The Alaska Department of Fish and Game announced Wednesday that the bag and possession limit for king salmon in two Ketchikan sport fishery areas is six salmon of any size, effective Saturday through July 31.

Due to higher projected returns, a surplus of hatchery fish is available for harvest by sports fishermen. King salmon caught in the designated harvest areas by nonresidents do not count toward the nonresident annual limit.

The first terminal sport fishery area includes the waters of Nichols Passage north of the latitude of Driest Point; in Revillagigedo Channel north of the latitude of Harbor Point; and, in Tongass Narrows south of the latitude of Lewis Reef light.

The second terminal sport fishery area is designated as Neets Bay east of the longitude of the easternmost tip of Bug Island.

Anglers should note that regional king salmon bag and possession limits outside of the designated areas are more restrictive.

For more information, contact the Ketchikan Alaska Department of Fish and Game, Division of Sport Fish office at 225-2859.

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Sitka Summer Music Festival artistic director, Zuill Bailey, and executive director Kayla Boettcher discuss the 2013 season. Visit the Sitka Summer Music Festival online for full details.

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Coast Guard crash survivor removed from promotions list. Sealaska sells global logistics business. Forest Service chief encounters push back after asking for return of SRS funding.

ANCHORAGE — A colossal river ice jam that caused major flooding in a remote Alaska town was starting to churn Wednesday as water finally chewed ice chunks away from the stubborn, frozen mass after most of the residents were forced to flee from the rising water.

An aerial survey Wednesday afternoon revealed chunks of ice have broken off at the front of the 30-mile ice jam on the Yukon River, National Weather Service hydrologist Ed Plumb said. That means the jam will move soon and waters will begin to recede in the waterlogged town of Galena, 20 miles upriver.

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ANCHORAGE — The Coast Guard captain for the port for western Alaska testified Wednesday that conversations with representatives of Royal Dutch Shell PLC and its contractors gave him confidence that the companies could successfully tow a circular drill rig through Gulf of Alaska waters to Seattle.

However, the Kulluk on Dec. 31 ran aground off a remote Alaska island, and in hindsight, Capt. Paul Mahler said, he wished he had ordered inspections of the drill rig’s tow ship.

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JUNEAU — The sole survivor of a deadly 2010 Coast Guard helicopter crash has been removed from the promotion list, a decision his attorney said could end Lt. Lance Leone’s military career.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano last week agreed with the findings of a special board in removing Leone from the list.

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BEIJING — The mother of the Chinese newborn trapped in a sewer pipe in a stunning ordeal caught on video had raised the initial alarm and was present for the entire two-hour rescue but did not admit giving birth until confronted by police, reports said Wednesday.

The state-run, Hangzhou-based newspaper Dushikuaibao said police became suspicious when they found baby toys and blood-stained toilet paper in the 22-year-old woman’s rented room in the building where Saturday’s rescue occurred in eastern China.

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KCAW 2012-13 Post-Graduate Fellow Anne Brice, with reporter Ed Ronco.

Anne Brice, Raven Radio’s first Post-Graduate Fellow in Community Journalism, completed her 30-week assignment at the station today (5-29-13). Her work covered a wide range of stories: everything from the Alaska Day Parade to a multi-part series on teens in transitional foster care. A story she covered on a local protest over genetically-modified foods was picked up by NPR News. To view more of Anne’s stories for KCAW, search her name on this website.

When we designed the post-graduate fellowship, we planned for many things, but not for saying goodbye to a colleague and friend. Lucky for us, Anne has decided to remain in Sitka. She’ll begin work as a prevention specialist at Sitkans Against Family Violence (SAFV) in July.

Anne earned her Master’s Degree from the University of California Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism in 2012. We’ve already started advertising for her replacement for 2013-14. Warning to potential applicants: The bar is very high, Duuders!

Lt. Lance Leone, in Sitka

The sole survivor of a Coast Guard helicopter crash has been denied promotion, possibly ending his military career.

