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The 68th Annual Invitational Gold Medal Basketball Tournament will be held March 16-22, 2014 at the Juneau-Douglas High School gym. Player divisions for the 68th tournament will be “B”, “C”, and “Masters.” Any team that wishes to be considered for sending a B, C, or Masters Team should send a letter or an email that states the community they represent, division they desire to play, name of the team, and the name of one individual who will be the team point-of-contact. The Juneau Lions Club is asking for separate ‘Letters of Interest’ for...
WRANGELL — The two-day Southeast Alaska Power Agency board meeting became in part a prism through which to view debate over the future of the Thomas Bay Power Authority. The TBPA debate has raised hackles both with SEAPA CEO Trey Acteson and board members, particularly the amount of misinformation SEAPA officials claim was circulated during a Sept. 24 meeting of the Wrangell Borough Assembly. Nor are factual inaccuracies limited to that assembly meeting, officials say. They cited a letter from Ketchikan Public Utilities to the Mayor, i...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — Alaska’s multimillion-dollar red king crab season opened Tuesday, but most of the participating boats remained at dock because federal managers who are supposed to set individual fishing quotas are among workers still furloughed in the government’s partial shutdown. Only boats representing a tiny fraction of the total harvest will be heading out into the Bering Sea. For that community development program, quotas are assigned by the state, with only seven vessels signed up to fish as of Tuesday. Crabbers in the much large...
SITKA (AP) — The commander of the Coast Guard vessel Maple in Southeast Alaska has been temporarily removed from command because of a “lack of confidence,” an agency spokesman said. Lt. Cmdr. Fred Seaton was removed Oct. 1 after officials received reports of problems on board, KCAW reported Monday. Seaton has served as commander of the Sitka-based cutter since June 2012. Coast Guard spokesman Kip Wadlow said the agency began an investigation last month following reports of a “poor command climate.” While the investigation continues, prelimina...
HONOLULU (AP) — Humpback whales have begun arriving in Hawaii waters for mating season. The Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported Monday that two whales were spotted Oct. 4 off Maui and two more were sighted last week. The first whales were reported by crew from a sailing charter and from a Pacific Whale Foundation vessel. Melissa Glennon, spokeswoman for Kai Kanani Sailing Charters, said one of the Oct. 4 sightings was of a young whale. She said crew members and passengers saw a couple of spouts from the mammal before it did a fluke-up dive, s...
WRANGELL — Local U.S. Forest Service employees express frustration with the ongoing government shutdown this week. The Wrangell Unit of the Tongass National Forest has been closed for 15 days following negotiations between the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives and the Democrat-controlled U.S. Senate Oct. 1. The office’s 28 employees have been instructed call a 1-800 phone number each day to determine whether the office will be reopened, according to Forest Service Ranger Bob Dalrymple. Dalrymple himself and one other per...
WRANGELL — Wrangell voters insurmountably rejected a proposal to lower the sales tax, retained their sitting mayor, and removed one member of the assembly in municipal elections Tuesday, officials said. The unofficial results, read aloud shortly after the polls closed at 8 pm, put the vote tally for the contentious tax proposal at 451 votes against lowering taxes from 7 percent to 5.5 percent, and 172 votes in favor of the change. Sitting mayor David Jack tallied 455 votes while Kipha Valvoda sc...
This summer’s warmer than average temperatures could carry over into the winter if current climate trends continue. Two main factors affect winter weather in Southeast Alaska—the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, or PDO, and the El Nino/La Nina Oscillations or ENSO. Each factor has two phases—positive and negative and both affect sea surface water temperatures. The positive PDO phase happens when increased storm activity in the north Pacific blows warmer water into the Gulf of Alaska and raises the average sea surface temperatures. The winds also...
