January 19, 2004
photo by Carl Thompson
America: Today, the
nation pauses to honor Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. - born on January
15, 1929, and assassinated April 4, 1968. The holiday marks King's
fight for equality for everyone through nonviolent means. His
hopes for America's future were embodied in his famous "I
have a dream" speech in Washington, D.C. His dream was that
the national creed - that all are created equal - would become
reality. Today, America's diverse population continues to work
toward that dream, including 230-million whites, 36-million African
Americans, 11-million Asians and nearly 3-million American Indians
and Alaska natives. About 37- million of the U.S. population
are of Hispanic origin. You can find these and more facts about
America from the U.S. Census
Luther King, Jr. Day - In proclaiming Monday, January 19th
as Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, President George W. Bush said,
"On the Martin Luther King, Jr., Federal Holiday, our Nation
honors an American who dedicated his life to the fundamental
principles of freedom, opportunity, and equal justice for all.
Today, all Americans benefit from Dr. King's work and his legacy
of courage, dignity, and moral clarity."
The President said, "Forty
years ago this past August, on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial,
Dr. King spoke passionately of his dream for America. He dreamed
of an America where all citizens would be judged by the content
of their character and not by the color of their skin. He dreamed
of an America where all would enjoy the riches of freedom and
the security of justice. He dreamed of an America where the doors
of opportunity would be open to all of God's children."
Monday - January 19, 2004 - 12:15 am
People of Ketchikan
Ketchikan High School's Winter
Ball was held this past weekend. Pictured are Ketchikan High
School Junior Lan Sivertsen & his date, Victoria Pilcher.
Photo by Gigi Pilcher
Alaska Science: On
the Track of the Wolverine - Skiing on a remote river,
I saw a hairy creature trotting toward me. When the wolverine
spotted me, it popped up in the air like an antelope, landed
like a cat, and bounced away into the high country of the Wrangell
Nicknamed the devil bear, woods
devil or carcajou, the wolverine has a Latin name, Gulo gulo,
that means "glutton." The few biologists who have studied
wolverines in Alaska say wolverines don't deserve that label.
animals, with a lot of perseverance. They're on the go all the
time," said biologist Audrey Magoun, who studied wolverines
in the Brooks Range for her 1985 Ph.D. thesis at the University
of Alaska. "Wolverines have a weasel personality, only they're
about 30 times bigger." Magoun said she loves to study wolverines
because so little is known about them. Legends of wolverines
wrecking traps and trashing cabins are common, she said, but
the actual events are rare because wolverines numbers are low,
and they avoid people.
Craig Gardner, an Alaska Department
of Fish and Game biologist in Tok who did graduate research on
wolverines, found that only about five wolverines roamed every
thousand square kilometers in southcentral Alaska where he did
his research. "Take the wolf numbers in that area and divide
by five, and you've got a pretty good estimate of the number
of wolverines," he said. - Read
Monday - January 19, 2004 - 12:15 am
June Allen Column
Ketchikan's Volunteer Legacy; Buckets to hydrants
circa 1905 - Photographer:
Donor: Bertha Hunt Wells,
Courtesy Tongass Historical Society
A fire department in any community, large or small,
commands citizen respect. When fire sirens blare, traffic obediently
tries to pull over and people hold their breaths - hoping it's
not their house, their business, their school or anyone they
know. Fire has been a frightening scourge in history from Nero
in Rome to Chicago's Mrs. O'Leary to Ketchikan's Bill Mitchell.
As new American communities sprang up in the "Go west, young
man" spirit of the nineteenth century, one of the first
things responsible pioneers did was establish fire departments.
When the westward-ho movement reached the Pacific coast and the
settlement-surge angled north, fire departments were among the
very first organizations founded in Alaska. - Read
the rest of this story...
Thursday - January 15, 2004 - 12:50 am
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