Memorial Day

(BETHEL) It's rainy here today, so much for the holiday barbeques. But maybe it's fitting, dreary weather to remind us of the real meaning of this sacred day.
The Civil War, which left so much carnage on the green fields of America did achieve President Lincoln's goal of saving the Union, and as a result the war dead were remembered with a mixture of fondness and gratitude. And on the first days of summer, when the grass was turning green and leaves spreading, the people of America took to the cemetaries to decorate the graves of the fallen, Union and Confederate, Blue and Gray. The tradition of course took hold, and little children who had no conception of waar, save the stories told them by local veterans, took to the fields where the soldiers lay, and honored them with flowers and flags.

Northern fur fashion showcased!

Miss Canada to wear sealskin dress in Panama pageant

Outfit part of Arviat collection

KIRSTEN MURPHY

Nunavut's sealskin clothing is fit for a beauty queen.
Leanne Cecile, Miss Canada 2003 of Tecumseh, Ont., may wear a $15,000 white sealskin and fox fur dress at the upcoming Miss Universe pageant in Panama on June 3.
Cecile, 26, spotted the floor-length gown, designed by Kugluktuk's Dolorosa Nartok at the North American Fashion and Fur Exhibition (NAFFEM) in Montreal May 4 to 7.
The outfit, a wedding dress, is one of a dozen pieces from Arviat's Kiluk Ltd. displayed at the trade show. (more)

A matter of "Homeland Security"

Drug dealers face banishment
Lummi Tribe gets tough with new rules to fight narcotics

By PAUL SHUKOVSKY
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

LUMMI RESERVATION -- The next two years behind bars might seem easy to John Jefferson compared with what will follow.

When Jefferson emerges from federal prison, he faces the prospect of life as an exile -- banished from the Lummi reservation, stripped of membership in the tribe, separated from his people. For Jefferson -- whose world has always been defined by the boundaries of this rural reservation north of Bellingham -- nothing could be worse.
His crime: dealing dope to a tribe so ravaged by drugs that Lummi leaders have decided that putting dealers in prison is not punishment enough. So they've turned to banishment.
This isn't about tough love. It's about survival.
Last spring, after a dozen babies were born addicted to drugs in as many months, after a forlorn addict hanged himself from a tree, after a 14-month-old girl picked a narcotic pill from the floor like it was candy and died from an overdose, tribal Chairman Darrell Hillaire declared eradication of drugs to be a matter of homeland security and drug dealers to be the evil axis. And since that time, at least 12 people have been convicted on drug charges as a result of joint investigations by Lummi tribal police and the FBI.
John Jefferson is one of them. So is his fiancee, Cathy Lane, who was the brains behind the drug-dealing operation. Within the next few days, the Lummi council will consider whether to strip Jefferson and Lane from the tribal membership roster. If council members do that, the matter goes to tribal court for final consideration.(more)

"... youthful rebellion...inside a corrupted institution..." A different look at the Jayson Blair story

Jayson Blair Cracked the Code
The Young Plagiarizer Beat the New York Times at its Own Game

By Al Giordano
Narco News School of Authentic Journalism
May 12, 2003

The front page of the Sunday New York Times is a big deal for all journalists everywhere; we see one of the largest tips of an iceberg ever seen floating in the murky ocean of Commercial Media:
"Times Reporter Who Resigned Leaves Long Trail of Deception," is the headline, followed by 14, 290 navel-gazing words, including an "Editors' Note" (registration required) (the "note" doesn't say which of the editors penned it - the subtle placement of the apostrophe indicates the plural use of the noun - the Times editors are not sufficiently stand-up guys and gals that they would sign their names at a moment of crisis) and a long sidebar documenting glaring falsehoods published by the "newspaper of record" in the Big Apple.
"There will be no newsroom search for scapegoats," the newspaper cheesily announced. The scapegoat has already been found and slain upon the altar of 43rd Street: He is a 27-year-old ex-New York Times reporter, Jayson Blair, who resigned from his four-year Times career on May Day only after outside media alerted the Times of some, ahem, obvious problems with his reporting.
Jayson Blair should now write a manual: "Steal This Newspaper." He gave new meaning to the newsroom term "phoning it in." He would plagiarize material from other media, and sometimes claim, including to readers, that he was in Texas, or Maryland, or Ohio, when, it seems, he was, says the Times now, somewhere in Brooklyn. Sometimes his apparent invention of facts out of thin air harmed real people, like when he claimed that law enforcement sources had fingered the triggerman in the Washington DC sniper case (if that doesn't unfairly prejudice a defendant to a jury pool, what does?)
The Times has now characterized Blair with words normally reserved for serial killers: "a troubled young man veering toward professional self-destruction," who was both "prolific," and "pathological." The newspaper now marvels at the "audacity of the deceptions," and "his savviness and his ingenious ways of covering his tracks," his "hungry ambition and an unsettling interest in newsroom gossip," his "sloppy" physical appearance, and his penchant for "drinking scotch, smoking cigarettes and buying Cheez Doodles from the vending machines."
"The person who did this is Jayson Blair," the newspaper quotes its publisher, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr., as saying. "Let's not begin to demonize our executives — either the desk editors or the executive editor or, dare I say, the publisher."
Oh, Mr. Sulzberger, please… Let's…(more)

Wheres the (BIG) fish?