The Petersburg based commercial gillnet vessel Shelo caught fire on September 3 and was recently salvaged in Ketchikan. The incident happened in Nakat Inlet. Ryan Erikson, Chief of Incident Management for the U.S. Coast Guard, said the coast guard wasn’t notified until after the fact. “We know that it did catch fire and caught fire very rapidly,” Erikson said. “It pretty much burned itself out.” Erikson said a Good Samaritan vessel assisted the Shelo crew. The Coast Guard arrived on the site about a week later to observe the scene. Erickson...
WRANGELL — A proposed 1.5 percent sales tax cut in the City and Borough of Wrangell has split the community ahead of an Oct. 1 vote. The borough administration sent out an informational flyer this week outlining the details of cuts approved with the budget May 28, sparking at least one accusation of advocacy against the cuts. Business owners and citizens have taken out an advertisement against the reduction in the Sentinel. Assembly members and citizens have spilled ink for and against the proposal in letters to the editor. The proposal’s autho...
NORMANBY ISLAND, Papua New Guinea (AP) — Katharina Fabricius plunged from a dive boat into the Pacific Ocean of tomorrow. A bleak portrait emerged: Instead of tiered jungles of branching, leafy corals, Fabricius saw mud, stubby spires and squat boulder corals. Snails and clams were mostly gone, as were worms, colorful sea squirts and ornate feather stars. Instead of a brilliant coral reef like the one living a few hundred yards away, what the Australian Institute of Marine Sciences ecologist found resembled a slimy lake bottom. The cause: c...
ANCHORAGE (AP) — On Friday evening, after all the human patients were finished for the day at the Alaska Spine Institute’s imaging center, a dead killer whale calf underwent a CT scan and an MRI. The whale offered a rare opportunity for extensive study, both because of the small size and good condition. “It’s very sad when a baby whale dies, but the amount of scientific information we are going to be able to get over the next 24 hours is going to be tremendous,” said Judy St. Leger, director of pathology and research for SeaWorld who has studi...
ANCHORAGE AP) — The commercial salmon catch in Alaska reached a record 260 million for the 2013 season as of last week, up from 221 million in 2005, officials said. During the last week of August, commercial fishermen netted about 24 million salmon, according to a state Fish and Game Department estimate. Much of this year's catch came from Southeast Alaska, with 98.4 million salmon, most of them pinks, the Alaska Journal of Commerce reported. Statewide, the harvest of 209.5 million pinks nearly doubled the state's forecast of 117.8 million. I... Full story
JUNEAU (AP) — The U.S. Forest Service plans to take a portion of the timber payments it has promised or paid out to 22 states, citing federal budget cuts. Collection letters from Forest Service Chief Thomas Tidwell went out to governors around the country Monday, saying money would be taken from funds used for habitat improvement and other national forest-related projects that put people to work under the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act. Oregon stands to lose the most in the move, with nearly $4 million in reductions....
JUNEAU (AP) — A drive-up coffee stand near Juneau's airport was robbed by an armed man. Juneau police say the man at about 10 a.m. Monday walked into the Heritage Coffee stand, demanded money, flashed a weapon and left with cash. A 29-year-old woman and a 22-year-old man were in the stand when it was robbed. The Juneau Empire reports police responded within five minutes of a call reporting the incident but could not find a suspect. Police spokeswoman Erann Kalwara says the suspect was a white man in his early to mid-20s. He was skinny, b...
KODIAK (AP) — A Kodiak woman is leading a study to find out why Alaskans love salmon. The Salmon Project, still in an exploratory phase, aims to find out about the deep connections Alaskans have with wild salmon. “We wanted to understand how it relates to people's lives and what values were associated with salmon fishing, salmon viewing or salmon eating,'' project organizer Erin Harrington said. Harrington is leading the investigation to figure out whether Alaskans are interested in being united in talking about salmon and whether or not a sha...
JUNEAU (AP) — Juneau police say a 35-foot whale-watching boat was taken out for an unauthorized spin over the weekend. Witnesses called police at 2:22 a.m. Saturday after seeing two intoxicated people stumble down a dock and get on board the K'eet, a vessel used by Juneau Whale Watching. Witnesses also say the vessel was doing “doughnuts” in Auke Bay. Coast Guardsmen responded and took control of the boat. The boarding crew described the man and woman as drunk and naked. Police say 27-year-old Joshua Carrieri, a crewman on the vessel, was c...
