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Loescher quits Sealaska post
Corporation begins search for new president
The President of Sealaska Corporation has resigned. Robert Loescher (left) stepped down today and the board of the regional Native corporation accepted his resignation. No reason was given for Loescher's resignation. Company spokesman Ross Soboleff declined to comment. In a news release, the company said Loescher would provide advisory services to the company during the transition. The board of directors has appointed an Interim Executive Team consisting of Albert Kookesh, Chairman of the Board, Chris McNeil Junior, Executive Vice President, and Joseph Devine, Chief Operating Officer. The company says it will begin an immediate search for a new Chief Executive. Loescher had worked for Sealaska since 1978 and had served as Chief Executive since September 1997. Sealaska is the regional Native corporation for Southeast Alaska and holds investments in forest products, minerals, entertainment, telecommunications and plastics.
Road access to the Lena Point National Marine Fisheries Service Research Facility site is the subject of an informational meeting tomorrow night. Jan Caulfield of Shineberg Associates is making those arrangements. She says there will be an update on the status of the environmental assessment process. Of the four major alternatives, three go through the interior of the property. The other involves upgrading the existing South Lena Loop Road. For residents who want to come up to speed on the matter prior to the meeting, Caulfield suggests going to the CBJ Engineering website here, or by calling her office at 586-3141. The meeting begins at 7:00 tomorrow evening at Chapel by the Lake.
An Anchorage testing expert says it's the scoring system -- not the students -- that should be blamed for the dismal results in the math portion of the state's exit exam. Tom Straugh is the district's testing coordinator. He says the math portion of the exam is so tough that 80 percent of sophomores in a national sample would be likely to fail it. Straugh studied the test results, comparing them with the results of the CaliforniaAchievement Tests. He concluded that passing the state's math test is equivalent to scoring better than 80 percent of those who take the math portion of the California Achievement Tests. Six out of ten Alaska juniors have failed the state math test. Harry Gamble of the Department of Education says they have some serious questions about the kinds of comparisons that Straugh made by comparing a nationally-normed test with a state-based standards assessment. Gamble points out that there just isn't an easy way to do that. He says it takes a lot of mathematical manipulation to back into some kind of comparison and involves making a lot of assumptions. Gamble says it's department policy to continually review its exams. A committee of Alaskans will begin work in February to review the high school exam, as well as standards, test questions and passing scores. The Governor has submitted legislation delaying the effective date of the high school exam until 2006. Under current law, students must pass the math, reading and writing exams to graduate next year. About half have passed the writing portion and more than three-quarters have passed the reading portion.
A 17-year-old girl has surrendered to police in connection with the hit-and-run death of an elderly man early yesterday. Anchorage police say they contacted the girl's mother who agreed to bring her daughter in for questioning last night. Prosecutors have not yet determined what charges the girl could face. Her name has not been released. Police say 70-year-old Noel Nollner was crossing DeBarr road early Sunday when he was struck by a blue Ford Bronco. Witnesses provided investigators with a description of the vehicle and the driver. The vehicle was found a short time later, parked near a Midtown hotel. Police say there was another 17-year-old girl and a 20-year-old woman in the vehicle at the time of the accident. All three have been questioned. Police say they acknowledged that they had been drinking prior to the accident.
Word was received last week that long time legislative lobbyist Waco Shelly passed away on December 5th in Beaumont, Texas. He worked as a lobbyist for Mobil Oil in Juneau beginning in 1971 and until 1997. Upon his retirement in '97, he had worked 61 years for Mobil. He was the first President Emeritus of the Alaska State Chamber of Commerce, a Rotarian, member of the Juneau Planning Commission, as well as many other civic organizations. Shelly was 84 at the time of his death.
