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Governor reprimands
attorney general
Alaska Attorney General Gregg Renkes has been reprimanded by Governor
Murkowski for not seeking an ethics ruling before becoming involved in an
international trade agreement from which he could have profited.
Murkowski says he will not ask Renkes to resign.
But in a letter to Renkes, the Governor says he ``decided to take the
unusual step of imposing public employee disciplinary action on a cabinet
officer by issuing you this letter of reprimand''.
Murkowski says the controversy surrounding Renkes' actions has has a
negative impact on his administration and that the investigation cost the
state time and money.
Former U.S. Attorney Robert Bundy assisted the governor in the preparation
of the letter.
Bundy recently completed a report looking into conflict of interest
allegations against Renkes.
Bundy's report concluded that Renkes violated Alaska ethics law by not
seeking an outside opinion on the attorney general's involvement in the
Alaska-Taiwan coal agreement.
In the letter, Murkowski says that since he believes that Renkes was not
motivated by personal gain he won't ask for his resignation.
Murkowski goes on to say he concurs with Bundy's conclusion that Renkes
exhibited poor judgement in deleting e-mails on his state computer on the
day the first newspaper report was published detailing Renkes' dealings with
KFx.
Renkes played a major role in putting together the deal while owning stock
in Denver-based-KFx Incorporated, a company that has a patented coal-drying
technology and is mentioned in the agreement.
Bundy's report said it was a close call, but Renkes' stock ownership worth
over $100,000 wasn't considered significant enough to be a conflict of
interest.
Renkes sold the KFx stock in October after reports of his holdings were
published.
Action delayed on Statter Harbor management regulations
The CBJ Docks and Harbors Board of Directors delayed action on the proposed regulations for management of Statter Harbor year round during its meeting last night.
Port Director John Stone says the matter was referred back to the Operations Committee for further public review.
The committee will meet on February 15 at 5 p.m. in the Aurora Harbor office. A copy of the proposed regulations will be on the CBJ web page at
www.Juneau.org
Also referred back to the Operations Committee was the proposed Sunset Clipper dock tidelands lease.
The dock, proposed for construction near Statter Harbor, would serve sightseeing boats.
The lease will also be brought up at the February 15th meeting.
The panel approved the Harris Harbor stall reassignment procedure. Copies can be obtained at the Aurora Harbor office. It will also be on the CBJ web page.
The harbor will be rebuilt next summer. Stone says the stall
reassignment will be necessary since the new harbor will not be configured as it is currently.
There's public meeting on that subject at Centennial Hall Saturday morning at ten.
"Sticker shock" to proposed hike in harbor rates
The proposal to increase Juneau harbor rates by two and half times by 2010
was discussed on KINY's Capital Chat Friday morning.
The proposals, which are incorporated in a long range financial plan, are
now out for public comment.
When asked what the public's general comments have been so far, Port Director John
Stone described them as "sticker shock."
And, as a result, there's been anger. Stone says quite a few people aren't
talking to him anymore.
Docks and Harbors Board Chair Dick Knapp says there really aren't any
alternatives.
The board's Finance Committee will hold a public hearing February 17th.
The full board plans to take action on the plan during its meeting February
24th.
Loss reported by Alaska Air for fourth quarter and 2004
Alaska Air Group reports a fourth quarter net loss of $44.9 Million.
That compares to a net loss of $16.1Million in the fourth quarter of 2003.
For the entirety of 2004, the company experienced a loss of $15.3 Million.
That compares with a $13.5 Million profit in 2003.
A big share of the loss is attributed to the retirement of Horizon Air's F-28 fleet and high fuel prices.
Without those items, the fourth quarter net loss would have been $14.3 Million.
Minus those and other factors, the performance in 2004 would have resulted in a profit of $5.2 Million.
The company's Chair and CEO
Bill Ayer says improvements in operating results show they are continuing to make headway with their restructuring.
But he added as the company heads in to 2005, it must continue to pursue cost savings initiatives that will help them become consistently profitable, weather the onslaught of low-cost competition, restructured network airlines, and very high fuel prices.
Judge refuses to suspend Alaska's wolf control program
ANCHORAGE (AP) - A Superior Court judge will not be issuing a decision today in whether to suspend Alaska's aerial wolf control program.
Judge Sharon Gleason could issue the decision sometime next week.
Friends of Animals was back in Gleason's courtroom in Anchorage yesterday. The Connecticut-based group is seeking to have the program -- now authorized in five areas of the state -- suspended until May 16th. That's when the issue is scheduled for trial.
Gleason refused to issue a temporary injunction yesterday, saying she needed more time to review new concerns raised by Friends of Animals.
The judge also rejected a request to suspend the program even for a few days in the Tok area, where permits were issued last Friday but pilot-shooter teams have yet to kill a wolf.
Gleason was reviewing written closing statements today.