The Alaska Department of Fish and Game (ADF&G) will be conducting a Bowhunter Education Course if enough individuals are interested in taking the course. An NBEF/IBEP bowhunter certificate is required in Alaska to hunt in “Bowhunting Only” areas of the state. The Alaska Bowhunter education program meets the National Bowhunter Education Foundation, (NBEF) and International Bowhunter Education Program, (IBEP) certification requirements. For information contact Dan McMahon at 772-3584....
August 31, 1983 – Construction of the new harbor office will be subsidized with $60,000 from the Phase III construction funds for the new boat harbor, according to Harbormaster Jim Stromdahl. Harbormaster Stromdahl said the New Harbor project will not be hurt if the $60,000 is removed. The additional funds became necessary when the low bid came in at $122, 990 over the architect's estimate of $238,240. The difference was made up by the state Department of Transportation transferring $60,000 of the $1.9 million set aside for Phase III of the S...
KAKE (AP) — The southeast Alaska community of Kake is trying to save its historic Keku Cannery. The cannery was named one of the nation's most endangered historic places earlier this year by the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Gary Williams, the executive director of the Organized Village of Kake, fears the run-down building will collapse. He said if it comes down, it would be a disaster, with asbestos getting into clam beds and affecting subsistence fishing. Williams recently guided some visitors — including a representative for Sen...
It was during a typical cold Southeast Alaskan November day in 1968 when Felix Villarma tied his 20-foot wooden scow onto a Kadin Island beach. He was in a draw and nearing the top of a mountain, sneaking through the foliage and the rain, when he saw a doe about 100 yards away. “I watched her watch me, then all of the sudden this big buck walked right next to her and looked down the mountain at me,” Villarma said. “I put my 270 to my shoulder and had it in my crosshairs, aimed for the neck...
KETCHIKAN (AP) — Mitt Romney spent some time in southeast Alaska fishing for trout and chatting up his fishing guide. The Ketchikan Daily News reports the 2012 Republican presidential nominee didn't catch any fish. But his fishing guide, Tom Skultka, says Romney had a good time and “was pretty talkative.” Skultka says he picked up Romney, four friends and a bodyguard from a yacht outside the town of Petersburg last week. The party first flew in a small plane over the LeConte Glacier, then to Secret Lake on Prince of Wales Island, where they...
JUNEAU (AP) — Celebrity Cruises announced Tuesday it was cancelling the remainder of a seven-night cruise to Alaska, plus four additional cruises, after mechanical issues forced a ship carrying more than 3,100 passengers and crew members to return to port in Ketchikan. The cruise line said in a statement that passengers on the current cruise on its Millennium ship would receive refunds of their cruise fares and chartered air travel home. It also said it was offering future cruise certificates for 100 percent of the fare paid for this cruise. T...
Three crewmembers of the 75-foot tender Pacific Queen are safe after they abandoned ship when the vessel began experiencing uncontrollable flooding early Wednesday morning near Lung Island. John Klingenberg, U.S. Coast Guard Public Affairs Specialist, said the crew issued an Urgent Marine Information Broadcast, or UMIB, which is a location signal that makes mariners in the area aware of the situation. The crew then loaded aboard a life raft. Another vessel eventually arrived at the scene. Klingenberg said the Windham Bay rescued the Pacific... Full story
Petersburg Mayor Mark Jensen wrote a letter to Senator Mark Begich on behalf of the borough reinforcing the need for the U.S. Coast Guard’s ANACAPA’s continued operation. This after the USCGC announced its plan for phasing out of 110-foot vessels like the ANACAPA in favor of new 154-foot fast response cutters, or FRC. Plans call for the purchase of 58 FRCs during the next several years. Jensen’s letter asked questions regarding how much longer the ANACAPA would remain in Petersburg and wheth...
