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Two people died Monday afternoon when the plane they were in crashed into Metlakatla Harbor, Alaska, a week after another deadly crash nearby involving the same operator. The Ketchikan Gateway Borough confirmed on its Facebook page that "a pilot and a single passenger" died in the crash of the de Havilland Beaver floatplane operated by Taquan Air, reports CBS Anchorage affiliate KTVA-TV. The names of the deceased were being withheld pending notification of their next of kin.

Linking to a YouTube video showing Cruise ship Infinity slamming into berth 3 Ketchikan Alaska. I use the float adjacent to pick up clients from here till September (fishing charter) My wife left work less than hour before collision and could hit this berth with a rock from her office. We had high winds today gusting 40 knots plus. You can see thrusters in full on mode and I understand pilot/captain attempted to drop anchor. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=fEPNfLmcUO0

We get it: Cruises can be expensive, and often the food and drink at ports of call can be pricier than what you pay back home. But that doesn’t mean you have to bogart the free coffee and donuts at the homeless shelter near the dock. For many cruise ships making the trip up the Pacific coastline to Alaska, the small city of Ketchikan is the first stop heading north, allowing travelers to get off the ship for a bit, walk around and do a bit of shopping before moving on to the next port. Earlier this week, at a...

....While running for chief executive, Palin backed the bridge, although with little evident enthusiasm. “The money that’s been appropriated for the project,” she told Ketchikan voters in September 2006, “it should remain available for a link, an access process as we continue to evaluate the scope and just how best to just get this done.” Palin could have fought for the bridge as governor, as did her spendthrift GOP predecessor, Frank Murkowski (whom she jettisoned in a primary). Murkowski recommended dedicating $195 million in the state budget for the bridge. Instead, Palin gave it $0. “Palin’s budget doesn’t include money...

Now that the Democrats are rabidly attacking Sarah Palin over the Alaskan Ketchikan bridge, claiming she lied about shutting down the project, it might be a good moment to point out that both Barack Obama and Joe Biden voted for the Bridge to Nowhere. Though Gov. Palin originally supported the earmark spending on the Bridge, she eventually killed the project choosing to spend the Federal money on other infrastructure programs. However, Sen. Biden and Sen. Obama voted for funding the Bridge, even when given a SECOND chance by Sen. Tom Coburn, who proposed shifting earmark funds to Katrina relief.

There've been lots of thing written the past couple days about Palin's alleged flip-flop on the Gravina Island and Knik Arm Bridges (aka, Bridges to Nowhere). The Wikipedia articles, like most, need to be read with a grain of salt, but there are a number of sources listed and a good place to start: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravina_Island_Bridge http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knik_Arm_Bridge Let's summarize the salient points about the Bs2N and how it affects Palin's candidacy: 1) Palin did support the bridge projects when running for governor. No controversy there; it's well known and was a point, albeit a minor one, in the gubernatorial campaign. The...

With another hurricane bearing down on the Gulf Coast, the so-called “bridge to nowhere,” championed by Alaska’s Congressional delegation on behalf of the people of Ketchikan, just won’t go away. Three years ago, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the plan to spend hundreds of millions to connect Ketchikan with its airport on Gravina Island became a national symbol of Congressional excess, much to the dismay of Sen. Ted Stevens and Rep. Don Young. Sen. John McCain has made it a habit to ridicule the bridge project during his presidential campaign. McCain has promised to veto any bill sent to...

SNIP . . on June 8, 2008 at approximately 0003 hours the Ketchikan Police Department received multiple 911 calls of a patrol vehicle, which had crashed by the Stedman Street Bridge and was now in the water in Thomas Basin. SNIP. . . .Sgt. Townsend regained consciousness after the vehicle came to a stop and started sinking. He was unable to open the door or window of his patrol vehicle and fired one round of his service weapon to break out the glass in the driver's door.

SPIRITUAL OINTMENT: Craig couple's case is back before a judge. KETCHIKAN -- A Craig couple is arguing that their marijuana convictions should be overturned because a liquefied form of the drug was used only as an ointment in their religious practices. ....SNIP... Michael and Maria Lineker appealed the convictions, and the Alaska Court of Appeals in October sent the case back to Juneau Superior Court Judge Larry Weeks "to determine whether the Linekers' possession of marijuana was protected ...SNIP... ....human skin becomes like a tongue, said Lineker, able to absorb herbs such as the liquefied cannabis and olive oil....

A fellow called Rush today about "THE Bridge to Nowhere". There are actually TWO proposed bridges; one in Ketchikan in the very southern southeast tip of the state, and the Knik Arm Crossing Project on the northwest edge of Anchorage. The Ketchikan bridge (Gravina Access) would serve less than 14,000 people because Ketchikan is on an island and the nearest continental highway is 90 miles away in Canada. In order for anyone but the 14,000 locals to use the proposed bridge, they would have to arrive boat or aircraft. The Knik Arm Crossing (Anchorage) would serve well over half the...

KETCHIKAN, Alaska (AP) -- A small, military-style jet crashed into a mobile home park Wednesday, killing the pilot, who was found strapped to his seat 100 yards from the site, authorities said. The plane hit one trailer, triggering a fire. No one was home at the time and all residents had been accounted for, said Alaska State Troopers spokesman Greg Wilkinson. But at least five people on the ground were treated for minor injuries from flying debris. The aircraft was a Czech-made Albatros L39 two-seat training jet owned by a Las Vegas company, Wilkinson said. The plane left Sitka and...

