Two Oregon counties have reportedly rejected property tax increases that would have funded law enforcement and public safety services. The counties once received federal timber subsidies, but those days are over — and now they're scrambling to pay for essential services.

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By Amanda Block and Anne Gore

When you were a kid, did you go to camp? If so, you probably remember having lots of fun, making new friends, sleeping in a tent or cabin, swimming or canoeing, performing silly skits, singing songs, and telling stories around a campfire at night.

There’s no question, camp is fun.

At Camp Togowoods, girls not only learn how to paddle but also how to right an overturned canoe.

But, for girls who attend Girl Scout camp in Alaska, there’s also important work happening – the work of character development.

Although program activities like canoeing, conquering the climbing wall, and learning to build a fire certainly contribute to a camper’s confidence and growth, often it is the small, seemingly insignificant events that can most impact a child’s development.

Christopher Peterson, a psychology professor at the University of Michigan, identified seven critical character traits that children need to develop into successful adults.

· A sense of wonder/curiosity about the world: Our natural, inborn fascination with the world that makes us want to explore, learn and discover all we can about it; The delight we take in seeing the wonders of the world revealed to us.

· Social intelligence: The ability to read other people’s emotions and connect with them in meaningful ways; Our awareness of others; Knowing when and how to negotiate, collaborate and compromise with others.

· Zest/love of life: An exuberance or upbeat feeling about life and the opportunity to witness the wonders of the world; Zest is key to a positive outlook on life.

· Optimism: The ability to see the positive opportunity in situations; Optimism is key to self-confidence and a positive outlook on life.

· Grit: The ability to hang in there, to tough it out, persevere and recover from a setback.

· Self-control: The ability to regulate feelings and impulses; to recognize and manage them, edit them, and not be run by them.

· Gratitude: An essential feeling of recognizing and being appreciative of what we have been given; Gratitude is key to a positive outlook on life.
At Girl Scout camp, counselors are specially trained to help girls develop and recognize these character traits.

Helping plant a garden during a Day Camp session in Angoon.

Girl Scout camp counselors not only point out when girls express one of the seven traits but also spend time reflecting on them at the end of each day. For example, girls may be asked to think about one thing they are grateful for, or give an example of a time they or another camper showed self-control.

Here are some examples of how campers have expressed their character growth:

For example, when girls live together at resident camp or spend all day together at day camp, character issues are bound to arise. Imagine the grit it takes a camper to face a 35-foot-tall climbing tower for the first time. Picture the self-control a camper develops when trying to light a fire in the rain. Consider the zest/love of life a camper experiences when she canoes across the lake and sees a loon with babies riding on its back.

How girls experience these situations (with the support of their counselors), is how character is built.

A new friendship develops at Girl Scout’s Camp Togowoods.

At Girl Scout camp, we are committed to the highest levels of excellence in health, safety, and programming. We hire staff that are great with kids and know how to make camp fun. But, we also work hard to ensure that in the course of each day, girls experience opportunities for the kind of character development that is essential for children. We want girls to leave our camps having had not just fun, but having developed the character traits that will help her succeed in life, and do great things!

The mission of Girl Scouts is to build girls of courage, confidence, and character who make the world a better place. Through our series, events, camps, and troop activities, we promise every girl the chance to discover the leader she can be.

To register your daughter for Girl Scout camp go to www.girlscoutsalaska.org/programs/camps to view the camp catalog and register online.

To find out about other ways to participate in Girl Scouts, call 907-248-2250, 800-478-7448, or visit www.girlscoutsalaska.org.

Girl Scouts is available to any girl in Kindergarten through High School. Scholarships and financial assistance is available.

A San Francisco dealer quadrupled his income by moving to New York after California legalized medical marijuana.

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A San Francisco dealer quadrupled his income by moving to New York after California legalized medical marijuana.

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Cruise ship passengers board a tendering vessel at Huna Totem’s Icy Strait Point. Lawmakers have funded a new berthing facility, which has not been built. Photo by Ed Schoenfeld, Coastalaska News.

Governor Sean Parnell left Southeast Alaska project funding intact when he signed the capital budget Tuesday.

But he blocked the transfer of money from one older project to another.

The Legislature’s capital budget called for taking $5 million out of $17 million set aside for a cruise-ship dock in Hoonah. Lawmakers transferred that money to a planned aquatic center in Sitka.

During an Anchorage press conference, Parnell said it was a bad idea.

“That dock is still needed. The growth in passenger traffic, travel-industry traffic, is creating jobs in Hoonah, right down to our high-school age level. That money needs to stay there so they can continue to build their economy there,” he said.

He said it’s unfair to let one town, quote, “rob” another of its capital-project funding.

Sitka’s aquatic center, which has other funding, will be part of the state-run Mount Edgecumbe boarding high school.

Money for Hoonah’s dock was in the 2011 capital budget. And Hoonah’s municipal government and the local Icy Strait Point tourist attraction have clashed over its location.

Parnell’s Budget Director Karen Rehfeld said the project is still on track.

“The mayor and others have been in touch with us to let us know that they are doing some of the geotechnical work now and that it is moving forward,” she said. “And clearly if the $5 million had been reapporiated from the project for another community’s project, they simply would not be able to move forward with it.

The governor did allow $2 million from the dock project to be transferred to the Hoonah Health Center. The Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium facility needs matching funds to begin construction of a new building.

Rehfeld said Hoonah leaders told her office they supported that change. And since it was in the same community, the governor kept it in the budget.

Sitka Democratic Rep. Jonathan Kriess-Tomkins said he was not involved in the reappropriation effort. Sitka Republican Sen. Bert Stedman could not be reached for immediate comment. Both also represent Hoonah.

