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Today's top stories

Carrying The Torch

Alaska Department of Public Safety Training Academy cadets and others jog over the O'Connell Bridge Saturday during the national Law Enforcement Torch Run. The event is held to raise awareness and funds for the Special Olympics programs. The Torch Run was created in 1981 by Wichita, Kansas Police Chief Richard LaMunyon to help law enforcement be active in the community and support Special Olympics.
John McCrehin works the counter at the Sitka Sportsman's Association Salmon Derby weigh-in barge at Crescent Harbor today.

70th Salmon Derby Kicks Off Saturday

The annual Sitka Salmon Derby kicks off Saturday and will draw local angers of all ages to pursue king salmon in the waters around town in search of prizes or fame, but foul weather is in the offing, with rain and wind expected through the holiday...

Rainy, Windy Days Ahead

Foul weather is forecast for the holiday weekend, with gale force winds called for in southern Southeast and plenty of precipitation on the docket after a short reprieve from difficult weather this week, as a low pressure front holds steady over...
Maia Carter, facing camera, and other Sitkans dance on Lincoln Street during the 2024 Sitka Porch Fest. Carter is coordinating music for this year's festival, which takes place Saturday.

Sitkans Will Take to the Streets for Porch Fest

Porch Fest, the annual street festival in downtown Sitka on Saturday, will celebrate Sitka artists, art in all its forms and - perhaps most of all - community. “My favorite thing about Porch Fest is the sense of community, just being able to be...
Seiners and tenders take part in the 2024 Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery.

CSI Project Promotes Herring Fisheries

Alaska’s commercial herring fisheries are under evaluation for a Responsible Fishery Management eco-certification that could boost sales and harvest of herring, says the state-run Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute that commissioned the RFM...

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Community news
Climate Connection: Sharing to Protect Climate
Part of protecting our future and that of our children is to reduce consumerism, to recycle and reuse the earth’s resources, and to live within ecological limits. With that in mind, Wales has passed a law entitled “Wellbeing of Future Generations...
Pioneers of Alaska of Sitka Igloos 12 and 22 provided a $500 scholarship award to Sitka High School graduate Fiona A. Caalim on May 15. From left are Pioneers of Alaska Life Member John Stein, Caalim, POA President Joe Murray, and Vice-President Florence Murray. (Photo provided to the Sentinel)
Pioneers of Alaska Scholarship
SITKA CHESS TOURNAMENT – Participants in the First Bank Sitka Chess Tournament line up following the tourney May 17 in Sitka. It was Sitka Chess Club’s first rated U.S. Chess Federation event. Tournament Director Reilly O’Hara, Alaska Chess Federation, traveled from Anchorage to run the event. Final tournament standings are: Rated Open, first Alexander Allison, second Joey Mudry, third Zeke Blackwell. Rated Scholastic, first Marcus Bakkes, second Sylas Degner, third Riot Lindbergh. Unrated Open, first Stephen Black, second Kaeden Skultka, third Harry Lysons III. Sitka plans to send a contingent to the Alaska State Championship on Oct. 4 in Anchorage. Appreciation was extended to the tournament’s corporate sponsors, First Bank, and to the Alaska Chess Federation. (Photo provided to the Sentinel)
Sitka Chess Tournament
Adult Snorkel Series Offered
Adults are invited to hone their cold-water snorkeling skills while exploring different underwater zones around Sitka Sound with a small group and trained Science Center staff. Snorkelers will meet at 8 a.m. for four Fridays, beginning May 30 and...
SASY Program for Middle-Schoolers
LO-Play Camp At Science Center
LO-Play, a camp for 3-5 year olds, is being offered by Sitka Sound Science Center. Focused on outdoor learning and exploration, it will meet 9 a.m.-noon Monday-Thursday, July 9-12, on the SJ Campus and science center property. ‘‘Our explorations...
8-Ball Banquet Slated May 27
Greater Sitka Pool League will have its 8-ball banquet 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 27, at the Sitka Moose Lodge 1350 upstairs. A social hour will precede at 6 p.m.
CELEBRATION – Blatchley Middle School eighth-graders mark the end of middle school with a picnic at Halibut Point Recreation Area May 20. (Photo provided)
Eighth-Grade Celebration
Bingocize Has New Start Time Fridays
Bingocize at the Swan Lake Senior Center now runs 10-11 a.m. Fridays. For information, contact Sitka Parks and Recreation by emailing recreation@cityofsitka.org or by calling 907 747-4031.
Scrap Yard Closure
The city’s scrap yard at Gary Paxton Industrial Park will be closed May 27 in observance of Memorial Day. Regular business hours of 8 a.m.-4 p.m.  will resume on May 28. 

