Budget analysts warn leaner years ahead
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - The Legislature's lead budget analyst says state spending could be back in the hole as early as next year.

Legislative Finance Director David Teal told the Senate Finance Committee yesterday (Wednesday) that mounting costs and volatile oil prices could eat up a dwindling budget surplus that was the result of record high oil prices.

And he predicts lawmakers will be hard pressed to make the reductions that Governor Palin has called for in her budget.

She is proposing to cut 150 million dollars from an operating budget that is 750 million dollars over what lawmakers approved for this year.

Teal says Palin's plan is missing key parts that lawmakers have little, if any, choice about funding. Those include increases in K-12 funding to cover rising retirement costs, changes in the state's Medicaid match and increases resulting from new state employee contracts.

NEA-Alaska members gather for annual meeting
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Members of Alaska's main public education union, N-E-A-Alaska, are gathering tonight in Anchorage for a three-day summit.

More than 400 teachers, school nurses, librarians and education support professionals such as school secretaries, maintenance workers, cafeteria workers, and custodians will gather for the 51st Annual Delegate Assembly.

The assembly runs through Saturday.

N-E-A-Alaska President Bill Bjork (BEE-york) says the focus this year will be on issues such as adequate funding, retirement, class size and a living wage for education support professionals.

N-E-A-Alaska represents more than 13-thousand teachers and other certificated K-through-12 staff as well as education support professionals.

Union spokeswoman Virginia McKinney says Anchorage Mayor Mark Begich will address delegates tonight.

House will chart its ethics course this weekend
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - A group of House lawmakers will meet Saturday morning to decide how to handle a dozen ethics bills before the state Legislature.

The three-member subcommittee will look at measures from Republican and Democratic legislators and Republican Governor Palin.

The group will consider whether to roll all the measures into one bill.

Among the bills are proposals that would require lawmakers to make more timely and detailed reports of their outside income and would bar public officials from working on state business with companies they own stock in.

The ethics legislation will be heard formally in the House State Affairs Committee.

Fish, Game boards recommend Denby for commissioner
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - The boards that oversee fisheries and wildlife in Alaska are recommending that Governor Palin appoint Denby Lloyd as Fish and Game Department commissioner.

The Alaska Board of Fisheries and the Alaska Board of Game met jointly last night (Wednesday) in Anchorage to consider nominations.

The joint board forwarded Lloyd's name to Palin for her consideration.

Lloyd was recently appointed acting commissioner.

Lloyd worked as director of the Division of Commercial Fisheries within the department before his appointment.

Mel Morris is chairman of the Fish Board.

He says members have worked closely with Lloyd over the years and have a high regard for his knowledge and experience with fisheries management.
---
Other candidates considered were Roland Maw of Soldotna, director of the United Cook Inlet Drift Association, and Corey Rossi of Wasilla, district supervisor of the U-S Department of Agriculture's Wildlife Services Program.

Furniture salesman jailed on theft and drug charges
An employee of a local furniture store has been arrested by Juneau Police.

The arrest came after officers cased out the Lyle's store in the Nugget Mall to investigate possible employee theft.

They watched as 37 year old Tim Foster of Juneau sold a furniture set valued at $3,500 to an unidentified person for $700.

When police contacted Foster, they found the $700 and 53 prescription pills in his possession.

The store owner told police Foster did not have the authority to sell or give furniture away. Foster's job title was warehouse clerk. The furniture was recovered and returned to the store.

Sergeant Dave Campbell says they were working on a tip in conjunction with the store owner.

A release from SEANET, the Southeast Alaska Narcotics Enforcement Team, says their investigators arranged to purchase 30 tabs of hydrocodone  and furniture from Foster.

A search of Foster found he had 53 tabs in his possession.

Foster was arrested for theft in the second degree and misconduct involving a controlled substance in the fourth degree, both class "C" felonies.

He was jailed at the Lemon Creek Correctional Center on no bail. 

Injured Boozer makes All-Star team
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) - Carlos Boozer says he will be at the N-B-A All-Star game later this month.

