44.0°

ACOA/CODA Meeting, Wed. and Fri., Noon-1 p.m., Northern Light United Church, 400 11th St; Sun. 11 a.m.-Noon, CBJ Assembly Chambers.

ACOA/CODA Meeting, Wed. and Fri., Noon-1 p.m., Northern Light United Church, 400 11th St; Sun. 11 a.m.-Noon, CBJ Assembly Chambers.

Ever wondered about someone you pass on the sidewalk, see in the grocery store, or heard mentioned in stories? This is our attempt to track those people down, and grill them, lightly.

JUNEAU

Navy Seaman Apprentice Amanda D. Johnson, a 2010 graduate of Ketchikan High School, Ketchikan, Alaska, was recently promoted to her current rank upon graduation from recruit training at Recruit Training Command, Great Lakes, Ill.

ACOA/CODA Meeting, Wed. and Fri., Noon-1 p.m., Northern Light United Church, 400 11th St; Sun. 11 a.m.-Noon, CBJ Assembly Chambers.

KETCHIKAN - In an effort to further enhance patient safety, Ketchikan Medical Center (KMC) will become the first hospital in the PeaceHealth system and the fourth facility in Alaska to implement the SurgiCount Safety-Sponge in its Operating and Delivery Rooms. The SurgiCount system provides a proven solution to prevent one of the most common surgical errors, retained medical devices. Without the system, sponges get left inside one patient in every 6,000 surgeries in the U.S.

ANGOON

ACOA/CODA Meeting, Wed. and Fri., Noon-1 p.m., Northern Light United Church, 400 11th St; Sun. 11 a.m.-Noon, CBJ Assembly Chambers.

ANGOON

ACOA/CODA Meeting, Wed. and Fri., Noon-1 p.m., Northern Light United Church, 400 11th St; Sun. 11 a.m.-Noon, CBJ Assembly Chambers.

She was always the first one in the pool. After receiving chemotherapy for leukemia, which she was diagnosed with when she was 13, she broke state records.

ANGOON

It's almost time to see couples wading down the streets of downtown Southeast Alaska towns, wearing matching safari clothes, holding large bright red bags stuffed with T-shirts, miniature totem poles, more T-shirts, boxes of fudge. They're herded onto buses weighted with cameras and brochures to places like the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center. The lucky, privileged or smart ones may opt for a more adventurous endeavor: Helicopter tours.

Many of my friends have stories of encounters with an octopus, that tentacle-legged mollusk of the seas.

Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska (Central Council) adjourned its 78th Annual Tribal Assembly on April 20, 2013 at the Elizabeth Peratrovich Hall in Juneau, Alaska.

ANGOON

ACOA/CODA Meeting, Wed. and Fri., Noon-1 p.m., Northern Light United Church, 400 11th St; Sun. 11 a.m.-Noon, CBJ Assembly Chambers.

She knows who you are - you went into labor on the deck, tossed into the drunk tank, smuggled a dog onto the solarium, travel to Kake every other week, eat more ketchup than fries. She knows about you, Lavina Sargent does. She knows because she worked as a purser for the Alaska Marine Highway System for close to three decades.

To the morning song of robins, daylight hours in Southeast Alaska are stretching to the cadence of spring and the pungent odor of budding skunk cabbage.

ANGOON

For the second year in a row, PeaceHealth Ketchikan Medical Center was named among the top Critical Access Hospitals in the nation, ranking in the top 2% of more than 1,300 hospitals. Ketchikan Medical Center is one of only two Alaskan hospitals to be among the Top 100 Critical Access Hospitals, which are considered the best rural hospitals; serving as safety-nets for their rural communities.

Four teachers from Southeast Alaska are among more than 30 Alaska teachers honored as 2013 BP Teachers of Excellence. The 18th Annual BP Teachers of Excellence program received nearly 1,400 nominations from across Alaska.

ACOA/CODA Meeting, Wed. and Fri., Noon-1 p.m., Northern Light United Church, 400 11th St; Sun. 11 a.m.-Noon, CBJ Assembly Chambers.

Getting dumped sucks. It's a personal insult, even if the dumper cares about the person he or she is dumping. The action says: "I don't like you. Well, not enough."

Mobile, Ala. - Emma Scott of Ketchikan was named the Distinguished Young Woman of Alaska and awarded $3,500 in cash scholarships during a statewide scholarship program for high school girls held at Ketchikan High School on March 23, in Ketchikan.

ACOA/CODA Meeting, Wed. and Fri., Noon-1 p.m., Northern Light United Church, 400 11th St; Sun. 11 a.m.-Noon, CBJ Assembly Chambers.

ANGOON

PATHSTAR members gave a keynote presentation at the American Indian Institute 12th Annual Native Women & Men's Wellness Conference (March 17-20) in San Diego, CA. The conference brought together health activists from over 75 tribal nations across the United States and Canada. PATHSTAR participants (l-r): Zolina Zizi (Cheyenne, Arikara, Creek), Richmond, CA., Wicahpiluta Calenderia (Rumsen Ohlone,/Apache), San Francisco, CA; Clarita Seludo (Ketchikan Indian Community, AK), Joey Cohen and Shelli Martinez, (Colville Confederated Tribes, WA); and PATHSTAR Director Nancy Iverson, San Francisco, CA. PATHSTAR works with Native American communities to encourage healthy nutrition and active lifestyle practices.

ACOA/CODA Meeting, Wed. and Fri., Noon-1 p.m., Northern Light United Church, 400 11th St; Sun. 11 a.m.-Noon, CBJ Assembly Chambers.

ANGOON

Five Alaska Territorial Guard heroes were honored in Ketchikan March 5 and were given their official U.S. Army honorable discharge certificates, nearly 70 years after their admirable service in defending Alaska during World War II.