Lt. Lance Leone was one of four people aboard an Air Station Sitka helicopter when it crashed off the coast of Washington state in 2010. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano signed an order last week removing him from the list of officers scheduled for promotion.

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PDF: Click the image to read Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano’s order.

In August, Leone was passed over for promotion to lieutenant commander. He appealed and the case made its way up to Napolitano’s desk. As the secretary of Homeland Security, she oversees the Coast Guard. Napolitano issued her decision May 23, upholding a November ruling on the case.

“The military is what is affectionately known as an up-or-out system,” said John Smith, Leone’s civilian attorney. “If you don’t get promoted, you will not be able to stay in the service, in whatever capacity, in most instances.”

The denial of Leone’s promotion could signal the beginning of the end for his military career. That’s not to say the door is closed on him yet. He’s up for another regularly scheduled promotion review in August. And Smith says they could also ask the Coast Guard board that handles military records to remove the negative reports from Leone’s official file.

“It’s possible he could get promoted,” Smith said. “He’s gotten two more officer evaluation reports since he was taken off the list, both of which are stellar. So, there’s a chance, but not much of one.”

Leone was co-pilot of the H-60 helicopter, which was en route from Astoria, Oregon, to Sitka when it crashed. The helicopter was flying fast and low — and off its flight plan — when it clipped some Coast Guard wires between the mainland and an island off the coast of La Push, Wash., and went into the water below.

Three of the four people aboard died, and in late 2011, the Coast Guard filed charges against Leone. Those charges were ultimately dropped, but the Coast Guard officially reprimanded Leone, saying he contributed to the accident by failing to question the pilot’s sudden change of course.

Leone and his team maintain there was nothing he could have done to prevent the accident, and that he was operating within the normal bounds of his training. They blame the Coast Guard for not removing the wires across the channel, which were no longer in use, and had been the source of accidents in the past.

“I get so close to accomplishing the next goal, and then it’s just pulled away,” Leone said in a phone interview with KCAW on Wednesday. He hasn’t flown since the accident, and is now working a Coast Guard desk job in San Antonio, Texas. He says he plans to continue fighting for a promotion.

“I was surprised but I’m not totally disheartened by the fact that it happened,” he said. “I believe everything happens for a reason, and I think I have to continue this path and follow through and make sure the right thing does eventually happen.”

Interview: Hear Leone’s November 2012 interview with KCAW.

Smith, the attorney, has stronger words about Leone’s non-promotion.

“This action is vindictive,” Smith said. “Nothing short of vindictive. I think the Coast Guard leadership chose Lt. Leone as a scapegoat.”

The Coast Guard says its actions are about standards, not scapegoats.

“This is an unfortunate situation. Nobody really wins,” Coast Guard spokesman Carlos Diaz said. “The Coast Guard needs to be consistent with the review process and the way they keep their standards.”

Diaz cited the Coast Guard’s final report on the 2010 accident — the document that said Leone was partly at fault for the crash. He said the results of that report require the Coast Guard to take action.

“People expect us to have high standards, especially in the aviation community, where it is a really unforgiving business,” he said. “Unfortunately, in this case, we have seen how dangerous it can be.”

Leone, meanwhile, says he’s still hoping to advance to lieutenant commander, but that he’s also starting to consider his options after the Coast Guard. If he’s passed over in August, Smith says Leone will have about a year left in the Coast Guard.

Smith said he believes his client will be OK.

“Lt. Leone is going to succeed at whatever he does,” Smith said. “He just hopes, and I hope for him, that it will be in the Coast Guard.”

Link to our complete coverage of CG6017.