Whether he's playing in it will depend on the hairline fracture below his left knee.

Boozer -- who played high school ball in Juneau, Alaska -- leads the Utah Jazz in scoring and rebounding. He learned today that he was selected to the Western Conference All-Star reserves. But his injury could keep him from playing.

Boozer says he's doing everything he can to speed up his recovery. He hopes that's enough to play in the game on February 18th in Las Vegas. If it isn't, Boozer says he'll still be there for the festivities.

Boozer is the first All-Star for the Jazz since Andrei Kirilenko in 2004 and the ninth player in franchise history to be selected.

Crimson Bears men notch road win
Juneau Douglas High School men's basketball team defeated West Valley 56 to 39 today. (Thursday)

The Bear's Will Egolf scored 27 points.

The Crimson Bears are on the road in the Fairbanks area.

The competition Friday is the North Pole Patriots. Tip off is at 6 p.m.

The game will be broadcast on KINY.

Saturday's game against the Lathrop Malamutes is at 3 p.m. and can also be heard on KINY.

The Bears men are ranked number one in the state by the Alaska Sports Broadcasting Network poll

The Lady Bears are ranked second.

The women are participating in the Dimond Lady Lynx Classic in Anchorage. They played the Bartlett Golden Bears Thursday afternoon.

Other tourney teams are Service, Wasilla, Point Hope, Kodiak, South Anchorage, and Dimond. Play continues through Saturday.

Police investigating more burglaries
Two more burglaries were reported to Juneau Police Wednesday.

One was out the road at a home on Tee Way. Police say access was made through a window.

The other was a home on Point Stephens Road.

No word yet what may have been taken.

Two other burglaries were reported to police Tuesday.

Prior to that there were about a dozen more last month stretching from the downtown area to about 19 mile.

Police say stolen items include medication, lap top computers, cash, and easily carried small electronic devices.

The burglaries occur during the day and are at homes generally hidden from public view. Most have been unlocked, according to police.

A possible suspect is described as a dark complected man in his late teens or early twenties. He's about five foot nine with a thin to moderate build with black hair.

Police ask residents to lock their doors and report suspicious people.

Impound lot bid request includes other work
The City and Borough of Juneau's Request for Bids for the new impound lot also includes other work.

The total RFB is for $744,755

The impound lot is expected to cost $470,000 and the Assembly approved an appropriation for that amount last Monday.

The remaining $274,755 is for access infrastructure, according to City Manager Rod Swope.

That project includes work on the Hidden Valley haul road, construction of two bridge approaches and abutments and the installation of a bridge.

The funds for that work have not yet been authorized by the Assembly.

Swope says its totally independent of the impound lot.

Swope says the work is being added to the RFB because the contractor for the impound lot will already be at the location.

He says it will save time and money to do both projects at the same time.

The $470,000 for the impound yard project will be used to put in a large amount of fill to bring the level of the lot up above the 100 year flood plain; add rip-rap to keep the fill from going into Lemon Creek; and the installation of a high security fence topped by razor wire.

It also involves putting in utilities, electricity, lighting and a 500 foot dirt road to the impound lot.

The city owns a little over 100 acres in the area and the impound lot will use about one acre.

Swope says the other main purpose to get into  the area is the good gravel.

Other possible uses include relocating the stack of junk cars before they're barged out of town and relocating some of the city's heavy equipment in a secured area.

And, Swope says, once some of the gravel's been removed there's been talk of allowing off road vehicle use there.

The Request for Bids is listed as the contract for the Upper Lemon Creek and JPD Impound Yard project.

Jobs projected to increase in Alaska
Job growth looks good generally in the future for Alaska, according to a report from the Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development.

Last year was the 19th straight year the state has added jobs.

The next two year forecast calls for additional growth, according to State Labor Economist Dan Robinson, who expects fairly moderate growth.

He says they're forecasting a 1 point 2 percent growth in 2007 and one percent in 2008.

Robinson says the obvious bright spot last year was the oil and gas industry.

