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Racism concerns and need
for new high school aired at school board meeting
An increasing number of racial incidents among Juneau High School students
spurred a meeting of parents and school district officials yesterday.
Over 100 people attended the meeting at Marie Drake, according to School
Board member Phyllis Carlson.
Carlson told fellow board members last night of a recent altercation between
students aboard a school bus.
Carlson says Native students were the target of verbal abuse. She says there
have been a number of incidents.
Carlson says those attending the meeting wanted to know what the district
policy is. She added they are looking for a "line in the sand"
to be drawn about a lack of tolerance for that kind of behavior.
The number of students attending the current school and the current
controversy over building the second high school was brought up by board
member Julie Morris.
Morris says the high school is very overcrowded and "the students don't
like it". She says they have been several small fires set there and a lot of racist
issues and that "its building and building."
She says people can recognize it
as a problem or keep sweeping it under the rug by saying we don't need a
second high school. Morris added that sooner or later "its just going to blow
up."
Meanwhile, the proposed new high school is the topic of a joint meeting of
the School Board and the Assembly, tomorrow from 5 until 8 at Dzantik'i
Henni Middle School.
Governor pledges to
"move quickly" on gas pipeline contract
Governor Murkowski addressed a joint session of the legislature today and
outlined for lawmakers the process of negotiating a contract with potential
gas pipeline builders.
He said his administration will move quickly, but act smartly.
The Governor pledged to provide lawmakers a contract early enough in the
session so they have enough to adequately review it.
The Legislature must ratify any accord negotiated by the administration.
After years of stagnation, the state received a Stranded Gas application
from major oil producers who hold lease rights to the natural gas,
ConocoPhillips, B-P, and Exxon Mobil.
That came on the heels of another application filed by Mid-American Energy
Holdings and a consortium of Alaska Native corporations interested in
building a line.
Governor wants early decision on taxes
Governor Murkowski is pressing G-O-P leaders in the Legislature for an early
decision on a whole raft of taxes to help close next year's budget gap.
Administration officials met with House Speaker Pete Kott Tuesday to talk
about some of the tax proposals currently on the table.
Murkowski is looking for an early decision from lawmakers on about 100
million dollars in taxes to help balance state spending.
Among the proposals on the table are a one dollar per-pack increase in the
state's tobacco tax, a 100 dollar per employee head tax on businesses and
corporate income tax reforms that could net the state about 23 million
dollars.
Murkowski is also seeking a tax increase on charitable gaming and taxes on
cruise ship passengers, hotels and shore-side tours.
Chief of Staff Jim Clark and Office of Management and Budget Director Cheryl
Frasca met with Kott for about a half an hour.
Kott says no agreement came out of the meeting. And Kott described much of
what the governor is seeking as being, quote, "dead on arrival."
But he says there is some support among the G-O-P majority in the House for
a cruise ship head tax, the employee tax and some of the corporate tax
reforms.
Permanent Fund pay out bill
fine tuned
A plan to cash out the permanent fund dividend with a final, huge pay out
received some fine-tuning by a legislative committee today.
The original version by Fairbanks Representative Jim Holm would have paid
out a final dividend of approximately 20-thousand dollars apiece.
The House Ways and Means Committee adopted a substitute version which would
make the pay out *exactly* 20-thousand dollars.
Holm's proposed constitutional amendment would dedicate the remainder of the
Permanent Fund's annual earnings for state spending.
The committee is holding on to the measure for further work.
Snow making it challenging for some
Juneau motorists
A snow advisory is in effect for Juneau today. (Wednesday)
Meteorologist Julia Ruthford in the Juneau Forecast Office says an
accumulation of three to five inches is expected. She says snow should be
mixing with rain tonight.
Juneau Police say roads were in rough shape this morning and visibility was
bad.
Sergeant Kevin Siska said there were several vehicles in the ditch and a
couple of minor fender benders. One vehicle rolled on to its roof, but
nobody was seriously hurt.
The sergeant said people need to slow down and leave more space between
vehicles so they can take evasive action if they need to.
Snow advisories have also been issued for Haines and Skagway.
Haines can expect 8 to 14 inches between today and tomorrow. Eight to 10 is
expected in Skagway.
Election measure for U. S. Senate vacancies
gains support
Representative Harry Crawford helped push a ballot initiative calling for
special elections to fill U-S Senate vacancies.
Now the Anchorage Democrat is backing a bill that would keep the initiative
from going to voters this fall. That's because the bill would do the same
thing as the initiative.
Anchorage Republican Lesil McGuire introduced the measure last week.
It would change a law that let Republican Governor Murkowski appoint his
daughter Lisa to fill his U-S Senate seat. Murkowski resigned from the
Senate when he became governor.
The bill would require a special election to name Senate replacements.
