Water leak soaks some books and documents in SOB library
The library in the State Office Building, in downtown Juneau, has been hit with another water leak.

A malfunction in an air conditioning unit on the 9th floor caused water coolant to leak into the 8th floor library according to the state's chief procurement officer Vern Jones.

He says the air conditioner recently had some maintenance work done on it.

Today's water leak dripped on some books and documents, which were removed.

Protective plastic tenting has been set up to cover the books.

Jones says he would call the damage "light" and nothing of the magnitude of the last leak which occurred 11 months ago. 

On February 8th of last year, a two-inch pipe burst in the ceiling above the library and water poured down on books and documents.

The State Office Building was built in 1973 and has asbestos insulation.

Jones says they had an asbestos clean-up and removal in the same area after last years leak so there should be no danger.

Meanwhile, library staff are working to dry any soaked documents and books.

Fundraising for new Family Birth Center reaches two-thirds of goal
The Juneau Family Birth Center has raised two of the three million dollars its needs to build a new facility

The M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust recently awarded the center a $200,000 grant to support the organization's goal of building a new center this year.

The center's Executive Director Kaye Kanne says the new center will meet a need that the organization has identified, providing more health care services for families in one facility.

Kanne says the center will be a support system for families. She says it will provide health care and social service, and education options for families and individuals.

And she says the current birth center services will continue to be available when the community center is up and running.

The expansion plans have been underway for over three years.

Kanne says the new facility will be located behind the SEARHC building, near the hospital, and they hope to break ground next summer.

The M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust was created by the will of the late Melvin J. Murdock, a co-founder of Tektronix, Incorporated, based in Oregon.

The trust focuses its grants on the Pacific Northwest states. 

Ketchikan moves closer to building new cruise ship dock
KETCHIKAN, Alaska (AP) - Ketchikan is closer to building a new cruise ship dock to be ready for the 2007 cruise ship season.

The city council yesterday (Tuesday) approved further negotiations to have a private company design and build the dock north of the downtown tunnel.

The city and the private company - Survey Point Holdings - will work toward a more definitive agreement by March first.

It appears Survey Point Holdings and yet-unnamed cruise industry partners will form a new company, Ketchikan Dock, to design and build the new dock and make related improvements.

City Mayor Bob Weinstein says the city will not use eminent domain for any part of the project. That had been a concern of some residents.

Volcano threat downgraded
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Scientists have downgraded the threat level for Augustine Volcano from code red to code orange.

The advisory comes a day after the volcano's ninth eruption in a week.

Alaska Volcano Observatory scientists say they made the decision because earthquake activity at the volcano has fallen significantly since yesterday's eruption.

Michael Poland is a geophysicist at the Alaska Volcano Observatory. He says the situation can change any time. Following the pattern of the 1976, 1986, and even the most current sequence, seismicity can die down for hours to days and ramp right back up again into an explosion.

So he says they remain vigilant.

Code orange means an eruption could occur at any time. Code red means a significant eruption is occurring.

Achievement report note Native student improvement in language arts
The Juneau School Board last night listened to a report on student achievement in the school district.

Superintendent Peggy Cowan says the significant improvement in this year's report is the change in the success of Alaska Native students in language arts compared with previous years. She says those students have increased by ten percent when compared to past years.

Cowan says the report covers data from the end of last year.

She says the board last night discussed possible strategies to identify reasons for the improvement in order to continue the success.

In another matter, the board approved the calendar for next school year as recommended by the Calendar Committee.

Cowan says the calendar will be distributed early next week to schools around the district and parents. It will also be posted on the district's web site.

The panel also approved a revision to this year's budget to reflect the lower enrollment. There were 131 less students than anticipated resulting in reduced foundation formula funding of about $270,000. City funding was also reduced by just over $62,000 as a result.

Drug measure on Senate floor
The omnibus measure aiming to curb the use of marijuana, methamphetamine, and anabolic steroids was on the floor of the State Senate today. (Wednesday)

House Bill 149 moved out of the Senate Finance Committee last week after the panell rolled several measures in to one bill.