Study reveals plunge in big fish numbers

By Lidia Wasowicz
UPI Senior Science Writer
From the Science & Technology Desk
Published 5/14/2003 1:05 PM

A global survey spanning nearly half a century reveals a 90 percent plunge in the population of large ocean fish, from tuna to cod, since commercial fishing vessels took to the high seas, Canadian researchers reported Wednesday.
With their numbers decreasing by as much as 80 percent in 15 years, the depleted communities could crash delicately balanced ecosystems, with unknown worldwide consequences, the surveyors of pelagic creatures warned.
"More than 90 percent of the fish we like to eat are gone," said Jeremy Jackson, a renowned marine ecologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, Calif., who was not involved in the study.
The statistics -- which some industry scientists questioned -- emerged from a 10-year analysis of trawler surveys and U.S. and Japanese long-line fishing records compiled over 47 years for 62 predatory species.
"From giant blue marlin to mighty bluefin tuna and from tropical groupers to Antarctic cod, industrial fishing has scoured the global ocean," said lead study author Ransom Myers, Killam Chair in Ocean Studies at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. "There is no blue frontier left."
The sampling included fish inhabiting every ocean save the seas surrounding Earth's poles and those that dwell where continents submerge under the sea off the coasts of Newfoundland, Thailand and Antarctica.(more)

This is what I REALLY call a lead!

Teen survives brown bear mauling
TUSTUMENA LAKE: Cody Williams requires 38 staples to close head wound.

By LISA DEMER
Anchorage Daily News

(Published: May 14, 2003)

The pain wasn't registering yet, but Cody Williams could hear the damage as the bear clawed and chewed on him.(more)

Finally, some Patriotism in Juneau we can be proud of

House resolution seeks fix to Patriot Act

The Associated Press

JUNEAU (May 12, 6:15 p.m. ADT) - The state House is asking the federal government to fix parts of the USA Patriot Act that may infringe on civil liberties.
The resolution approved Monday also tells state agencies they should not help the federal government with investigations that could violate people's rights unless they have reason to suspect criminal activity.
"The resolution states the efforts to fight terrorism must not be waged at the expense of civil rights and liberties of the people of the state of Alaska and the United States," said Rep. David Guttenberg, D-Fairbanks.
"We're not trying to back off on the fight on terrorism," he added.
Guttenberg co-sponsored the measure with House Majority Leader John Coghill, R-North Pole.
House Joint Resolution 22 says the state supports the fight against terrorism that led to passage of the federal law in 2001. But it urges federal lawmakers to go back and fix parts of the law that infringe on civil liberties guaranteed in the Bill of Rights.
The measure also says state agencies may not participate in investigations unless there's reasonable suspicion of criminal activity.
That prohibition includes recording and sharing information on a person's library records, bookstore records, medical records and other personal data even if authorized by the federal law.
"We're just not comfortable with them collecting information, etcetera, on people that are law-abiding citizens," Coghill said.
The measure also says state agencies may not use state resources to enforce federal immigration laws and may not collect information about political, religious or social views of individuals or groups unless that directly relates to a criminal investigation. It also says the state may not engage in racial profiling.
The measure passed the House 32-1, with Rep. Bob Lynn, R-Anchorage, voting no. The measure now goes to the Senate.

And as for stuff thats BAD for your health,

remember those cool "Truth" ads on t.v. where they piled body bags up in front of a tobacco company office? Well, it seems the all-powerful Phillip Morris got that ad (and another one) pulled off because it "villified" tobacco companies. Well, duh. Read all about it here and here.

Grow up in the '60s?

There is an interesting essay on MSNBC titled Timothy Leary Revisited by Salon's John Horgan. And to go right along with it, if you are so inclined, here is a fascinating set of Documents on Al Hubbard, a chap know in some circles as "The Johnny Appleseed of LSD."

So, if you ask your Doctor in Oregon to assist your suicide, speaking Klingon, he'll think you are crazy and say "No"?

Oregon County Seeks Klingon Interpreter for Mental Health Patients
The Associated Press
Published: May 10, 2003

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - Position Available: Interpreter, must be fluent in Klingon.
The language created for the "Star Trek" TV series and movies is one of about 55 needed by the office that treats mental health patients in metropolitan Multnomah County.
"We have to provide information in all the languages our clients speak," said Jerry Jelusich, a procurement specialist for the county Department of Human Services, which serves about 60,000 mental health clients. (more)

Dateline: PYONGYANG- North Koreans discover "miracle" tonic for geeks

Memo to myself- get a grant from the Alaska Science and Technology Foundation to get the franchise for this stuff.