Are you ready for a week of folk music - from near and far - to tango with your ears?

ACOA/CODA Meeting, Wed. and Fri., Noon-1 p.m., Northern Light United Church, 400 11th St; Sun. 11 a.m.-Noon, CBJ Assembly Chambers.

ANGOON

The U.S. Forest Service announced recently it would partner with Oregon State University and Sealaska to plant experimental plots in Southeast Alaska. Red and yellow cedar seedlings will be planted between Connell and Harriett Hunt Lake near Ketchikan. Some seedlings will also go to Prince of Wales Island. These four-inch to two-feet tall seedlings will be planted in areas recently harvested. The experiments are to determine how to prevent deer browsing from killing young trees.

ACOA/CODA Meeting, Wed. and Fri., Noon-1 p.m., Northern Light United Church, 400 11th St; Sun. 11 a.m.-Noon, CBJ Assembly Chambers.

ANGOON

KETCHIKAN - As part of a plan to transition from old-growth to young-growth harvest, the Tongass National Forest is offering profitable young-growth sales as they become available. The Dargon Point project, the most recent young-growth project on the Forest, will provide timber to the current Southeast Alaska timber industry.

The Alaska State Council on the Arts and the Juneau Arts & Humanities Council announce the state finals for Poetry Out Loud: National Recitation Contest. The competition, presented in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation, is part of a national program that encourages high school students to learn about great poetry through memorization, performance, and competition. On March 19, at 5 p.m., 10 high school students from around the state, will participate in the Poetry Out Loud state finals at the Juneau Arts & Culture Center.

ANGOON

ACOA/CODA Meeting, Wed. and Fri., Noon-1 p.m., Northern Light United Church, 400 11th St; Sun. 11 a.m.-Noon, CBJ Assembly Chambers.

It is difficult, when standing on the Ketchikan Creek bridge overlooking Thomas Basin, to see the actual "mouth" of this creek. In the mid-1880s, when vast numbers of pink salmon returned there, they swarmed up a stream that rushed across an extensive tide flat extending over what is today Thomas Basin. Over the years the basin was dredged and much of the Federal building site and the building west of the basin are built on fill that now covers the tide flats.

ANGOON

Five years ago next week, I stepped off the ferry and onto Alaskan soil for the first time. I sincerely hoped it was the right decision.

Five years ago next week, I stepped off the ferry and onto Alaskan soil for the first time. I sincerely hoped it was the right decision.

ACOA/CODA Meeting, Wed. and Fri., Noon-1 p.m., Northern Light United Church, 400 11th St; Sun. 11 a.m.-Noon, CBJ Assembly Chambers.

Do you have a favorite Alaska artist who deserves recognition, or are you one yourself? Now is the time to submit nominations for Rasmuson Foundation's 2013 Distinguished Artist Award.

ANGOON

Three little birds. Bra-stache. Old Money Bags. What in the world is on your bra?

Roller Derby is taking off in Southeast Alaska - so don't be surprised if there's a run on booty shorts, crazy socks and stockings, and wild make up in your town.

ACOA/CODA Meeting, Wed. and Fri., Noon-1 p.m., Northern Light United Church, 400 11th St; Sun. 11 a.m.-Noon, CBJ Assembly Chambers.

This was a photograph of the Clark and Martin saltery! Huddled over a desk in the National Archives building outside of Washington D.C., I was pouring over a dusty, original manuscript written by Jefferson Moser. This Naval captain, commanding the U.S. Fish Commission's steamer ALBATROSS, had undoubtedly proof-read these very pages about his voyage to Alaska in 1897.

Elizabeth Peratrovich is the face behind the civil rights movement in Alaska. Strong. Beautiful. Visionary.

ANGOON

ACOA/CODA Meeting, Wed. and Fri., Noon-1 p.m., Northern Light United Church, 400 11th St; Sun. 11 a.m.-Noon, CBJ Assembly Chambers.

ACOA/CODA Meeting, Wed. and Fri., Noon-1 p.m., Northern Light United Church, 400 11th St; Sun. 11 a.m.-Noon, CBJ Assembly Chambers.

ANGOON

Speculating as I search the forest for artifacts at an abandoned place is a special treat for me. What was this piece of equipment used for? Why are those fragments of pottery at this spot? Was it a home or a bunkhouse? Instead, did a workman drop a cup or a plate under the boardwalk? What was built on these pilings?

The steam freighter "Edith" in 1915 headed to Southeast Alaska to begin the salvage on the steamer "Ramona" at the Spanish Islands, the "Olympia" in Prince William Sound, and possibly help with the salvage of the freighter "Delhi" on Straits Island. Before she was rigged to do such work, she started life as a yacht built in San Francisco in 1882. After that she changed hands so often that no one attempted to recall the owners. She was rebuilt so often she no longer resembled the palatial yacht.

ANGOON

ACOA/CODA Meeting, Wed. and Fri., Noon-1 p.m., Northern Light United Church, 400 11th St; Sun. 11 a.m.-Noon, CBJ Assembly Chambers.

ANGOON

ACOA/CODA Meeting, Wed. and Fri., Noon-1 p.m., Northern Light United Church, 400 11th St; Sun. 11 a.m.-Noon, CBJ Assembly Chambers.

The 7.5 earthquake on Jan. 5 of this year caused quite a commotion, with people waking in moving beds and sounds of things falling, rooms seeming to sway. Although Craig was the nearest to the quake off-shore, in Southeast it was Wrangell that took the brunt of the damage. People who subscribe to GCI's services lost their internet, telephone and television. The fiber optic cables, that made those services possible, had broken. Rumors flew around town. GCI funded free videos at City Market. What about all those football fans and the playoff games? Bars opened to provide coverage. Friends joined friends with alternate TV providers for the collegiate playoffs.