Author: Joel Southern/read by Melissa Marconi-Wentzel

The Sitka Fine Arts Camp was one of eighteen youth programs nationwide to win a prestigious Coming Up Taller award this year. First Lady Laura Bush presented the awards at a White House ceremony on Monday (1-28-08).

Twenty-two adult teams from around the state competed last weekend in the second annual Mt. Edgecumbe Invitational basketball tournament. The closest contest of the tournament was also its last: the Haines Merchants defeated Hydaburg, 97-to-96 to win the Open Division championship. KCAW’s Leah Mann took in some of the action at the BJ McGillis gym on Saturday(1-26-08). She sends this audio postcard. (For complete tourney results, click on "more...")

The Sitka assembly has chosen a candidate with a long past to lead the community into the future. James Dinley, most recently the administrator of Fort Oglethorpe, Georgia, was one of a pair of administrator finalists interviewed in a public meeting over several hours last Friday (1-25-08). Here's how Sitka's "administrator-elect" handled himself during the interview, and what the assembly expects from the job.

The Sitka Tribe of Alaska is tightening up its child protection policies. The Tribal Council passed an ordinance last week (1/16/08) requiring all employees, as well as volunteers and contractors who have direct interaction with children or the public, to undergo criminal background checks.

Faced with increased demand and lower-than-average rainfall this winter, the Sitka electric department is playing the odds, and is running diesel generators to supplement the city’s two hydro projects. The strategy – which costs roughly $7-thousand dollars a day in fuel – is intended to conserve water behind the dams for Sitka’s more typical dry season in March and April.

Alaska Marine Highway System General Manager John Falvey speaks with Raven Radio about the draft summer ferry schedule, (set to be released by the end of this month), increased fast ferry service to Sitka, and direct connections to the villages.

Sitka's electric director Charlie Walls says demand in Sitka is not significantly higher in Sitka this year over last. The problem is that as Sitka closes in on the limit of its hydro capacity, the system is much more susceptible to variations in rainfall -- and much more dependent on diesel back-up. Full interview with KCAW's Robert Woolsey.

Silver Bay Seafoods has offered to buy the former pulp dock, warehouse, and some other industrial waterfront in Sitka – for nothing. Following a 45-minute executive session Wednesday night (1-23-08) the Sitka assembly agreed to bring the terms of the unusual deal forward for a public hearing.

Debate over a roundabout in Sikta concluded Tuesday night (1-22-08) and the answer is no. Despite an in-person appeal from the Southeast region director of the Department of Transportation, the Sitka assembly failed to approve granting the easements that would have allowed the DOT to build a roundabout at Swan Lake.

Third-grader Jack Weaver from Sitka is one of two grand prize winners of the 2008 Subsistence Student Art Contest, a statewide competition intended to encourage young people to share their subsistence way of life with others. Weaver’s watercolor depicting spawning salmon will grace the cover of the 2008-09 subsistence fishing regulations book. Melissa Marconi Wentzel caught up with the young artist at his home and filed this report,