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State of Alaska

OFFICE OF THE GOVERNORSarah PalinGovernorP.O. Box 110001Juneau, Alaska 99811-0001NEWS CLIPS

Meghan StapletonDirector of Communications

907-465-3500FAX: 907-465-3532

www.gov.state.ak.us

News ClipsSeptember 25, 2007

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Alaska’s Oil Price

oil

Anchorage Daily NewsArguments end: Kott case handed to juryIN CLOSING: Defense says Allen and Smith cannot be trusted; prosecutor says theevidence is "overwhelming."By LISA DEMER and SEAN COCKERHAMAnchorage Daily News(Published: September 25, 2007)

Lawyers laid out two opposite views of former state Rep. Pete Kott Monday during theirclosing arguments to jurors in his federal public corruption trial" hardworking with a drinkingproblem or greedy and looking out for himself.

Defense lawyer Jim Wendt told jurors to think of Kott as a legislator who pushed hard for oildevelopment and got himself into trouble by spouting off when he drank too much.

He especially puffed himself up to his friends from Veco Corp. in Suite 604 of Juneau’sBaranof Hotel, Wendt said. The nickname for the suite that served as Veco’s headquartersduring the Legislature was Animal House, Wendt reminded jurors.

"I’ll tell you what it was. It was a place for boasting and banter, fueled by alcohol," Wendttold jurors in U.S. District Court. "The government is resting its case on the Animal Houseas if what goes on there is somehow reliable."

Assistant U.S. Attorney James Goeke told jurors that Kott took bribes from Veco and wasguilty of putting his own self-interest before that of his constituents. Kott is charged withfour felonies: conspiracy, extortion, bribery and honest services wire fraud.

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The prosecutor said the case was unusual because jurors were able to watch and listen asthe alleged crimes took place.

"Through the hours and hours of electronic surveillance that you’ve heard in this courtroomover the past few weeks, you the members of the jury have been able to sit in a ringsideseat," Goeke told jurors.

No one knew during 2005 and 2006 that the FBI had put a bug in Suite 604 and wiretaps onphones of Veco executives.

The defense reminded jurors that the government focused on only the worst out ofhundreds of hours of video recordings and thousands of intercepted phone calls. Prosecutorstook "little snippets" out of context, Wendt said.

But Goeke told jurors "the evidence in this case is overwhelming."

The courtroom was nearly full of FBI agents, other defense lawyers, legislators and aides,reporters and Kott’s friends and family. The case went to the jury around 12:30 p.m. on thetrial’s 14th day.

Kott is a former Republican House speaker from Eagle River who served 14 years in theLegislature.

Bill Allen, former Veco chief executive, and Rick Smith, former Veco vice president, havepleaded guilty and were key witnesses for the prosecution, testifying that they bribed Kott.

U.S. District Judge John Sedwick told jurors that Allen and Smith’s guilty pleas inthemselves are not evidence that Kott did anything wrong. In fact, the testimony of bothAllen and Smith should be considered with more caution than that of other witnesses, hetold them.

Wendt told jurors that Smith and Allen will say whatever the government wants to savethemselves. Neither has been sentenced.

The stakes in the oil tax debate were high. The Murkowski administration was pushing anew state oil tax, a first step toward a natural gas pipeline that could have been worthmillions to Veco in construction contracts. Kott is accused of pushing a 20 percent taxfavored by North Slope oil producers in exchange for money, a political poll and Veco’spromise of a job.

LAWYERS SUMMARIZE THE EVIDENCE

Goeke walked jurors through carefully picked highlights from nearly five dozen audio andvideo recordings played during the trial.

In a Sept. 26, 2005, call between Kott and Smith, the legislator said he needed a job. "Yougot a job. Get us a pipeline," Smith responded.

Later, the prosecution played a series of video recordings from the night of May 7 and intothe early morning of May 8, just after key votes on the oil tax. "I’d vote for a 30 percent taxif it wasn’t for this guy here," Kott says in one, pointing to Allen.

And in a video secretly recorded on June 1, 2006, Allen counts out what he later testifiedwas $1,000 in cash for Kott. In another video from the same night, Allen asked Kott what

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he wanted to be. After joking about passing out beach towels in Barbados, where Veco wasbuilding a prison, Kott said he wanted to be a lobbyist. "Well, you will be," Allen tells him.

Allen later testified that Kott’s job prospects with Veco all depended on him doing the rightthing on the oil tax, Goeke reminded jurors.

During his closing, Wendt was frustrated at times by technical difficulties but forged ahead,focusing on a timeline displayed for jurors that included key votes.

Wendt emphasized that it was the defense, not the prosecution, who brought in twolegislators to explain their dealings with Kott, which he said was better than relying on"some grainy tape" because they know what really happened.

The wire fraud charge, Wendt pointed out, is based on a single telephone conversation inwhich Kott assures Smith "you know where my allegiance is."

"Where is the plan or scheme in that telephone conversation?" Wendt asked.

Kott just wanted a gas pipeline, the same as Veco, but there was no criminal conspiracy, nointent to extort money from Allen or Veco, he said.

Others got so much more from Veco than Kott, Wendt said. Former Senate President BenStevens got hundreds of thousands of dollars in consulting work. U.S. Sen. Ted Stevens hadhis whole house redone with the help of Veco workers. Former Rep. Tom Anderson had Vecocontracts too.

But Kott was working on his hands and knees doing flooring, Wendt said.

"Pete Kott never got anything," he said.

The last word came from prosecutor Nicholas Marsh, from the U.S. Justice Department’sPublic Integrity Section in Washington, D.C.

He told jurors that it made no sense to think that Kott got nothing from Veco. He received$1,000 in cash, a check for $7,993, a political poll that cost $2,750 and the promise of ajob, all from Veco, Marsh said.

Kott’s defense, Marsh said, appears to be that what he said in 11 months of secretly maderecordings are "either lies or they are not true or the rantings of an alcoholic."

Kott, Marsh told jurors, "tried to snooker you."

Jurors finished deliberations for the day at 4:30 p.m. They return today.

Find Lisa Demer online at adn.com/contact/Idemer or call 257-4390. Find Sean Cockerhamonline at adn.com/contact/scockerham or call 257-4344.

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Kott trial closing arguments at a glance

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Prosecution

KO-I-F’S OWN WORDS: Assistant U.S. Attorney James Goeke replayed secretly made audioand video recordings. They included Kott talking to Veco executives about a possible joband asking Veco chief Bill Allen for instructions on the eve of the legislative session.

VECO TESTIMONY: Goeke said the testimony of Allen and former Veco executive RickSmith, who are cooperating with the prosecution, matches what jurors heard on those FBIrecordings.

OUTRAGE: Goeke hammered on the argument that Kott sold out the public trust by turningto Veco, instead of his Eagle River constituents, for direction on how to vote and act.

KO-I-F’S CREDIBILITY: Prosecutor Nicholas Marsh said Kott’s explanations for his words anddeeds made no sense. He "tried to snooker you," Marsh told the jury.

Defense

OUT OF CONTEXT. Kott’s attorney, Jim Wendt, argued prosecutors plucked the worststatements out of hundreds of hours of video and thousands of intercepted phoneconversation.

ANIMAL HOUSE. Wendt argued that Veco’s Suite 604 at the Baranof Hotel in Juneau wasknown as the "Animal House," and was a "place for boasting and banter fueled by alcohol."Wendt said Kott loved and admired Veco head Allen and was just trying to impress him afterdrinking by saying things that weren’t true.

HARD WORKER. The defense painted Kott as a hard-working man who did flooring jobs anddidn’t ask for handouts. He also worked hard trying to get a gas pipeline for Alaska, Wendtsaid.

LEGISLATORS’ TESTIMONY. Wendt noted that Rep. Gabrielle LeDoux and ex-House MinorityLeader Ethan Berkowitz testified that, despite what Kott told Veco executives, Kott didn’tmanipulate them to try and get the oil tax rate Veco wanted.

Compiled by Daily News reporters Sean Cockerham and Lisa Demer

Native group sues Ramras over his request for probeCH:~LL: Plaintiffs say lawmaker’s payoff claims intimidated people.By ELIZABETH [email protected](Published: September 25, 2007)

A Native corporation representing five Southwest Alaska villages has filed a lawsuit,including a request for a restraining order, against Rep. Jay Ramras, the Alaska attorneygeneral and the state Department of Public Safety.

A Superior Court judge in Dillingham denied the restraining order request from the AlaskaPeninsula Corp. Monday shortly after it was filed, calling it "overly broad," according toattorneys involved in the case.

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The lawsuit claims that Ramras, R-Fairbanks, violated state and federal free speech rights ofvillage residents who are shareholders of Alaska Peninsula, and state officials should bebarred from doing the same.

Though the restraining order was denied, the lawsuit has not been dismissed. AlaskaPeninsula is weighing its legal options, said company attorney Sam Fortier.

Alaska Peninsula represents the Native villages of Port Heiden, Ugashik, South Naknek,Newhalen and Kokhanok.

Earlier this month, Ramras wrote a letter asking the state attorney general and federalprosecutors to send investigators to hearings this week on a bill he is co-sponsoring toprohibit water pollution discharges or use of freshwater by mining companies in five BristolBay drainages that support salmon.

He claimed that Northern Dynasty Mines Inc. -- a company exploring the region’s copperand gold prospects in hopes of developing a large-scale mine near Iliamna -- has handedout cash and lucrative jobs in return for political support from Native and elected leaders inthe region.

Northern Dynasty officials say Ramras’ allegations are false.

Talis Colberg, the attorney general, responded to Ramras last week, saying the allegations,if true, are serious, and Alaska State Troopers might be asked to investigate. The spectre ofinvestigators at the hearing prompted the request for a restraining order.

"Rep. Ramras’ demand for Trooper presence at the (legislative) hearings has already had achilling effect on free speech, as some village members ... who intended to attend andtestify have decided not to participate out of fear of retribution and investigation by thestate," according to the corporation’s complaint.

Alaska Peninsula asked the Superior Court to prohibit state troopers from intimidatingpeople who testify against the bill, House Bill 134, at the hearings. The corporation wantedthe judge to issue a restraining order barring any uniformed officers, "intrusive video oraudio surveillance" or law enforcement interviews of bill opponents at the hearings.

The legislative hearings began Monday in Newhalen, and will continue on Tuesday in Naknekand Wednesday in Dillingham.

Ramras refused to comment Monday about the suit.

Find Elizabeth Bluemink online at adn.com/contact/ebluemink or call 257-4317.

State-owned dairy’s 2007 losses top $1 millionBy S.J. [email protected](Published: September 24, 2007)

WASILLA - The state-owned Matanuska Maid dairy lost just over $100,000 in August,company officials said today.

That’s less than the $300,000 record loss the dairy experienced in July but brings thecreamery’s total year-to-date losses to just over $1 million.

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Kristan Cole, chairwoman of the state Creamery Board, which oversees the dairy, said theAnchorage-based operation is still solvent, with more money coming in than owed. Thecompany currently has about $3 million in assets and about $2 million in liabilities, she said.She added that the creamery board has yet to tap $600,000 in state funding set aside forthe dairy.

Still, the state is moving forward with plans to sell off the 71-year-old company.

Saturday, the state Board of Agriculture and Conservation will take public comment inPalmer on the proposed plan for taking bids on the dairy. A copy of the proposed bidprocess and information about the meeting is available on the state Agriculture Division siteon the Web at www.dnr.state.ak.us/ag/index.htm.

Cole said she’s optimistic about the sale, saying the board has already received 10 letters ofinterest, including one from a proprietor of a Midwest creamery and one from a Northwestdairy owner. But she noted that no one has yet put down money or submitted a formalproposal.

Matanuska Maid, founded in 1936 as a farmers cooperative, has seen its fortunes fluctuateover the years. The state in the mid-1980s assumed control of the company after its privateoperator went bankrupt. The dairy subsequently improved its performance, paid off itsdebts and turned a profit.

But in 2005 and 2006 the dairy, citing rising milk prices, shipping costs and declining sales,suffered losses of about $760,000. In 2007 so far, expenses at the dairy have exceededrevenue by $1.06 million.

What to do with the dairy has also become a political football, with two clear but opposingviewpoints. One side holds the state is wasting money to prop up an industry that includesonly a half-dozen dairy farmers. Others argue the dairy industry merits state help becauseof an interest in local food production and because losing the dairies would hurt the state’sagriculture industry as a whole.

Cole said the $100,297 loss in August was mostly the result of reduced costs as sales ofmilk, sour cream and yogurt declined slightly while demand for the company’s bottled waterline was up. She said the figure also includes a $10,000 provisional expense for bad debt incase the company is unable to collect on a bill it is owed.

Find S.J. Komarnitsky at www.adn.com/contacts/skomarnitsky or 352-6714.

Han dies, shot by police following car chaseOFF:~CER WOUNDED: Fleeing driver crashed into police patrol cars and civilianvehicles,By JAMES [email protected](Published: September 25, 2007)

Police shot a man who died in the Carrs parking lot on Jewel Lake Road Monday after he ledthem on a high-speed chase down Dimond Boulevard that ended with an officer shot, apassenger in the fleeing Jeep Cherokee hospitalized, several seriously beat-up cruisers, anda pile of shattered glass amid a tangle of damaged civilian cars.

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The police officer suffered a "slight gunshot wound" and the woman accompanying thefugitive sustained minor injuries, said Anchorage Police Department spokesman Lt. PaulHoneman.

