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Authorities identify avalanche
victim
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Alaska State Troopers say 30-year-old Joel
Schihl of Anchorage was the backcountry skier who died in today's
avalanche near Girdwood.
Officials say Schihl was found buried under at least four feet of
snow at Raggedtop Mountain, about a mile from the Crow Creek trail
head.
Rescuers say that's a common destination for backcountry skiers.
Schihl had been skiing with another man, 28-year-old Bradley
Cosgrove of Bird.
They were caught in the 1000-foot-wide avalanche that fell about
two-thousand feet.
Cosgrove managed to free himself and switched on an emergency
beacon. He found Schihl's body soon after rescuers arrived in a
helicopter.
Cosgrove was taken to his vehicle and released.
PFD Division sets new one day record for on-line filed applications
The 2006 Permanent Fund Dividend application period that opened Monday morning at 12:01 is off and rolling in a big way.
There were 20,500 applications filed on-line, a new record.
Paul Dick, Chief of Operations for the Permanent Fund Dividend Office in the Alaska Department of Revenue, was among the guests on
KINY's Capital Chat this morning (Tuesday).
He says the previous record was about 8,500 last year on
last year's March 31st deadline.
Dick says the number filed on-line Monday exceeded what they got the entire first week last year.
The division expects to receive 325,000 on-line applications this year, up from last year's total of 211,000. They anticipate 635,000 total applications this year, about 5,000 more than last year.
Alaskans filing on-line this month, who select direct deposit, will receive their dividend October 4th.
Everyone else applying on-line or with a paper application who chose direct deposit will get their money October 19th.
Checks will go out in the mail mid-November this year, about three weeks later than last year as the division provides a further inducement to file on-line.
Meanwhile, booklets are going out in the mail today to every residential address and post office box.
Angoon search continuing by
Troopers and local residents
The search is continuing in the Angoon area for a 36 year-old man reported missing Sunday evening.
The Coast Guard suspended its search for Kevin O'Brian of Angoon late Monday afternoon.
A helicopter from Air Station Sitka searched the area with no sightings.
Scott Wilwert in the Coast Guard's Command Center in Juneau says others continue to search.
State Troopers tell us a search party of 30 people and nine boats are continuing the effort today. (Tuesday).
O'Brian departed Killisnoo for Angoon in an 18-foot skiff. His boat was found beached near the seaplane dock in Angoon.
A Trooper dispatch says O'Brian was in the process of bringing his skiff from the ferry terminal in Angoon to the boat harbor when he fell overboard.
In another search effort, the body of 22 year-old Aaron Hope was found in the Ketchikan area at about eight Monday morning.
A Coast Guard crew aboard a 47-foot
rescue boat located the body above
the tide line on Whisky Cove on Pennock Island.
The Coast Guard, along with the
State Troopers, retrieved the body and returned it to Ketchikan.
Hope left a New Year's Eve party on Pennock Island between midnight and one a.m. Sunday headed for Bar Harbor.
His 14-foot skiff was discovered on the beach in Whiskey Cove at Noon Sunday.
Plane
crash near Seward kills one man, injures father
One man was killed and another seriously injured in the crash of a light plane near Seward Monday.
The Coast Guard detected an emergency locating transmitter at about Noon that was originating about 7 and a half miles east of the Kenai Peninsula community.
A short time later the Coast Guard located a the single engine aircraft crashed to the west of Godwin Glacier at about 4,000 feet.
The Army Air National Guard dispatched a helicopter out of Anchorage to respond to the scene, as well as a helicopter that the Coast Guard dispatched from Kodiak in an attempt to reach the downed aircraft.
The crash site was reached at about nine last night.
Two adult males were found at the scene. They are identified as 60 year old Wayne Koecher and his son, 24 year old Wayne
Koecher, Junior. Both are from Cooper Landing.
The younger man was pronounced dead at Providence Hospital shortly after his arrival there last night. (Monday)
His father remains hospitalized in serious, but stable condition.