Letters to the Editor

Once again, the Nunatsiaq News Letters to the Editor page is full of thoughful and interesting, nay, fascinating correspondence. Here's one:

May 9, 2003

A heartfelt thank-you from the Palliser family
We'd like to thank all Inukjuakmiut for the support and food that they gave to the late Minnie Palliser's survivors, plus all those who consoled and visited the family and gave flowers for our mother's grave.
A special thank-you to Inukjuak Tulliup Nipinga, Inukjuak Co-op, and to the kitchen staff of Nunavimmi Pigiursavik. Thank you to special visitors: Annie Inukpuk of Umiujaq, Carole and Lyndsay Anne Novalinga of Puvirngnituq, and Patsy and Lyndsay Anne Tulugaq of Kuujjuaq.
Thank you to Puvirnituq staff of Inuulitsivik Hospital and the Inukjuak staff at the CLSC, and thank you very much to Kristin Kirby for the lovely bouquet of flowers. Thank-you to all those who mailed and e-mailed letter of condolences, by phone, and by local radio.
Our mother survived nine years after her first stroke. She kept getting small ones over the years until the last one, which took place in January 2003, and which she didn't manage to bounce back from.
She left her survivors in peace on Feb. 11, 2003, at 5:23 p.m., when her kidneys failed. Our mother was a real role model for us. She had gone to Paris, Alaska, Norway and to many Canadian cities to perform throat chanting; she had gone to a lot of Nunavik communities representing elders; she made clothing such as amautiks and kamiks; she sculptured soapstone; and she was a natural midwife.
Our hearts are full of loving and wonderful memories of her here on Earth. She led a rich and full life to the very end. We rest assured that she has joined Our Father for she was greeting him, her mother, her father, and women by the name of Mina and Sarah in the last couple of her days.
Kids say the darnest things: A couple of days after my mother's death, one of her great-grandsons surprised his mother when he announced, "When I die I'd like to be buried next to my Aippaq (his wife, for he was named after our father) in the hilly rocks." A couple of days later he came back to his mother again and announced "If you guys refuse to bury me next to my Aippaq, I'll change my mind about dying."
Thank you all who knew my mother and greeted her with respect and love. God bless you all.

Caroline Palliser
Inukjuak

Practice Your French

The Dissident Frogman has a new domain name and enough room, it seems, to do his art gig and still deliver an important message from America's oldest ally (currently in disrepute in some circles). I keep his site in my daily-or-so must read list.

The Great Walkie-Talkie Shootout

New York Times technology columnist David Pogue gives the Motorola, Midland, Audiovox and Cobra products a whirl. Read his opinion of what works and what doesn't here. Don't forget to register (free) on the NYT website!

If you don't read ACHEWOOD yet, start now!

In fact, start here.
Then after you have decided it's worth more of your time, go into the archives, and start at the very beginning.

"Heroic teachers" - Ed Sect'y non-commital after village visits

U.S. Secretary of Education Rodney Paige took a helicopter ride to Tuntutuliak yesterday, where he spent two hours fact finding and mucking through the mud. Paige later journeyed to Nome and today heads to Savoonga, Galena and Fairbanks.

Education secretary gets eyeful
TOUR: Rod Paige sees firsthand the various challenges facing the Bush.

By DAN JOLING
The Associated Press

(Published: May 6, 2003)

TUNTUTULIAK -- U.S. Secretary of Education Rod Paige was not ready to grant Alaska exceptions to sweeping federal education reforms after visiting a rural village Monday, but he did have an assessment of its educators.
"Heroic teachers," Paige said after a little more than two hours at Lewis Angapak Memorial School in Tuntutuliak. "What it does is move you to do all you can to be helpful."(more)

Down and Safe: Soyuz carrying Space Station Crew lands ok

The Associated Press has this interesting story on the return to Earth of the outgoing crew of the International Space Station.

When Good Kids Go Better

The Aniak Dragonslayers keep making the news, today in this front page feature in today's Anchorage Daily News. Lets hope Secretary of Education Rodney Paige gets a chance to read it while he is in Alaska.

Robin Taylor making sense? Am I stoned or what?

SB98 apparently would EXEMPT boat and plane owners who did not have insurance and who "notified" people that they didn't, would be exempt from liability. Thats right. If you crash yoour airplane into a school and you didn't have insurance, you wouldnt have liability. Well, Senator Robin Taylor (R-Wrangell) raised the roof over it. Of course Senator Con "Special Ed kids don;t deserve high school diplomas" Bunde (R-Hell) calls it "inherent risks" in living in Alaska.
I was very impressed with Senator Taylors arguments about persoanl responsibility.
14-5 it passed? Give me a break. I am also quite disappointed at who some of the people were who voted yes.

Walter Evans Wins Kusko Ice Classic with 1:08 pm pick

(Bethel) Residents of this Western Alaska seaport community celebrated the annual departure of river ice with music, hot dogs and soap bubbles as Bethel Search and Rescue President Peter Atchak announced the lucky winner of the 2003 Kuskowkwim Ice Classic. Walter Evans of Bethel, reportedly on holiday in southern climes picked 1:08 pm on April 30 as the time the tripod just off the seawall would move 100 feet and trip the time clock.