The officer, whom Honeman refused to identify, was treated at the scene and did not needfurther medical assistance, he said. The woman was hospitalized but the extent of herinjuries was not immediately known.

None of the people involved were named Monday night.

Police initially tried to pull over the couple because the jeep was stolen, Honeman said.

It remained unclear at press time if the man had a weapon when police opened fire on him.

Honeman said he did not know if the wounded officer was injured as a result of friendly fireor from shots possibly fired by the driver. The driver’s actions while at the wheel would beenough to warrant lethal force, Honeman said.

"When a person is sitting there ramming a vehicle, I’d say he poses a great risk to life andproperty," Honeman said.

WEST ALONG DIMOND

Witnesses reported hearing between six and 15 gunshots, though police could not confirmhow many were actually fired during the confrontation, which lasted less than five minutes.

The chase began just after 4 p.m. when a police shift supervisor spotted the stolen 1989blue Jeep Cherokee in the area of Dimond and Arctic Boulevard. The locate order was putout on the Jeep Monday morning, Honeman said, and it was implicated in thefts at one ormore department stores earlier in the day.

The officer attempted to pull it over, but its driver, identified only as a white male, "tookoff." Police chased the man west along Dimond as they tried to box him in to bring him to astop, Honeman said.

"The vehicles were trying to pin him and he was ramming them," Honeman said.

The man wouldn’t stop, and the chase moved along Dimond toward the Carrs parking lot.Along the way, surprised drivers like Daizron Jones, 24, got front-row seats to the chase asit sped by.

"Oh my God, it had to be like six police cars that were coming from every which way," Jonessaid. "I didn’t think the police could chase them like that, because we almost got ran over."

Jessica Summerhays, who works at Denali Alaskan Credit Union in the mall, was in her carat the intersection of Dimond and Jewel Lake when she saw a blue Jeep careen ontoDimond, trailing police cars. One police car stopped, she said, and an officer got out anddrew her gun. The car sped into the parking lot.

"Not even 10 seconds later I heard like eight pops," Summerhays said.

The driver pulled the Jeep into the parking lot and rammed into two other vehicles, a greenflatbed truck and a white Ford Econoline.

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Three police cars lined up behind the Jeep, blocking it in. T.J. Mathis, 40, heard screechingtires, and bullets hitting and breaking glass, from where he was working in front of theCarrs store. About 10 police cars came through directly in front of the store "at full throttle"just before the shots went off, he said.

It was unclear if the driver attempted to leave the vehicle, but at some point officers openedfi re.

"All of a sudden I heard this volley of gunshots," said Cheryl Gudde, 45, who lives rightacross the road from the store. "It was an absolute mass of police cars down here."

By the time Mathis got to a vantage point to see what happened, he saw three officerstaking a man out of the Jeep to begin resuscitation efforts.

"He was totally limp when he came out," he said.

PASSENGER ARRESTED

At Carr Gottstein Properties, another business in the mall, the sound of gunshots gotworkers’ attention. The Jeep pulled into the parking lot and slammed into a company truck,then into a van, pushing it out of its parking spot, said employee April Mathers. When shegot to the window, the police were putting a woman in handcuffs into a patrol car. Hersweatshirt was covered with blood, she said.

She was being questioned by police late Monday night, Honeman said.

Following the shooting, the driver was lifted into a fire department ambulance that sat nearthe shattered glass and debris blanketing the asphalt. At least three bullet holes were visiblein the area of the Jeep’s rear passenger door; the front driver’s side window and rearpassenger window were broken out.

At least four police cars were dented from scraping alongside the Jeep, and one had dentsand scratches all along its passenger side.

About 20 police and rescue vehicles were on the scene as the afternoon rush hour gotstarted, blocking off about a third of the parking lot.

As part of standard procedure, any officers involved in the shooting will be placed on threedays’ administrative leave, Honeman said. As many as three officers may have beeninvolved, he said.

"It was frightening as hell. This is my backyard," Gudde said. "It just seems to be gettingprogressively worse and worse."

Daily News reporter Julia O’Malley contributed to this report. Find James Halpin online atadn.com/contact/jhalpin or call him at 257-4589.

Surge in hit-and-run accidents presents puzzle for policeSUV SEIZED: No arrests have been made so far; alcohol is usually a factor, saysone police detective.By KYLE HOPKINS

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[email protected](Published: September 25, 2007)

Three pedestrians have been critically injured or killed in Anchorage hit-and-run accidentsduring the past two weeks.

The most recent incident came late Saturday night or early Sunday morning when 48-year-old Garon James Koozaata was found lying near DeBarr Road and Norene Street.

Koozaata was in critical condition with a head injury and broken legs at a local hospitalMonday, said Lt. Nancy Reeder, head of the Anchorage Police traffic unit. Police are lookingfor help finding the driver who hit him.

Meantime, the family of another man -- still hospitalized from a Sept. 15 hit and run -- saythey’re looking for answers too.

Elevator mechanic Kenneth Felton, 60, was walking home from the bowling alley onSpenard Road when he was hit, said the man’s brother, Don Felton.

"He had a bunch of broken ribs, a punctured lung and skull fractures," Felton said.

No one has been arrested in connection with any of the crashes, though police have talkedto a driver they think might have struck and killed a man Sept. 13, Reeder said.

John Kokuluk, 56, was struck while walking along Lake Otis Parkway toward 36th Avenue,according to police. A piece of a mirror from a Mitsubishi SUV was found at the scene.

Police worked with local auto shops to pinpoint a 1999 Mitsubishi Montero.

"We have identified who we believe to be the driver and have identified and seized thevehicle," said Reeder.

She said more tests are needed before police can make an arrest.

’AN ODD YEAR’

Felton’s family hope that police can use debris found at the scene of the Sept. 15 hit andrun to find the driver in that accident too.

Felton grew up with more than a dozen brothers and sisters, and family members fromMontana, Idaho and Washington are in Anchorage this week. They aren’t happy with police,who they say haven’t taken the hit and run seriously enough because Felton is from out oftown and had been drinking when he got hit.

"My brother was drunk, OK, but the reason he’s walking is because he doesn’t drink anddrive, because he doesn’t want to hurt somebody," Don Felton said.

Reeder said her traffic unit isn’t handling Felton’s case, but said: "A lot of times families feellike we’re not doing enough, and what they don’t know is what we’re doing behind thescenes."

Of the 19 people killed in traffic accidents this year, seven were pedestrians, Reeder said.

Usually, three to five pedestrians are killed a year, said detective Rick Steiding. "I wish Iknew why we’ve had so many, but it’s just kind of an odd year."

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Steiding said alcohol is a factor in most traffic accidents involving pedestrians: Either theperson on foot or the person behind the wheel has been drinking. Or both.

People often flee from an accident because they’ve been drinking or have arrest warrants orsuspended licenses, Reeder said.

If you hit someone and drive away, you can be charged with felony counts of leaving thescene of an accident and failure to provide aid. Depending on how badly hurt the pedestrianis, you could also face charges of assault, manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide,Reeder said.

Find Kyle Hopkins’ political blog online at adn.com/alaskapolitics or call him at 257-4334.

Hit-and-run accident clues

Police want your help finding drivers involved in a trio of hit-and-run crashes this month.Here are two things they say to look for:

¯ Vehicles with unexplained body damage -- potentially, but not limited to, the front end,hood or windshield.

¯ People who normally park their car outside who suddenly moved the vehicle into thegarage.

Call police at 786-8900 or go to www.anchorage crimestoppers.com if you have information.

Agent: Linehan tried to cancel fiance’s life insurance policyMURDER: She had paid $2,340 for $1 million insurance on her fiance.By MEGAN [email protected](Published: September 25, 2007)

Did the former exotic dancer kill her fiance more than 10 years ago because she wanted his$1 million life insurance? Or did she try to cancel the policy before his death?

Defense lawyers attacked that question head-on Monday morning at the trial of MecheleLinehan, charged with killing Kent Leppink in 1996 so she could inherit the money.

Prosecutor Pat Gullufsen called New York Life Insurance Co. agent Steven Leirer to thestand to establish that the policy existed, but defense lawyers used the state’s witness toestablish that Linehan tried to cancel it.

Two days before Leppink was found shot to death on May 2, 1996, Linehan called theinsurance agent’s Anchorage office and left a message for him that the wedding had beenpostponed by two months and that she wanted a refund on the recently purchasedpremiums because she was short on cash.

Linehan had paid $266 for her own $150,000 life insurance policy and $2,340 for Leppink’s$1 million policy.

Leppink had also called a week prior and asked if they could get the money back.

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"Was this clearly sending a signal in your mind that they were asking for a refund?" defenseattorney Kevin Fitzgerald asked Leirer under cross-examination.

"Yes," Leirer said.

But Leirer never got in touch with Linehan or Leppink, and just days later, Leppink wasdead.

The insurance agent found out about his client’s death when he called Linehan several dayslater.

"She seemed pretty distraught," he said.

Linehan is accused of conspiring with another fiance, John Carlin, to kill Leppink. Carlin wasconvicted this spring.

The prosecution argued in Carlin’s trial that Linehan called and left the message as a ruse tothrow off police. Prosecutors say Linehan had Carlin do the actua killing after he luredLeppink to a remote road near Hope.

Leirer told jurors that when the engaged couple first came to his ~nsurance office to inquireabout life insurance policies two months before Leppink was killed, they each wanted $1million insurance. Linehan was turned down for a policy of that size and was offered one for$150,000.

Leirer said both Linehan and Leppink were upset about New York Life not insuring her forthe $1 million and talked about taking their business elsewhere.

A $1 million life insurance policy is not unusual today and was not unusual back in 1996,Leirer said.

Linehan’s lawyers say their client and Leppink, in addition to being engaged, shared acommercial fishing business, M&K Enterprises. Leppink had a $133,000 outstanding loanfrom a bank to pay for his fishing boat, the Togiak. Before his death, he had plans toexpand his business and buy another vessel. Leppink changed the beneficiary on the policythree times in the two weeks before his death. It’s not clear if Linehan knew about thechanges. At first she was to inherit 80 percent of the benefits, then nothing, then 100percent, then nothing again. In the end, Leppink’s parents and brother were namedbeneficiaries. Benefits were paid to the family after the murder.

Testimony on Monday also confirmed defense claims that Leppink stalked Linehan beforeand after they were engaged -- a claim made by the defense team in opening statements.

A former Alaska State Trooper investigator testified that among the items found in Leppink’sDodge Omni after the murder were personal papers belonging to Linehan and photographsof her with other men. Also among the items were Linehan’s Permanent Fund dividendapplication, a business card for former boyfriend Scott Hilke, vacation photographs ofLinehan and Carlin in Amsterdam, and a receipt signed by Hilke for a resort in Mississippi,where Linehan had vacationed with him.

Before they were a couple, Leppink followed Linehan to the resort and served her and Hilkecoffee in bed.

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Another state witness said Leppink had been in Hope the week before he was found shotthere. He was showing locals a picture of Linehan and asking if they had seen her.

Linehan’s lawyers say Carlin shot and killed Leppink acting alone because Leppink, who wasa guest in his home in the months before his death, made sexual advances toward histeenage son, and because he wanted Leppink, who was in love with Linehan, out of theway.

Despite his conviction, Carlin insists he did not kill Leppink.

Find Megan Holland online at ._a___d__n___.__c___o____m_~___c_o___n__t___a___c__t_/mholland or call 257-4343.

Insurance agent testifies in murder trial of ex-stripperBy MEGAN [email protected](Published: September 24, 2007)

The life insurance agent who sold a $1 million policy on Kent Leppink shortly before he waskilled was called to the witness stand today in the murder trial of Mechele Linehan.

Steven Leirer of New York Life Insurance Co. testified that he sold two policies to Leppinkand Linehan, who were engaged before Leppink’s murder in 1996.

Leppink and Linehan each wanted life insurance for $1 million. Linehan was turned down fora policy of that size and got one for $150,000, Leirer said. Leppink’s policy was for $1million.

He also testified that Linehan paid the $2,606 total premium for both policies.

In the weeks leading up to Leppink’s death, he changed the policy several times, Leirersaid. At first, Linehan was the beneficiary of Leppink’s policy and he was the beneficiary ofhers, the insurance agent said.

The last change made Leppink’s mother, father and brother the beneficiaries of his policy,Leirer said.

State prosecutors allege that Linehan was an accomplice in Leppink’s murder and that thelife insurance proceeds were her motivation. John Carlin has been convicted of the murder.Cross-examination of Leirer by Linehan’s attorney is expected later today.

Coffey proposes limiting dogs on ball fieldsASSEMBLY: The chairman has a couple of options for keeping the local diamondsclean.By KYLE [email protected](Published: September 25, 2007)

Leave your dogs and baseball bats at home, but come to tonight’s Anchorage Assemblymeeting ready to argue whether city baseball diamonds should be off-limits to pooches.

A proposal by Assembly Chairman and Little League coach Dan Coffey that would ban dogsfrom fenced baseball fields hits the Assembly with a public hearing at the Loussac Library.The meeting officially starts at 5 p.m., but you won’t miss anything if you wait until about 6.

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At the heart of the debate? Poop.

Baseball players don’t like cleaning it up when they’re preparing for the season, while dogowners say they deserve equal access to any public park.