Final numbers are pending, but Robinson says the growth will be between 15 to 20 percent.

He says they expect the industry to grow a little more in the next two years.

Robinson says that kind of growth hasn't occurred since 1991 when there was a lot more oil being pumped.

The economist says the general economy is benefiting from fairly healthy state budgets, oil money, and federal spending which may taper off in the future. There are no real storm clouds on the short-term horizon, according to Robinson.

Health care continues to grow.

Construction, which had been growing for the last decade, leveled off in 2006. Robinson says they expect slightly negative numbers in 2007 and 2008. He adds that's because a lot of publicly funded projects have been completed.

Southeast Alaska is treading water. He says the region hasn't seen a lot of strong growth. Fishing, which seems a little bit better, will help, he says.

Also helping will be new business in Juneau including Home Depot and Wal-Mart.

Also treading water Robinson says is the Southwest portion of the state and rural Alaska in general. Fishing helps those areas, he says, but there's not much else going on that would create consistent or very strong growth.

New study shows Exxon Valdez oil persists off Alaska coast
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - A new report says lingering oil from the Exxon Valdez spill has weathered only slightly in some places almost 18 years later.

The 1989 spill was the nation's largest ever.

Research chemist Jeffrey Short with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other scientists worked on the report released today (Wednesday).

The report will be published in the February 15th edition of Environmental Science and Technology, the journal of the American Chemical Society.

Short says an estimated 85 tons of oil remaining at Prince William Sound is declining about four percent a year and likely even slower in the Gulf of Alaska.

He says samples taken from ten randomly chosen beaches show that thick, emulsified oil -- called ``oil mousse'' -- resists weathering and thus can be preserved in oxygen-containing sediments.

Mark Boudreaux -- a spokesman for Exxon Mobil Corporation -- says oil giant plans to closely review the study.

He says that based on an initial review of the findings, there is -- QUOTE -- ``nothing newsworthy or significant in the report that has not already been addressed.''

Energy giant posts record annual gain
NEW YORK (AP) - Exxon Mobil has reported the largest annual profit in U-S history.

The yearly gain reported this morning is put at 39 and a-half billion dollars.

However, profit was declining as the year was winding to a close, as oil prices were falling.

Even more stunning is the record level of revenues last year for the world's largest publicly traded oil company, topping 377 billion dollars.

January weather stats for Juneau issued
It was warmer and wetter than normal in Juneau during January.

Meteorologist Kimberly Vaughn in the Juneau Forecast Office says the first day of the year was the warmest day of the month when it hit 43 degrees.

Temperatures were five degrees above normal with an average of 31

There were 25 days with high temperatures above freezing.

But there were cold overnight lows. She says temperatures plummeted to single digits on the 9th, 10th and 11th. The 10th was the coldest when it hit five degrees..

Precipitation amounted to 6 point 25 inches, one point 44 inches above normal.

Only 12 days were snow free. Even so, the forecaster says January recorded one point four inches below the average for the month. The total was 27 point 5 inches.

There was a daily snow record set at the airport on the 4th with four point four inches. That amount broke the previous record for the date set in 1969 by just shy of an inch.

Ice pellets were also observed on the 7th, 15th and 16th.

The strongest winds were recorded mid-month when maximum gusts to 54 miles per hour occurred at the airport.

There was a 56 mile per hour gust at Mayflower Island and there was a gust to 68 on Mt. Roberts.

Winter update: warm West including Alaska, chilly Midwest, Northeast
WASHINGTON (AP) - Government forecasters got a head start on the groundhog today, calling for mild weather in the West but a chilly February in the Midwest and Northeast.

Meteorologist Mike Halpert at NOAA's Climate Prediction Center, says the winter got off to a very warm start, but is ending with more seasonable temperatures and precipitation over most of the country.

The winter weather update calls for warmer than normal temperatures over much of the West, northern Plains and much of Alaska.

Readings should be near normal for the season in the Southeast and below-average in parts of the Midwest, Northeast and mid-Atlantic.