Sitka Senator Bert Stedman says Alaskans should get to vote on the legislature’s oil tax reform bill. Stedman and Kodiak Senator Gary Stevens were the only two republicans to break with their party and vote against the bill. It replaces the current oil tax regime known as ACES, which stands for Alaska’s Clear and Equitable Share. According to Alaska Department of Revenue estimates, the change will mean a loss of four-point-one to four-point-six billion dollars over the next six years. Proponents in the Republican majority said the tax cut was needed to spur more oil production. Stedman acknowledged the need for some improvement to ACES, but he strongly disagreed that this bill was the way to do it. He’s pledged to sign the petition to put the measure up for a public vote next year.

Stedman was one of several Southeast lawmakers to visit Petersburg during Mayfest earlier this month. Matt Lichtenstein spoke with him as part of a series of locally-produced interviews about Senate Bill 21.
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Help us end the year in the black! Join us on Thursday and Friday, June 6th and 7th for KRBD’s first Fiscal Year-End Drive. We’ll raise funds on-air with your neighbors, friends, and favorite KRBD characters. Our goal is $15,000 and 150 members! There will even be a chance to score a ferry package from IFA!

Special thanks to Princess Cruises and IFA for their Challenges.

Support KRBD and become a member today!

*every member receives KRBD’s new mug, designed by artist Cara Murray!

Application Deadline: June 28, 2013

I – Program Overview
Raven Radio’s post-graduate fellowship is a 30-week program intended to bridge the period between the completion of a journalism student’s education and the beginning of his or her career.
The Fellowship offers a recent graduate the opportunity to…
– Gain substantial expertise in a professional newsroom.
– Refine live broadcast and production skills.
– Experiment with and develop multi-media production skills.
– Explore complex news issues in a diverse community, region, and state.
– Write, edit, and produce sound-rich, in-depth stories for local, state, and national distribution.
– Establish professional connections to NPR, the Alaska Public Radio Network, National Native News, and other affiliates.

The Fellowship is modeled on Raven Radio’s summer internship program for journalism graduate students. Both programs take talented students from a demanding academic culture, drop them into a fertile news environment, and add mentoring and structure (deadlines!). The internship program is now in its second decade; the last seven interns have all won state broadcasting awards. KCAW’s 2012 intern, Rachel Waldholz, is a finalist for NPR’s 2013 Kroc Fellowship. Listen to the story she submitted in her Kroc application.

KCAW 2012-13 Post-Graduate Fellow Anne Brice, with reporter Ed Ronco.

While the KCAW internship is about training, the Fellowship is about opportunity. Our 2012-13 Fellow, Anne Brice, produced this story for NPR News.

Anne produced a variety of spot news and features – for local and statewide broadcast — over the course of her Fellowship. You can see more by searching her name on this website.

To learn more about the KCAW Fellowship directly from Anne, you can email her at briceanne-at-gmail.com.

The Fellowship benefits more than just the successful applicant. The benefits to KCAW and to the community of Sitka are substantial. The Fellow contributes to…
– Expanded news coverage in the fall-winter-spring months.
A broader variety of stories, many of them more in-depth than typical daily news stories.
– A diversity of voices providing the news.
– An expanded website, and multi-media features that tell our stories in new, engaging ways
– More live coverage of community-based issues (public forums, town hall meetings, Tribal council, etc.)
– Improved coverage of our remote listening communities.
– Greater flexibility to work with NPR West on repackaging local and regional stories for national newscasts (KCAW produced one NPR feature story during the 2012-13 Fellowship. See it here.)
– An overall higher level of reporting due to the expanded network of news sources and relationships that the Fellow develops over time.

II – Criteria
A candidate for the Raven Radio Post-Graduate Fellowship has completed an undergraduate or graduate degree program in Journalism or a related field of study, and has acquired competency in news writing and broadcast journalism (or multi-media production) at the academic level. Someone with an M.A. in Journalism from UC Berkeley or Columbia looking to create a professional portfolio and to establish contacts within public broadcasting is a candidate; a college graduate with no prior experience who may be thinking about going into journalism is not. On the other hand, an established print reporter hoping to transition into broadcast would be considered for the Fellowship.