The state House is honoring Iditarod pioneer Joe Redington Senior's contribution to the state. Members voted unanimously to rename 15 miles of the Knik-Goose Bay Road in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough after him. Redington (left) is viewed as the Father of the Iditarod for his efforts in establishing the annual Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race. The bill's sponsor, Willow Republican Bev Masek, called Redington an Alaska hero. If the bill also passes the Senate, the Joe Redington Senior Memorial Trail will run past the Iditarod Sled Dog Race headquarters and the Redington homestead.
Searchers reached the wreckage of a DC-3 cargo plane crashed outside Unalaska Friday and have identified the two people on board. A spokesman for the Unalaska Department of Public Safety says the plane was the Majestic Air Cargo plane that took off Tuesday night and was reported missing. Searchers recovered the bodies of 53-year-old pilot Jody Pond and 39-year-old co-pilot Angela Drennan. The Air Force is flying their remains to Anchorage for an autopsy. The cargo plane was heading for Anchorage with a load of seafood. The wreckage was spotted Wednesday about 1,500 feet up the side of an inactive volcano. By Friday the tail section had slid about a thousand feet down the steep slope.
An Anchorage Superior Court jury has ordered the state's largest nonprofit hospital to pay doctors $2-million. The jury found that the Sisters of Providence, the Providence Alaska Medical Center, the Providence Anchorage Anesthesia Medical Group and the Alaska Pain Management Clinic violated state laws. Two anesthesiologists sued the Providence medical groups, claiming Providence's actions prevented patents from getting pain management treatment they needed. The lawsuit focused on an exclusive contract Providence hospital signed with the anesthesia group in 1992. The contract allowed the medical group's physicians to provide anesthesia services and pain management at the hospital. The doctors who filed the suit claimed the exclusive agreement restricted their practice. Nearly all the money will go to the A.A. Pain Clinic, run by Doctor Leon Chandler Junior. Some of the money will go to Michael Borello, the other anesthesiologist who sued.
An Anchorage foster mother was sentenced to 20 years in prison -- with ten suspended -- for causing the death of a 10-year-old child in her care. Thirty-five-year-old Melissa Falgoust pleaded no contest in August to manslaughter in August for killing Steven Murray in July 1999. The sentence was twice the usual term for manslaughter and the maximum allowed based on the plea agreement worked out between Falgoust's attorney and the District Attorney's office in Anchorage. State youth and family authorities placed Steven in the Falgoust home in June 1998. It was his 11th foster home. He had been removed from his mother's care when the Division of Family and Youth Services found he was at risk because of substance abuse and domestic violence in her home. Prosecutors say Falgoust attempted to blame the boy for his bruises and injuries. But the state medical examiner testified that the injuries were not self-inflicted and bruises on his arms indicated he had tried to defend himself.
The University of Alaska Southeast has received an anonymous donation of $100,000 for an endowment to the Bald Eagle Research Institute. Chancellor John Pugh (right) said during his weekly radio program on KINY this morning that the endowment's earnings will further that research in Southeast. He says they hope the endowment will eventually grow large enough to hire a professor who specializes in bald eagle research. Pugh also used the program this morning to announce the date for the school's major fund raising event. Tuxedo Junction is scheduled for September 29th.
An Anchorage woman suffered serious head injuries when she was thrown from a snowmachine on Big Lake in the Mat Su Valley Saturday. Jessica A Chuitt, 31, was a passenger on a snowmachine operated by 39 year old Terry V. Morgheim. The snowmachine was going through thick fog when it struck a snow berm while moving at about 40 miles per hour. Neither person was wearing a helmet. Chuitt was found nearly a hundred feet from the snow berm. Morgheim was arrested for DWI and Assault in the Third Degree, and transported to jail with bail set at $30,000.
