Author: John Straley/Finn Straley

Handsome, smart rodent pair EEK & SQEEK return to the air with the Christmas Eve edition of Raven News. Phone interview with Saint N. himself on this year's assembly gift lineup; a daring rodent protest at the Sitka Nutcracker; Gov. Palin's anti-corruption war chest; and much more. Heard during the regular local news slot on Raven Radio, Christmas Eve, 2007.

During the holiday season, student reporter Leah Mann explains why Sitka wouldn't be Sitka without its license plates.

The Alaska Longline Fishermen's Association won't oppose the proposed reduction in the halibut harvest when they attend the annual meeting of the International Pacific Halibut Commission in Portland next month (1-15-08). But, they are going to urge the commission to be more conservative in how much it raises the quota in western Alaska.

The Sitka assembly Tuesday night (12-18-07) appointed Heidi Raffaele to serve out the remainder of John Holst's term. Raffaele, a former teacher in the Sitka School District, was the second runner-up in last October's municipal election.

Fred Reeder, of the Cruise Line Agencies of Alaska (in Sitka), says the threat to the SE cruise industry from a re-interpretation of the Jones Act could be avoided by defining a "foreign port call" as 8-10 hours, rather than the 48 proposed by US Customs and Border Protection. Interview with KCAWs Robert Woolsey.

Heavy snows have hit Northern Southeast Alaska, fulfilling a weather forecast that earlier this month prompted the state Department of Fish and Game to close down the winter doe hunt throughout much of the region. And the subsistence hunt may follow.

With over $3.3 million in major awards for several community organizations and projects, December has been a good month for grant writers in Sitka.

The state Department of Fish and Game’s preliminary guideline harvest level for the 2008 Sitka Sound Sac Roe herring fishery is the highest ever. Still, fishery managers say they’re being conservative. Meanwhile, the Sitka Tribe of Alaska is calling the commercial quota “shocking”, and predicts it will jeopardize the subsistence herring egg harvest.

Research published this week (12-13-07) in the journal Science indicates that a well-known parasite may threaten wild Pacific salmon stocks to a much greater extent than previously thought. Sea lice reared in British Columbia’s salmon farms are spreading to -- and killing – wild runs of juvenile salmon. News of the Science study is being met in Alaska’s fishing community with renewed concern over salmon farming. In Sitka, the assembly wasted no time in passing a resolution supporting the protection of wild salmon. Robert Woolsey (with help from Steve Heimel, Anchorage, and Joel Southern, Washington DC).

The purchase of the 200-acre University benchlands will go ahead as planned. The Sitka assembly (on 12-11-07) voted down a proposal from the mayor to cancel the $3-million dollar purchase, in the hope that development costs can be kept to a reasonable minimum, and that Sitkans could have access to some of the last, prime residential real estate in town.