House rejects drug bill changes
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - The Alaska House today rejected the Senate's changes to a drug bill that would have rolled into one measure new laws on marijuana, methamphetamines and steroids.

The bill was sent back to the Senate on a 15-to-23 vote. The Senate can rescind from its changes or else a conference committee will be appointed to come up with a compromise.

The House passed the bill 33-to-0 last year when it was simply a measure to make it more difficult to buy the ingredients used to manufacture methamphetamine.

But the Senate Finance Committee, when it received the measure, tacked on a marijuana bill that was a priority of Governor Murkowski.

The marijuana bill seeks harsher penalties for marijuana possession and is an attempt to overturn a 31-year-old court decision that allows small amounts of marijuana in the home.
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The Senate also removed a requirement that a person sign a logbook when buying a methamphetamine precursor like Sudafed. Several House members say that stripped the bill of its effectiveness.

Others objected to the marijuana provisions, saying it was an infringement on the right to privacy.

Still others who voted no today objected to the Senate's inclusion of provisions that had not been fully vetted by House committees.

If the Senate refuses to recede from its changes,  the bill will go to conference committee. 

In anticipation of that, Speaker John Harris appointed Majority Leader John Coghill, Bill Stoltze and Harry Crawford to the committee.

Defense questions credibility of key witness' testimony
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) KINY- A defense lawyer for the Craig teenager accused of conspiring to kill her mother says she was naive and easily exploited.

Rachelle Waterman's attorney Steven Wells today hammered away at the credibility of one of two men who pleaded guilty to the actual killing.

Jason Arrant told troopers that he and Brian Radel were carrying out the high school student's wishes when they murdered Lauri Waterman on Prince of Wales Island in November 2004.

The former boyfriends of Waterman were arrested less than a week after the murder.

Wells says Arrant's letters to the girl showed his unhealthy obsession with her.

But Ketchikan District Attorney Stephen West says Waterman encouraged his affections.

The 17 year old Waterman is accused of asking Arrant and Brian Radel to kill her mother in November 2004.

During his testimony Radel said Waterman never told him that she wanted her mother dead.

Arrant has portrayed a different picture in his testimony.

Defense attorney Steve Wells has grilled Arrant about his plea deal with prosecutors.

Under it, Arrant is to be sentenced to 50 years in prison, but will be eligible for parole with good behavior when he is 42.

West also asked why his client did not provide the men a key to her house the night they abducted her mother.

Arrant admitted that was strange, but added he couldn't speculate what was going on in her mind.

Arrant was on the stand until about 20 minutes after ten this morning. His testimony in the trial has now concluded.

The trial continues tomorrow (Thursday) with Waterman's videotaped interview with troopers.

New oil tax pitched again, details still uncertain
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - Details and a timeline are still unknown, but Governor Murkowski made another pitch to lawmakers today to restructure the state's oil production tax.

Murkowski's lead consultant, Pedro van Meurs, and Department of Revenue economist Roger Marks presented scenarios of how much more money the state would take in if it taxed the net profits of companies.

The tax rates examined were between 17-point-5 and 25 percent. In those scenarios, the state would take in between 1-point-1 billion and 2-point-6 billion dollars above what it does now when oil is at 60 dollars per barrel.

Both van Meurs and Senate President Ben Stevens (an Anchorage Republican) say the rates presented are not necessarily what would be proposed in a bill. Van Meurs called it background information meant to help lawmakers' deliberations.
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A net profits tax would be based on oil companies' gross production revenue from their wellheads, minus their capital and operating expenses, royalties and property taxes.

Murkowski has said he wants to see a bill introduced this session, but has not said when. It also is not known whether the governor will introduce the bill or whether it will come from a legislative committee or an individual lawmaker.

Csonka pleads guilty to filming without permits
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - The U-S Attorney in Anchorage says former N-F-L great Larry Csonka (ZONK-a) has pleaded guilty to two counts of working in a national forest without a permit.

The charges stem from filming in a national forest almost four years ago and again last year.

According to his Web site, Csonka is host of an outdoors television series, North to Alaska, on the Outdoor Life Network.

Federal prosecutors say Csonka admitted to filming an episode of his series along the Blind River Area in the Tongass National Forest in August 2002.

Prosecutors say the second violation was in September in the Alaganik (ah-LAG'-a-nik) Slough at Cordova, part of the Chugach (CHEW-gash) National Forest.
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Prosecutors say Csonka has agreed to pay nearly 39-hundred dollars in restitution for about ten shows that he filmed on Forest Service land.

Prosecutors say that at sentencing, they also will request a sentence of probation for one year and a five-thousand-dollar fine.

Csonka does business as Zonk! Productions.

Sentencing is set for April 19th before U-S Magistrate John Roberts in Anchorage.

Csonka was an All-American fullback at Syracuse University.

He want on to star for the Miami Dolphins.

He retired in 19-80 and was elected to the N-F-L Hall of Fame in 19-87.