Coffey actually put forward two different proposals -- one that would keep dogs out of allcity ball fields and a narrower plan that would apply only to fenced baseball diamonds.

Coffey said he prefers the more limited proposal and also plans to offer an amendmenttonight that would still allow groups to hold events like dog shows on baseball diamonds aslong as they get permission from the city.

Find Kyle Hopkins’ political blog online at ._a___d__n___.__c___o____m_~_a_!__a___s___k_a_politics or call him at 257-4334.

Search for hiker called offSOLO." Missing Wisconsin man left behind his campsite and medications.By BETH [email protected](Published: September 25, 2007)

Before 68-year-old Paul Schoch of Wisconsin disappeared into the wild, his wife tried to talkhim out of making a solo trip into the high country of Wrangell-St. Elias National Park.

Schoch wouldn’t budge. The lure of Alaska’s backcountry was too strong.

On Monday, 12 days after he was dropped off at Skolai Pass and seven days after he wasreported missing, the National Park Service ended a week-long search for Schoch.

He joins a long list of people who have gone missing in untamed Alaska over the years,including four others in just the last two weeks.

Park officials believe Schoch left his campsite for a day hike, possibly to take pictures ofdramatic scenes of crevasses at Russell Glacier, a favorite spot for amateur photographerslike Schoch.

Left behind were his tent, sleeping bag, cook stove, food -- and medicine he had beentaking daily for diabetes, high blood pressure and a thyroid condition, according to parkservice spokesman Smitty Parratt.

His wife, Carol, said she doesn’t expect to see her husband of 44 years again.

"At this point, it has been so long," she said from the couple’s home in Brule, Wis. "It wouldbe wonderful, but, you know, it just doesn’t seem feasible. As much as I hate to say it."

The search ended Monday morning, partly because Schoch had been without food andshelter for so long, and partly because winter is descending in the country’s largest nationalpark.

As of late Monday, about 20 searchers were hunkered down at a base camp they’d set up atSkolai Pass, not far from Schoch’s camp.

Falling and drifting snow restricted access to the 4,500-foot pass, Parratt said. Thesearchers have a couple days’ worth of food and are not considered endangered, he said.

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Schoch is the first person to disappear in Wrangell-St. Elias since 2004. That year, 28-year-old climber Jason Harper vanished during an attempted solo ascent of Mount Sanford. He’slisted as one of nine fatalities in the park since 1993, park service spokesman John Quinleysaid.

Carol Schoch described her husband as an avid hiker and photographer with a deep love ofthe outdoors -- especially Alaska.

"When we got married, he said his only regret was that he had not been to Alaska yet," shesaid. "It took us 39 years to get there the first time."

The couple came here in a camper five years ago and explored the state for seven weeks.Their trip included a visit to Prudhoe Bay, "because one of the things he wanted to see wasthe Arctic Ocean, because someone told him the water in the Arctic Ocean is fresh water,not salt," Schoch said.

"They were right," she said. "It’s not salty."

Her husband returned to Alaska this summer when one of their four children, daughterAudrey, got a job at a fly-in fishing lodge. After getting Audrey to her new job, Paul flewhome. He returned in mid-August to retrieve his truck and explore more of the state.

He camped in Denali National Park and considered a trip to the Arctic National WildlifeReserve, but decided he got enough wildlife shots in Denali. He turned his thoughts toWrangell-St. Elias and the area around Skolai Pass, where glaciers and mountains offerspectacular photographic opportunities.

"It’s a popular base camp location and there’s a lot of interesting things to see from there.It’s a good spot for someone who’s doing some photography," said Greg Fensterman, abackcountry guide for Trek Alaska. "It’s a fairly benign area, but when you’re up there onyour own, anything can happen."

Mid-September is moderately late in the season, Fensterman said. Wrangell Mountain Airtried to discourage Schoch from going alone so late in the year, chief pilot Kelly Bay said.The air taxi suggested he join some other campers going to Glacier Creek, but Schochinsisted on Skolai, Bay said.

Wrangell Mountain Air was unable to land on Schoch’s planned pick-up day because of badweather. The next day, a pilot landed and found no sign of Schoch. The air taxi began asearch and alerted park officials, Parratt said.

Park officials used fixed-wing planes, helicopters and more than two dozen people to searcha 6,700-acre area, Parratt said. They think Schoch went for a hike after his first night atSkolai Pass intending to return soon, but never did.

"The tent door was open as if he wasn’t planning on being gone for long," Parratt said. "Thevast majority of the food was there. There was only a little oatmeal and a couple energybars gone from the food container. That suggests maybe a breakfast and a couple powerba rs."

Carol Schoch said her husband has camped alone before in remote places.

"He likes being by himself," she said. "Yes, there was concern, but it wasn’t pushed,because we knew this was what he wanted."

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Jim Antonson, a friend from Solon Springs, Wis., said Schoch was physically fit. He was abrown belt in karate and helped maintain trails for the North Country Trail Association, amulti-state organization.

Schoch’s friend and wife both said he was eager to return to Alaska.

"There’s just a certain aura about Alaska, I think," Carol Schoch said. "And I think a lot ofpeople have it."

Find Beth Bragg online at adn.com/contact/bbragg or call 257-4309.

Vanished in Alaska’s outdoors

In the last two weeks, five people have gone missing in outdoor Alaska and searches forthem have been suspended:

¯ Paul Schoch, 68, Brule, Wis. (Sept. 18). Missing from base camp in Wrangell-St. EliasNational Park.

¯ AI Kegler, 58, Juneau (Sept. 19). Tossed into the sea when a swimming dog tried to getback onto his skiff while Kegler was crossing a sandbar near Lincoln Island in southeastAlaska.

¯ Jeremy Miller, 35, and Ted Miller, 31, both of Wrangell (Sept. 18). Failed to return fromboating trip on Stikine River in Southeast. Boat was found overturned and the body of acompanion, Danielle Miller, was found near Gray’s Island.

¯ Gilbert Ungoot, 43, Gambell (Sept. 9). Last seen driving his four-wheeler in Gambell;alcohol is believed to be involved.

Source: Alaska State Troopers

Judge tightens bail in stranglingANTHONY JAMES SCHMID: Previous criminal record used to justify higherrequirements.By JAMES [email protected](Published: September 25, 2007)

A man accused of choking his boss to death appeared at a court hearing Monday, where thestate claimed he had a previous first-degree murder arrest in Washington and asked thejudge to tighten his bail.

Anthony James Schmid, 38, is facing one count each of first- and second-degree murderafter a Sunday incident in which he allegedly got a stranglehold on his boss, James Lally,39, and had to be pried off.

The state argued that bail should be changed from $300,000 cash-corporate, meaning hecould post just 10 percent, to $100,000 cash with a third-party custodian required becausehe has two misdemeanor convictions from 1995 and an arrest on a charge of first-degreemurder in 1991. No further details were offered.

District Court Judge John Lohff granted the tighter bail request.

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Schmid, appearing calm and reserved, also asked that he be appointed a public defender, arequest that Lohff denied.

"I have to say you’re not the type of person we normally appoint a court-appointedattorney," Lohff said.

Schmid, who works for Sysco Food Services of Alaska, told Lohff that he makes between$50,000 and $55,000 a year at his job, which he has held for at least a year. But he payschild support, he told Lohff, who said he might still be able to get an appointed attorneyafter his finances are evaluated.

Anchorage police reported that Lally was Schmid’s boss, and people from both familiesindicated the men worked for Sysco Food Services of Alaska.

A woman who answered the phone at the home of Lally’s wife, Tiffany, in Wasilla said thefamily was not making any statements and deferred questions to Sysco. A Syscoreceptionist said no one was available to answer questions.

The incident took place at a party in a Midtown duplex at 3504 W. 41st Ave., about 1 a.m.The men were drinking, according to witness accounts, and Schmid told police it was normalfor them to roughhouse.

Lally’s wife called police and reported the fight, and police say they found Lally on theground.

Tiffany Lally told police the men started arguing in the kitchen, then the brawl made its wayoutside, where the two crashed through the deck’s railing.

Schmid had his arm around Lally’s neck in a chokehold and had to be pried off Lally evenafter he went still, witnesses told police.

Nate Hare, who was at the party, told police Lally wasn’t breathing, and Schmid continuedtrying to "get back at him" while Hare tried to resuscitate him.

A woman at the arraignment Monday identified herself as Schmid’s sister but would not giveher name. She said her brother has known Lally for about 10 years and that it was commonfor them to wrestle around.

"They’ve been friends, and it was just a horrible accident," she said. "He’s a wonderfulperson. He has a good heart."

Find James Halpin online at adn.com/contact/jhalpin or call him at 257-4589.

Pedestrian in critical condition after hit-and-runBy KYLE [email protected](Published: September 24, 2007)

A man critically injured in a hit-and-run traffic accident over the weekend is 48-year-oldGaron James Koozaata, who is originally from St. Lawrence Island, police said today.

Just after midnight Sunday, Anchorage police discovered Koozaata near DeBarr Road andNorene Street. Police believe a vehicle hit him and the driver left without reporting thecollision. Police are now looking for that driver.

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"It’s disturbing to realize that someone will mow a human being down and they’ll just keepgoing," said Lt. Nancy Reeder.

Koozaata remained unconscious today at a local hospital, Reeder said. He was identifiedusing his fingerprints.

Police are asking anyone with information about the hit-and-run to call 786-8900. Callerscan leave tips anonymously by calling 561-7867.

So far this year, pedestrians account for seven of the 19 traffic deaths in Anchorage, Reedersaid.

Find Kyle Hopkins online at adn.com/contact/khopkins or call 257-4334. Return to adn.comfor updates to this story, and see tomorrow’s print edition of the Daily News for fullcoverage.

Alutiiq anthropologist honored as a MacArthur ’genius’Award comes with $500,000 for HaakansonBy MIKE [email protected](Published: September 25, 2007)

An Alaska Native anthropologist from the Kodiak Island village of Old Harbor has receivedone of the most prestigious -- and lucrative -- awards for intellectual achievement inAmerica. Sven Haakanson, 41, is among 24 new MacArthur Fellows announced Monday.

A press release from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation’s Fellows Programcalled Haakanson "the driving force behind the revitalization of indigenous language, cultureand customs in an isolated region of North America." It also mentioned his artisticaccomplishments as a mask carver and photographer.

The so-called "Genius Award" comes with a f $500,000 grant that recipients may spend asthey see fit. The selection process is famed for its secrecy and candidates usually have noclue that they are under consideration.

Haakanson learned of the award in a crack-of-dawn phone call on Monday of last week/"They woke me up at 6:30 in the morning," he told the Daily News. "Anybody calling youthat early, you think: Is this a joke?"

When he realized the caller was serious, he felt humbled, he said. "To have someone evennominate me is wonderful."

Then the caller informed him that he would receive a half million dollars, no stringsattached, over the next five years.

"I was shocked," Haakanson said, still sounding a little breathless.

For 20 years, Haakanson earned money as a commercial fisherman. He is the son of thelate Sven Haakanson Sr., the Iongtime mayor of Old Harbor and a respected elder.

The younger Haakanson said his interest in anthropology began when he attended a youthconference in Denmark in 1988 and heard University of Alaska Fairbanks professor LydiaBlack speak about the history of "Aleut people."

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"I thought to myself, ’Why am I on the other side of the world learning about my culturewhen I should be at home doing that?’ " After the lecture, he sat and talked with Black foran hour or more.

Inspired by Black, he attended the University of Alaska Fairbanks, where he received abachelor’s in English in 1992. He then went on to graduate studies at Harvard University,where he earned his master’s and doctorate in anthropology. He was selected as theexecutive director of the new Alutiiq Museum in Kodiak in 1999, a year before receiving hisdoctorate, and had to defer taking the post until he could finish his degree.

Through the museum, Haakanson has spearheaded efforts to acquire and exhibit rare itemsfrom Alutiiq history scattered in collections around the world. His recent projects includetaking a group of Kodiak elders and artists to France to inspect Alutiiq masks collected inAlaska in the 19th century. As a result of that trip, some of those masks will be displayed inKodiak, then in Anchorage next year.

He’s also in the process of identifying a trove of petroglyphs and other stone carvings nearthe village of Akhiok, on the south coast of Kodiak. Working with villagers, he said, he hasbeen able to locate 800 such carvings in recent years.

He relishes such fieldwork, he said, but can break away only for about one week each year.Administrative responsibilities keep him near the office in Kodiak, where he lives with hiswife, Balika, and daughters, Eilidh and Isabella.

He hopes that the MacArthur money will free him up to get out to historic Alutiiq sites moreoften, he said. And some will be used to send his mother, Mary, on a pilgrimage toOrthodox churches in Russia.

But the majority will go into savings, Haakanson said, because "I don’t have retirement formy job at the museum."

This is the second time an Alaskan has won a MacArthur Fellowship. In 2004, KatherineGottlieb, president of Southcentral Foundation, received the award for helping to streamlinethe health care services for Alaska Natives.

Also on this year’s list of 24 "geniuses" named by the MacArthur Foundation today arescientists, engineers and artists, including short-story writer Stuart Dybek, blues musicianCorey Harris, historian Jay Rubenstein and painter Joan Snyder.