Ketchikan precipitation inches toward record year SOGGY: Most residents agree on 202.55-inch mark apparently set in 1949. By JOANNA MARKELL Ketchikan Daily News Published: December 29, 2005 Last Modified: December 29, 2005 at 02:39 AM KETCHIKAN -- Ketchikan is famous for liquid sunshine and rubber boots, but this year's rainfall is inching toward the record books. As of early Tuesday, the Flight Service Station at Ketchikan International Airport had measured 192.95 inches of precipitation for the year. The record -- at least as far as most residents are concerned -- is 202.55 inches, set in 1949. Rain is in the...

Alaska's Gravina Island (population less than 50) will soon be connected to the megalopolis of Ketchikan (pop. 8,000) by a bridge nearly as long as the Golden Gate and higher than the Brooklyn Bridge. Alaska residents can thank Rep. Don Young, who just brought home $941 million worth of bacon. A mess of thorny devil's club and salmonberries, along with an old chicken coop, surrounds the 40-year-old cabin where Mike Sallee grew up and still lives part time on southeast Alaska's Gravina Island. Sallee's cabin is the very definition of remote. Deer routinely visit his front porch, and black bears...

To state Board of Fisheries chairman Art Nelson, Don Young's Way, the proposed Knik Arm crossing named after his father-in-law, is hardly a bridge to nowhere. For Nelson and his well-connected partners in Point Bluff LLC, Rep. Don Young's span is in fact a bridge to somewhere: their 60 acres of unobstructed view property on the Point MacKenzie side of Cook Inlet. The land sits directly across from Elmendorf Air Force Base, north of the Anchorage port and downtown. "It's beautiful property," Nelson said. If a road were built to the land today, it would require about a two-hour commute...

Alaska's governor outlined a plan Thursday to spend almost $200 million on two bridge projects, including one dubbed the "Bridge to Nowhere" that triggered sharp criticism across the nation. Congress recently dropped its funding provisos for the bridges in Ketchikan and Anchorage, but let the state keep the money and left it up to state officials to figure out how to spend it. Gov. Frank Murkowski in a budget proposal Thursday said he wants to use $91 million for the Ketchikan project in the fiscal year beginning in July. The two-bridge project would connect the town's airport to Revillagigedo Island,...

Congress limped out of town last week for its Thanksgiving recess, and just in the nick of time. With its Iraq duck-and-cover, the failure to extend expiring tax cuts, and the refusal to control spending, the Members were doing more damage to the republic every day they stayed around. Amid the carnage, however, there was one small triumph last week: Senate Appropriations powerhouse Ted Stevens decided to pull funding for the infamous $320 million "Bridge to Nowhere" in his home state of Alaska. For those joining this story in progress, the proposed project would have connected Ketchikan, Alaska with remote...

I've had it with the phrase "Bridges to Nowhere." Someone has to speak up for Alaskans. I've lived in Ketchikan and the Mat-Su valley, two of the places next to "nowhere." Ketchikan is a thin strip of roadway on a mountain cliff next to the ocean. The bridge would connect Ketchikan to the island next door, which has many square miles of flat land that could be developed for the benefit of the community. The Knik Arm bridge connects Anchorage, Alaska's largest city, with the Mat-Su valley, Alaska's fastest growing community. Calling the Knik Arm bridge a bridge to "nowhere"...

Statement by Sierra Club Executive Director, Carl Pope The Senate Appropriations Committee removed earmarks for two controversial "bridges to nowhere" in Alaska: the Gravina bridge, which would connect Ketchikan to an island of 50 people, and the Knik Arm bridge, which would link Anchorage to a sparsely populated area. The projects have been the subject of strong criticism because of the general backlog of existing roads and bridges in desperate need of repair, especially those affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. According to the National Association of Civil Engineers, one in four bridges nationwide is structurally deficient or functionally obsolete,...

Ketchikan, Alaska - The Ketchikan Health Fair, Alaska's largest single site health fair, will take place on Saturday, November 5th, 8am to 1pm at the Plaza Mall. This year the Health Fair will feature the first Alaska visit of The Colossal Colon (nicknamed Coco). Coco's visit is sponsored by Ketchikan General Hospital, First City Council on Cancer, Ketchikan CHARR, and the City of Ketchikan. Cancer of the colon and/or rectum is diagnosed in more than 140,000 Americans yearly. "And this isn't a disease limited to the elderly," said Deborah Aaron, MD, Chair of the KGH Cancer Committee and one of...

Let others sneer at Southeast Alaska's so-called "bridge to nowhere." Leaders in Ketchikan, the small port town on the receiving end of the project, call it a bridge to the future. The $223 million two-bridge project would connect the town's airport to Revillagigedo Island, where most of the 13,000 residents of the Ketchikan Gateway Borough live. The airport is separated from its users by a quarter-mile-wide channel of water, forcing travelers to catch either a ferry or a water taxi. Some Ketchikan leaders want to rename the airport after Rep. Don Young, R-Alaska, for the all the federal money he's...