Playground plans delayed until Spring of '07
There was an update from Project Playground on KINY's Capital Chat Tuesday.

A design day for the proposed playground at Twin Lakes was held last week.

One of the organizers, Larry West, said on the program that construction will be delayed until the Spring of '07. The initial plan was to build the park in August or September of this year.

But those plans changed after conferring with city officials. He says they felt more comfortable pushing it back until the following Spring.

The co-chair of the group, James King, the group's co-chair, says the park with be built over the span of a week with the help of their consultants, Leathers Associates of New York.

In the meantime, Project Playground is buy raising funds. West says they need $200,000.

Businesses will be able to purchase an individual element of the park, like swings, or an entire section, he says.

Pickets that will be part of the fence surrounding the park will also be sale. Individuals can sponsor pickets for $40 and businesses for $100 and have their names on them.

The picket sponsoring forms are available on the Project Playground web site. There's a link to that site from www.kinyradio.com 

Volcano threat level lowered
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - The Alaska Volcano Observatory has lowered the threat level from Augustine Volcano from red to orange.

Orange means the volcano is erupting or may erupt at any time.

The observatory says Augustine is still erupting, but that ash clouds higher than 15-thousand feet have not been seen since Monday.

Higher-level ash can interfere with flight routes.

The observatory says the volcano could produce more explosive ash eruptions with little warning.

Flights resume after ash threat from Augustine Volcano
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Dozens of flights canceled by ash from erupting Augustine Volcano returned to the skies Tuesday.

Alaska Airlines official Amanda Tobin says the state's largest airline will continue to monitor ash from the volcano and make changes as needed.

Alaska Airlines had grounded 36 flights to and from Anchorage Monday and Era Aviation had canceled five flights to Kodiak Island.

The airlines said the cancellations were a precaution against ash, which can damage jet engines.

Officials said the threat to public health is low because the concentrations of ash are minimal near ground level.

Consecutive snow streak day set in January for Juneau
January in Juneau was warmer and slightly dryer than normal, according to the National Weather Service.

Meteorologist Nathan Foster says for the first time since July, Juneau recorded below normal precipitation.

The monthly total was 2 point nine-three inches which was about one point 88 inches below normal.

However snowfall for the month was about one point nine inches above normal with 30 point 8 inches total.

But that still leaves Juneau about 20 inches below normal for the winter season.

More than a third of the snowfall came on the 24th when a storm produced 12 point 4 inches. That broke the daily snowfall record of 11 inches set in 1982.

Fourteen consecutive days of measurable snow occurred between the 18th and 31st. The forecaster says this was the second longest string of measurable snowfall days in Juneau history. The longest was 15 days in February of 1965.

For the first half of the month, temperatures were about seven degrees above average, but they were about two and a half degrees below normal during the last week of the month.

Overall, the average temperature for the month was 29 degrees, which is about four degrees above normal.

Foster says January was the third consecutive month with above normal temperatures, although no daily records were exceeded.

Anchorage police arrest suspect in felony eluding, fatal crash
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Anchorage police say a 21-year-old man was charged with second-degree murder after stealing a truck and ramming a car.

Kristopher Felber is in custody after police say he tried to evade officers in the stolen truck and on foot.

Police say they took a report of a truck stolen shortly after eight a-m  Tuesday morning near Boniface Parkway and DeBarr Road in East Anchorage.

Officers spotted the truck and tried to stop it.

Police say the suspect rammed four cars and two squad cars and got away.

Officers fired shots at the truck and gave chase.

Police say the truck ran a red light at Lake Otis Boulevard and 20th Avenue and T-boned a sedan, killing the driver, 35-year-old Stephan Strain.
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Police say Strain's sedan was pushed 150 to 200 feet and both the car and the stolen pickup hit seven other vehicles.

Occupants inside suffered minor injuries.

Police say the pickup finally became disabled at Lake Otis and East 17th. The suspect fled on foot.

Several nearby schools were ordered locked down. An Alaska State Trooper helicopter helped search for the suspect.

Police say Felber was arrested without resisting.

Besides second-degree murder, he is charged with assault, felony eluding and felony vehicle theft.

He's also charged with driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs and driving with a suspended license.

His bail is set at 200-thousand dollars. He will be arraigned today. (Wednesday)

Man found dead in his truck 
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - Alaska State Troopers say an Anchorage man was found dead in his truck after it careened off the road.

The man was identified as 30-year-old Michael Cole.

Troopers believe Cole likely died Monday night after his truck careened off Portage Glacier Road, and landed upside down in a nearby creek.

A state Department of Transportation employee plowing and sanding the road saw the upside-down truck yesterday morning.

The cab of the truck was submerged. Cole was still strapped in his seat, hanging upside down when his body was found.
(Anchorage Daily News)

Charges pressed against Juneau sex offender out of compliance with law
Alaska State Troopers are pressing charges against a Juneau man for being out of compliance with his sex offender registration.