3ohn D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellows

Proposed fellows are suggested by anonymous nominators who are selected by thefoundation. The 20 to 25 fellows chosen each year receive $500,000 over five years tospend as they please. The MacArthur Foundation is a private institution named for insurancemogul John D. MacArthur and his wife, Catherine. John MacArthur was one of the wealthiestpeople in the United States when he died in 1978. The MacArthur Foundation makes about$225 million in grants per year. Some of this year’s fellows:

¯ Mercedes Doretti, a forensic anthropologist unearthing evidence of crimes againsthumanity and of human losses omitted from historical record.

¯ Cheryl Hayashi, a spider-silk biologist revealing the architecture, evolution and structuralproperties of spider silks and the possibilities of developing new synthetic materials.

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¯ Saul Griffith, an inventor engineering innovations that include optics, high-performancematerials and nanotechnology.

¯ Paul Rothemund, a nanotechnologist folding DNA to create complex shapes and patternsthat provide a powerful tool for building devices from single atoms and molecules.

¯ Lisa Cooper, a public health physician improving medical outcomes by analyzing anddeveloping new approaches to patient-physician communications.

¯ Shen Wei, a choreographer drawing from Western dance traditions and Chinese opera,acrobatics and martial arts to create bold and visually arresting dance-theater.

Source: The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation

Only one year?Short limit on campaign law cases lets violators off easily(Published: September 25, 2007)

The Veco corruption scandal has revealed a stunning loophole in Alaska’s political integritylaws. Candidates, corporations and others who violate state campaign laws apparently get afree pass if they can hide their offenses for a year and a day.

That’s because the state’s campaign watchdog agency is saddled with an almost microscopicstatute of limitations -- just one year from the illegal act.

Even if the illegal act is detected within a year, the Alaska Public Offices Commission canpursue only civil fines. It’s unclear whether the state can pursue criminal penalties against acorporation that makes illegal donations or a candidate who accepts them. APOC executivedirector Brooke Miles says she has asked the state attorney general’s office if there are anycriminal law enforcement options.

With Veco’s illegal donations, APOC’s short statute of limitations has been a non-issue. Vecoand its executives will avoid civil penalties for the firm’s illegal contributions, but its two toplobbyists will go to prison for bribery. Several of the legislators who benefited from Veco’sillegal contributions face trial or investigation for similar influence-peddling offenses. Vecoitself is dead, sold to a firm that couldn’t wait to dispose of the tarnished name.

But what about other lawmakers and candidates who got Veco’s illegal campaign help? Thecompany routinely did polling about its favored candidates. If Veco shared poll resultsdirectly with a campaign, it was an illegal corporate contribution. As long as the candidatestook the illegal aid more than a year ago, though, they’re home free as far as the AlaskaPublic Offices Commission is concerned.

And what if the illegal corporate donor is, unlike Veco, still in business? Without any criminalpenalties, APOC’s one-year statute of limitations leaves enormous room to flout the ban oncorporate campaign contributions.

Campaign law violations used to have a four-year statute of limitations -- until theRepublican-dominated Legislature and Frank Murkowski combined forces on a concertedeffort to loosen state campaign financing rules.

The Veco scandal shows that Alaska’s campaign laws need more backbone. Restoring theoriginal statute of limitations is one obvious and urgent fix. Ensuring the state can imposecriminal penalties for large-scale or widespread campaign law violations is another.

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When the Legislature convenes next year, tightening up campaign law enforcement shouldbe an early order of business.

BO-I-FOM LINE: Here’s a loophole that needs closing, fast.

More police

No need to fight over this one

Mayor Mark Begich’s budget for 2008 includes money for 20 more police officers.

Whatever questions there may be about the mayor’s budget proposal, this item shouldn’t beone of them.

The drive to add 93 officers by 2009 -- a five-year project inspired by a 2003 report andsubsequent strategic plan -- is about halfway done.

It’s a story of two steps forward, one step back.

In July, the department had 372 sworn officers on duty, including its academy class. As oflast week, the city had 368 sworn officers on duty, according to Deputy Chief Steve Smith.That’s a loss of four in two months, and leaves APD 32 vacancies in its 400 authorizedpositions for sworn officers.

But 368 officers is 45 more than were serving in July 2003, the baseline that the mayor andpolice are using to measure progress.

Short staff means more delays in all but emergency calls, more delays in citizens gettingcalls returned.

More officers means swifter responses, more community policing and the wherewithal to domore focused work. One example is the past summer’s "zero tolerance" patrols in MountainView to thwart gang violence. Another is the current plan to assign two officers to workstreet crime in Fairview. And Anchorage can always use more officers for expanding effortsto reduce sexual assault and domestic violence.

Recruitment remains a problem. Deputy Chief Smith said that the Alaska response isn’tenough to fill the need, so APD has recruited in the Northwest and Michigan, whereresidents are less likely to see Anchorage as such a long leap from where they live.Tentative success means the November police academy could have more than 30 qualifiedcadets.

That’s a big class, but Deputy Chief Smith cautions that, since 1998, little more than 60percent of those who attend the academy remain in the ranks as officers.

So the goal of adding 93 officers -- not just filling positions, but filling them with goodpeople -- is an uphill fight that takes time. The mayor wants to meet the goal before theend of his term in summer 2009. Good. But better to miss the mark and maintain standardsthan make the mark because we lowered the bar.

Whatever the number we reach, there should no question at City Hall, the Assembly oramong all of us who pick up the tab about paying for those good people.

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Police are not the only answer in making Anchorage a safer, better city. Swifter justice, anend to revolving-door sentencing, better schools and, most of all, stronger families haveroles to play. But more good officers are the front-line presence of the law in thecommunity, first responders who make a world of difference. Let’s make sure we haveenough.

BO-I-FOM LINE: Assembly, mayor should be of one mind on need for more police.

Students pay to fatten UA’s top brassCOMPASS: Points of view from the communityBy JOHN CREED(Published: September 25, 2007)

KOTZEBUE--For years, the University of Alaska’s statewide administration has been a sourceof wonder for those of us who track UA’s use of public money. "Statewide" does little to noteaching, has few to no students, yet it spends tens of millions of dollars every year on itswell-heeled administrators.

Last week Mark Hamilton, UA’s Statewide president, and his compliant Board of Regentsonce again raised tuition on students, marking a whopping 72 percent overall hike just since2003.

"When these latest increases fully take effect in 2009, it will cost students nearly twice asmuch to attend the university as it did 10 years before," reported the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, those 10 years approximating Hamilton’s tenure with the university.

Incredibly, Hamilton said not raising tuition even more this time constituted his way of"thanking" students. Such a deal. Maybe students should return the favor and propose--byway of a thank you--that the regents take a bite out of his disposable income, starting withtrimming his bloated $370,000 salary, plus an array of benefits that include a free million-dollar mansion.

So last week Hamilton raised tuition again. This week he headed to Valdez, where he’sbankrolling an annual statewide rural administrator junket. According to the official agendaobtained from Hamilton’s office, the final day of this lavish jaunt is reserved for treatingthese highly paid administrators to a "tour up Thompson pass to Worthington glacier," a"whitewater rafting adventure," and a "driving, shopping, sightseeing tour of Valdez." All but50 bucks, according to the agenda, is covered by public money that could better be used inthe classroom, not extracted, in effect, from the pockets of students.

Associate Professor Abel Bult-Ito scrutinized Statewide’s budget a few years ago when hewas faculty senate president at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. He was astounded byhow much the bureaucracy had blossomed under Hamilton, a former career military manhired by UA in 1998.

Statewide likes to fudge the numbers, Bult-Ito said, so it’s not easy to determine its annualbudget. But, at the time, he figured Statewide was spending some $26 million annually.Today he believes Statewide’s budget may have ballooned to as much as $35 million ormore. Whatever the exact figure, Bult-Ito has no doubt that Statewide’s spending hascareened out of control.

"Statewide is a bloated, outdated monstrosity that we need to get rid of," he said. "What dothey do to benefit students? They have a big general counsel’s office that saves

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administrators’ butts, but we should save that $35 million and give our students a bettereducation."

Whether Statewide spends $17 million or $35 million annually, it’s difficult to find a singleUA student, staff or faculty member credibly defending Statewide’s spending these days,particularly after the regents’ latest tuition hikes.

Observers like Bult-Ito worry that as our university system confronts rising energy andhealth care costs, Hamilton will again shake down the average UA employee and studentbefore he will significantly shrink his own Statewide bureaucracy.

Meanwhile, as Hamilton and his fellow administrators decide whether to raft and shop andglacier-gaze this week in Valdez, the shock of his latest and earlier tuition hikes arereverberating throughout the university.

"I just signed a withdrawal form for a biology major who had to choose between two moreclasses toward his degree or fixing his car, which he needed for work," said Bult-Ito. "Hecouldn’t afford both."

"The level of needs-based aid that we have compared to other states is almostembarrassing," acknowledged university spokeswoman Kate Ripley in an Anchorage DailyNews interview. Yet tuition keeps rising.

I propose that UA’s regents commission a bona fide external administrative review of the UAStatewide administration. Perhaps the Rasmuson Foundation can partner with the regentsto bring in independent auditors to examine this mess.

It’s long past time we put a stop to Hamilton’s habit of squeezing our students to fatten hishigh-flying bureaucrats.

John Creed is a humanities/journalism professor at Chukchi College, a UA Kotzebue branchin Northwest Arctic Alaska.

Letters to the editor(Published: September 25, 2007)

Our new blog More letters on the Web

Mayor Begich is unhappy. Ted Stevens is unhappy. Joe Contraire is unhappy. They all haveissues with what the Daily News editorial page has been doing lately. See why, and what wesay in response -- at the Inside Opinion blog, adn. corn/opinion.

You love sending letters to the editor. We love running them. Unfortunately, there’s a limitto how many we can print.

But we’ve got plenty of room for more letters on the Web. Today, we’re launching a specialsection of our opinion Web site, called More Letters: Your Voice, Unfiltered. It’s whatreaders have to say, without any screening by Daily News editors.

If your letter doesn’t make the print edition, you can go to the More Letters section and postit yourself. What you write is what readers will see.

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Readers, take note: More Letters is the raw, unfiltered voice of the people. We’re notcleaning up grammar or checking facts. (Though we don’t edit submissions to More Letters,it’s not a free-for-all. We do reserve the right to remove inappropriate posts.)

See a Web letter you love or hate? You can post a comment directly to the letter right thereon the More Letters Web site.

Happy writing -- and happy reading.

-- Matt Zencey

editorial page editor

State leaders should try to attract more investment by oil companies

For the last several years, Alaska has struggled to come to grips with its falling revenuefrom declining oil production, then a temporary relief brought by the soaring oil prices,quickly replaced by the perceived necessity to capture even more of the resulting revenue. Ideeply believe that the political debate that’s taken center stage over the appropriate levelof production taxes is misguided.

Alaska’s legislators should be focused on how they can help cause a dramatic increase in oilindustry investment that can actually grow production by promoting a stable, simple andcompetitive tax structure. Instead, in the upcoming special session, they’ll be asked againto figure out exactly what portion of the ever-declining revenue is "equitable" for the stateto take.

The only thing that can ensure a long-term economic future for the state is investment-driven economic expansion. No matter how many consultants are brought out to argue thepoint, I will never believe that the proposed highest level of taxes in North America, coupledwith distance from market, harsh operating conditions and environmental sensitivity, willattract the amount of investment needed to keep this economy healthy. I urge ourgovernor, legislators and voters to think about the long-term future of the state rather thanwhat revenue can be extracted in the next three years.

.... Lieza Wilcox

Anchorage

EDITOR’S NOTE: The writer works for an Alaska oil company.

Senators don’t go far enough in proposals to fight climate change

I am pleased that Sens. Ted Stevens and Lisa Murkowski are finally willing to supportmitigation of global climate change ("Slight sacrifices will reduce warming’s whack atAlaska," Sept. 12).

However, based on the best available climate change science from the IntergovernmentalPanel on Climate Change (IPCC) and reports from over 20 nations’ national academies ofscience as well as numerous other scientific studies, the Low Carbon Act that they will co-sponsor is much too weak. This act calls for reducing America’s emissions of greenhousegases by 15 percent by 2030 and nearly 60 percent by 2050.

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Contrary to what Sens. Stevens and Murkowski assert, such reductions will not avoid atemperature increase of 2 to 2.4 C degrees that the IPCC and other scientific organizationsconclude will result in "serious and irreversible" impacts. To avoid such impacts, globalemissions of greenhouse gases must peak no later than 2015, be reduced by at least 20percent compared with 1990 levels by 2020, and be reduced about 80 percent by 2050compared with 2000 year levels.

With respect to impacts to Alaska, larger reductions in emissions should be supportedbecause climate change impacts are disproportionately greater in high-latitude regions.

.... John Lemons

Homer

Alaska Airlines will charge more and take longer for Hawaii trips

In response to the Sept. 13 Daily News story "Alaska Airlines purchases Hawaii rival":

As a long-time Alaska Airlines frequent flier as well as a satisfied customer of HawaiianVacations Inc., I was very disappointed to read about the airline’s acquisition of the tourcompany’s Hawaii travel business. Unless something changes, it appears this will meanconsiderably increased cost and inconvenience to the many Alaskans who travel to Hawaii.

Comparing a trip now scheduled through Hawaiian Vacations with the best available onAlaska Airlines’ Web site, if purchased through the airline instead of the tour company, thecost would substantially increase (by about 30 percent) and the trip would take about twiceas long (due to having to travel through Seattle, rather than the direct flight now availablethrough the tour company). Being able to earn frequent-flier miles won’t begin to make upfor that.