III – Work expectations
The Raven Radio Post-Graduate Fellow, after an initial training period, becomes our colleague in the news department. We work a 40-hour week, often in the evenings and sometimes in the early morning. We share news hosting duties on four 12-minute newscast each weekday. We file stories as often as we can, and post to our regional FTP site, the KCAW website, Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter. The Fellow – like all members of the news department – observes the ethical standards of the Society of Professional Journalists (SPJ). In a small community like Sitka, protecting the station’s reputation for objective, open-handed reporting is paramount.

IV – Stipend, Duration, and Lodging
The Fellow will receive a stipend of $4,500 for a thirty-week period:
– Mon Sep 23, 2012 – Fri Dec 13, 2013, 12 weeks
– Mon Jan 6, 2014 – Fri May 9, 2014, 18 weeks

The mid-winter break is optional. The Fellow may work any 30-weeks between the approximate start and end dates.

The Fellow will be covered by the station’s workman’s compensation policy, but no other insurance benefit is provided. The stipend is paid only for weeks worked – there is no paid leave.

Raven Radio will provide the Fellow with housing. Relocating during the Fellowship is likely.

Raven Radio will provide airfare, housing, and per diem for the Fellow to attend the annual meeting of the Alaska Press Club in April 2014.

V – Transportation
Sitka is located on Baranof Island in Southeast Alaska, about 2 hours by air from Seattle. There is no road access. Alaska Airlines offers several flights a day, and there is regular ferry service aboard the Alaska Marine Highway. Although a personal car is not necessary for the Fellowship, the least expensive way to bring one to Sitka is to drive it to Prince Rupert, BC, and board an Alaska Marine Highway vessel there.

VI – Application deadline
Applicants must submit a letter of interest, resume with references, and audio samples by Friday June 28, 2013. E-mail submissions are welcomed. Submit applications to:

Robert Woolsey, News Director
KCAW-FM Raven Radio
2B Lincoln Street, Ste. B
Sitka Alaska 99835
robert@kcaw.org
907 747-5879

Steve Will.

The Raven Radio Post-Graduate Fellowship in Community Journalism was created to honor the memory of Steve Will. Steve worked in different capacities at Raven Radio over a period of about twenty-five years. Like many of us who have made careers in public broadcasting, he began as volunteer and, the story goes, he wasn’t all that good at first. Steve finally did find his groove in the news department, eventually becoming its director. His years in that job were marked by a major labor dispute at the town’s largest employer, the Alaska Pulp Corporation mill, and then the eventual shutdown of the mill itself. Despite the deep divisions in the community Steve’s reporting is still remembered as honest, even, and compelling. He went on to win one of the most prestigious national awards in broadcasting – the Ohio State – for a series he produced during that period on the sexual abuse of minors. Steve later was detailed voluntarily to serve as a regional reporter, in an experiment that shaped the present-day CoastAlaska Network. He left broadcasting for a while to write for the Daily Sitka Sentinel, but returned in 2006 as Raven Radio’s program director. Steve’s death in a bike accident in 2007 in no way canonized him. His reputation as committed journalist and passionate advocate for community broadcasting was well-established, well-deserved, and well-earned.

Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins talks with other Prince of Wales Island Marathon participants before the race on Saturday. He was the first full marathon runner to cross the finish line.

Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins was on Prince of Wales Island over Memorial Day weekend, partly for the big marathon, and partly to meet with his constituents.

The Sitka Democrat won first place in the marathon, and KRBD’s Leila Kheiry caught up with him afterwards as he cooled down in the Craig High School lobby. In addition to the race, they talked briefly about politics. Here is part of that interview:

Joann Flora, longtime executive director of Big Brothers Big Sisters, announced her replacement Wednesday at the Greater Ketchikan Chamber of Commerce luncheon.

Flora says this will be her last Chamber meeting, and she will leave for Juneau on Monday, where she will join Goldbelt Inc. as the director of tourism marketing.