Resolution supporting ANWR opening passed by State House
The State House debated a resolution today calling on Congress to pass legislation opening the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas exploration, development and production.
House Joint Resolution 4 was approved 26 to 4.
Downtown Representative Beth
Kerttula was among those voting no. Valley Representative Bruce Weyhrauch voted yes.
The measure will now be transmitted to the Senate.
Knik Arm Crossing and Ketchikan bridge highlighted in ABC report
The proposed Gravina and Knik Arm Bridge projects will be presented to a national television audience tonight.
The projects will be highlighted in a one hour ABC television network special edition of 20/20.
The Gravina project is actually two bridge. The first would be a seven-tenths of a mile long bridge from Ketchikan to Pennock Island. The second bridge, at about a half mile long, would connect Pennock and Gravina Islands.
The two bridges, estimated, right now to cost about $230 million dollars, would allow Ketchikan residents to drive to Gravina Island where the airport is located, among other things.
The proposed Knik Arm Crossing, at about two miles long, would connect Anchorage with the Port MacKenzie area and access the Mat-Su Borough at an estimated cost of $400 to $600 million dollars.
The program 20/20 airs tonight at 9 PM on channel KJUD 8.
Kodiak lawmaker resurrects special elections bill
FAIRBANKS (AP) - A Kodiak lawmaker is trying again to allow municipalities to avoid costly special elections.
Gary Stevens, who is Senate majority leader, introduced the bill prior to the legislative session. The bill would allow boroughs and some cities to delay votes on initiatives or referendums until a regularly scheduled election.
The measure received its first hearing Wednesday in the Senate Community and Regional Affairs Committee. Several municipal clerks testified in favor of the bill.
Stevens says the bill is identical to the measure he introduced last session. That bill passed the Senate but did not make it out of the House of Representatives.
The committee is scheduled to take up the bill again Monday.
Semester at Sea ship heads
for Hawaii
ANCHORAGE (AP) -The Coast Guard says a damaged Semester at Sea research ship
with 990 people is now on its way to Hawaii.
The 591-foot Explorer lost power in three of its four engines Wednesday when a 50-foot wave broke bridge windows, damaged controls and
injured two crew members.
Crew members were able to restore power to a second engine but the vessel
continued to struggle in 35-foot seas.
The Coast Guard says weather conditions have calmed and the Explorer is
expected to reach Honolulu for repairs in several days.
The Coast Guard says the ship is about 690 miles north of Midway Island and
about 14-hundred miles from Hawaii.
The Explorer was en route to Korea and Japan from Vancouver, British
Columbia.
Of the 990 people aboard, 681 are students and 113 are faculty and staff.
The other 196 are ship's crew.
Mary Bardone and Bill Platte, psychotherapists from Juneau, are on the Explorer.
Bardone, 63, is the ship's counselor. Platte, 60, is along for the ride, according to their daughter Piper Platte.
Piper said she got a phone message from her parents around 12:30 a.m. Thursday, Alaska time.
She said her mother said they were all pretty worn out because it had been like 10 days of 20- to 50-foot seas.
She said they were haggard with everyone throwing up and seasick.
Semester at Sea is a global comparative study-abroad program for
undergraduate students. The program is academically sponsored by the
University of Pittsburgh.
A spokesman says the courses are designed to give students a more global
perspective.
The 100-day voyage began January 18th in Vancouver.
Murder trial continues in Nome
NOME (AP) - The trial of a former police officer charged with killing a 19-year-old woman continues in Nome.
In testimony yesterday, former state crime lab investigator Maureen Smith said that in September 2003 she removed a white envelope from a Nome police department vehicle.
Smith says the window to the vehicle was broken. And the note was addressed to ``Pigs.'' It warned the police to back off of the investigation into Sonya Ivanoff's death. It also contained Ivanoff's athletic facility pass.
No fingerprints or genetic material was found on the item.
Prosecutors contend that Matthew Owens -- charged with Ivanoff's murder -- staged the theft of the police vehicle to divert attention from himself as a suspect.
Nome Police Officer Byron Redburn testified yesterday that Owens was scheduled to go to Anchorage to be interviewed about the murder with the Alaska Bureau of Investigation on the day the vehicle was stolen.
Owens was also the one who found the abandoned vehicle in a gravel pit. He claimed somebody fired shots at him. But state troopers and police never located a suspect.
Governor says oil tax agreements will be kept
ANCHORAGE (AP) - Governor Murkowski says the state will honor agreements made with North Slope oil companies prior to changing the tax structure for several North Slope satellite fields.
Murkowski made his comments
yesterday at the meeting of the Alaska Support Industry Alliance in Anchorage.
Murkowski was trying to calm the concerns of oil executives after announcing earlier this month that the state would group six satellite fields with the giant Prudhoe Bay field.