The committee substitute would make possession of four ounces or more of pot a felony.

It also limits the sale of a popular decongestant, Sudafed, which is used in the manufacture of methamphetamine.

State officials say recriminalizing marijuana will help State Troopers crack down on commercial growers by making it easier obtain search warrants.

Minority Leader Johnny Ellis objected to the adoption of the committee substitute. He said the result is a mish-mash of disparate issues that does not serve the public well.

The committee substitute was adopted on an 11 to 8 vote.

The measure was held in second reading today. (Wednesday). The full bill will be up for debate and a vote tomorrow. (Thursday).

Governor files bond bill for university, prison construction
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - Governor Murkowski has submitted a bill to the Legislature proposing a bond measure to pay for 89 million dollars in construction and maintenance at the University of Alaska.

Fifty-five million dollars of the money go to building the third phase of a new science facility at the University of Alaska Anchorage. The rest would go toward renovations and major maintenance of university facilities system wide.

The state would sell bonds that would paid for by money the state receives each year from a settlement with three tobacco companies. State Debt Manager Deven Mitchell says 89 million dollars or more could be raised from a tobacco bond measure.

Any extra money would go toward construction of a 240 million prison in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough, according to the bill.

The governor's bill was introduced in the House and Senate today. (Wednesday)

Seat belt law goes to governor
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - The Alaska Senate without debate today approved the House's changes to a bill making seat belt violations a primary offense.

The bill now goes to the governor for his signature.

The measure gives police the ability to stop a vehicle if the driver is not wearing a seat belt.

The House added several provisions, including restricting the law to highways and ensuring an officer has probable cause to pull over a vehicle.

The House passed the bill last week. The Senate approved the changes today 11-to-7.

Lawmakers hear pitch to tax oil companies' profits
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - Governor Murkowski's top oil consultant says Alaska is missing out on huge profits by holding on to its antiquated tax system.

Pedro van Meurs says legislation must be filed this session to change the state's production tax to one based on the net profits of oil companies operating in Alaska.

Alaska's production tax now is determined by a complex formula called the Economic Limit Factor, or ELF, which lowers the rate for smaller and less productive fields.

The governor is proposing to scrap the ELF and base the tax on the oil companies' net profits. That means when the price of oil is high, the state's tax income is high. When the price is low, the tax is low.

Van Meurs and Revenue Commissioner Bill Corbus say a bill will be introduced soon. The Murkowski administration considers the changes a critical first step to a deal with three oil companies for fiscal terms for a natural gas pipeline from the North Slope.

Registration numbers looking good at UAS
More students than last Spring Semester were in classrooms of the University of Alaska Southeast when classes resumed Tuesday.

School official Kevin Myers says its very encouraging with preliminary numbers indicating that enrollment is up a little over ten percent from last Spring.

But he says the numbers don't become firm until the first or second week of classes. People are still registering and others are on an off wait lists, he says.

So for right he says there are about 21-hundred students taking classes. Myers says that number includes distance and home computer students. 

Ketchikan sawmill closes, citing federal red tape
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - A timber entrepreneur has closed one of the few sawmills left in the Southeast Alaska rainforest.

Steve Seley owns Pacific Log and Lumber on Gravina Island near Ketchikan. He says he's tired of dealing with the U-S Forest Service, which manages the 17 million-acre Tongass National Forest.

Seley says a crucial timber sale hasn't come through.

Tongass supervisor Forrest Cole says the timber Seley wants will be advertised for sale by mid-February.

The sale -- called Buckdance-Madder -- was a compromise with environmentalists who had threatened to sue to stop another timber sale called Orion North.

The federal agency dropped Orion North, which involved a roadless area near Misty Fjords National Monument.
(Anchorage Daily News) 

The program is in its third year.

Smoky elevator motor found in fire call to Capitol Building
The fire department responded to an alarm at the Capital Building last night.

Captain Ed Quinto of Capital City Fire Rescue says the call came in at 9:47. He says they found smoke in the penthouse that was coming from a burned out elevator motor.