Sweden has a global reputation as a smoothly run, harmonious nation. But following the death of an immigrant, three nights of rioting have prompted some soul-searching.

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Rick Fritsch, a lead forecaster with the National Weather Service in Juneau looks at weather trends in the Ketchikan Area and discusses Global Climate Change.  The interview with Fritsch took place May 14th.  Part 1 looks at climate change.  Part 2 is an extended interview on local weather trends that aired on Morning Edition.

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The sergeant has been accused of secretly videotaping at least a dozen female cadets, sometimes when they were showering. The New York Times report follows a series of accounts in recent weeks about alleged sexual assaults within the military.

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While studying microorganisms on humans is not new, tracking fungi is. In a census of sorts, scientists checked the skin of healthy volunteers. They found an expansive ecosystem of silent inhabitants.

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In 2011, police detained Ai Weiwei for 81 days. Now, he's released a song that's turned the experience into a heavy metal protest song, along with a dystopian nightmare video. The lyrics are explicit and angry. Ai says his music is for the many political prisoners who remain jailed.

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The opinions expressed in commentaries on Raven Radio are those of the author, and are not necessarily shared by the station’s board, staff, or volunteers. 

Listen to iFriendly audio.

Brett Wilcox

My son, David, and I will run across America in 2014 to raise awareness of genetically modified organisms.

When I tell people about Monsanto and genetically modified foods or GMOs, the most common response I hear is, “What’s Monsanto?”

Monsanto is a multinational corporation based in St. Louis, Missouri. Prior to the year 2000, Monsanto was best known for its production of PCBs, DDT, and Agent Orange, products Monsanto declared safe long after their own employees’ ill health and premature deaths proved otherwise.

Monsanto and other biotech companies make genetically modified seeds by forcing the genes of unrelated species, most often bacteria and food plants, together through crude and imprecise methods. U.S. law allows these unnatural creations to be patented.

Monsanto licenses their patented seeds to farmers the same way a software company licenses software to computer users. If farmers save and replant licensed seeds the way they’ve done for thousands of years, Monsanto sues these farmers and wins in court.

So what? Why should Sitkans care about farmers, lawsuits, pesticides and GMOs? Here are 5 good reasons:

1. GMOs have resulted in increased use of pesticides. Pesticides are poisons. Farmers wear hazmat suits when they spray the poisons on the plants you feed your kids. Pesticide poisoning results in reproductive issues such as infertility, miscarriage, birth defects, and various cancers.

2. The process of genetic modification produces massive collateral damage to the plant cells which results in unpredictable and potentially lethal results. 1,500 people developed serious illnesses and 37 died in 1989 after ingesting the genetically modified food supplement, L-Tryptophan.

3. Key Monsanto and government personnel routinely swap offices, passing through what is known as the revolving door. Naturally, this makes our government pro-biotech. A pro-biotech government is far more likely to approve genetically modified salmon than a pro-citizen government.

4. Pesticides and GMOs kill bees. The EPA approves bee-killing pesticides banned in the EU. Einstein said “If the bee disappeared off the face of the earth, man would only have four years left to live.”

5. Most of us eat GMOs and we don’t know it because our pro-biotech government refuses to label GMOs, even though they are labeled or banned outright in over 60 countries including China.

Monsanto and GMOs may be one of the most important concerns facing Sitka, the USA, and the entire world. Sitkans are meeting at 7 p.m. May 25 at Centennial Hall to learn more about Monsanto. And Sitkans will meet on Castle Hill, May 25, at 2 p.m. to participate with over 300 other cities in a global March Against Monsanto.

Commentaries are a listener service of Raven Radio. If you’re interested in adding your voice to the mix, click “Contact Us” in the orange bar above, and send a message to our news department.

Wendy Miles announces that Priscilla Schulte has been selected as campus director.  Scholarship recipients will be announced tonight at Kayhi.  Summer classes are underway. UAS052213

Arguments in a court challenge against New York's stop-and-frisk policy wrapped up earlier this week. Critics say the policy promotes racial profiling. But host Michel Martin speaks with Heidi Grossman, New York City's lead attorney in the trial, to hear the Police Department's side of the story.

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It's been over five months since the deadly shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. And there have been plenty of opinions about what should be done with the school building. Host Michel Martin speaks with Rich Harwood about the emotional decision-making process.

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As Moore, Oklahoma continues to recover after this week's deadly tornado, survivors of the 2011 Joplin, Missouri tornado are marking the second anniversary of that disaster today. Host Michel Martin discusses Joplin's recovery, and what lessons it might hold for Oklahoma, with Joplin Mayor Melodee Colbert Kean and school superintendent C.J. Huff.

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The role former CIA Director David Petraeus played in creating the discredited U.S. "talking points" about the violence in Benghazi, Libya, that left four Americans dead, including a U.S. ambassador, last year is under new scrutiny, as a Washington Post story suggests that Petraeus sought to shape the resulting memo to favor his agency.

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The powerful tornado flattened entire blocks in the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore. Early Wednesday, the death toll remained at 24, with scores more people injured and displaced.

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The Fed chairman cautioned Wednesday that if interest rates were to start rising now, the economy could slump. Meanwhile, the National Association of Realtors said sales of existing homes rose — and would have been even stronger if not for tight inventory.

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A measles epidemic in Wales that has infected more than 1,000 people is the fallout from a fraudulent paper linking the vaccine and autism published almost 15 years ago, health officials say. Many of the children and teenagers sick with measles were never vaccinated.

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Lois Lerner, who's at the center of the political firestorm over her agency's singling out of some conservative groups for extra scrutiny, invoked her Fifth Amendment right not to answer questions from Congress.

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