Former gubernatorial candidate
Campbell dies in Anchorage
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Businessman and two-time gubernatorial
candidate Jim Campbell has died at the age of 73.
Campbell died Monday of a cerebral hemorrhage at the Anchorage home
of his son.
Campbell ran for governor as a Republican twice in the 1990s. He
lost the Republican primary to Arliss Sturgulewski in 1990. In a
bizarre twist, he then signed on as Sturgulewski's running mate when
lieutenant governor candidate Jack Coghill left her to run with
Wally Hickel. The Hickel-Coghill ticket, under the Alaskan
Independence Party, went on to win.
Campbell ran again in 1994 and won the G-O-P primary. He lost the
general election by fewer than 600 votes to Democrat Tony Knowles.
Before he entered Alaskan politics, Campbell was a businessman
responsible for the expansion of Spenard Builders Supply.
Point Hope woman dies in crash, fire at Point Hope airport
BARROW, Alaska (AP) - North Slope Borough Police in Barrow say a woman died in a van fire on the airport tarmac in Point Hope.
Twenty-eight-year-old Patricia Stone died Saturday afternoon.
Police say Stone was driving recklessly at a high rate of speed.
The rear end of her van struck a piece of equipment on the tarmac.
Borough firefighters found the van engulfed in flames.
Attempts to extinguish the fire initially were unsuccessful.
A passenger in the van, 39-year-old Juanita
Oktollik, was not injured.
An autopsy was scheduled for Stone.
Police say alcohol may have been a factor in the crash.
Point Hope is village of 726 people on the coast of the Chukchi Sea 330 miles southwest of Barrow.
Witnesses say driver in double fatal was driving fast
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Witnesses say an Anchorage man was traveling at a high speeds on the Seward Highway before crashing into a car that killed an Anchor Point couple.
Sixty-two-year-old Kenneth Wardwell and 58-year-old Lizabeth Wardwell died yesterday (Monday) after their car was struck by a pickup truck driven by 20-year-old Sean Nakaahiki near Bird.
The fatal crash was one of at least five wrecks Monday between Anchorage and Girdwood.
Alaska State Trooper Sergeant William Welch says witnesses told him they were driving 65 miles per hour a few minutes before the crash and Nakaahiki sped by them.
They estimate Nakaahiki was traveling 80 to 85 miles per hour.
Troopers say black ice covered stretches of the highway.
Welch says Nakaahiki sped over a rise, skidded out of control downhill into the oncoming lane and crashed into the
Wardwells' car.
Witnesses say Nakaahiki's pickup went airborne, spinning and landing in trees about 30 feet down an embankment.
The Wardwells were pronounced dead at the scene.
Nakaahiki was taken to an Anchorage hospital and admitted for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries.
(Anchorage Daily News)
Moose kill down on Kenai Peninsula
KENAI, Alaska (AP) - The state Department of Fish and Game says low snowfall is probably the reason fewer moose are being killed by vehicles on the Kenai Peninsula.
For the past seven years, cars and trucks have killed an average of 40 moose in December. Last month, the count was just 22.
Jeff Selinger is area management biologist for Alaska Department of Fish and Game.
He says moose are more likely to gravitate toward roads when snowfall has been heavy and they tire of walking through deep drifts.
Trends in regional moose populations also may be playing a role.
Wildlife technician Larry Lewis says moose populations on the western half of the peninsula mostly have remained static or are in decline.
He says that may be because there were no significant habitat-changing events such as a fire since 19-69.
Major fires open canopies and clear the ground for new vegetation, providing a nutritious food source for moose.
(Peninsula Clarion, Kenai)
Commission to propose limited forms of local government
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Unorganized areas of Alaska could be getting another option for forming local governments.
A legislative commission may propose creating ``administrative boroughs.''
They would provide a political focus and receive state aid but would NOT tax property or pay for schools as full-fledged boroughs do.