No further damage to the building was done and there were no injuries.

Two men dead in Egegik accident
State Troopers say two men died after their vehicle plunged into the Egegik River.

State Troopers were informed of the accident near Becharof Lake, about 40 miles south of King Salmon, after four p.m. Sunday.

Investigation revealed that 50 year old Kenneth J. Chmiel and Ennis Zharoff, 55, both of Egegik, were driving in a small pickup truck to go fishing at the lake.

As they attempted to cross the river, the vehicle broke through the ice. Troopers say Chmiel perished in the river, but Zharoff was able to get out the river and walk to a nearby cabin.

When they failed to return to Egegik the following morning, family members went to search and found Zharoff dead in the cabin and Chmiel's body in the river.

Troopers assisted in the recovery of the bodies which were flown to the village clinic in Egegik.

Fallen soldier honored
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Leaders of the Alaska Army National Guard attended a memorial service yesterday for one of the crew who died in a helicopter crash in Iraq.

The service was held in New York City for 26-year-old Specialist Michael Ignatius Edwards at Holy Cross Roman Catholic Church.

Edwards died January 6th in the crash of the Black Hawk helicopter near the Iraqi town of Tal Afar. Edwards was a helicopter repairman.

He was serving a one-year long deployment with Company B, 1-207th Combat Support Aviation Battalion.

Edwards graduated from high school in New York. He attended the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Legal action pressed by Alaska man against Catholic Church in Iowa
An Alaska man identified only as John Doe has filed a lawsuit in Iowa alleging a priest sexually abused him as a child.

The man grew up in a small town south of Des Moines.

He's seeking unspecified monetary damages against the Des Moines Diocese.

The priest named in the lawsuit died in 2004. 

90-day session bill gets hearing
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - Lawmakers in Juneau are hearing arguments to shorten the legislative session.

The bill lawmakers are considering would shorten the session from 121 days to 90 days.

Representative Ralph Samuels -- an Anchorage Republican -- says the Legislature can finish its work in 90 days.

Lawmakers are split on the idea. Some say the Legislature would be less effective with the shorter time. Plus, they ask, would a 90-day deadline end up tipping the balance of power to the governor and his administration?

Waiting in the wings is a ballot initiative to reduce the length of the session. The initiative and the bill propose the same thing.

Pension obligation bonds touted in committee
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - Alaska lawmakers Tuesday heard a sales pitch for pension obligation bonds.

A Seattle consultant touts the bonds as one way to address the state's nearly 6 billion dollar shortfall in its retirement systems.

Carol Samuels of Seattle-Northwest Securities Corporation says the idea is to invest the proceeds from the sale at a better return rate than the interest cost of the bonds. The difference would go to cover the unfunded pension liabilities.

Other states have used the bonds with mixed results. Samuels describes them as a ``good gamble''.

The state Department of Revenue does not endorse their use. Deputy Commissioner Tom Boutin (boo-TAN) told the House State Affairs Committee that the bonds depend on market timing for success, whereas institutional investors plan for the long term.

Task force gets extra time to recommend gaming commission
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - The Alaska House is giving a task force extra time to recommend whether the state needs a gaming commission to regulate gambling and games of chance.

The nine-member task force was supposed to present its recommendations to the Legislature and disband by the end of the month.

The task force met about once a month between legislative sessions, but members could not reach a consensus or whether to recommend creating a commission to provide oversight of gaming.

The group now has until the end of March to finish its work. 

The extension was approved by the House during its session Tuesday.

Company accused of rigging auction sales of fur pelts
SEATTLE (AP) - A federal grand jury has indicted a New York company and one of its representatives on a charge of conspiring to rig the prices of fur pelts sold at auction in the Seattle suburb of Renton.

The indictment alleges that Alaska Brokerage International Incorporated and its vice president, David Karsch, led a conspiracy in which they and other participants in the Fur Harvesters Auction agreed not to bid against each other.

Afterward, they allegedly divided the otter pelts acquired among themselves.

The Justice Department says the pelts are primarily used in making coats and hats.