Crawford says he thinks it's better to go ahead and have the Legislature
pass the law, instead of having voters decide the question.
That's because there are legal questions about whether the change can be
made through initiative, and he's afraid initiative supporters could lose in
court.
But another of the initiative sponsors, Representative David Guttenberg of
Fairbanks, worries that if the Legislature passes the bill, they'll come
back next year and change it.
If voters pass an initiative, it can't be repealed for two years.
McGuire has promised she wouldn't support a move to repeal the measure if it
becomes law.
Strip club measure revamped
A state House committee has revamped a bill seeking tighter regulation of
under-21 strip clubs. Now the legislation essentially bans such clubs.
Currently, people 18 and older can work in and visit the no-alcohol strip
clubs.
Under the new version, no one under the age of 21 could patronize or dance
in an Alaska strip club.
The proposal passed the House Labor and Commerce Committee on Monday and was
headed for the Judiciary Committee.
Owners of nonalcoholic clubs in Anchorage say they'll challenge the bill in
court if it passes.
Kathy Hartman, the co-owner of Fantasies on Fifth Avenue, tells the
Anchorage Daily News that the bill eliminates job opportunities for young
people.
But Representative Tom Anderson says stripping should be restricted to age
21 like gambling and alcohol.
The Anchorage Republican is leading a charge to outlaw Alaska's nonalcoholic
strip clubs.
Bering Sea fishermen complain about
proposed marketing tax
Bering Sea fishermen say they would be taxed without representation if a
Senate marketing tax bill passes.
The bill calls for changing the tax structure that funnels revenue to the
Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute by adding a point-three percent tax for
non-salmon fishermen.
Salmon fishermen currently pay a one percent marketing tax and processors
pay a voluntary point-three percent assessment. The new bill would make the
processors assessment mandatory. It would also reduce the size of ASMI's
board from 25 members to nine.
Brett Payne is executive director of Seattle-based United Catcher Boats,
which represents Bering Sea pollock, cod and crab fishermen. He says 95
percent of fishermen and crew in the Bering Sea fleet aren't from Alaska and
that the group would like some representation on the ASMI board if it is
subjected to a tax.
The bill is sponsored by Kodiak Republican Senator Gary Stevens. He says the
new tax is estimated to generate two-point-six million dollars a year
for ASMI.
Ketchikan borough drops annexation
plan
The Ketchikan Gateway Borough has scuttled plans to annex more than
36-hundred acres of surrounding land.
According to the Ketchikan Daily News, the borough assembly voted
four-to-three Monday to drop plans to add 3,681 square miles in an effort to
collect an extra one-point-four (m) million dollars in annual federal
funding.
The plan has drawn sharp opposition from residents of Hyder and Meyers
Chuck, which would have been added to the new borough.
The plan also upset other Southeast communities that would have seen less
federal funding.
This week's action came as the assembly was considering whether to schedule
a public hearing in Hyder at an estimated cost of ten-thousand dollars.
Assembly Member David Landis says the borough extended itself too far with
the proposal. He says the plan put the borough in a position of robbing from
neighbors.
Tourism boycott hurting some
operators
It appears that some people in Alaska's tourism industry are beginning to
feel the hurt from a tourism boycott.
The animal rights group Friends of Animals called for the boycott to protest
the state's aerial wolf control program, now operating in the McGrath and
Glennallen areas.
Mark Reiser, owner of a Wasilla-based company called Outdoors Alaska, says a
major client canceled its reservations last week, and is instead going to
Costa Rica. He told the Anchorage Daily News that another large group also
changed plans, citing the state predator control.
Members of the state's largest tourism industry group, the Alaska Travel
Industry Association, says there have been fewer cancellations than they
feared.
Anchorage and Juneau top destination points
for marine highway travelers
Anchorage is once again the number one destination of Alaska Marine Highway
ferry travelers.
Of the top ten destinations visited by ferry passengers, four don't receive
direct ferry service.
Topping the list is Anchorage, Juneau is 2nd, 3rd is Haines, Denali National
Park is 4th, Fairbanks/North Pole is 5th, Tok is 6th, Skagway 7th, Seward
8th, Ketchikan 9th and, Homer 10th.
Almost fifty percent of those surveyed were returning visitors, with the
majority having traveled by air to the state the first time they visited.
79 percent said they planned to return, with 57 percent saying they would
use the ferry on their next Alaska visit.
The McDowell Group interviewed 626 visitors that had used the state's ferry
system between July and September of last year.
Possible land swap subject of meeting
The Assembly conducts a work session today with the Alaska Mental Health
Board of Trustees.
CBJ Lands and Resources Manager Steve Gilbertson says the purpose is pursue
a memorandum of agreement that will the stage for a land exchange.
