Tongass Sunrise
Front Page Feature Photo By RACHELLE SPEIGHTS ©2016

Photo of the Month Ketchikan: Public Meetings Ketchikan: Upcoming Events Historical Ketchikan June Allen Dave Kiffer Louise B. Harrington Ketchikan Weather Ketchikan's Forecast Ketchikan's Historic Weather Nat Weather Service KTN Ketchikan Tides & Currents Search the News Ketchikan Alaska Sitnews RSS widget

Ketchikan: PeaceHealth Ketchikan Medical Center welcomes new General Surgeon - Julie A. Conyers, MD, has joined PeaceHealth Medical Group's General Surgery at PeaceHealth Ketchikan Medical Center. A general surgeon with more than 20-years’ experience, Dr. Conyers says she chose to specialize in general surgery after she “fell in love with it” during her third year of residency. Her practice encompasses a wide range of procedures but she has particular expertise in advanced laparoscopic procedures for breast cancer surgery.

Dr. Julie Conyers, General Surgeon, PeaceHealth Medical Group - Ketchikan, Alaska

“Working with patients to together make the best decisions about their care,” is Dr. Conyers’ philosophy and she “looks forward to meeting other providers in the community and getting to know them as they entrust their patients to my care.”

Dr. Conyers most recently served as vice chief of staff for Tahoe Forest Multispecialty Clinic in Truckee California. She was also in private practice in California, Idaho, and Colorado and was Chief of Surgery at Saint Luke’s McCall Hospital in McCall, Idaho.

Dr. Conyers received her undergraduate degree from Colorado State University in Fort Collins and her medical degree from the University of Colorado, School of Medicine in Denver. She also completed her residency in Denver at Exempla Saint Joseph Hospital where she was named Most Outstanding Intern. - More...
Thursday AM - December 08, 2016

Alaska: Legislation Prefiled to Enshrine Permanent Fund Dividends in the Alaska Constitution - Senator Bill Wielechowski (D-Anchorage) has pre-filed a bill in advance of the 30th Alaska legislative session which would allow Alaskans a vote to safeguard the Permanent Fund Dividend (PFD) in the state’s constitution. The principal or “corpus” of the fund is already constitutionally protected and cannot be spent. However, the earnings of the fund can be appropriated by the legislature for any purpose. Sen. Wielechowski’s bill would not preclude the use of the earnings reserve of the Permanent Fund by the legislature, but would require PFD checks to be paid first, utilizing the current formula and ensuring that the full dividend gets paid out every year.

“Article 8 of the Constitution already states that development of our common resources must be ‘for the maximum benefit of the people,’” said Wielechowski. “The vast majority of our resource wealth already goes to the government to spend as it wishes. This simply gives Alaskans the ability to ensure that we and future generations will always receive a small part of the benefits from our resources.”

This will be the third time that Sen. Wielechowski has proposed a bill to constitutionally protect the Permanent Fund Dividend. In 2013, SJR13 was referred to the State Affairs Committee but never received a hearing. Last session, SJR1 passed through the Senate State Affairs Committee, but stalled in the Senate Judiciary Committee where it died at the end of the 29th legislative session last spring. - More...
Thursday AM - December 08, 2016

Alaska Science: Alaska's birds have amazing set of winter survival tricks By NED ROZELL - Biologist Susan Sharbaugh, formerly of the Alaska Bird Observatory, once spoke about the strategies birds employ to survive in our season of darkness and cold. She talked about the flighty birds that split, and the hardy few that stay. I thought I knew something about birds, but she kept delivering facts that were new to me. Among them:

A common redpoll on a 40-below day in Fairbanks
Photograph by Ned Rozell

Arctic terns, those of the 25,000-mile annual migration from Antarctica to the Arctic and back, can live 35 years.

Northern wheatears spend their summers with musk oxen and their winters with zebras.

Blackpoll warblers fly from Eastern Canada to South America without stopping.

One of the many tools birds use to migrate — besides the metal bits in their heads that help them sense Earth's magnetism — is their ability to use infrasound. Infrasound consists of frequencies too low for us to hear. The aurora, volcanoes, underground nuclear detonations and stormy seas emit infrasound waves.

"Birds flying over the Rockies can hear the surf of both the Atlantic and Pacific," Sharbaugh said.

Sunlight can penetrate birds' skulls and help calibrate their internal clocks.

Migrating birds are born with an internal compass and a direction in which they have an urge to fly. "That arctic warbler nestling is going to fly from Tangle Lakes to the Philippines by itself."

Alaska blackcap chickadees are larger than the same species in the Lower 48. "We have Boone and Crockett chickadees," Sharbaugh said. "Chickadees here are about 12 grams; in Seattle they're 8 grams."

Alaska chickadees have more feathers than Lower 48 chickadees.

Unlike chickadees farther south, Alaska chickadees have a more elaborate feather structure, with "extra little hooks that grasp together and hold more air." - More...
Thursday AM - December 08, 2016

Columns - Commentary

One of many memorable things about Mr. Foster was that, as a 19-year-old from the hills of Tennessee, he was at Pearl Harbor during the Japanese sneak attack.

December 7 marks three-quarters of a century since that attack, and I have to wonder if we truly remember the lessons of the tragedy.

We pay lip service to military preparedness and diplomatic solutions; but in a million ways large and small, America remains an accident waiting to happen.

In a world of widely shared personal data, porous borders, massive power grids and the Internet of Things, there is no room for complacency.

Young and old, public and private sector, management and labor ---- we're all flirting with disaster.

We hear of product recalls with mind-numbing frequency. High government officials are accused of "extreme carelessness" with state secrets. Restaurants are at the center of epidemic outbreaks. Suicide prevention hotlines for veterans go unmanned. Anthrax samples are shipped to labs haphazardly. Economic bubbles are treated as if they'll never burst. People giving off warning signs are allowed to "go postal" in the workplace.

Yes, "stuff happens." But lightning strikes, earthquakes and other so-called "acts of God" are only part of the problem we face.

Negligence, incompetence, laziness, denial, unpreparedness and other factors exacerbate potential crises.

Kicking the can down the road, passing the buck, taking shortcuts, engaging in juvenile jurisdictional wrangling, administering wrist-slap punishments and carrying on Ol' Boy Network shenanigans all make our infrastructure, food supply and identities a little more vulnerable. - More...
Thursday AM - December 08, 2016