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Police blotter

Police Blotter May 23, 2025

Police Blotter Sitka Police Department logged the following calls as of 8 a.m. today. May 22 At 3:36 a.m. three bears were reported to have dragged a trash can into the street on Toivo Circle. The can was put back in place but trash remained...

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Obituaries
 Services to be Saturday For Natividad Manaois
It is with heavy hearts that we announce the passing of Natividad Juanitez Manaois, lovingly known as Naty, who passed away on May 4, 2025, at 10:40 PM at the Anchorage Pioneer Home, surrounded by her beloved husband Mario and...
Janice Limbaugh
Service for Janice Limbaugh Scheduled Sunday, May 18
A celebration of the life of Janice Marie (Williams) Limbaugh will be held 3 p.m. Sunday, May 18, at the ANB Founders Hall. It will be potluck-style. Janice died Oct. 13, 2024, in Spokane, Washington. A former Sitkan, she had been a resident of...
Life of Irene Shuler, 85, To be Celebrated May 24
Irene Shuler, 85, passed away peacefully surrounded by family and friends, on April 24, 2025, in Sitka, Alaska. Irene is survived by her cherished husband of 47 years, Kaye Dethridge; her loving brother, Dennis; her nieces Chelsea and Elyse,...
Former Sitkan Cindy Davis Dies in Hawaii at Age 69
Today would have been Cindy Davis's 70th Birthday. However, it was not meant to be. This is a clip of Cindy's life. She always said, “Every year after 30 is a bonus.” Cynthia Nadine...

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Sports

Wolves Take Top Spots in Another Track Meet

Sitka’s Clare Mullin runs in the girls’ 3200-meter, winning the race with a time of 10:50.78 during the Ketchikan Invitational at Esther Shea Field on Friday. (Photo by Christopher Mullen / Ketchikan Daily News)
Competing in the last regular season meet of the season, Sitka High’s track and field athletes put up solid times Friday and Saturday in Ketchikan, continuing this year’s high performing streak with many first and second place finishes in...

Racers Compete in Julie Hughes Triathlon

Athletes of all ages convened for the 41st annual Julie Hughes Triathlon, Saturday all around town. The event, which drew dozens of runners, cyclists and swimmers, included a 5 mile run, 14 mile bike ride and 1,000 yard swim for adults and offered...

Baseball, Track Teams Compete

Sitka High’s baseball squad routed the Petersburg Vikings in a three-game home series over the weekend. The Wolves blanked Petersburg 17-0 Friday in foul weather before playing twice more in better conditions Saturday, winning 11-1 and...

Sitka Faces Rivals at Rainy Late-Season Meet

Racing in the final home meet of the season, Sitka High’s track and field athletes tested themselves against runners from other Southeast schools and, as has been usual through the season, snagged a series of top finishes, Friday and Saturday at...

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Sitka Yesterday May 23, 2025

20 YEARS AGO

May 2005

The Sitka Amateur Boxing Club won the team title Saturday at a regional competition in Ketchikan. All three Sitka Boxers –Ethan Ojala, Jack See and Wyatt Ojala – won at least one match.

50 YEARS AGO

May 1975

The Holy Synod of the Orthodox Church in America has sanctioned a church-wide appeal for the Alaskan Diocese and specifically toward the reconstruction of the historic St. Michael’s Cathedral. In addition, all parishes of the church will hold a special collection for St. Michael’s Cathedral on Nov. 23. The cathedral was destroyed in a downtown fire on Jan. 2, 1966.

Read previous Sitka Yesterdays

Around Alaska
Music executive Dave Shapiro poses for a portrait on Dec. 3, 2024, in Nashville. (Stephanie Siau/Sound Talent Group via AP)

Dave Shapiro, groundbreaking music executive, dies in San Diego plane crash at 42

Groundbreaking music executive Dave Shapiro has died in a San Diego plane crash. He was 42. The music agency Sound Talent Group confirmed Shapiro died in the crash. He had a pilot’s license and was …

Alaska’s Legislature was in session for four months: Here’s what they did with their time.

