FAMILY FUN – Crystal Johns holds her son Zayne , 2, as she follows her son Ezekiel, 4, up an inflatable slide Saturday at Xoots Elementary School during the annual Spring Carnival. The event included games, prizes, cotton candy, and karaoke. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
Rep. Rebecca Himschoot says in the discussion on educ [ ... ]
By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
Song, dance and a cast of school-aged actors will brin [ ... ]
By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
Don’t talk to people claiming to be from Medicare o [ ... ]
By JAMES BROOKS
Alaska Beacon
The Alaska House of Representatives voted Wednesday to allow comp [ ... ]
By YERETH ROSEN
Alaska Beacon
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has dismissed an appeal filed by [ ... ]
Mr. Whitekeys
In Sitka to Tell
Gold Rush Tale
Sitka Historical Society and Museum will present ‘‘Th [ ... ]
Sitka police received the following calls by 8 a.m. today:
April 17
At 9:08 a.m. a transformer was r [ ... ]
By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
The threat of major cutbacks to the subsistence socke [ ... ]
By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
With the first vote on the city budget for fiscal yea [ ... ]
By Sentinel Staff
In the final day of play in the recreational division City League volleyball [ ... ]
By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Sports Editor
Three amateur athletes from Sitka were among tens of [ ... ]
By CLAIRE STREMPLE
Alaska Beacon
A proposal to require Alaska schools to keep opioid-overdose-r [ ... ]
By YERETH ROSEN
Alaska Beacon
Alaska’s Kobuk River, which flows out of the Brooks Range above [ ... ]
Police Blotter
Sitka police received the following calls by 8 a.m. today:
April 16
At 8:07 a.m. a woman [ ... ]
Presentation On
Medicare, SS
SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium and Cynthia Gibson, CFP®, an [ ... ]
By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
Musicians from Sitka High and Mt. Edgecumbe High scho [ ... ]
By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
Whether you enjoy scaling mountains, walking in the p [ ... ]
By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Sports Editor
Two-time Alpine Adventure Run winner Chris Brenk cont [ ... ]
By CLAIRE STREMPLE
Alaska Beacon
Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee expanded a [ ... ]
By JAMES BROOKS and
CLAIRE STREMPLE
The Alaska Department of Education and Early Development is [ ... ]
Sitka police received the following calls by 8 a.m. today:
April 15
A protective order was issued at 1 [ ... ]
Chamber Speaker
Event Wednesday
The Chamber of Commerce speaker series will continue noon Wednesday at [ ... ]
By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
From high costs and low availability to challenges sur [ ... ]
By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
A number of participants at Thursday’s community me [ ... ]
Daily Sitka Sentinel
Election Choices
The adage “expect the unexpected” has seldom been as apt as it has proved to be in this year’s election for governor.
Gov. Bill Walker, facing stiff opposition for re-election, was dealt a body blow when former Sen. Mark Begich won the Democratic primary, which Walker had bypassed.
Begich was widely seen as a spoiler who would steal votes from Walker and ease the path to the governor’s office for conservative Republican Mike Dunleavy. Then, with the forced resignation of Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott and Walker out of the running, the one-time spoiler has become, in our opinion, our best hope to keep the state on an even keel in still-perilous times.
We liked and admired Gov. Walker for his brave decision to use reserves from the Permanent Fund to stabilize government finances after cutbacks in services proved insufficient to stop the state’s slide toward fiscal bankruptcy. He’d have won our vote if he were still a candidate.
The voters’ choice is now Begich or Dunleavy, and Begich has our vote.
As mayor of Anchorage and in six years as U.S. Senator, Begich has shown himself to be an able public servant. More to the point, he has not, to our knowledge, made campaign promises that cannot be carried out.
Mr. Dunleavy is promising a full Permanent Fund dividend and a budget balanced through government cutbacks, resource development and no new taxes. Great promises, but in our opinion completely unrealistic. He’s made no promises to Sitka – he is the first major candidate for governor since statehood not to campaign here – but from what we have learned, state funding for education is one of those items that he has in his sights for cutbacks.
Dunleavy as governor would not, in our opinion, be good for Sitka.
For state House, our choice is Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins. With three terms under his belt JKT has proved to be an effective advocate for Sitka. His membership in the bipartisan majority coalition, which is likely to prevail in the House after this election, gives him an increasing leadership role in the House as well as an influential voice for the state’s coastal communities.
We expect Ballot Measure No. 1, the Stand for Salmon initiative, to pass handily in Sitka. This is a town built on salmon, and when the public hearing on the initiative was held here, no one came forward to talk against it.
If passed it will enact salmon habitat protections that far exceed those already in place. That would be a good thing, but a close reading of the pages of fine print in this proposed law suggest that this may be a case where we should be careful what we wish for. Public and private projects of all kinds will be more expensive and take longer to build, and there will be a cost to that. Will the new protections be worth the cost that all of us will pay if this passes? Time will tell.
We will comment finally on the race for U.S. House. Don Young has earned the right to a happy retirement with our thanks for his many decades of service for Alaska.
This may not be the year for that to happen, but his bright young challenger, Alyse Galvin, is our choice for Congress in this election.
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20 YEARS AGO
April 2004
Photo caption: Sen. Lisa Murkowski talks with students in Karoline Bekeris’ fourth-grade class Thursday at the Westmark Shee Atika. From left are Murkowski, Kelsey Boussom, Laura Quinn and Memito Diaz.
50 YEARS AGO
April 1974
A medley of songs from “Jesus Christ Superstar” will highlight the morning worship service on Palm Sunday at the United Methodist Church. Musicians will be Paige Garwood and Karl Hartman on guitars; Dan Goodness on organ; and Gayle Erickson on drums.