According to a dispatch issued Tuesday, Troopers attempted to contact 37 year old Duwaine E. Price on January 16 regarding his sex offender registration address.

Investigation revealed that Price is not living at the address he listed on his registration paperwork.

A charge of failure to register as a sex offender in the second degree will be sent to the District Attorney's office.

Murkowski applauds wolf control decision
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - Governor Murkowski says a judge's decision maintaining Alaska's wolf control programs is a major victory for the state.

Anchorage Superior Court Judge Sharon Gleason yesterday (Tuesday) denied a request for a temporary restraining order blocking wolf control.

Gleason says the Alaska Board of Game acted properly in creating emergency regulations to resume the killing of wolves to boost moose or caribou populations.

She says the board acted to address concerns she outlined in a January 17th ruling. That ruling concluded the Game Board had violated its own standards for expanding the program.

Murkowski says the state will continue to conduct predator control to ensure that Alaskans have moose and caribou to feed their families.

Pipeline consultants' role in memo focus of probe
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - A co-chair of the Legislative Budget and Audit Committee says the governor's office had no hand in suspending the Legislature's lead consultant on natural gas pipeline issues.

Senator Gene Therriault (a North Pole Republican) says the committee suspended consultant Bonnie Robson in order to avoid the appearance of bias against the gas deal that Governor Murkowski's negotiators are trying to close.

Department of Administration Commissioner Scott Nordstrand says a search of former Division of Oil and Gas chief Mark Myers' e-mails turned up evidence that Robson had seen, and perhaps helped write, an early draft of a memo critical of the pipeline negotiations.

The memo was sent to Attorney General David Marquez last October by then Natural Resources Commissioner Tom Irwin.
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A data analysis of an early draft of the memo recovered in the e-mail search showed the document had been either authored, revised or just simply opened by somebody using Robson's computer, according to Nordstrand.

Neither lawmakers nor Murkowski's administration know for certain to what extent Robson was involved in drafting or editing Irwin's memo.

Coast Guard rescues man after troller sinks
A Coast Guard Air Station Sitka Jayhawk helicopter crew rescued one person from a life raft, after his vessel sank, five miles northwest of Cape Decision Tuesday

The Coast Guard Juneau Command Center received a distress call at 12:40 p.m. from John Cessnun over VHF channel 16.

Cessnun said his vessel, the Hermes II a 50-foot troller homeported in Craig, was taking on water. He was the only person aboard.

An Air Station Sitka Jayhawk helicopter crew was dispatched to the scene and rescued Cessnun from a life raft and transported him to Sitka.

Cessnun was wearing a cold weather survival suit at the time of his rescue and is reported to be in good condition.

The Marine Safety Office Sitka is investigating the cause of the sinking.

Anchorage economy continues to grow
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - The Anchorage economy continues to grow.

The head of the Anchorage Economic Development Corporation says the city's economy should add 19-hundred new jobs this year. If it does, that will mean the 18th consecutive year of growth for Anchorage.

Bob Poe says the health care and construction industries should lead the way.

Job forecasters say there should be 600 new jobs in health care and 400 more construction jobs.

Poe says several big commercial projects are slated to begin this year.
(Anchorage Daily News)

American Dental Association sues to halt Alaska dental aide program
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - The American Dental Association yesterday (Tuesday) filed a lawsuit to stop unlicensed dental health aides from performing irreversible procedures in rural communities.

The lawsuit seeks to end a program run by Alaska Native organizations for trained aides who perform tooth extractions, oral surgeries and other like procedures usually done by licensed dentists.

The dental association says the unique program run by the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium is in violation of state law.

A-D-A president Bob Brandjord says the service puts patients at risk.

Consortium managers say the aides are crucially needed in remote villages.

They disagree that quality care can only be attained only through licensed dentists.

Mat-Su assessments expected to rise eleven percent
WASILLA, Alaska (AP) - Officials say assessments are expected to rise an average of eleven percent this year in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough.

Borough assessor Allen Black says that is not as big as last year, when property values rose by about 15 percent.

Finance officials say the biggest increase someone with a 200-thousand dollar home would see in their annual taxes, would be about one-hundred dollars a year.

But that's only if the Assembly passes the highest mill rate possible under the new tax cap.

All the new construction built in 2005 could also help ease the tax burden.

About 350 million dollars in new residential and commercial properties were built in the Mat-Su last year. 

Hospital helicopter plan close to completion
KENAI, Alaska (AP) - The central Kenai Peninsula has come one stop closer to having an emergency medical helicopter permanently based at the hospital in Soldotna.

The Central Peninsula General Hospital's board of directors approved an agreement with Lifeguard Air Ambulance. The agreement could put a helicopter in Soldotna 24 hours a day, seven days a week -- within three months.

The helicopter also could bring patients to Anchorage hospitals.

A hospital officials says the details are still being worked out.