A Southeast Alaska trapper has reported finding some evidence of wolf cannibalism. The state Department of Fish and Game says three wolves appeared to have been eaten by other wolves. A biologist says only a small clump of hide and rib bone remained from the first wolf eaten, making it impossible to determine the animal's age, sex and physical condition. The other two wolves were a juvenile male and a juvenile female. They had been about 50 percent consumed. The nature of the wounds and the condition of the carcasses suggests that large animals had been feeding on them. That ruled out ravens and eagles. There also were some signs the juvenile female had been attacked and killed while in a trap. Instances of wolves killing wolves, as well as of wolf cannibalism, are well documented by researchers. But biologists said this incident was unusual, because it happened three times in the same area. State wildlife biologists don't believe hunger was a factor. They think the incidents arose because of strife within the wolf pack.
The annual Deer Hunter Survey from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game is going out in the mail soon. Tom Paul, a research analyst with the Division of Wildlife Conservation says the survey goes to about a third of the 4,000 hunters in Southeast who picked up deer harvest tickets. He says the survey is the only way for the department to come up with accurate estimates on the deer population.
The Internet is opening up a world of information to astronomy buffs and scientists interested in getting a good look at the northern lights (left). The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has four polar-orbiting satellites equipped with the Space Environment Monitor. It carries the Total Energy Detector, which is actually eight detectors that count charged particles moving toward Earth. Internet users also are using NASA's Polar Satellite, which has a small camera called the Ultraviolet Imager that takes pictures of the aurora's ultraviolet light. The images are updated every seven minutes on the World Wide Web when the satellite is in contact with the Earth. Amateur astronomers say the data now available on the Internet is taking the guesswork out of one of nature's wonders. Amateur astronomer Richard Pellessier of Anchorage says he's been using websites for about two years to gather information. He says now when he bundles up and ventures out to see the northern lights, it's less likely he will be disappointed.
The Boys and Girls Club has opened a center in Barrow. The Barrow Teen Center is the farthest north Boys and Girls Club anywhere. Mike Schults is the club's regional coordinator. He says there are plans to expand the clubs to the another seven villages on the North Slope. The club has a great variety of activities for kids, including air hockey, pool tables and jump rope. But for an hour every weekday, the kids do their homework, or if they don't have any, sit quietly and read. The hour is called the "power hour."
The Juneau Arts and Humanities Council's "Read Series" continues tonight with Carolyn Servid, a Sitka resident who co-founded the Island Institute there. Servid (right) is also an author, and read from her book, 'Of Landscape and Longing,' on KINY's Capital Chat this morning. She will be featured during the "Reading Series" tonight at 7:00 at the Back Room downtown on 2nd. The Island Institute has been involved in studying Sitka's resilience after the closure of the large wood pulp mill in the mid-1990s.
The Juneau Douglas Crimson Bears men lost to the Bartlett Golden Bears of Anchorage 60 to 51 in high school basketball action on Saturday night. Meanwhile, the women Bears took second place at the T-Bird Classic over the weekend. They dropped their contest with tourney host and champ East High 63 to 50. The Bears beat Bartlett 59 to 53 and lost to Wasilla 53 to 48 to compile a 1 and 2 record in the tournament. The squad was awarded second place on a tie breaker based on the defensive points allowed.
The World Alpine Ski Championships begin this week in Austria. The local products are expected to win a majority of medals, but the United States wants to make a good showing in its last major event before the Salt Lake City Games. Americans have won eight medals this season and finished fourth three times. Kristina Koznick has led the way with three medals.
The Alaska Department of Labor is making further use of computer technology to assist Alaskans. Unemployment appeal decisions are now posted on the department's website. Department official Stephen Long says that will help Alaskans prepare for hearings by reviewing previous cases. The web address is www.labor.state.ak.us/appeals/ahome.htm
Juneau's Gastineau Humane Society (left) will maintain new hours beginning Thursday. Those hours will be 3:00pm to 6:00pm Monday through Friday and from noon to 5:00pm Saturday and Sunday. Gastineau's Katherine Torrence says open hours have been sporadic in the past. She says they're hoping more uniform hours will be easier for the public.(Captions for our photographs can be viewed by hovering over them with your mouse pointer)
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