Eliminating competition in this instance makes it a sad day for Alaskans, except perhapsthose who own stock in Alaska Airlines.

.... David Chatfield

Soldotna

Spreading knowledge is more effective than unchecked force

The greatest political delusion in all history is thinking that using force is more powerfulthan spreading knowledge. Witness our conduct.

The hypocrisy of our leadership’s disdain for history and human knowledge is proven by howthey hide, ignore or shift the blame for their failures.

Natural human imperfection makes everybody incapable of using unsupervised orunchecked power and authority. Yet our leaders still insist they need it.

Our government’s anti-terrorist strategy of being police, prosecutor, judge, jury andexecutioner is the historic formula for injustice and insurrection, and so guarantees failuresin our war on terror.

America’s greatest weapon is the collective mind power and initiative of its citizens. Whydon’t our leaders use it?

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-- Stuart Thompson

Wasilla

A few bad apples do not spoil the benefits of Cotillion Club dances

I couldn’t believe the article about the Cotillion Club dances ("Parents fault club’s oversight,"Sept. 16). The fact that one mother and a small group of her peers have this muchinfluence over the direction of the dances is outrageous.

My morn is one of the board members and she and I work hard to make sure the rules arefollowed. If someone arrives and is inappropriately dressed, they are asked to leave or atleast change if they can. Kids have been cited for underage drinking by the police, or thechaperones call the parents to pick the kid up. They are permanently expelled from Cotillionif they are intoxicated.

The dances are a fun way for kids from all around town to get together and have fun. It’strue, there are always a few oddballs who dance raunchy or try to push the limits, but forthe most part everyone follows the rules. If parents think the dances are an inappropriateplace for their children, then they don’t have to participate. I would prefer to have my ownmother continue to discipline me, instead of the anti-Cotillion squad who seem to think it istheir business to punish everyone for a minute few’s faults.

.... Loni Quinn

Chugiak

Put term limits on Kenai Borough School Board and Assembly

Term limits have been around since the ancient Greek and Roman empires. These two earlycivilizations had elected political offices and both imposed limits on some positions.

The president of the United States is legally limited to a maximum of two terms in office.Does the world come to an end when a president is term-limited out of office? Of coursenot!

In most of the 50 states, including Alaska, governors have some form of term limits. DoesAlaska fall apart when the governor is forced out of office after two terms? Of course not.We usually welcome the change!

Ever since the October 1993 municipal election there has been a two-term limit for theKenai Peninsula Borough mayor. Does the borough shut down or do schools close when themayor is forced out of office by term limits? Again, of course not!

Why is it that the U.S. president, most U.S. governors and the mayor of this borough can beforced out of office by legal term limits while the incumbent borough Assembly and SchoolBoard members running for re-election claim these same laws are unconstitutional andshould not apply to them?

Vote yes on Oct. 2 for Kenai Peninsula Borough School Board and Assembly term limits.

.... Gina Creedon

Fritz Creek

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When it comes to health care, Natives are a privileged class

Reading Dr. Kathy McCue’s letter ("Native Medical Center, VA are models for universalmedical care," Sept. 17), especially the part about the Alaska Native Medical Center whereshe works, only served to remind me that I’m not part of that privileged class.

Not being at least a quarter Native or Indian by blood, I am locked out of all the freemedical services she lists. Yes, I realize Indians have this because of what happened to theirancestors over a hundred years ago, but I didn’t have anything to do with that and neitherdid they.

Natives will never know what it’s like to go into bankruptcy because they can’t pay ahospital bill, to lose their home over medical debts, to be stuck with thousands of dollars ofhospital bills for a deceased spouse, to wonder how to come up with $900 for a dentalcrown. Or, as Rita Hatch wrote in a letter on the same page, have doctors drop them whenthey reach age 65.

Dr. McCue’s vision of all of America having universal health care modeled on ANMC’s is notsomething I will see in my lifetime. What I will experience is always being one scary stepaway from bankruptcy. Natives and Indians are indeed a privileged class.

.... Lee Smith

Wasilla

Congress should fix mistake that boosted the cost of birth control

As a college student, my budget is extremely limited, but the cost of birth control wasn’t aproblem for me. My local Planned Parenthood clinic provided birth control at a cheap,reasonable price. This year however, the price at this clinic jumped from $15 to $25. Whileit is only a $10 difference, for someone in college every penny counts. That means that I,and students like me, will have to make tough choices about how, or whether, I can affordcontraception. That $10 is the difference between being able to purchase two packs of pillsinstead of just one. I can’t afford a pack of birth control at this price.

It shouldn’t have to be this way. In the Deficit Reduction Act, which went into effect inJanuary, Congress inadvertently changed a rule and made it harder for universities andsome safety net family planning providers to provide their patients with affordable birthcontrol ("Birth control suddenly too costly for some," Sept. 19). This is a simple problem forCongress to fix -- it will cost the government nothing and can be done immediately.

Students shouldn’t have to jump through hoops just to practice safer sex, especially whenthe fix is so easy. Congress should be making it easier, not harder, for women to haveaccess to affordable contraception.

.... Christine Gibbs

Anchorage

Cotillion volunteers don’t allow improper activities at dances

I am a volunteer member, with parents’ permission, of Cotillion and a solid student with anactive schedule including student body president, a three-sport athlete and participatingfamily member.

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Even when I wished she wouldn’t, my morn volunteered. This last year she’s dealt with a lotmedically, yet she works hard teaching and volunteering. I’m old enough to appreciate whatshe does and I know my mother wouldn’t promote or allow indecent dancing, illegal drinkingor drug use at Cotillion or any event she represented.

I haven’t witnessed most of the accusations made by Shauna Ramirez and others ("Parentsfault clubs’ oversight," Sept. 16). I have witnessed a couple kids attempt to attend dancesafter drinking and some inappropriate dancing; however, adults and officers disciplineoffenders. I’m not happy that my friends or I are lumped into this "everybody’s doing it"category.

Dances are to have fun, socialize and dance. I dance like most kids, which, yes, is differentfrom past generations. But I’m not having sex and the allegations are unfair.

Invited parents and their children have the right and choice to not attend. Also, as part ofstudent government, I know the difficulty in getting volunteers. So, more parents shouldvolunteer to chaperone and become involved with their children.

.... JackJohnson

Anchorage

Save our public swimming pools or turn the job over to WaI-Mart

I am disappointed to read about the possible closure of the Service and Bartlett pools ("Citymay pull the plug on two pools," Sept. 17). My kids have taken swim lessons at the Servicepool for four years. The extra time it takes to drive across town to another pool is adealbreaker.

I also wonder what will happen to the Gold Nugget Triathlon if the Bartlett pool closes. It isa shame that just as the organizers have garnered record numbers of participants for thisbanner event for our city, the potential venues for such an event are all but disappearing.

I understand that there are strong financial arguments for closing the pools. Despite thefinancial pitfalls, most people still want a community that provides places to walk, run, playand swim.

I wonder what efforts have been made to boost pool usage. Maybe if the local pools weremarketed more to the public we would see increased usage. Maybe we could also see theelementary schools readopt those swim classes for students.

Maybe WaI-Mart can build pools at each of its locations. Then we would all be assured ofaffordable and conveniently located swimming opportunities. Our city appears to havealready sold its soul to the big box stores; now we can let our public pools go the same wayor, more likely, to just go.

.... Laurie Dworian

Anchorage

Juneau Empire

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Northwest DigestSchool district to host bullying forum

JUNEAU - The Juneau School District will host a free community forum on bullying and hazingfrom 7 to 8:30 p.m. Thursday in the Juneau-Douglas High School library.

"Community Forum on Bullying and Hazing: Working Together for Change" will include shortpresentations by members of the Board of Education, school administrators and counselors, theJuneau Police Department, the National Council on Alcohol and Drug Dependence and theTlingit Haida Community Council.

"The purpose of the forum is to inform members of the public about the Board of Education’snew policy and provide education on what community members can do to positively partner withthe schools to address these issues," said Peggy Cowan, superintendent of the Juneau SchoolDistrict.

"We know that students need to feel safe in order to learn," Cowan said. "The School Board, byadopting this new policy, is making it very clear that any behaviors that threaten or harm anotherstudent will not be tolerated."

Thursday’s forum will include positive steps parents and community members can take and willprovide the chance for participants to share concerns.

"This forum is one more way we can work together as parents, community members andeducators to make a positive difference in the lives of Juneau’s children and youth," Cowan said.

For more Information, call Cowan at 523-1701 or Susan Christianson at 523-1707.

Search for missing hiker suspended

ANCHORAGE - The search for a missing Wisconsin man has been suspended in Wrangell-St.Elias National Park and Preserve.

Rescuers are facing worsening weather in the search for 68-year-old Paul Schoch of LakeNebagamon, Wis., who was reported missing Sept. 17. The aerial search also is suspended butroutine patrols will continue as weather permits, park spokesman Smitty Parratt said.

Areas searched include Russell Glacier where footprints that could be Schoch’s were tracked towhere they disappeared along the top of a moraine. Schoch’s base camp was found intact early inthe search, with most of his provisions there, so his chances of survival are extremely slim,Parratt said.

Mount Ashland ski expansion blocked

GRANTS PASS, Ore. - A federal appeals court Monday blocked expansion of the MountAshland ski area in Southern Oregon until the U.S. Forest Service assures protection of the cityof Ashland’s drinking water supply and protection of habitat for a rare mink-like mammal.

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In a unanimous decision, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sent thecase back to U.S. District Judge Owen Panner in Medford to oversee revisions to theenvironmental impact statement the Forest Service did on the project.

The ruling could be a fatal setback for efforts spanning 20 years to expand Ski Ashland withmore intermediate and beginner runs to attract more skiers.

Marianne Dugan, attorney for environmental groups that won the appeal, said she saw no wayfor the Mount Ashland Ski Association to go ahead with its current plan because it wouldremove trees on steep slopes with a high risk of erosion, sending silt into a tributary of AshlandCreek that feeds the city of Ashland’s drinking water reservoir.

"They can’t move the landslide hazard areas," she said. "They have to move the project."

The plan calls for building two new chairlifts to serve 16 ski trails, and expanding the parking lotby 200 spaces. The expansion would require clearcutting about 65 acres of forest, wherebiologists have spotted the Pacific fisher, a rare predator that looks like a large mink.

Ketchikan experiencing numerous nuisance bearsKETCHIKAN - Erika Decker was surprised one recent afternoon when she opened the door tothe deck of her Creek Street apartment.

Lazing inches from the door was a nearly full-grown black bear, and it wasn’t budging.

"He just laid there like a dog," Decker said. "I think he was hot."

Decker wasn’t so nonchalant.

She slammed the door shut and ran across the apartment to slam shut another exterior door. Thenshe called police.

When they arrived, she carefully opened the deck door. The bear was gone.

"I think I scared him by slamming the door," Decker said, still bothered by the bear’s casualappearance on her deck. "That was too close."

Decker isn’t the only Ketchikan resident who is experiencing unwanted visits by bears thissummer. As of Monday, the Ketchikan Police Department has received more than 80 callsrelated to nuisance bears this year. That’s nearly double the 43-call average of the previous fiveyears.

State of Alaska wildlife troopers have responded to 58 bear complaints in the Ketchikan area sofar this year. That’s five more than in 2006, and it’s before the typically heavy bear call days ofearly October, according to Wildlife Troopers Sgt. Bernard Chastain.

Local authorities have killed four nuisance bears so far this year, said Boyd Porter, theKetchikan-area wildlife management biologist with the Alaska Department offish and Game.

While it’s difficult to tell exactly how many bears are in the general area, there’s probably anabove-average number of bears in town or traveling through, Porter said.

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There was a bumper crop of berries this year that’s been available for a longer period than usual,he said. There’s also a large number of pink salmon in the streams.

But local bears are finding other things to eat while moving to their usual food sources, Portersaid.

"They’re opportunists, and if there are bags of garbage out there, they’ll take advantage of that,"he said.

Unfortunately, there appears to be a lot of trashy pickings this year.

"That’s the main issue," Chastain said. "People have not been picking up their garbage."

David Martin, assistant city manager of the City of Ketchikan, said he’s fielded a number ofcomplaint calls about trash. One complaint Martin hears often is about residents whoseunsecured trash receptacles are attracting bears.

The other big complaint Martin hears is about people who don’t clean up the mess after ananimal has raided a garbage can.

The city does not have an ordinance related to garbage and bears.

A state rule already prohibits people from negligently leaving garbage, and human or animalfood, in a manner that attracts animals, including bears. Violators can be issued a $100 citation,Chastain said.

"Usually after one warning, people usually clean up their garbage," he said.

Porter said the department doesn’t have funds to move nuisance bears to other areas. Typically, ifthe department has to trap a bear out of an area now, the animal is euthanized, he said.

"We do not relocate them," Porter said.

Although trash is the main enticement for bears in populated areas, local officials as well as inJuneau and the Kenai Peninsula say there are several other human-generated attractants.

Those temptations include food in vehicles; food outdoors in coolers or freezers; cooking andother food smells wafting from open house windows and doors; bird feeders; dog and cat foodleft outside; chicken feed; dumped hunting and fishing waste; even honey-producing bee hives.

Nevertheless, the bears that have been attracted to Ketchikan this year are making their presencefelt from one end of the road system to the other.