Flora says she appreciates the support that Chamber members have shown to Big Brothers Big Sisters.

Flora says that Gretchen Klein is the new community director for Big Brothers Big Sisters. Klein, who was chosen as one of the Alaska Journal of Commerce’s Top 40 Under 40 in 2012, started the Big Brothers Big Sisters program 11 years ago.

 

On Saturday, Alaska State Troopers in Ketchikan were notified of boaters in Helm Bay who might need assistance.

The report said that three people, two from Ketchikan and one from Cordova, had ran aground in a 21 foot skiff and were walking to a cabin in Helm Bay.

The Ketchikan Volunteer Rescue Squad and the U.S. Coast Guard were notified. KVRS deployed a rescue boat and located the boaters on shore near their vessel at about 9:30 p.m.

There were no injuries. Once the boat was inspected and determined to be undamaged, the boaters were able to return to Ketchikan on the incoming tide without assistance.

The late Dave “Roadkill” Johnson was one of the primary founders of the Prince of Wales Island Marathon. During the most recent race, his wife, Pauline Johnson, sat down to reminisce with KRBD’s Leila Kheiry.

The drum noise in the background is from members of the Craig High School Pep Band, who were helping keep spectators energized as runners made their way toward the finish line.

Tune in on this Friday night from 8-10pm to hear the 10 songs that Mt. Edgecumbe High School’s Academic Principal Bernie Gurule would choose to have if he were stranded on a deserted island. Bernie will also share a few stories aw well as his favorite dessert recipe with hosts Ken and Rachel. (it is, after all, a deserted island). Good music, this Friday night!

2013 Spring Drive Mug

 

 

 

2013 Spring Drive Mug Back

The 2013 mugs are now on sale at the Raven Radio retail store! Your mug collection is incomplete without one, so stop by and pick one up today.

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Assembly contributes $25K for downtown revitalization. Sitka’s 2014 municipal budget moves closer to reality. Repeat win possible for Sitka derby champ. Rep. Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins wins POW marathon.

Here are some results from last weekend’s Prince of Wales Island Marathon:

For the eight-person relay, third place went to BasketBall Babes of Craig, second went to Annie Betty’s of Klawock, and first went to the Craig High School Panthers.

In the four-person relay division, Hot to Trot took third place, Two Hot Dogs and a Pair of Buns took second, and first place went to the Thorne Bay Wolverines.

In the relay category for youth air station teams, the 15-member Wolf Pack took third, the 15-member Panther Power came in second, and the 17-member Klawock Youth placed first.

For the men’s half-marathon run and walk, Jamin Knowlton of New York took third, Sylvan Blankenship of Ketchikan second, and Alex Daniels of Ketchikan first.

In the women’s half-marathon run and walk, Sarah Brandy of Craig was third, Trina Nation of Klawock second and Tansy Christ of Ketchikan first.

For the men’s full marathon walker, Timothy Marshall of Craig took second with a time of 4:47:11and Patrick Marshall of Craig took first (4:19:25).

In the women’s full marathon walker division, there was a three-way tie for third place, won by Jill Larna and Chaz Staunton of Ketchikan, and Jennifer Robinson of California, who crossed the finish line together with a time of seven hours, 20 minutes and 17 seconds. In second place was Madison Stumpf of Craig (5:19:21), and in first was Nanette Stumpf of Craig (5:13:11).

The men’s full-marathon runner race has Bill Elberson of Ketchikan in third place with a time of 3:50:14, Andrew Tighe of Ketchikan in second (3:37:28)  and Jonathan Kreiss-Tompkins of Sitka in first place (3:01:40).

In the women’s full-marathon division, Jessie Goodrich of Klawock took third place with a time of 3:45:39, Marketa Ith of Petersburg won second (3:45:04), and Anchorage runner Debbie Cropper came in first (3:33:49).