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Legislative session begins Tuesday
The first session of the 25th Alaska Legislature starts tomorrow (Tuesday).
The House is scheduled to convene at 11 a.m. and the Senate at Noon.
Governor Sarah Palin delivers her first State of the State Address at 7 Wednesday evening.
Legislative reception scheduled for community members
The 22nd Annual Juneau Community Legislative Welcome Reception is Tuesday evening at Centennial Hall.
Beth McEwen, a member of the reception committee, says the entire community is invited.
She says it is a community reception, so they want as many members of the public as possible to attend.
Its scheduled from 5 to 6:30 p.m.
Two
dead in Parks Highway crash
WASILLA, Alaska (AP) - Two Wasilla residents are dead
after a collision on the Parks Highway this morning
(Monday).
Alaska State Troopers say the female driver and her male
passenger died in the crash near mile 50 of highway.
The names of the dead have not been released.
The driver of another vehicle was injured in the
accident, which was reported around 10 a-m.
Troopers say the female driver was heading north in a
Mercury Sable when the vehicle crossed the center line
and struck a Chevrolet pickup truck driven by
48-year-old Keith Jolliff of Pendleton, Oregon.
Jolliff, who was not wearing a seat belt, was taken to a
local hospital for treatment. He was the sole occupant
of the truck.
The man and woman in the Mercury -- who were wearing
seat belts -- died at the scene.
The highway was closed for about three hours while
troopers investigated the crash.
Wanamaker outlines mine project hiring initiative
The Berners Bay Consortium Human Resource Development Corporation and its Kensington Mine Employment and Training Program was the topic of discussion on Capital Chat this (Monday) morning.
Executive Director Randy Wanamaker says the corporation was organized by Kake Tribal, Klukwan, Inc., Goldbelt and Coeur Alaska to identify, recruit, screen, train
and dispatch shareholders and Alaska residents for employment at the mine and with its contractors and subcontractors.
He says its a way of making sure that Alaskans are a part of the work force from the very beginning through the life of the project
Over 200 corporation referred workers have worked on the project since the development commenced in 1996, according to Wanamaker.
As of Friday afternoon, Wanamaker says 408 are employed at the mine.
BBC members, Alaska Natives and their spouses or descendants, account for 201 of the workers.
A hundred and 21 are Juneau residents.
He says they're recruiting throughout Southeast since there aren't enough people available in Juneau.
Wanamaker says application is available to all. Even though they focus on shareholders, he says they help everyone who contacts them.
"We're part of the overall community and want to be supportive of
everyone," he says.
The tailings disposal part of the project is stalled in court.
The company's plan to dispose of rock waste into Lower Slate Lake is pending a decision by a three judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.
Just like Coeur, Wanamaker says they are proceeding with recruiting, training and dispatching of workers based on the assumption the project will be allowed to proceed.
For additional information contact Wanamaker at 789-6855.
One dead, two critical in Fairbanks shooting
Fairbanks police say a shooting over the weekend that left a 16-year-old boy dead and two others in critical condition was a suicide and attempted murders.
Joshua Steven Hjelm of Fairbanks died in the middle of a road late Saturday night.
He had been shot in the head. He was found with a gun next to his body.
The two in critical condition are 18-year-old Charles Edward Esmailka of Fairbanks and a 16-year-old girl from the Western Alaska village of Saint
Marys.
The girl's name has not been released.
The two are being treated at an Anchorage hospital for gunshot wounds to the head.
Police say an area resident said Hjelm shot himself.
Lieutenant Dan Welborn says police have determined Hjelm shot Esmailka and the girl.
The investigation continues.
Snowmachine accident claims life of Anchorage boy
An eight year old Anchorage boy was killed in a snowmachine accident Sunday near the Wolverine Lodge on Lake Louise.
State Troopers were notified shortly after one a.m.
Their investigation determined that Joshua Smith was traveling across Lake Louise when he hit a snowberm and was thrown from the
snowmachine.
Witnesses said that he landed on the hard packed snow in the parking lot and hit his head.
The boy was medivaced to Anchorage. Smith was pronounced dead at Providence Hospital at about 6:30 last
evening.
His family said the boy was wearing a helmet at the time and was an experienced rider for his age.
Project updates
to highlight facilities committee agenda
The School District Facilities Committee meets Tuesday
Superintendent Peggy Cowan says the committee will be looking at some site work at Dzantik’i Heeni Middle School, planning for Harborview renovation, and
artist designs for Floyd Dryden Middle School.
Cowan says the panel will consider various bond packages for voter consideration
during future elections. Cowan says that's based on their capital improvement plan submitted to the state.
