Author: Robert Woolsey

A pair of orphaned brown bear cubs captured two years ago has settled into their new home at an exhibit in Sitka called “Fortress of the Bear.” With a steady year-round diet, the cubs have grown large for their age. Both are somewhere between three- and four-hundred pounds, and they could easily be mistaken for four-year-olds. This summer offered an opportunity to neuter the brothers, before they reach sexual maturity. And managers at the Fortress last Thursday (6-11-09) decided to seize it.

Kotzebue author Seth Kantner published his first novel, Ordinary Wolves, in 2004. The story followed the lives of a non-Native family who had chosen to make their home in Northwestern Alaska, and to adopt the traditional lifestyle and subsistence practices of the area’s Yupik culture. Ordinary Wolves was an impressive literary debut for an author who grew up home-schooled in sod igloo on the Kobuk River. Kantner won the prestigious Whiting Writers’ Award for the novel, and began work on a second book – this time non-fiction – called Shopping for Porcupine. Kantner will be in Sitka Tuesday (06-15-09), at Kettleson Memorial Library, to read from his new book. KCAW’s Robert Woolsey spoke recently with Kantner about the need to separate fact from fiction in Ordinary Wolves, by writing a memoir:

The Sitka Summer Band performed their annual concert at the O'Connell Bridge Visitor's Dock on June 12th. This year, the middle- and high school marching band debuted a concert version of the classic Saturday Night Live sketch, "More Cowbell."

Water rates in Sitka will go up starting in July. The Sitka Assembly on Tuesday passed the first increase in residential and commercial water rates since 2002 – and more increases could be on the way. The environmental department says it is playing catch-up to repair and maintain an antiquated system and facing new federal standards for water quality. Emily Schwing reports.

A former Sitka baseball standout has been drafted into the majors. 2005 Sitka High graduate Matt Way was selected by the Philadelphia Phillies in the fifth round of the major league draft yesterday (06-09-09). Way is a left-handed pitcher who just finished his senior year at Washington State University.

The Sitka assembly last night (06-09-09) passed a $54-million dollar budget for next year, but not before tapping into its non-profit grants fund to pay for some ballfield maintenance and library books. The last-minute requests sparked a debate among assembly members about the proper timing for amending the budget.

Strong Southeast competition dominated at the 2009 softball and baseball state championships this past weekend. Sitka High’s women’s softball team and the men’s baseball team matched up against men’s and women’s teams from Ketchikan. KCAW’s Emily Schwing has the results.

If you visited the Sheldon Jackson Museum recently, you might have seen a woman in a floral-print kuspuk teaching a cruise ship visitor to play Eskimo yo-yo. Emily Johnston, a master weaver from Nunivak, is one of thirteen native artists participating in the museum’s demonstrator program this summer. KCAW’s Shaleece Haas spoke with Johnston about her art.

The prolonged warm, dry weather enjoyed by Southeast Alaskans so far this summer comes with a price: increased fire danger in Tongass. The typically damp environment can dry out quickly when temperatures move into the 60’s and 70’s. Land managers are braced for what could be another busy fire season in the rainforest.

The first documented case of the H1N1 swine flu in Southeast Alaska was reported at the SEARHC clinic in Haines yesterday (Thu 6-4-09). The state virology lab has confirmed that a preteen examined at the Haines clinic for flu-like symptoms had contracted the novel H1N1 virus.