Porter said one bear entered a home on Miller Ridge Road.

And another bear in the Herring Cove area has "developed a technique for opening any kind ofcar-door latch," he said.

Roxanne Abajian said in August, a bear in the Roosevelt Drive area went through an openwindow in her SUV to get at food inside.

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Abajian cleaned up the mess.

Days later, the horn of the SUV sounded at 2 a.m. A bear had gotten in again this time tearing upthe driver’s seat and leaving the vehicle’s (nonfood) contents in disarray. The seat had to bereplaced.

The bear’s next few attempts to get into the vehicle were unsuccessful.

But at about the fifth visit, the bear got its claws around the door frame of a 1987 Toyota on theproperty, she said. The bear bent the frame back and shattered the car’s window.

Abajian said bears have come around before, but this is the first year they’d gotten into thevehicles.

A bear also might have gotten into the house, as evidenced by a wide-open front door, a bag ofchips emptied in front of the house and a gouge on a kitchen counter.

"It’s kind of scary," Abajian said.

VECO polling assistance comes under scrutiny

Statute of limitations may preclude violations from being pursued

The Alaska Public Offices Commission decided Monday to investigate whether VECO Corp.may have violated campaign finance rules by providing poll results to favored candidateswithout reporting the cost of the poll.

Such contributions could be either illegal corporate contributions or reporting violations on thepart of candidates.

The practice is one of the ways the formerly powerful player in Alaska politics asserted itsinfluence in the state, according to a federal indictment. VECO, an oil field services company, isnow part of Colorado-based CH2M-Hill.

It’s questionable whether APOC can pursue penalties due to the commission’s one-year statute oflimitations on such investigations, but the investigation may be valuable anyway, said onecommissioner, Elizabeth Hickerson.

"I am less concerned about the statute of limitations as I am about getting at the facts," saidHickerson, an attorney and a Democratic commission member from Anchorage.

The commission’s authority over campaign finance violations goes back for only one year fromthe dates of violations. Sen. Bill Wielechowski, D-Anchorage, said he intends to introducelegislation extending that to four years.

Hickerson said an investigation may highlight the need for a longer statute of limitations for theLegislature.

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A little more than a year ago, FBI agents revealed to top VECO executives that they were underinvestigation as part of a widespread probe into influence buying in Alaska politics.

Any violation that could be pursued would have to have occurred after the FBI investigation wasrevealed.

"I don’t think we have a violation within one year before us," said Roger Holl, commissionchairman and a public member of the commission from Anchorage. He also is an attorney.

The allegation that VECO has paid for polls used by numerous candidates over the years wasmade by former VECO executive Rick Smith in testimony during the federal bribery trial offormer Rep. Pete Kott, R-Eagle River, in Anchorage.

Among the federal charges against Kott is that a poll VECO provided for his campaignconstituted a bribe.

Former state legislator and APOC critic Ray Metcalfe had earlier urged the commission toinvestigate all 60 legislators, but had not filed a formal complaint as of the commission’s specialMonday morning meeting.

Commission members weren’t clear on whether Metcalfe wanted unsuccessful candidates to beinvestigated as well.

Department of Law attorney Margaret Paton-Walsh called Metcalfe’s accusations "incrediblyvague and general."

The commission, however, decided to investigate the matter on its own.

Sen. Kim Elton, D-Juneau, said he could say that VECO never provided him with any pollresults.

"That’s probably not a surprise to anyone," he said.

Elton was pushing for a higher oil tax rate than that which VECO executives sought.

One of the first steps taken in the investigation may be to simply call up Smith and see if he’llsay who VECO provided the polling data to, commissioners said. Others cautioned that he maynot be able to talk, because of the ongoing federal investigation.

Smith has already pleaded guilty, and Hickerson said his testimony against his own interestsshould be considered reliable.

"If his testimony is correct, and I have no reason to doubt it, there were violations," Hickersonsaid.

¯ Contact Pat Forgey at 523-2250 or [email protected]

Incumbent only candidate for District 1 Assembly seat

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Jeff Bush sees curbside recycling in Juneau within two years

Juneau Assembly incumbent Jeff Bush realizes he’s in a pretty enviable position.

Running unopposed for a second term to the District 1 seat, Bush is visiting his daughter atcollege in eastern Washington the week before the city election and playing in a golf tournamentin Boise, Idaho, with current and former Juneau residents.

He plans to spend less than $200 on the election, but said he is happy to talk about issues withanyone who’ll listen. The fact is, though, the attention is going to the contested races.

It’s a far cry from his first Assembly race, when he beat incumbent Jeannie Johnson by just 42votes.

Since that night three years ago, Bush said he is proud of the work the Assembly has done onseveral issues important to him: furthering plans for downtown’s waterfront and sea walk,support for a second channel crossing and pushing for mandatory areawide recycling to lengthenthe life of Juneau’s dump.

A past Juneau School Board member and president, Bush, 54, runs Alaska Public EntityInsurance, a company that provides insurance to about 40 school districts and municipalities inAlaska. He has worked in the past as deputy commissioner of the Alaska Department ofCommerce & Economic Development under former Gov. Tony Knowles and former Gov. SteveCowper, and has worked for the Department of Law.

"I think the hottest issue in town is recycling," Bush said.

A draft solid waste management plan released last month emphasizes the need to ramp uprecycling to extend the life of the Lemon Creek dump. Incineration is too expensive, theconsultants concluded, and no new land for a dump is readily available.

Bush predicts mandatory curbside recycling in Juneau within two years.

"For those who don’t choose to recycle, it’s going to cost more," he said, although the consultant’sreport has yet to estimate what garbage collection and recycling under a mandatory programwould cost residents.

Bush stressed that having a second crossing, and more direct access to private and public landbeyond the end of the current North Douglas Highway, will drive job growth, land availabilityfor commercial development and new housing.

"It really is, in my opinion, Juneau’s long-term future," he said.

A study completed last spring identified the Vanderbilt Hill intersection of Egan Drive as thecommunity’s preferred alternative for a second crossing. That wasn’t his first choice, but hesupports continuing the effort to move it up on the statewide priority list and would like to seesupport for it from Alaska’s congressional delegation.

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"DOT wants to see the city make it a priority," rather than just giving it lip service, Bush said."Where it is isn’t as important as that we keep moving forward on it."

He said opening up land on the west side of Douglas will be key to adding jobs to the economy.According to Bush, mining jobs are great and tourism is a clean industry, but neither are long-term growth industries that will provide the jobs needed to allow people to buy a house.

Construction of a bridge is estimated at $52 million to $148 million, with an additional $40million in intersection upgrades required for Egan Drive at Vanderbilt Hill. The crossing wouldconnect at Mile 5 on North Douglas. Bush would rather see a crossing closer to the airport.

Bush conceded he doesn’t have an easy answer to Juneau’s shortage of affordable housing."There’s no silver bullet."

But he predicted that housing will become more affordable in the near term, due to the lack ofgrowth in the local economy and nationwide. He said he’s encouraged by proposals to redevelopthe apartments above the 20th Century Twin Cinema on Front Street, and other efforts to addhigh-density housing downtown. Bush admitted, however, that most people wanting housing seethemselves in a detached house.

"When people talk about affordable housing, they want to buy a single-family house for under$250,000," he said.

According to local Realtors, Juneau’s current median home price is $346,500.

Bush supports returning fluoride to Juneau’s water supply.

"If 99.9 percent of the medical community is for it, and I believe they’re the experts, then it’s agood thing."

Bush added that he supported taking the question to a vote, saying it was the right way to decidethe issue.

He is opposed to a road out of Juneau as it’s now proposed for a number of reasons, including itscost, an estimated minimum of 30 days of closures each winter due to avalanches, and the road’sproposed terminus at a remote ferry terminal stopping short of Skagway.

"I don’t really think we have an access issue. What we have are a few legislators who don’t wantto come to Juneau," Bush said.

Across the country, people contact their legislators by phone or e-mail, not by personal visit, hesaid.

He was part of the minority when the Assembly voted 5-4 in favor of a resolution supporting aroad out of town.

"It’s one of the choices we make in order to have the wonderful environment we have here," hesaid.

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Dick Knapp, president of the nonprofit group Citizens Pro-Road, said support of the road shouldbe on the front burner of the Assembly’s agenda.

"In my opinion, if you are providing responsible leadership to the city, given the economic andsocial benefits ... our city leadership should have a letter to the Corps of Engineers ... supportingthe process," Knapp said.

"Unfortunately, the people who are against the road keep throwing roadblocks into the processand eventually it just goes away," he said.

While the Assembly falls into opposing camps on some issues, Bush said he enjoys working withthe current membership.

"It’s nice to work with people who care and are willing to talk about the issues."

Bush will return from his golfing vacation the day before the election, just in time to vote. If hehad an opponent, he might have voted absentee beforehand, but said he trusts that he’ll make itback in time.

Assembly passes new panhandling ordinanceLaw prohibits aggressive tacticsThe Juneau Assembly approved a new panhandling ordinance Monday night that clarifies thetime, place and ways people can panhandle after free speech issues were raised about the oldordinance.A representative of the Downtown Business Association spoke in favor of the ordinance before itpassed, saying businesses will gladly chip in on enforcement. Many others, however, voicedconcern that the ordinance does not address the underlying issues of homelessness and could bedifficult to enforce.

The new rule makes it illegal to solicit donations of money at bus stops, in any publictransportation vehicles and facilities, in vehicles parked or stopped on public streets or alleys,within 20 feet of an automatic teller machine or bank entrance and within 10 feet of any entranceto a building or crosswalk. In those locations, it also would be unlawful to seek donations formusic or other performances.

Also, aggressive panhandling is prohibited and defined in the law as touching, blocking, orfollowing a solicited person, using profane or abusive language, or blocking pedestrian orvehicle traffic. Panhandling also is prohibited between sunset and sunrise. Violations could resultin a $75 fine for each offense.

The old ordinance flatly prohibited panhandling anywhere at any time, which courts havedetermined an unconstitutional violation of free speech. Courts have said there can be restrictionsplaced on the time, place and manner of the speech, but governments may not restrict speechbased solely on its content.

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"If someone can stand on the sidewalk and say, ’Re-elect the governor,’ they can also say, ’Giveme a quarter.’ The government can’t distinguish between types of speech it likes and types ofspeech it doesn’t like," City Attorney John Hartle said.

Juneau is following in the footsteps of cities nationwide that are changing their code to complywith recent court decisions, he said.

Daniel Ungier with the Juneau Homeless Coalition told the Assembly the ordinance will do littleto address the underlying problem of homelessness.

"We need to not be talking about the symptom, but the cause," Ungier said. "What we are seeingacross the country is the solution that puts people in housing first, before anything else, makes iteasier for them to hold a job, makes it easier for them to maintain stability in their lives, thantrying to provide those services while people are homeless."

Ungier said subsidized housing is far less expensive than a city paying for emergency roomvisits, or time in jail or detox centers.

Larry Spencer, who sits on the board of directors for the Downtown Business Association, saidthe ordinance is a "wonderful compromise" that will provide a small element of security andsafety in the downtown area.

"Enforcement will be merchants who now know where panhandling is allowed, where it isn’tallowed, when the city will enforce it and when the city won’t enforce it," Spencer said.

UA program aims to aid rural vet careFAIRBANKS - A pilot program aimed at increasing the number of veterinarytechnicians in rural Alaska is going into full swing this fall.

The University of Alaska Board of Regents has approved a certificate focusing on veterinaryscience and administered through rural campuses of the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

"For most of rural Alaska, access to veterinarians is sparse," said Clara Johnson, the director ofUAF’s Interior-Aleutians Campus. "Every village has numerous kennels, and the communitiesare very traditionally tied into dog mushing and need veterinary care."

There are 403 veterinarians or veterinary technicians licensed in Alaska, according to an onlinedatabase on the state’s Web site. Almost one-fourth of those are in Anchorage while Kotzebue,Galena, Dillingham, Bethel, Fort Yukon and Unalakleet have none. Nome, the finish line of theIditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, has just one veterinarian and no veterinary technicians.

Johnson said the one-year certificate in veterinary science is intended to give rural students aboost toward getting licensed as veterinary technicians. Ultimately, the university would like toexpand the program so that graduates would be licensed veterinary technicians.

Students in the program will take classes in biology, chemistry and math, as well as veterinaryterminology, animal husbandry and animal nutrition. Classes will be available through distanceeducation.

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UAF has run the program as a pilot for the past two years.

Regents also have approved a certificate in high latitude range management through UAF’sNorthwest Campus based in Nome. The program is aimed at helping rural Alaskans, andparticularly Alaska Natives, get resource management jobs with state and federal agencies andcorporations operating in the Bush, according to David Smith, the professor overseeing the newcertificate.

"We hope to be giving them a bit of a boost as far as where they fall in the stack of applicationsthat fall on a desk of someone making hiring decisions," Smith said.

The program also will have a heavy slant toward traditional knowledge, Smith said.

The curriculum will focus on the management of reindeer herds, said Greg Finstad, manager ofUAF’s reindeer research program.

UA foundation celebrates banner yearFAIRBANKS - The University of Alaska Foundation had one of the highest amounts ofdonations in its history in the fiscal year that ended June 30.The university’s nonprofit arm also saw a spike in individual donors.

The foundation, established in the 1970s to solicit and manage university donations, raised morethan $23 million last year - $4.7 million more than the previous year.

