Author: Andi McDaniel

Democratic House candidate Ethan Berkowitz stopped by KCAW last Thursday (7-3-08) to talk with reporter Andi McDaniel about the issues weighing on Sitkans' minds these days.

Sitka was awash in stars and stripes this weekend for the yearly Fourth of July celebration. KCAW’s Andi McDaniel paraded around with her recording equipment and brought back this audio postcard.

Alaska-based Coast Guardsmen will continue to receive cold-weather survival training under a bill passed this spring by the US House of Representatives. Last year, funding for the program was quietly eliminated in Alaska’s district 17. But this year the training received some influential exposure when one of its graduates was awarded the Coast Guard’s highest honor for bravery, and credited the classes with his survival.

A deadly plane crash in downtown Sitka almost a year ago was the result of pilot error. The National Transportation Safety Board recently released the results of its investigation into the August 6th crash which took the lives of the plane’s occupants, destroyed a home, but spared everyone on the ground.

KCAW's Andi McDaniel speaks with former Dean of Students Chris Bryner about how the Sheldon Jackson community has fared since the school's sudden closure last summer.

US Senate candidate Mark Begich will be in Sitka this weekend (7-6-08) as part of his “energy tour” of Alaska’s coastal communities. KCAW’s Robert Woolsey caught up with the Anchorage mayor by cell phone to ask about the Sealaska lands selections bill, and the North Pacific Fisheries Management Council.

Anchorage mayor Mark Begich is making a bid for the US Senate seat currently held by Ted Stevens. Begich, a Democrat, is in his fifth year serving as the mayor of Alaska’s largest city. He hopes to reshape Alaska’s image as an energy-producing state, and take a lead in the development of renewable energy.

The 2008 Sitka Health Summit has placed food security and a local fish market at the top of the list of this year’s priorities. While an all-community greenhouse is the long-range goal, summit organizers could not let the summer growing season pass by without getting started. Last Saturday (6-28-08) volunteers tilled topsoil and sand into a sunny plot of ground behind the See House of St. Peters Episcopal Church.

Dog Point Fish Camp teaches traditional Tlingit food skills to Natives and non-Natives alike. To watch slideshow, click on this story's title, then on the words "watch slideshow."

Most of the shed roofs have been replaced with more “homey” gabled dormers, the stairways and entries are covered, and the Sitka assembly has run out of objections to a proposed affordable housing project at the old city shops. After four hours of public testimony and deliberation spanning two evenings this week (6-24 & 6-26-08), the assembly approved a 35-percent design concept for the Dana Bay Homes project on Halibut Point Road.