The change, which takes effect Tuesday, would amount to an estimated tax hike of 150 (M) million dollars per year.
Oil company executives say the tax increase creates economic uncertainty and could threaten future development in Alaska.
ConocoPhillips to settle clean air lawsuit
ANCHORAGE (AP) - Conoco Phillips says it will settle a clean air lawsuit.
The oil company has agreed to install more than 500
million dollars in pollution controls at nine refineries, and pay a four and a half
million dollar fine.
Conoco Phillips is the nation's third largest oil company, and one of the largest companies doing business on Alaska's North Slope.
The settlement requires the company to reduce yearly emissions of nitrogen oxide by more than 37-thousand tons.
Era plane damaged on landing at Toksook Bay
TOKSOOK BAY (AP) - Alaska State Troopers say no one was injured Thursday morning when pilots lost control of a small commercial airplane landing in Toksook
(TOOK'-sook) Bay.
Troopers say the DeHavilland Twin Otter operated by Era Aviation was landing on an icy runway shortly after eleven a-m.
Six passengers and two passenger were on board.
The airplane's right wing tip, right engine, front nose cone, and right and front landing gear were damaged.
The National Transportation Safety Board was notified.
Toksook Bay is a Southwest Alaska community of about 561 on Nelson Island 115 miles northwest of Bethel.
Motorists avoid injury in Ketchikan rock slide
KETCHIKAN (AP) - Alaska State Troopers in Ketchikan say three motorists escaped injury when a rock slid onto the North Tongass Highway Wednesday night.
All three vehicles sustained flat tires as a result of debris in the road.
Trooper say a large shale rock rolled off a cliff and struck the asphalt, causing the shale to break into pieces.
Vehicles driven by 54-year-old Theresa Miller, 16-year-old Erika Pearce and 49-year-old Barbara Weisz hit the debris.
Tanner crab fishermen waiting for when the price is right
KODIAK (AP) - Kodiak Tanner crab fisherman say they're waiting for a price they consider fair from processors before putting out their pots.
The Kodiak Tanner crab fishery has been open for nearly two weeks but fishermen are standing down from fishing.
The United Salmon Association is holding negotiation talks but fishermen tell the Kodiak Daily Mirror they're not making progress.
The association says the stand down is due to the extreme difference in price between offers for Tanner crab in Kodiak and what was paid for Tanner crab in Dutch Harbor.
The fishermen are seeking two-25 per pound and so far have received offers of one-dollar-50 cents and one-85 per pound.
A manager at Alaska Pacific Seafoods, Jim Major, says the higher price in Dutch Harbor is due to the size of the crab in the two regions and market demand.
He says Tanner crab on Kodiak Island are not the larger, platter-type that are caught in the Bering Sea.
He says worldwide buyers have quite a bit of the smaller crab left over from last year are not ready to buy.
Early Cook Inlet sockeye fishery okayed
KENAI (AP) - The Alaska Board of Fisheries has adopted new rules that will allow Cook Inlet commercial drift fishermen to fish sockeye salmon earlier in the season.
United Cook Inlet Drifters Association President Roland Maw says the change will grant drifters additional time in July and August, help fishermen get to fish sooner and spread the harvest out more.
He says that will add to the overall quality of their product.
Some setnet fishermen were less pleased with the board's decisions.
The board failed to do away with ``window'' closure periods that east side setnetters say allow too many fish to escape up the Kenai and Kasilof rivers.
Kenai Peninsula Fishermen's Association president Paul Shadura says biologists have their hands tied by the window provisions.
He says because many fish can enter a river system in a short time, the windows allow huge numbers of fish to swim upstream past fishermen required to keep nets on the beach.
Drug bust made on Kodiak
KODIAK (AP) - Kodiak law enforcement officers have arrested a 35-year-old man and seized three pounds of marijuana.
Kodiak police say Scott Jones of Kodiak was arrested Monday when he came off the state ferry Tustumena in a pickup truck.
He's charged with two counts of misconduct involving a controlled substance.
Police department administrative assistant Paul Smith says federal officers took part in the arrest.
Police also seized seven-thousand dollars from Scott.
Lady Bears entertain Ketchikan, men play California team in Anchorage
The women's basketball team at Juneau Douglas High School hosts Ketchikan this weekend.
The Kings are in town for games tonight and Saturday.
Both contests tip off at 8 p.m.
The men's game against Lathrop of Fairbanks at the Bartlett tournament in Anchorage yesterday afternoon was postponed.
The Bears got in to Anchorage last evening after the plane they were suppose to board yesterday morning
overheaded. The game was set for 4 p.m. yesterday, but the Bears didn't get in until nine.
The Bears play Valley Christian from California at 4 this afternoon. That game will be aired on KINY.
(Copyright ©2005 Alaska Juneau Communications - KINY Radio)
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