The Alaska Advisory Commission on Local Government plans to finish proposals at meetings this week in Juneau, then submit them to the Legislature.
Some legislators say administrative boroughs might be easier to sell in parts of rural Alaska that don't pay school taxes.
The commission also wants to revive municipal revenue sharing to encourage local organizing efforts.
The Legislature created the commission last year after other efforts to promote new local governments failed to win support.
(Anchorage Daily News)
Army to begin fence construction at Fort Richardson
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - The Army says it will build a fence along the border of Fort Richardson with Eagle River and Anchorage's Muldoon neighborhood.
The construction is to start next month.
The barrier will NOT be the eight-foot-high chain link fence topped by barbed wire that the Army had considered in 2003.
That concept was met with strong resistance by East Anchorage residents who use the wooded area for walking, biking and skiing.
The fence instead will be a 40-inch tall pipe-rail fence with gaps about every quarter mile.
One of the main functions of the 25-mile fence will be to alert civilians that they've crossed onto Army land.
Fort Richardson covers about 62-thousand acres around the eastern and northern rim of the Anchorage Bowl.
To accompany the fence, Fort Richardson has established a phone-in system for people to call to find out whether a particular area is available for public use at any time.
(Anchorage Daily News)
U.S. Olympic team begins to take shape after Maine competition
FORT KENT, Maine (AP) - The U-S biathlon team is taking shape with the completion today of Olympic trials held in northern Maine.
The U-S Biathlon Association will recommend nine athletes to join the only one to
prequalify, Jay Hakkinen of Alaska.
Four other nominees for the men's team are Alaska's Jeremy
Teela, Tim Burke and Lowell Bailey from upstate New York, and Brian Olsen from Minneapolis.
The five women are Rachel Steer of Alaska, Sarah Conrad of Wyoming, Carolyn Treacy of Minnesota and twins Lanny and Tracy Barnes of Colorado.
The list of 35 athletes was winnowed during a competition that began Thursday at the 10th Mountain Ski Center at the Maine Winter Sports Center in Fort Kent, Maine. The list of nominees will be forwarded to the U-S Olympic Committee.
Tomorrow, the athletes will make an appearance in Portland before traveling to Boston, where they will be introduced at a Celtics basketball game.
Snowy owl sighted in Berks County
READING, Pa. (AP) - A rare appearance by a snowy owl in Berks County, Pennsylvania has attracted bird enthusiasts from across the region.
Snowy owls are more common near the Arctic Circle.
One man who has been a bird-watcher for three decades says he was compiling his annual winter bird list last month when he spotted the owl perched on a telephone pole.
Within two hours, nine people had come out to take advantage of the first sighting in the area since 19-96.
The bird has remained within a few miles of the area.
Doug Gross is an endangered bird specialist for the Pennsylvania Bird Commission. He says younger snowy owls are usually the ones that migrate.
(Information from: Reading Eagle,
http://www.readingeagle.com/)
Romance novelist blushes at her own prose
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - An Anchorage author of romance novels says the prose she writes can make her blush.
Jackie Goforth is a Postal Service manager who writes under the name Jackie Ivey.
She is one of a small number of Alaska romance writers.
She has published two books, including ``Lady of the Knight,'' a historical romance set in 14th-century Scotland that's sold more than 30-thousand copies.
She has a contract with Kensington Publishing Corporation for two more.
She jokes that some of her work is not Postal Service acceptable.
Goforth started writing novels in the early 19-80s when she decided she could write better books than the ones she was reading.
Romance novels are big business.
A trade association says they generated one-point two (b) billion dollars in sales in 2004, more than half the total revenue from all fiction.
Goforth say she spent 20 years writing before she got her first acceptance letter.
She says romance writing is not a way to get rich. The advance for her first two books was less than ten thousand dollars.
She says the royalties add up to pennies a copy for a book that sells for less than six dollars.
(Anchorage Daily News)
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