The update also notes that El Nino conditions are weakening in the Pacific Ocean. El Nino is a periodic warming of tropical waters that can affect weather around the world.
---
On the Net:
NOAA: http://www.noaa.gov 
NOAA Climate Prediction Center: http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/ 

Kenai ice festival drips away in warm weather
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Warm weather on the Kenai Peninsula brought an end to the displays at the annual Alaska State Championship Ice Sculpting Competition.

Ice carvers say some of the 25 carvings lasted less than a week in above-freezing temperatures.

The National Weather Service says the warm spell will likely continue through the weekend and possibly also scatter rain around Southcentral Alaska.

For the past eight years, Soldotna and Kenai have put on the popular ice show.

Competing sculptures are placed on business lawns and parking lots throughout the area for a fee.

The Kenai Peninsula Tourism Marketing Council coordinates the carvings.

Businesses that help sponsor the concurrent Peninsula Winter Games get free or discounted sculptures.
(Anchorage Daily News)

Judge refuses to stop wolf control program
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - A judge today denied a request to put a stop to an Alaska program that allows wolves to be shot from the air.

The request was made as part of a lawsuit filed by Defenders of Wildlife, The Alaska Wildlife Alliance and the Alaska chapter of the Sierra Club.

The wolf control program -- intended to boost moose and caribou populations -- is now operating in five areas of the state.

Under the program, now in its fourth year, 580 wolves have been killed.

Superior Court Judge William Morse denied the preliminary injunction.

However, he said, if the plaintiffs wanted they could ask for a trial.

Defenders of Wildlife said it was weighing its option.

Hundreds pack auditorium for slain soldier's funeral
FALLS CITY, Neb. (AP) - A funeral was held in Falls City, Nebraska, for a slain Alaska-based soldier.

First Lieutenant Jacob Fritz of Verdon, Nebraska, was one of four Fort Richardson paratroopers killed January 20th in an attack in Karbala, Iraq.

Fritz was remembered as a good friend and the type of guy to get things done. A fellow soldier called Fritz a valiant fighter who fought to the end.

Fritz was a 2000 graduate of Dawson-Verdon High School in southeast Nebraska, and a 2005 graduate of the U-S Military Academy in West Point. The 25-year-old left for Iraq in October.

His 22-year-old brother, Daniel, will graduate from West Point in 2008.

Attending the funeral was Nebraska's Republican U-S Senator Chuck Hagel, who has accused the Bush administration of playing ``a ping pong game with American lives'' by sending more U-S troops into Iraq.

Alaska Airlines introduces new planes
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Alaska Airlines is introducing two new planes as part of a 100 (m) million dollar plan to upgrade its fleet and infrastructure.

The so called  "Combi" aircraft will operate in the state.

The Seattle-based airline says the Boeing 737-400 aircraft have more cargo capacity, more advanced flight-guidance systems and more comfortable passenger cabins than the planes they're replacing.

The airline plans to add two more of the planes to its fleet by the end of 2007.

Alaska Airlines says the aircraft and a freighter introduced in June 2006 will provide about 20 percent more cargo capacity and passenger seats.

Abandoned rats found in Anchorage airport
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Wildlife biologist Rick Sinnott has killed two white rats at Ted Stevens International Airport in Anchorage that appeared to be someone's abandoned pets.

City officials say Anchorage is a certified rat-free port and the city wants to keep it that way. And Sinnott says the city isn't infested with rats.

Officials say they found the two rats beneath the stairs, along with a tiny pet carrier complete with mashed up vegetables and some rat toys.

The city has had occasional rat scares.

The most recent was in 2003 when Norway rats showed up in a neighborhood north of Dimond High School.

Municipal crews solved the problem with traps and poison.

The airport says it has hired pest control experts in case of any more rodents.
(Anchorage Daily News)

New slogan chosen for Anchorage
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Anchorage officials have unveiled the city's new branding campaign.

The goal is to make Anchorage more enticing to visitors and businesses. The slogan chosen was ``Anchorage, Big Wild Life.''

