It takes a village – and I’ve found mine
By Melinda Munson My son hadn’t been on a plane for seven years. The only reason I put him on a flight in 2016 was because the drive from Las Vegas to Alaska would have ...
Opinion – Endure, ignore or push back – choosing our battles
By Gretchen Wehmhoff March is Women’s History Month and we, Melinda and I, write history. That’s the major afterproduct of a newspaper – the place for research about what happened in a town, nation or ...
Opinion – There’s no place like home
By Melinda Munson This month, The Skagway News bids farewell to the newsroom. We’re not closing up shop, just moving our computers to my home. It makes sense to work from my abode, where I ...
Opinion – Fear of backlash encourages censorship
By Gretchen Wehmhoff For over two decades I advised an award-winning high school student newspaper in the state’s largest school district. During that time I pretty much gained a permanent seat in the principal’s office, ...
Will there be judgment?
By Melinda Munson My mom tells a story from decades ago about kneeling above a drug addict in a dirty men’s bathroom near Boston and administering mouth to mouth. It wasn’t what she expected to ...
Snowy memories – looking at the sky
By Gretchen Wehmhoff With the latest dump of snow, winter really showed up. People had to step out of their comfort zones – I mean the comfort zone of toasty homes and cable television. There ...
What to know about your small-town editor
By Melinda Munson When I first came to Skagway, I had the naive idea that I would be the co-owner of the paper during professional hours and just myself the rest of the day. I ...
Turtle tales – the trip home
By Gretchen Wehmhoff Joe and I recently traveled Outside. We are experienced travelers and pack so we can get through TSA smoothly. On this trip we entered a security line where the no nonsense officer ...
October moose
By Gretchen Wehmhoff The evening drive into Anchorage to meet my brother’s flight from New York was a quiet break from a busy day. Pressing the accelerator to climb the hill past Eagle River, I ...
The hawk and the magpie
By Gretchen Wehmhoff Joe and I awakened one spring morning to a chaotic, cacophony outside our bedroom window. About 20 magpies squawked, fluttered and dove at an object on the ground in the backyard. It ...