The only year with a greater total in the past decade was 2001, when the foundation took in $36million. That year’s bounty, however, was due to a single estate gift the university received thatwas worth $19 million as part of the late Elmer Rasmuson’s will. That gift aside, the past fiscalyear is the foundation’s best ever.

A total of 5,913 individuals and corporations gave to the university last fiscal year. That’s morethan 1,000 more than the previous year. The foundation began to see yearly increases in thenumber of donors in 2004, largely because the university started asking more people for money,foundation President Mary Rutherford said.

"The culture of asking is extremely new here in Alaska and also at the university," Rutherfordsaid. "There was a time, not very long ago frankly, when some of the campuses did not evenhave a development office charged with helping grow philanthropic support."

The University of Alaska heavily relies on corporate donations. In a typical year, between 50 and60 percent of the money raised by the foundation comes from corporations, Rutherford said.

Alaskans should drink Alaska’s milkWe should be crying over spilled milk.In fact, we should be bawling about the Matanuska Maid Dairy being sold. There is a nationwidetrend to develop food resources within a 100-mile radius of one’s home. The Mat-Su Valleyalready does this in the summer with fresh vegetables.

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It makes no sense for Alaska to have dairy shipped from over a thousand miles away.

I don’t believe the previous dairy board made much of an attempt to create buyer loyalty,regardless of what its survey might have reported.

The milk carton design is boring and isn’t very noticeable compared to competing dairy products.

Why not have a contest for a new Mat Maid - create a buzz. And while it’s nice the dairy has asection for children on the Web, why not pick the prettiest, sweetest cow and bring it to schoolsand let kids learn to milk it. This is Alaska and kids should know where their food comes from.Plus it encourages brand loyalty at an early age.

And if the dairy farmers don’t use bovine growth hormones, then label it organic! Take themoney from the sale of the jet and put it into the dairy.

Alaska needs to see itself almost like a separate country and start creating an infrastructure that issustainable and not dependent on outside prices or a jump in shipping costs from another state.Try, try again. And please, think out of the box.

Dimitra Lavrakas

Skagway

Why $46,000 to support fluoride?According to their campaign report, the pro-fluoride group Citizens Promoting Dental Health hasraised more than $46,000 to promote fluoridation, more than all other candidates and ballotgroups combined.

The vast majority of their money, more than $34,000, has come from the American DentalAssociation in Chicago. The rest is from the local Juneau Dental Society, except for $350 incontributions from two individuals, one of whom is their treasurer. This is not a grass roots groupof local citizens. It is a front group for dentists and their trade association. It is shocking to methat so much money is being raised by outside groups for our local election.

As the mother of a newborn baby, I am so grateful to the city of Juneau for taking fluoride out ofthe water when it did. I was able to go through my pregnancy without having to buy bottledwater. Will the American Dental Association supply non-fluoridated water to pregnant womenand infants if fluoride is once again in our city water supply? The association certainly seems tohave enough money.

Please join me in voting to keep fluoride out of our water. Let’s keep our water safe for everyone.

Linda Curtis

Juneau

WaI-Mart falls victim to greedI used to have one opinion about Wal-Mart until I caught an eye-opening expose on the Starzchannel.

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Wal-Mart tends to monopolize and shut out small businesses, resist contributing to thecommunities and abuse workers in China, etc., all to provide Americans with these low prices.These business practices bear close examination.

I don’t want to benefit from the suffering of others in any way and wouldn’t support an enterprisethat promotes that. They also oppress employees who try to bring these issues to light.

I don’t believe Wal-Mart started with this type of value system, but I do believe they haveprobably gotten too big for their britches and have fallen victim to good, old-fashioned Americangreed, and as such, need to get a wake-up call.

I used to shop there, even thought of working there - but not now.

Vincent Hayden

Juneau

Fairbanks Daily News-MinerNative firm slams RamrasBy Stefan Milkowski

[email protected]

Published September 25, 2007

A Southwest Alaska Native corporation struck back at Fairbanks Rep. Jay Ramras on Monday with charges that he

was limiting free speech on the controversial Pebble mine project and related legislation.

The Alaska Peninsula Corp. filed suit against Ramras, the Alaska attorney general and the Department of Public

Safety in an attempt to block Alaska State Troopers from attending legislative hearings on a mine-related bill.

Samuel Fortier, a lawyer representing the corporation, said there was concern that having uniformed troopers in the

room during the hearings, which are scheduled this week in three Bristol Bay communities, would "chill people’s free

speech rights."

Earlier this month, Ramras, a Republican, sent a letter to Attorney General Talis Colberg requesting him to send a

representative to the hearings to investigate claims that Pebble developer Northern Dynasty was inappropriately

spending money in the region to win favor for its mine project.

Northern Dynasty described the allegations as "baseless" and criticized Ramras for "(choosing) to politicize this non-

issue in a public forum."

The attorney general’s office asked Ramras to clarify the allegations contained in his letter, and said that any follow-

up investigation would be done by troopers.

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On Monday, Alaska Peninsula’s request to block troopers from the hearings was denied in Alaska Superior Court in

Dillingham. But Fortier and Ramras both said they hadn’t heard of troopers attending Monday’s hearing on the bill,

HB 134, which would raise hurdles for Northern Dynasty by making it illegal to disturb certain salmon streams in the

Bristol Bay region.

Ramras is a co-sponsor of the bill.

Ramras said it was never his wish to have troopers attend the hearings -- he had asked for a representative from the

attorney general’s office -- and added that he was sympathetic to the corporation’s point of view.

"I’m all for protecting people’s First Amendment rights," he said. "That’s why I raised these issues in the first place."

Fortier expressed a concern that HB 134 would extend far beyond the Pebble project and rule out many possible land

uses.

Regarding a next step, he said he and Alaska Peninsula would have to evaluate the situation.

Contact staff writer Stefan Milkowski at 459-7577.

Auto deal would include land swapBy Eric [email protected]


If the proposed plan to shuffle six Fairbanks car and truck franchises is successful, it will also mean some Fairbanks

real estate could change hands.

Aurora Motors announced a plan late last week to sell its six franchises to three local companies: Auto Service Co.

Inc., NWD Inc., and Seekins Ford Lincoln-Mercury.

If the deal is successful, Auto Service Co. will also take over the two Danby Road buildings currently owned by

Aurora Motors, and NWD would in turn buy and move into the South Cushman Street lot now occupied by Auto

Service Co.

"We’re going to move our whole operation over there (to the Johansen site)," said John Hill, president of Auto Service

Co..

The complicated business deal hinges on the four parties getting approval from various manufacturers to transfer the

six franchises. The companies have set an ambitious target date of Nov. 15 to get the deal completely ironed out.

Ralph Seekins, the owner of Seekins Ford Lincoln-Mercury, said the "musical chairs situation" is unusual in the

industry, where it is more common for one company to simply buy out other companies.

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Under the proposed deal, Aurora Motors plans to sell its Mazda and Mercedes-Benz franchises to Auto Service Co.,

its Buick, Pontiac and GMC franchises to the Gene’s Chrysler affiliate NWD, and its Kia franchise to Seekins Ford

Lincoln-Mercury.

Several weeks ago, Auto Service Co. sold its Hyundai franchise to Gene’s Chrysler.

The deal, if approved, will also rearrange the parts and service departments for the six franchises. Hill said moving

into the Danby Road facilities would quadruple the size of Auto Service Co.’s parts and service departments, which

was a major part of his decision to enter into the deal.

Hill said that over the past few days, Auto Service Co. and Gene’s Chrysler have been interviewing Aurora Motors

employees in an attempt to staff the possible expanded operations.

"That’s the beauty of this deal," Hill said. "The people who are currently employed at Aurora Motors are going to have

two options where they want to be employed."

Seekins said he planned to take over the Kia parts and service departments as well as the sales department, but

made a commitment through the deal not to hire any Aurora employees until the transfer had been finalized.

Hill dismissed concerns that consolidating the car market would stifle competition locally. He said Auto Service Co.

would still face competition with other dealers in town, with dealerships in Anchorage and even among its own

franchises.

"There’s going to be a tremendous competitive situation in our four walls," Hill said.

Seekins said consumers will most quickly notice the changes through advertising, as new brands get rolled into old

marketing campaigns.

Contact staff writer Eric Lidji at 459-7504.

$11 million grant keyed to Native diet, healthBy Robinson [email protected]


The Center for Alaska Native Health Research at the University of Alaska Fairbanks recently received $11 million to

continue studying the relationship between obesity, diabetes and the traditional diet of Alaska Natives in the Yukon-

Kuskokwim Delta. The five-year grant from the National Institute of Health is a renewal of a nearly identical grant the

center received in 2001.

"What we’ve found is that the prevalence of obesity among Yup’ik Eskimos is no different than other people. It’s no

different than Caucasians living a very Western lifestyle," researcher and CANHR co-director Bert Boyer said. "But

the intriguing part, and the exciting part, is that the prevalence of Type II diabetes in Yup’ik Eskimos is very low. That

really piqued our curiosity."

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Type II diabetes, or adult-onset diabetes, is often directly linked to obesity. As more Americans have gotten fatter,

more have developed the often-debilitating disease. That link between weight and diabetes, however, does not hold

true among the Yup’ik communities of Western Alaska, Boyer said.

"It turns out Yup’ik Eskimos have among the lowest levels of metabolic syndrome (or risk of obesity-related diseases

such as diabetes) of any group worldwide, yet they are as overweight as anyone else in America," Boyer said.

Working with 10 small Yup’ik communities in Western Alaska, Boyer, a geneticist, has spent the past five years

looking for a genetic cause for the low rate of diabetes. More research needs to be done in that area, he said, but he

doesn’t think genes are the culprit.

"We don’t think there’s anything genetically unique about a Yup’ik Eskimo as far as obesity risk factors are

concerned," he said. "We think the uniqueness comes from the food they eat."

The traditional Yup’ik diet is a fatty one, but the polyunsaturated fat found in salmon and seals is very different from

the saturated fat found in Big Macs and doughnuts. That chemical difference may be the key to the relatively good

health of the Yup’ik people despite rising obesity rates.

"Yup’ik elders have always felt that their subsistence foods and lifestyle are healthy and we want to give them

scientific evidence that an active lifestyle and their diet rich in (polyunsaturated fatty acids) is indeed healthy," Boyer

said.

On top of the center’s $11 million grant, Boyer has received a $2.8 million grant to study the role of polyunsaturated

fat in the health of Yup’ik Eskimos.

By understanding how a diet rich in polyunsaturated fats is beneficial for the Yup’ik and protects them somewhat from

developing diabetes and other obesity-related diseases, the CANHR researchers are hoping to help other

populations as well, said Jerry Mohatt, the center’s director.

"Those protective factors may be as relevant to Americans as a general population as they are to Yup’iks," he said.

CANHR, part of UAF’s institute of Arctic Biology, was established in 2001. The center’s staff of researchers have

focused their efforts on the diet and health of the Yup’ik people of Western Alaska. This latest grant will allow the

center to continue its research for the next five years. Besides studying polyunsaturated fats, researchers will be

looking into contaminates -- like mercury -- in animals and plants traditionally used for food, as well as working to

understand the cultural attitudes toward health and diet.

"Unless we understand the cultural dimension of what people understand about weight and what people understand

about diabetes, it is really hard to figure out how to prevent it," Mohatt said.

From the beginning, Mohatt said, CANHR’s researchers have put an emphasis on involving community members in

all the phases of the studies, including planning and data analysis.

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"We don’t just walk in and say, ’We’re the scientists, line up and we’ll start measuring,’" Boyer said. "To us it’s very

important that we not just go into communities and measure people and take blood samples and never come back.

We really feel we should build relationships in communities."

Before starting their research, the UAF scientists asked Yup’ik elders what issues were ~mportant to the community

members. They held community meetings in the villages they went to and involved community members in data

collection. As the research continues over the next five years, Mohatt said, the researchers will again give the

community members leading roles in shaping the questions to be studied and conducting the research.

"They know their own communities, they know their own health issues," Mohatt said. "We don’t live there."

That research model, based heavily on community input, also may motivate more Alaska Natives to become

researchers, Mohatt said.

"By having communities involved and youth involved it may stimulate interest in doing research themselves," he said.

Contact staff writer Robinson Duffy at 459-7523

Gone to nowherePublished September 24, 2007

At last, this bridge really is going nowhere.

Gov. Sarah Palin last week announced that money that was being spent on the much-maligned, widely panned and

completely ridiculed Gravina Island bridge project at Ketchikan will be redirected to other state transportation projects.

And that, as they say, is that.

The governor’s decision, while sure to anger Ketchikan leaders, is nevertheless the best one for the state. The

project, which would connect Ketchikan to its airport on Gravina Island, came with a price tag that made far too many

people here and Outside gag: $398 million being the latest estimate of the project’s cost.

The prospect of spending so much money on a project to serve so few people drew quick criticism in Congress and

spread across the land. The words "Bridge to Nowhere," accurate or not, became synonymous with Alaska and pork-

barrel federal spending. Comedians have used the bridge project many times to draw copious laughs.

Congress did provide some money for the project, at the urging of Sen. Ted Stevens and Rep. Don Young, but not

the full amount. And even that money, because of the rising derision, was ultimately delivered without a mandate that

it go directly to the bridge project. Meanwhile, the current anti-Alaska, anti-Ted Stevens environment in Washington

makes it all but certain that the rest of the money --$329 million by Gov. Palin’s reckoning --would not be

forthcoming anyway.

