Service to Bellingham being cut
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - The Alaska Marine Highway System will cut ferry service from Bellingham, Washington, through Alaska's Inside Passage by half - down to one trip per week.

The news, delivered Tuesday by the Deputy Transportation Commissioner Dennis Hardy, did not sit well with the House Transportation Committee.

Hardy spoke to the committee, which wanted to know why a ferry schedule had not yet been released with the travel season just five months away.

Hardy said the financially struggling department is trying to contain costs and that called for drafting a new schedule. No cost saving estimates were presented at the hearing.

He promised the schedule will be available on the system's Web site by January 31st.

Community leaders worry Palin ignoring their concerns
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - Local municipal leaders are complaining Governor Sarah Palin is not living up to her campaign promise of an open and transparent government.

Members of the Alaska Municipal League gathering in Juneau said they are disappointed with the administration's efforts to help Alaska's communities. And some are upset they can't get a hearing with her to talk about it.

AML President Tim Beck of Fairbanks says members were pleased with her efforts to reinstate municipal assistance last year. But they lost confidence when she obliterated scores of local community projects around the state with her veto pen this summer.

Palin told the group her administration would work with local governments this year to help meet their priorities.

Last full-blooded Eyak and fluent speaker of Native language dies
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Chief Marie Smith Jones, the last full-blooded Eyak and the last person fluent in her Native language, has died.

Jones died peacefully Monday at her home in Anchorage. She was 89.

Jones was born in Cordova on May 14, 1918, and grew up on Eyak Lake where her family had a homestead.

She married William F. Smith on May 5, 1948. Smith worked his way up the coast fishing and when he reached Cordova, he met Marie and put down roots.

The couple had nine children, seven of which who survive her. Marie moved to Anchorage in the early 1970s to be closer to her children.

Her daughter, Bernice Galloway of Albuquerque, New Mexico, says to the best of the family's knowledge, she was the last full-blooded Eyak alive.

Permanent Fund total return in 2nd quarter is in red
The Alaska Permanent Fund had a total return of minus one-half percent in the second quarter of the fiscal year ending December 31st.

The report was released today (Tuesday) by the Alaska Permanent Fund Corporation.

Chief Executive Officer Mike Burns says they ahead of their benchmark which came in at minus point six percent.

Bonds had solid returns, but the fund's U. S. stock portfolio was down. He says non-U. S. and global portfolios were effectively even with returns below one percent.

But as of December 31, the fund had earned $2 point 1 Billion in statutory net income. That's the amount used to calculate dividends.

The fund's median case projection is $2 point 5 Billion for the full fiscal year

That figure would replace $355 Million in the five year formula used to calculate the dividend.

The fund's total return for the fiscal year to date is two percent. The fund was valued at $38 point 9 Billion as of December 31st.

Charges pending from Saturday night traffic mishap
Charges are pending against a 28 year old Juneau man who wrecked his car inbound on Egan at the Yacht Club Saturday night that resulted in injuries to himself and his passenger.

Sergeant Tom Bates says they received the report at 10:32 that night.

Initial reports indicated that the 2005 Chevrolet Cobalt hit a guard rail there and at least one person had been ejected.

The car was located in the parking lot a Aurora Harbor.

The vehicle had sustained heavy front end damage but was apparently driven from the highway into the parking area.

There was no one in the vehicle when officers arrived.

The police investigation determined that the passenger, a 21 year old Juneau resident, had been taken to the hospital by cab.

The driver left the scene on foot and was not located until the following evening.

He also suffered injuries that required medial treatment.

Neither man's injuries were serious or life threatening, according to the sergeant.

He says it's anticipated he'll be charged for leaving the scene of an injury accident, which is a "C" felony.

The man's identity has not been released at this time.

ConocoPhillips takes 50-percent ownership stake in pipeline
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) - Oil company ConocoPhillips has taken a 50-percent ownership stake in a proposed oil pipeline that would deliver Canadian crude to U.S. refineries.

Houston-based ConocoPhillips and TransCanada Corporation of Alberta, Canada, made the announcement today. (Tuesday)

In 2005, the companies signed an agreement to use the Keystone pipeline to deliver crude to ConocoPhillips' Wood River, Illinois, and Borger, Texas, refineries, which are being expanded. The deal also gave ConocoPhillips the right to up to a 50-percent ownership stake in the pipeline.

TransCanada plans to start construction this spring on the 590,000-barrel-a-day pipeline, a route of nearly 2,200 miles crossing North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Missouri.

The South Dakota Public Utilities Commission has wrapped up testimony on TransCanada's construction permit application, but the commissioners have not yet issued a decision.

Auke Lake trail reconstruction highlights Planning Commission meeting
The Juneau Planning Commission meets tonight.

Community Development Director Dale Pernula says highlighting the agenda is a variance to reduce the anadromous lake set back for reconstruction of the Auke Lake Trail.

The applicant is Trail Mix.

There's an allowable use permit on the agenda for construction of a 7, 327 square foot storage and shop building in the Valley Centre Subdivision on Airport Boulevard.

