Dave Kiffer - Alaskan Poet, Historian, Humorist

  Ticking, but not kicking, the bucket! Some people will go to great lengths to cross things off their bucket lists. We all have bucket lists, you know, things we want to do before we actually "kick the bucket." As I get older - and find myself kicking a lot more things, especially in hallway in the dark - I realize that I will never stand on top of Mount Everest. I will not likely make it to the South Pole. I probably won't drink a papa doble in the El Floridita in Havana. I will not win the Nobel Prize in Literature. Nor will I even win that lottery that's gonna change my life and that of every third, fourth, fifth and sixth cousin that I have never met. But recently, I did manage to check two lesser things off my bucket list. For many years - well my whole life I suppose - I have wanted to take an airplane trip and be comfortable the whole way. No danged unpleasant airplane seats. I have been...

  By Dave Kiffer For the Daily News Twenty-five years ago, the community of Ketchikan received one of the worst economic blows in its history when the Ketchikan Pulp Company announced the closure of the Ward Cove pulp mill that had dominated the local economy for more than four decades. The announcement, on March 25, 1997, was a not a complete surprise. The Southeast Alaska timber industry had been retrenching for more than a decade and the closure of the Alaska Pulp Corporation mill in Sitka had already occurred in 1993. But the severity of the blow, which caused the evaporation of hundreds of direct and indirect jobs, sent the community into an economic downturn that lasted for a decade and caused the school district student population to permanently shrink by nearly 25 percent. The financial and political realities of operating a large pulp mill in the Tongass National Forest had changed in the 1980s and 1990s. Louisiana Pacific, the owner of the mill, estimated it was facing mo...

  80 years ago local Japanese families Were sent to internment camps Ohashi s were one family that came back Eighty years ago, President Franklin Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066, which led to the imprisonment of more than 100,000 Japanese Americans during World War II. The February 19, 1942 decree was put in place because of concerns that first and second-generation Japanese-Americans would have divided loyalties during the War, even though there was little evidence at the time to support those concerns. In 1976, the United States government formally apologized for the internment and in 1986, it authorized payments to the surviving Japanese Americans. More than 50 Japanese residents in Ketchikan were swept up in the internment, including the Ohashi family,. The Ohashi 's had first come to Ketchikan in 1900.  Jasmatsu "George" Ohashi was from Kawanoishi, Ehime-ken on Shikoku Island and he came to Alaska to t...

  By Dave Kiffer For the Daily News A nearly 70-year chapter in Ketchikan history is coming to an end in the next couple of weeks, when Roland and Alaire   Stanton   move South. The former city mayor and her husband, a former Borough Assemblymember, are relocating to Lacey, Washington, a community just each of Olympia. The   Stanton 's chose Lacey because they have relatives in the area. Alaire was born on October 15, 1935 in Edmonton Alberta. Her father, a Baptist minister, tried to join the Canadian army in 1941, and was denied, so the family first moved to Idaho, Alaire said last week.   In Idaho, Alaire remembers delivering religious materials to the Minidoka Japanese internment camp, the same camp that many of the Japanese from Ketchikan were interned.   By 1943, the family was in Seattle and her father was the minister of the West Seattle Baptist Church. She graduated from West Seattle High Schoo...

  SOUTHEAST LOG 2-26-22 Still champs! SITKA - The Sitka High school drama, debate and forensics team has defended its state Division II title. Coach Christian Litten was named coach of the year and senior Darby Osborne was student of the year. THE DAILY SITKA SENTINEL More memes in more places COFFMAN COVE - High speed internet should arrive in Coffman Cove and Kasaan next year after a fiber optic cable is installed between Coffman Cove and Juneau next fall. The 214-mile cable will take about a month to lay, according to AP&T. THE PRINCE OF WALES ISLAND POST Principals return WRANGELL - The school district says it plans to go back to having principals at elementary and secondary schools rather than the "lead teachers" it has this year. The positions will be paid from federal grant money. THE WRANGELL SENTINEL Storm research facility funded TERRACE -The University of Northern British Columbia Terrace campus has r...

  SOUTHEAST LOG 2 -19- 2 2 Movie casting locals PRINCE RUPERT - Production will start in late March for the movie "Island Between Tides." Locals are being cast this week for roles in the "gothic fantasy" based on a story written by  Peter Pan author J.M. Barrie. THE PRINCE RUPERT NORTHERN VIEW Yurts limited HAINES - Housing is an issue but the borough assembly says it won't be fixed by adding lots of yurts and container homes. They will be allowed in some parts of the community, but not borough wide. THE CHILKART VALLEY NEWS No police department study PETERSBURG - The borough assembly will not commission a new study to determine why the police department is having trouble retaining officers and dispatchers. Assemblymembers noted there are challenges but felt that borough staff could provide information the assembly needs without a study. THE PETERSBURG PILOT Local adminstrator honored SKAGWAY -Sara Kinjo-Hischer, tribal administrator for Skagway T...

  SOUTHEAST LOG 2 -12- 2 2 Booster shots lagging PRINCE RUPERT - Health officials say that more than 90 new cases of COVID were recorded in the community last week. They say that the good thing is that they are leading to few hospitalizations, but the bad news is that residents are not getting the vaccine booster shots in high enough numbers to lower the overall case count. THE PRINCE RUPERT NORTHERN VIEW Man convicted of murder YAKUTAT - A Juneau jury has convicted of John Stapleton, 50, of the second-degree murder of John Fergerson, 61, in October of 2 018. Fergerson was stabbed to death. Prosecutors had sought a first-degree murder conviction. THE JUNEAU EMPIRE Glug, glug, glug HAINES - Beerfest is back on. The popular event - which had 1.900 participants in 2 019 - will be held at the Southeast Alaska State Fair Grounds in May. THE CHILKAT VALLEY NEWS Elvis will be in the building(s)! TERRACE - A genuine Canadian sports star will be visiting the area in March. Two-ti...