Before adjourning their regular session for the year, Alaska legislators passed 33 bills through both the House and Senate. Two were vetoed before lawmakers left the Capitol. One of those became the subject of the first successful veto override since 2009. Here’s a look at what’s passed and is headed to Gov. Mike Dunleavy for […]

Lawsuit challenges permit for mine site construction on west side of Alaska’s Cook Inlet

Conservation groups and a Tribal government have sued to overturn a permit that allows a mining company to build a road and expand an airstrip at a site important to endangered whales. At issue is the permit the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers granted in September to Contango ORE Inc. for construction work at the […]

Alaska city reaches $2.1M settlement with family of a 16-year-old fatally shot by a police officer

Alaska’s largest city has reached a $2.1 million settlement with the family of a 16-year-old girl who was holding a knife last August when she was fatally shot by a police officer. Anchorage Mayor …

Alaska House votes to raise age of sexual consent — but with a caveat

The Alaska Legislature is on pace to raise the state’s age of sexual consent to 18 next year, after the state House voted 39-0 to approve House Bill 101 on Monday. The bill now goes to the state Senate, which is expected to take it up in January, when lawmakers convene for the second year […]

New bill would prohibit hard-rock metals mining in Alaska’s Bristol Bay watershed

Mere hours before he banged his gavel to adjourn this year’s session of the Alaska House of Representatives, Speaker Bryce Edgmon, I-Dillingham, introduced a bill to bar metals mining from the Bristol Bay watershed. The measure, House Bill 233, would expand on the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2023 decision prohibiting permitting of the controversial Pebble Project […]

Senate President Gary Stevens to retire; House Rep. Louise Stutes announces run for seat

After 22 years in the Alaska Senate, Senate President Gary Stevens is retiring.  Stevens’ decision has been discussed in the Alaska Capitol for more than a year, but on Tuesday, it became official as Kodiak Republican Rep. Louise Stutes became the first person to announce that she will run for Stevens’ seat. “I certainly will […]

Restraining order on Alaska bear cull to be in place until state fixes identified legal flaws

A state judge has extended a restraining order that bars the Alaska Department of Fish and Game from killing bears in a controversial predator-control program. Superior Court Judge Christina Rankin, in an order issued late Monday, said the department’s decision to shoot bears earlier this month in violation of a previous court ruling justified her […]

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From the Associated Press
National news
FILE - North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein delivers the State of the State address at the Legislative Building, March 12, 2025, in Raleigh N.C. (AP Photo/Chris Seward, File)

North Carolina's high court says elections board shift can continue while governor appeals

The North Carolina Supreme Court has confirmed it was OK for a new law that shifted the power to appoint State Board of Elections members away from the Democratic governor to start being enforced …
at the site of a plane crash Friday, May 23, 2025, in San Diego. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)

Federal investigators comb site of San Diego plane crash in neighborhood of military housing

Federal investigators are combing a San Diego neighborhood a day after a private jet carrying a music executive and five others crashed there and are presumed dead. Among those killed on board was …
FILE - A sculler rows down the Charles River near Harvard University, at rear, Tuesday, April 15, 2025, in Cambridge, Mass. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, File)

Sanction on Harvard's foreign students strikes at the heart of the university's global allure

For students around the world, an acceptance letter to Harvard University has represented the pinnacle of achievement. The letter offers a spot among the elite at a campus that produces Nobel Prize …
President Donald Trump arrives on Air Force One at Morristown Municipal Airport in Morristown, N.J., Friday, May 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

Environmentalists' lawsuit challenges Trump's order to allow commercial fishing in Pacific monument

Environmentalists are challenging in court President Donald Trump’s executive order that they say strips core protections from the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument and opens the …
International
FILE - President Donald Trump receives El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele at the West Wing of the White House, in Washington, April 14, 2025. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)

Why El Salvador President Bukele's foreign agents law is fueling democratic concerns

Human rights organizations, politicians and experts have sharply criticized a law approved by El Salvador’s Congress this week that seeks to limit foreign influence and corruption. They say it is a …
A number of people were injured in Ukraine’s capital early on Saturday as Russia launched a massive combined drone and missile attack. Explosions were heard throughout Kyiv and many residents sought shelter in the underground subway stations. (AP video by Illia Novikov)

Kyiv comes under large-scale Russian drone and missile attack with explosions heard throughout city