The city is seeking trust owned property around the National Guard Armory
next to Centennial Hall for expansion of that facility or construction of a
performing arts center.
Gilbertson says its yet to be determined exactly what city land the trust
might be interested in. One possibility, he says, is the city owned gravel
pit behind Costco. Gilbertson says there's about 30 acres of industrial land
there. That property will be available for development after the gravel
operation is completed within the next two years.
Gilbertson says it will probably take a year to complete a land swap with
the trust.
Today's meeting begins at 11:30 a.m. in the Assembly Chambers at City
Hall.
Salmon processing plant closing down
Seattle-based Trident Seafoods is closing its Chignik salmon-processing
plant. The plant closure will leave a five-village community with one
processor for the 2004 salmon season. Trident said it had lost millions
of dollars on the plant.
Spills reported in Yakutat
and Unalaska
State environmental regulators are reporting two unrelated spills, one
involving heating oil in Unalaska, the other diesel fuel in Yakutat.
The Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation says the Unalaska spill
occurred yesterday morning at the city's Public Works building.
According to the D-E-C, about 500 gallons of heating oil leaked from the
vent of a city-owned tank.
Most of the oil apparently was confined to a storm drain that leads to
nearby Shop Creek. Crews deployed sorbent booms at the creek.
The spill in Yakutat occurred overnight Monday when a boat sank at the
town's small boat harbor.
The boat's owner estimates about 200 gallons of diesel had been aboard. All
of it may have spilled since the vent pipes on the fuel tanks had not been
plugged.
The owner placed sorbent boom over the sunken vessel and was trying to
collect spilled oil.
Environmental, civil rights groups oppose
Bush judicial nominee
A coalition of environmental, civil rights and American Indian groups are
fighting the confirmation of a Bush nominee to a San Francisco-based federal
appeals court.
More than 60 groups oppose the selection of William G. Myers the Third,
saying he has a record of weakening protections for civil rights, tribal
rights and the environment.
Myers is a former mining and cattle industry lobbyist who most recently
served as the Interior Department's chief legal officer.
Groups opposing Myers' confirmation include the Sierra Club and Natural
Resources Defense Council, and the National Congress of American Indians.
Environmental groups have opposed 10 of the Bush administration's 170
judicial nominees.
Governor seeks less federal environmental
funding for tribes
Alaska Native tribal and corporate officials are mystified by a request from
Governor Murkowski to stop the flow of federal funding to recognized tribes
through the Indian Environmental General Assistance Program.
And some are outraged at the governor's request to the Environmental
Protection Agency.
The program was created in 1992 to help tribal governments in the United
States assess environmental problems in their communities.
It is currently funded at 57 million dollars. Thirteen-and-a-half
million of that money is spent in Alaska.
Budget woes facing Alaska schools
Like Juneau, schools throughout Alaska are facing a budget crunch.
Officials with the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District are expected to
unveil proposals tonight to cut eight million dollars in jobs and
programs.
Officials say that without new money from the state, a wide range of
programs will suffer.
The district joins Fairbanks, the Kenai Peninsula and Anchorage in a
statewide school-funding crunch.
Fairbanks is facing eight-and-a-half million dollars in cuts and the
loss of more than 100 jobs.
Anchorage may lose more than 100 teachers. Kenai officials have explored
closing schools entirely.
Oregon voters reject tax hike, schools face
deep cuts.
Look for another round of big spending cuts for schools, courts and other
programs in Oregon.
Voters have overwhelmingly rejected an 800 million-dollar tax hike.
The state G-O-P chairman, who opposed the tax package calls the vote ``a
swift kick in the pants to business-as-usual politicians who have ignored
the need for reform.''
Republican state lawmakers want a special session to consider retooling
spending cuts already designed to kick-in should the tax measure fail. But
Oregon's governor has said he's ``not inclined'' to do that.
Oregon voters rejected a 310 million-dollar income tax increase last
year. As a result, the school year was shortened, state troopers were laid
off and thousands of poor people lost state health insurance.
Two Juneau residents win new vehicles in
national GM campaign
A nationwide advertising campaign is producing major benefits for a local
automobile dealership and two lucky Juneau residents.
General Motors Corporation and the satellite vehicle communication company,
Onstar, have joined forces in a promotion with 1000 new automobiles as
prizes.
Capital Chevrolet's General Manager Ryan Carter says prospective car buyers
step into a Onstar registered vehicle and press the Onstar button and if
they're one of the lucky few.
Carter says over 1000 people have tried their luck so far at the Juneau
dealership and they've had two winners, Anna Beck and Cory Baxter.
Carter says the number of people stopping by their showroom has increased
dramatically.
(Copyright ©2004
Alaska Juneau Communications - KINY Radio)
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