Gas Prices By Jerilyn Lester - Thursday Thank you to those who serve By Anita Hales - Thursday About KPU giving Bad Service By Scott Willis - Thursday When do we get help!! By Laurie Price - Wednesday Gas prices By Chuck Moon - Wednesday More Viewpoints/ Letters Publish A Letter 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 December 2006 Archives Click on a date to view that front page. 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 31             More Front Page Archives

Preston MacDougall: Chemical Eye on Atoms on a Plane - How would you complete the following list: tinker, tailor, soldier, (blank)?

If you said "sailor", then you're either a natural-born poet, or, like me, you were exposed to quality, age-appropriate literature from the get-go.

If you thought "sailor", but said "spy" to sound more mature, then there are a few possibilities.

You could be a fan of John le Carré's spy novels, or you could be British and watched the acclaimed BBC series of mini-dramas with the so-completed list as its title. Or, you could be yet more like me, and Netflixed the entire DVD six-pack (including the follow-up series "Smiley's People") as an intelligent alternative to cable television that seems to have William Shatner on every channel. - More...
Tuesday AM - December 12, 2006

Tom Purcell: For the Contemporary American Male: Man Bag - Ah, yes, the gift-giving season. So what to get for the contemporary fellow who has everything? The Man Bag.

The Man Bag is a high-style satchel ­ a purse, though its creators hate when you call it that. It's designed to hold the modern man's wallet, keys, sunglasses, iPod, cell phone, body spray, hair goop, diary and whatever other junk he totes around these days.

Why was the Man Bag created? According to manbag.com, three fellows ­ Brian, Peter and Thai ­ "were tired of being ribbed for carrying their gadgets around in hand bags. The torment reached a boiling point one night when Thai was called a 'pursey' at a party."

That fellow who insulted him was lucky Thai didn't yet have a sturdy Man Bag to smack him with. - More...
Tuesday AM - December 12, 2006

Dale McFeatters: Congress departs in dark of night - Gridlock was good to Congress under the Republicans. With Democrat Bill Clinton in the White House, it produced such landmarks as the welfare reform act of 1996 and a string of budget surpluses.

But with a Republican president in the White House discipline began breaking down. The surpluses vanished, spending soared, traditional courtesies to the minority party were ignored and a series of ethics scandals culminated in the resignation of four Republican House members this year.

In November, the voters ended the Republicans control of Congress and maybe just in time. In 12 years of GOP control of the House and 10 of the Senate, the 109th that just adjourned was the worst yet.

Rep. David Obey, D-Wis., called it "the most useless Congress in modern times." That might be dismissed as partisan excess except that many Republicans share his assessment. - More...
Tuesday AM - December 12, 2006

Jay Ambrose: Technophobes and cell phones - Cell phones can ring annoyingly during speeches and cause people to drive like drunks, and there's more bad news on top of that for trial lawyers planning to siphon off some of the wireless industry's billions through liability lawsuits.

The fresh and persuasive evidence is that phones don't cause brain cancer.

Of course, most of the 219 million users in the United States will be happy to learn of a Danish study of 420,000 cell-phone customers who have been making and receiving calls on the instruments for as long as a decade with no above-average incidence of various kinds of tumors - brain, eye or salivary gland.

This was an exhaustive piece of work, vastly diminishing any credence of vaguely worrisome but far from thorough studies while buttressing a number of other studies finding no health peril or even a reason to suspect one. By the testimony of physicists, the frequencies of cell phones are simply incapable of the molecular damage alleged by alarmists.

But never mind the sound science, some lawyers have as much as said - and will likely still say - while pursuing lawsuits against cell-phone companies supposedly disguising the dangers of their products. The legal fights in progress - although shown to be laughable by the Danish scientists - will probably cost the companies enormous legal fees at a minimum, and may well drive up your cell-phone bills in the cause of rank injustice. - More...
Tuesday AM - December 12, 2006