The indictment does not name any other alleged co-conspirators, but a Justice Department statement says the investigation continues.

The charge, conspiracy to restrain trade, carries a maximum fine of 10 (m) million dollars.

Wasilla man struck by shot fired accidentally
WASILLA, Alaska (AP) - Alaska State Troopers say a 20-year-old Wasilla man was accidentally shot in the thigh last week.

Joshua Levalley is recovering from the wound.

Troopers say Levalley and a 17-year-old boy were at a cabin at Mile 49 Parks Highway on Friday and found a .22-caliber pistol under a shed.

Levalley and the boy went outside and fired the gun into the air.

They ran back into the cabin but Levalley slipped on an icy porch and fell.

Troopers say the handgun fired again and hit Levalley.

Medics transported him to Valley Hospital, where he was treated and released.

The teenager was issued a summons to appear in court on a charge of consuming alcohol as a minor.

Afognak land sale includes timber rights
KODIAK, Alaska (AP) - Thousands of acres and timber rights have been bought on Afognak Island.

The American Land Conservancy and the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation bought the land and timber rights from Afognak Joint Ventures -- a group of Kodiak-area Native corporations.

It cost four million dollars to buy the land and the timber rights.

The foundations say the new state land and shorelines will remain open to public uses, including hunting, fishing, whale watching and sea kayaking.

The Alaska Department of Natural Resources will manage the land.

The Paul Allen Foundation of Seattle -- created by the former Microsoft executive -- kicked in half of the four million dollars.

Rasmuson Foundation doles out grants
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - A charitable foundation has awarded more than 350-thousand dollars in grants to 19 nonprofit organizations.

The Rasmuson Foundation says the grants support a broad range of projects -- from the repair of a historic building for a radio station to office furniture for a domestic violence shelter.

The North Slope Borough's Arctic Women in Crisis received more than 22-thousand dollars for office furniture and equipment for its shelter in Barrow. The shelter serves Barrow residents and seven outlying villages.

The Nordic Skiing Association of Anchorage was awarded 22-thousand dollars toward the purchase of a new trail-grooming snow cat.

The Bristol Bay Native Association received more than 20-thousand dollars for a wheelchair ramp at the Togiak Head Start Center.

Vandalism costs drilling company more than $800,000
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Alaska State Troopers say someone torched drilling equipment over the weekend in Palmer.

Employees of Denali Drilling returned to work Monday and found two tracked vehicles with drilling equipment burned nearly to the ground.

Hal Ingalls is C-E-O of the Anchorage-based company.

He says it will cost more than 800-thousand dollars to replace the equipment.

The equipment was set up on the Crevasse Moraine Trail system and was being used to collect soil information for the Matanuska-Susitna Borough.

Ingalls say someone likely destroyed the equipment sometime late Saturday afternoon or early evening.
(Anchorage Daily News) 

Record number of Alaskans on U.S. Olympic team
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - A record number of Alaskans will be on the U-S team for the Winter Olympics next month in Turin, Italy.

Three Anchorage residents were named to the cross-country ski team yesterday (Tuesday).

That brings to eleven the number of Alaskans either officially named to the team or told by their coach they were on the team.

Five Alaskans were on the Winter Olympics team in 19-94 and six qualified for the 19-98 games.

Ten made it in 2002.

Snowboarder Rosey Fletcher of Girdwood is the oldest this year at 30. She will be in her third Olympics.

Ski jumper Alan Alborn and biathlete Jay Hakkinen (HAAK-i-nen) of Kasilof also will be participating for the third time.
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Joining Hakkinen as biathletes are Jeremy Teela and Rachel Steer of Anchorage.

Scott Gomez of Anchorage and the New Jersey Devils will be on the men's hockey team and Pam Dreyer of Eagle River will be on the women's.

Curler Jessica Schultz of Anchorage is the youngest Alaskan on the team at age 20.

Kikkan (KEE'-kan) Randall, Lars Flora and James Southam are on the cross-country ski team.
(Anchorage Daily News)