Officials say whether skiing the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail on a lunch hour, summer fishing for wild Alaska salmon at Ship Creek or hiking Flattop, Anchorage residents lead a life that's bigger and a little wilder than most.

Traffic stop turns into drug bust after car searched
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Alaska State Troopers say a routine traffic stop on the Palmer-Wasilla Highway last weekend turned into a drug and firearms bust.

Inside the four-door sedan troopers say they found two assault rifles, a sawed-off shotgun and about 16-hundred dollars worth of cocaine and methamphetamine.

Sergeant Steve Adams of the Alaska State Troopers DUI Enforcement Team says the stop was pretty standard at first.

He says the car, carrying five people, had a broken taillight.

Troopers say the driver was 21-year-old David J. Irvin of Anchorage.

Troopers say he was driving under the influence of drugs and was jailed at Mat-Su Pre-Trial Facility on 25-hundred dollars bail.

Troopers say they still don't know what the five were doing in a car with all those guns.

Adams says troopers haven't filed any charges relating to the guns or drugs but plan to.
(Anchorage Daily News)

Ketchikan reaches settlement with EPA over clean water violations
KETCHIKAN, Alaska (AP) - Ketchikan has reached a 39-thousand dollar settlement with the federal Environmental Protection Agency for alleged Clean Water Act violations related to the city's discharge of wastewater.

The city's wastewater treatment facility pours treated wastewater into the Tongass Narrows.

E-P-A officials say the discharge from the City's facility exceeded bacterial and chemical limits on numerous occasions.

Marcia Combes is Alaska Operations Office Director for the E-P-A.

Combes says Ketchikan is trying to upgrade the facility, which serves about eight-thousand people.

Jamaican musher to compete in Yukon Quest
WHITEHORSE, YUKON (AP) - Jamaican musher Devon Anderson is competing in the 24th running of the Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race.

The one-thousand-mile race is sometimes referred to as the ``toughest sled dog race in the world.''

It starts this year in Whitehorse on February 10th, and will finish in Fairbanks about two weeks later.

Reigning Champion Lance Mackey and past champions Hans Gatt, John Schandelmeier and Frank Turner are expected to race.

Anderson says he will be traveling north of the 60th parallel for the first time in his life. 

GCI to move into Eagle River
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - The telecom and cable company General Communication Incorporated says it has plans to expand to Eagle River.

G-C-I competes with Alaska Communications Systems in the state's three largest cities

It plans to start marketing its local phone service in Eagle River on February 16th.

Matanuska Telephone Association has been Eagle River's sole phone company for many years.

GCI officials say they're planning to price basic phone service lower than M-T-A's.
(Anchorage Daily News)

Big jackpot follows heartbreaking news for New York man
NAPLES, N.Y. (AP) - In December, Wayne Schenk was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. A month later, he was a millionaire.

The 50-year-old tavern owner from Naples, New York, won million dollars in a New York state lottery scratch-off game.

But the Marine Corps veteran doesn't expect to be around to collect all his winnings. To do that, he would have to live 20 years. His doctors have given him a year to live, at most.

Under lottery rules for the High Stakes Blackjack game he won on January 12th, the jackpot winner receives the cash in annual installments over 20 years.

That's 50-thousand dollars before taxes. Schenk picked up his first payment last week -- 34-thousand dollars after taxes.

Other than a hunting trip to Alaska, Schenk says he doesn't want to buy anything fancy with his winnings. He says he just wants more time. 

Mower Man on his way to Virginia from Alaska
GARDEN CITY, Utah (AP) - Paul Woods admits he's ``pretty weird.''

He's driving a riding mower across the country, with his dog Yoda along for the ride. Woods says he left Alaska in 2005 and is bound for Virginia, where his late mother left him a house.

The Herald Journal of Logan, Utah, caught up with Woods about 100 miles north of Salt Lake City.

In theory, the mower can do about 15 miles per hour, but Woods says he's his loaded down with tools, snacks, and his dog.

Woods adds that he spends more time fixing the thing than riding it.

                       Copyright ©2007 Alaska Juneau Communications - KINY Radio)