Ukraine’s capital has came under a large-scale combined drone and missile attack with explosions and machine gun fire heard throughout the city. Many residents of Kyiv are taking shelter in the …

Kyiv comes under a massive Russian drone and missile attack with explosions heard throughout city

Kyiv comes under a massive Russian drone and missile attack with explosions heard throughout city.
CORRECTS TIME SPENT IN COUNTRY - The UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, Margaret Satterthwaite, speaks during a press conference at the end of her two-week visit, in Guatemala City, Friday, May 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Moises Castillo)

UN expert says Guatemalan prosecutor's office using criminal law to pursue opponents

A United Nations expert has warned at the conclusion of her two-week visit that Guatemala’s prosecutor’s office is increasingly using criminal law against former prosecutors, judges, defense …
National Sports
New York Yankees second baseman DJ LeMahieu warms up before a baseball game against the Colorado Rockies, Friday, May 23, 2025, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)

DJ LeMahieu makes his 2nd return to Coors Field with Yanks as his former team historically struggles

For DJ LeMahieu, it doesn’t seem all that long ago when he was leading the Colorado Rockies to back-to-back postseason appearances. That was one of his highlights as a member of the squad. For the …

Jenny Bae birdies last hole for 36-hole lead in LPGA's Mexico tournament

Jenny Bae is trying to soak up the scenery at Mayakoba and the best view might be the top of the leaderboard. Bae birdied her last hole for another 69 to take a one-shot lead into the weekend at the …
St. Louis Cardinals' Ivan Herrera, right and Willson Contreras celebrate after scoring during the seventh inning of a baseball game against the Detroit Tigers Monday, May 19, 2025, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)

Contreras sidelined for Cardinals' game against Diamondbacks due to back spasms

St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Willson Contreras will miss Friday night’s game against Arizona due to back spasms. The Cardinals said the 33-year-old Contreras was scratched shortly before the …
Entertainment
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth listens during an event with President Donald Trump to sign executive orders regarding nuclear energy in the Oval Office of the White House, Friday, May 23, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Defense Secretary Hegseth, bedeviled by leaks, orders more restrictions on press at Pentagon

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has ordered further restrictions on how the press operates at the Pentagon. Announcing the move on X just before a holiday weekend, Hegseth's orders ban journalists' …

FILE - Photographer Sebastiao Salgado waves to photographers during the presentation of his exhibition, 'Kuwait: A Desert on Fire', at the Galleria Meravigli, in Milan, Italy, Oct. 20, 2017. Salgado, known for his long-term projects and images of nature and humanity, died at age 81, the Instituto Terra confirmed on Friday, May 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno, File)

Award-winning Brazilian photographer Sebastião Salgado dies at age 81, his institute says

Brazilian photographer and environmentalist Sebastião Salgado, known for his award-winning images of nature and humanity, has died at age 81. Instituto Terra, which was founded by him and his wife, …
Shu Qi poses for photographers at the photo call for the film "Resurrection" during the 78th international film festival in Cannes, southern France, Friday, May 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

AP PHOTOS: Highlights from Day 11 of the Cannes Film Festival

CANNES, France (AP) — Much of the cinema world has descended on the Cannes Film Festival as the French Riviera extravaganza holds its 78th edition. This gallery features daily highlights from …
Health
FILE - A protester demonstrates in front of a Planned Parenthood on July 12, 2022, in Saint Paul, Minn. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr, File)

A Planned Parenthood affiliate plans to close 4 clinics in Iowa and another 4 in Minnesota

A Midwestern affiliate of Planned Parenthood says it will close four of its six clinics in Iowa and four in Minnesota within a year. The announcement Friday by Planned Parenthood North Central States …

FILE - Musician Billy Joel performs during his 100th lifetime performance at Madison Square Garden on Wednesday, July 18, 2018, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP, File)

Billy Joel cancels touring after being diagnosed with a brain disorder

Billy Joel has canceled all his upcoming concerts across North America and England after being diagnosed with fluid buildup in his brain that has affected his “hearing, vision and balance.” Joel …
FILE - West Virginia Gov. Patrick Morrisey speaks during a news conference at the Hubert Humphrey Building Auditorium in Washington, April 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)

Groups sue over West Virginia governor's order on religious exemptions for school vaccines

Two groups have filed a lawsuit over an executive order by West Virginia's governor granting religious exemptions from required school vaccinations. The American Civil Liberties Union’s West …
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