The applicant is the Mackinco Company

The structure would be connected to the existing building housing the Alcan Electric and Engineering Company.

Members will conduct a work session at the end of the meeting to go over the comprehensive plan which is in the process of being updated.

The Planning Commission meeting gets underway at 7 p.m. in Assembly Chambers at City Hall.

State: Punitive damages are warranted in Valdez oil spill
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - A brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court by Alaska lawmakers and four former governors says Exxon violated a social contract it had entered into with the state when the tanker Exxon Valdez hit a reef in Prince William Sound in 1989 and caused an 11-million-gallon oil spill.

The brief says that as a result, the oil company should be subject to punitive damages for the environmental catastrophe.

The high court is scheduled to hear oral arguments in Exxon's appeal on February 27th.

Exxon has been appealing the case since an Anchorage jury in 1994 returned a $5 billion punitive damages award against it.

In 2006, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals cut the award to $2.5 billion.

That decision was appealed to the Supreme Court by Exxon.
(Anchorage Daily News)   

Anchorage man faces up to 40 years on drug conviction
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - A 32-year-old Anchorage man faces up to 40 years in a federal prison following his guilty plea to a drug charge.

Ronald Leslie Fisher will be sentenced March 31st.

The U.S. Attorney's office says Fisher pleaded guilty to possessing more than 22 grams of cocaine base, or "crack," with intent to distribute.

Officials say on four separate occasions, Fisher sold crack cocaine to a government informant. Anchorage police also say they found crack cocaine in Fisher's possession when they made a traffic stop.

Anchorage police begin charging for multiple calls to homes
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Anchorage police are starting to send bills to people whose homes regularly need the attention of an officer.
A law on the books says police can charge homeowners for multiple visits.

The law calls for taxpayers to pay for the first eight police responses to a home in a year.

After that, the homeowner may be charged $500 per visit.

The $500 is an estimate of what it costs to pay officers and maintain equipment used on a single call.

The first homeowner to be billed received an invoice last week -- for $23,000.

Police say they have been called to the home dozens of times since last summer and ten times so far this year.

Anchorage Police Sergeant Denny Allen says the department is trying to tell homeowners that if they have an excessive amount of calls, they need to take responsibility for those calls.

The ordinance went into effect in 2002.

Ordinance sponsor Allan Tesche (TESH'-ee) says the intent was to give the police an extra tool to be used against drug houses and general public nuisances that are generate an inordinate number of police calls.

The ordinance does not affect businesses and excludes calls for medical emergencies and domestic violence.
(Anchorage Daily News)

Couple travels the world in search of 'great beer adventures'
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - A couple of self-described "beer geeks" are spending the year traveling the world in search of "great beer adventures," and they're chronicling their journey with a blog.

The first destination for Chris Nelson and his wife Merideth Canham-Nelson of California was Anchorage for last weekend's Great Alaska Beer and Barley Wine Festival.

The event last weekend brought together more than 40 brewers, 150 beers and a couple of thousand beer-lovers.

Nelson gave the locals a thumb's up for their hospitality. He wrote in his blog, "Beer people tend to be overly friendly, but the Anchorage folks we have met so far are amazingly friendly."
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On the Net:
www.thebeergeek.com/blog/?cat=13http://www.thebeergeek.com/blog/?cat=13

Salmon by catch question before fisheries council
The North Pacific Fisheries Management Council and the Alaska Region of NOAA Fisheries are getting ready to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement on measures to reduce the incidental catch of salmon by trawl vessels fishing for pollock in the Bering Sea.

Fishery Management Plan Coordinator says Gretchen Harrington says chinook and chum salmon by catch in the pollock fishery has increased significantly in recent years.

Reducing and controlling salmon by catch is one of the most important issues discussed by the council this year, she adds.

The council is looking at the current regulations and limits on salmon by catch and will be evaluating possible effects of new regulatory closures and limits, according to Harrington.

The alternatives include implementing new salmon area closures or establishing by catch limits that would close the pollock fisheries once the limit is reached.

The public comment period for scoping on the EIS ends February 15th.

That website is www.alaskafisheries.noaa.gov  

EPA orders Kenai Peninsula beach restored
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - The Environmental Protection Agency says it has ordered a man living near Ninilchik to restore his beach.

The federal agency issued a compliance order to Charles Brown for his property in the Hawk's Beach Subdivision.

The agency says Brown failed to obtain a permit before using heavy equipment to deposit boulders and other fill materials below the high tide line.

The order requires Brown to restore the site to its original condition or to the maximum extent possible.

The agency says restoration and mitigation must be completed no later than June 15 or Brown could face fines as high as $32,500 per day.

Former Anchorage hockey player suits up with Pittsburgh in the big leagues
A former member of the Alaska Aces is heading up to the big leagues.

Chris Minard will be suiting up for the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Since last summer, Minard has been playing for the Penguins' minor-league affiliate in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, where he's the team's leading scorer.

Minard was the scoring champ for the E-C-H-L in 2005 and was on the Aces' 2006 championship squad.
(KENI - Anchorage)