The panel will also
receive an update on the new high school's program planning and on ongoing projects.
The
meeting starts at noon at the district office main conference room at 811 12th
Street.
Officials explore ways to get cervical cancer vaccine to Alaskans
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Health officials are trying to decide whether the state can afford to pay to provide Alaska girls and women with a new vaccine designed to prevent cervical cancer.
A new vaccine,
Gardasil, hit the market last summer. The cost can be 600 dollars or more for a three-shot series and the price is discouraging some from paying for the shots.
The Alaska Department of Health and Social Services has had a long-time practice of paying for recommended vaccines for all children.
But the high expense of Gardasil has left them questioning whether the drug will be an exception.
Doctor Jay Butler is the deputy director of the state Division of Public Health.
He says the vaccine is the most expensive vaccine added to the public health arsenal.
The Centers for Disease Control recommends the vaccine for girls and women ages nine to 26 and says the ideal time to get the shots is before women become sexually active.
Butler says the state health department wants to offer the Gardasil vaccine free to all eligible girls but he's not sure where the money will come from.
(Anchorage Daily News)
Venezuelan oil finally reaching Alaska villages
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Alaska villages are finally receiving a controversial gift of heating fuel from Venezuelan oil company
Citgo.
Houston-based Citgo pledged this year to donate one (m) million gallons of heating fuel in Alaska Native villages as part of its program to give away heating fuel to poor Americans.
More than eleven-thousand homes in rural Alaska are eligible for 100 gallons each.
The five-point-two
million dollar donation drew a lot of criticism because of Venezuela President Hugo Chavez's combative attitude toward U-S policy.
Citgo is owned by the Venezuela government owns.
Because of Chavez's political views, Citgo's donation was rejected by the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association,
a Native regional nonprofit corporation representing four eligible villages.
But more than 150
took advantage of the donation and residents in many villages began receiving vouchers for the fuel last month.
The vouchers can be redeemed at local fuel stores.
(Anchorage Daily News)
Clinic nurse pleads
guilty to embezzling more than $265,000
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - A nurse has pleaded guilty to
embezzling more than a quarter million dollars from the
clinic where she worked for more than two decades.
Fifty-six-year-old Linda Haas will be sentenced April
4th.
She was hired in 19-82 at the Anchorage Pediatric Group,
a pediatric clinic.
Federal prosecutors say she was promoted to office
manager in 19-99 and over the next four years, siphoned
money into her own bank accounts.
As office manager, she was in charge of records,
including financial ones.
Prosecutors say she gave herself extra salary and
vacation leave, altered the financial books and stole
more than 265-thousand dollars by taking clinic money
and putting it into her own bank accounts.
Haas pleaded guilty to three counts of wire fraud and
one count of tax evasion.
She currently lives in Olalla, Washington.
(Anchorage Daily News)
Whales ignore winter, linger near Sand Point
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - The community of Sand Point in the Shumagin Islands has become a whale-watching venue.
Humpback whales that normally head for breeding grounds in tropical waters have been patrolling back and forth in front of city docks and vantage points from the city's hills.
The Shumagin Islands are off the tip of the Alaska Peninsula about 570 miles southwest of Anchorage.
Sand Point is on Popof Island and looks across a channel to Unga Island.
Lifelong resident Cherilyn Lundgren says the whales have put on a show feeding and playing in the channel.
Whales are common in more open water during the summer but rare in the channel any time of year, especially now.
Lundgren says community elders don't recall anything like this.
Whale experts say the humpbacks are likely sticking around because they've found abundant feed such as herring or capelin.
University of Alaska Fairbanks marine mammal specialist Kate Wynne says if food is plentiful, there is no incentive for whales to head south sooner than absolutely necessary.
She says their body condition during the next four or five months of fasting depends on how much energy they can pack away on the feeding grounds.
Comments run vs. proposed outboard motor changes on Kenai River
KENAI, Alaska (AP) - The Alaska Department of Natural Resources has summarized more than 500 public comments on proposed changes to regulations governing outboard motors on the Kenai River.
Most of the comments most oppose changes.
One proposed regulation change would raise outboard limits to 50 horsepower.
The other would ban the dirtiest class of motors, two-stroke engines that are not direct fuel injected.
People supporting the change in horsepower limits say it would help reduce erosion from boat wakes by enabling boats to plane over water instead of plowing through it.
Conventional two-stroke motors release about ten times as many hydrocarbons as do four-stroke motors.
Those supporting ban say it would reduce elevated hydrocarbon levels in the river.
(Peninsula Clarion)
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