So the stake needed to be driven deep into this project.

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The money will now be distributed to other projects. Just what projects remains unknown at this point. The governor,

in a statement Friday, said she has directed Transportation Commissioner Leo von Scheben to look at a list of

projects from around the state to see where the money might be spent.

Legislators from all regions of the state will be scrambling to lobby for a share of this newfound money. Fairbanks

certainly has some needs, and we hope this region’s legislators succeed in bringing some of the cash this way.

Letters to the EditorPublished September 24, 2007

A vote for Valerie

Sept. 18, 2007

To the editor:

With the upcoming borough election, I’d like to offer my opinion on one of the candidates, Valerie Therrien. I have had

the pleasure of knowing Valerie for almost 15 years, and through the years, I have seen her in many different roles.

I’ve seen her be a mother to her daughters; I’ve seen her as an attorney and on the City Council and past Borough

Assembly service. Most recently, I have watched her on the Borough Assembly making tough but effective decisions

to help build and sustain our community.

The residents of the Fairbanks North Star Borough placed their trust in Valerie. They have asked her to make some

tough decisions that affect all of us. I believe that she has done a remarkable job in making these decisions by

hearing the facts, weighing the options and assessing the long-term implications that these decisions will have on

both the city and the borough. She has been unwavering in making the right choices that will benefit the city and

borough financially with as little impact to the citizens as possible for both short-term and long-term growth and

prosperity.

From school bonds, to revenue sharing and bringing the issue of a sales tax before the voters, Valerie always has

and will continue to keep the interest of the citizens at the forefront of her decisions.

As a business owner, Valerie knows that skilled money management is the backbone to any successful operation,

from running a law office to balancing the borough budget. She realizes that without sound financial investments for

the future the borough faces shortfalls that are going to be impossible to overcome.

Valerie has the common sense and economic know how that this borough needs. As we face budget shortfalls, deficit

spending, and the loss of state and federal funding we need to keep Valerie’s level head and ability to see the long-

term gains that the decisions made today will have. I believe that a vote for Valerie Therrien is a pledge to the future

of Fairbanks and that is why I am supporting her with my vote on Oct. 2.

Sincerely,

Lauri C. Kobierowski

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Fairbanks

Thanks to two ladies

Sept. 19, 2007

To the editor:

One day last week, after loading my purchases from Fred Meyer (behind WaI-Mart) into my vehicle, I decided to get

myself some "fast food" for supper, since my husband was out hunting and I did not feel like preparing a meal for

myself.

Upon reaching my destination, I reached for my purse. To my horror, it was nowhere in my vehicle. Panicked, I drove

back to Fred Meyer, praying along the way.

I ran up to the customer service desk, my heart pounding with anxiety. Behind the desk I could see my purse ! The

lady who served me, said "two ladies" had brought it to the desk, having found it in a cart in the parking lot. All of the

contents were intact.

To those "two ladies," my sincere gratitude and thanks. I wish I could have thanked you personally, Your honesty and

kindness will not go unrewarded.

To the Fred Meyer employee, thanks for your honesty, also.

Linsey Klingel

Fairbanks

A vote for Miles

Sept. 19, 2007

To the editor:

Channel 11 Television has been doing a great service to this community by spotlighting candidates during their

evening news report. The candidates are given 30 seconds to tell us why we should vote for them in the upcoming

election. The Sept. 18 news addition had City Council Seat D in the spotlight. The first to present was a former City

Council person and the second to present has not run for a city elected office in the past.

The first presenter basically said, "Vote for me because I have the experience from sitting on the Council for three

years." If I remember correctly, this person produced very little while sitting on the Council.

The second presenter basically said, "Many of the city residents may remember me from the last election when I

knocked on your door seeking and promoting tax relief for the property owners of this city. I wish to continue to seek

tax relief for our city residents that is why I ask for your vote." This person probably has worn out three sets of tennis

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shoes walking all of the city’s neighborhoods promoting ballot measures door to door in the last two elections. All

aimed at making Fairbanks a better place to work, raise families, and live.

I may not always agree with the means used to promote tax relief but I do know I want someone on the City Council

who continues seek ways to remove the tax burden from the backs of the city residents and has the well being of the

city at heart. This is why I am voting for Nelson Miles for City Council Seat D.

Sincerely,

Philip W. Anderson

Fairbanks

Hawaii ReporterNorth to the FutureThe Men Who Gave Us the ’Bridge to Nowhere’ May Be HeadedThere ThemselvesBy John H. Fund, 9/24/2007 8:44:09 AMOn Friday Alaska’s Gov. Sarah Palin ordered the state to prepare a "fiscally responsible"alternative to the infamous "Bridge to Nowhere," which made the state a national laughingstockand shone an unwelcome spotlight on the pork-barrel greed of its all-Republican congressionaldelegation. The $398 million bridge would have connected Ketchikan (population 7,400) to itsairport on a nearby island inhabited by 50 people.

The same day, the Associated Press reported that the FBI has recorded two phone callsbetween Sen. Ted Stevens, who sponsored the bridge, and Bill Allen, a Stevens patron whodominated state politics as the head of the oil-services firm VECO until he pleaded guilty tobribing state legislators this year. Mr. Allen has also testified in open court that he paid some ofthe bills incurred in the expensive remodeling of Mr. Stevens’s Alaska home. Last month, FBIagents raided the Senator’s home to secure evidence about the remodeling work. Few expectMr. Stevens, who has served since 1968 and rose to become chairman of the powerfulAppropriations Committee, to survive politically.

An era is ending in Alaska politics. For decades the state justified its raids on the federaltreasury because Washington owned so much of the state and had locked up so many of itsnatural resources to development (the oil underneath the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge beingthe most famous example). In what some called "compensation," the state made sure it becameNo. 1 in the nation for pork per person -- $984.85 for each Alaskan in 2005.

The arrogance Alaska congressmen displayed in pursuing their taxpayer largesse was stunning.Rep. Don Young, the former Transportation Committee chairman and the state’s lone Housemember, became famous for trying to secure funding for another dubious bridge nearAnchorage, this one costing $223 million. Art Nelson, Mr. Young’s son-in-law, is part owner of60 acres of what he described as "beautiful property" -- land that would be opened up todevelopment by the new bridge. He admitted discussing the project with his father-in-law. Mr.Young said he saw no conflict of interest.

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But Mr. Young is nonetheless highly sensitive about the projects he promotes. Earlier this yearRep. Scott Garrett, a New Jersey Republican, sought to trim $11.8 million from programs foraboriginal populations in Alaska and Hawaii. Mr. Young, who once threatened to chew off theear of an opponent, turned on Mr. Garrett with similar ferocity: "Those who bite me will be bittenback." He bellowed against members who would attack his projects: "It’s my money!" He thenclaimed that the GOP lost control of Congress in 2006 because of "members who want to cutspending."

Even many of Mr. Young’s constituents seem to disagree. A poll conducted this summer by thefree-market Club for Growth found that 66% of Alaskans disapproved of the "Bridge toNowhere." When asked to choose between a prospective candidate who wants to cut federalspending "even if that includes cutting some money that would come to Alaska" and a candidatewho is willing to increase overall federal spending "as long as more federal spending andprojects come to Alaska," the vote was even more lopsided: 71 percent of Alaska’s residentschose the skinflint.

Adding to Rep. Young’s woes, The Wall Street Journal reports that he has become a target ofthe same federal investigation that’s been looking into connections between Sen. Stevens andVECO. Mr. Young has a lot more to worry about than whom to bite on the House floor. Thesame can be said for Mr. Stevens, whose pork-barreling days are likely numbered.

Of course, politicians naturally want to take credit for dragging federal dollars home. But theGOP Congress let the situation go berserk. In 2005, Congress authorized a record 13,999earmarks. The scandals surrounding just a few of them involving disgraced lobbyist JackAbramoff and ex-Rep. Duke Cunningham sent reporters scurrying to find what other nuggets ofnews might be buried in the remainder. Majority Republicans suffered most, even thoughDemocrats routinely secured an estimated 45 percent of earmark spending.

Now it’s Democrats who are championing earmarks and trying to hide them from the public, allthe while proclaiming their desire for openness. House Minority Leader John Boehner took animportant step toward reclaiming the party’s fiscally conservative brand last week when heannounced he would try to force a vote on greater earmark transparency.

It’s time for Senate Republicans to step up to the plate. It’s increasingly clear that their Sen.Stevens has ethically compromised himself and brought shame to the Senate. Will hiscolleagues continue to kowtow to him as a powerful Appropriations Committee member andallow him to serve on other key committees? Or will they send a signal that they are prepared toshun senators who abuse the public trust?

John Fund is an editorial writer for the Wall Street Journal and OpinionJournal.com

HawaiiReporter.com reports the real news, and prints all editorials submitted, even if they do notrepresent the viewpoint of the editors, as long as they are written clearly. Send editorials tomailto: [email protected]

Bay City News WireREGIONAL: CONGRESSMAN GEORGE MILLER TOINTRODUCE WILDLIFE PROTECTION ACT

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09/25/07 12:30 PDT

Local Congressman George Miller, D-Martinez, will appear with wildlife experts and a 3-year-

old arctic gray wolf in Washington D.C. today to introduce new legislation that would end

airborne hunting of wolves in Alaska.

For the past several years the Alaska Department ofFish and Game has been licensing private

citizens to hunt wolves by aircraft. According to Miller’s office, nearly 700 wolves have been

shot from airplanes in the past four years, a practice Miller characterized as "unethical and

inhumane."

According to Defenders of Wildlife, hunters either chase the wolves and gun them down from

the air or chase them until they are exhausted and then shoot them at close range from the

ground.

Although the state claims that it does not have an airborne wolf hunting program, the current

Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin, at one point allegedly offered bounties for confirmed airborne

wolf kills, a program that was ultimately struck down by state court, according to Miller’s office.

The Airborne Hunting Act of 1972 outlaws shooting or harassing wildlife from aircraft. The act,

however, has an exception that allows states to hunt by aircraft for the purposes of wildlife

management and predator control.

According to Miller’s office, while Alaska authorities have been authorizing airborne hunting in

order to increase moose and caribou populations, there is little scientific evidence that moose and

caribou populations are in danger or that airborne hunting is necessary.

The new legislation, known as the Protect America’s Wildlife Act, will make it clear that the

exceptions written into the Airborne Hunting Act only apply to legitimate biological emergencies

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and cannot be evoked simply for the purpose of increasing game populations, according to

Miller.

Voice of the TimesLew Williams 9/25/07

Ted Stevens get first test

in Ketchikan

By LEW M. WILLIAMS JR.Local elections are a week from today and in Ketchikan it might be the first test of thepopularity of Alaska’s Iongtime U.S. senator, Ted Stevens.

The director of the Tongass Conservation Society, Gregory Vickrey, is a candidate forKetchikan Gateway Borough Assembly. TCS is campaigning against Senator Stevens.

The TCS Web site features a story from the Anchorage Daily News implying that Sen.Stevens improperly used his influence to direct an Arctic exploration contract for theNational Science Foundation to VECO, whose chairman and vice president have pleadedguilty to bribing state lawmakers.

VECO personnel also checked bills for Stevens’ Girdwood home expansion, which thesenator paid for himself. VECO staffers also claim to have done work for Stevens for whichVECO assessed no charge.

We should consider the source of those claims and remember that the senator is banned byethics or law at this point in the investigation from responding to any charges. And neitherthe senator or Congressman Don Young have been charged with anythings

The ADN story used by TCS is by McClatchy staff writers. California-based McClatchy ownsthe Anchorage newspaper, known to be antagonistic toward Alaska’s members of Congress.

An Associated Press story from Washington, D.C., covered the NSF contract awarded VECOand included this paragraph: "NSF officials said both contracts were competitively bid andsaid the agency received no pressure from Stevens to award the contract to VECO. TheAssociated Press, using a Freedom of Information Act request, reviewed agency documentsrelated to the contract and its correspondence with Stevens’ office and found no evidenceStevens tried to influence the award .... "

The Associated Press story ran in Alaska newspapers with that paragraph in it, except at theAnchorage Daily News, which dropped that paragraph. We asked why but have had noanswer. The paragraph also is missing from the TCS rerun of the ADN story.

The newspaper ran an interview with Stevens that touched on Iraq but concluded with thisquestion and answer:

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"Q. OK. What about your ability to be effective in Congress?""A. What about it? You’re destroying it. More people are repeating what you’re writing inyour paper than anything else in the country. This paper has caused me more difficulty, andI’ve told you that before, than anything else. You’ve created me as the senator-for-life.You’ve been hanging me weekly.

"You read any paper, the information -- most of it is not true -- started right here. And yourguys just yesterday, they taunt me. They taunt me with statements that really norespectable reporter would ask a senator. It was already said I’m not going to answer yourquestions (about the investigation). They say, don’t you have any concerns for your ownintegrity? Don’t you have any conscience? That’s what your reporters do to me...

"I’ve spent hours here with you here in the past, and I’ve never seen any result of it at all .¯ . This paper has done nothing but try to assassinate me."

Makes us wonder, judging by its practices, what the newspaper left out of that interview.That may be the reason the newspaper’s ad lineage has dropped every year since 2003 (10percent in ’06) and its circulation is down 12 percent daily since ’03 and 14 percent Sundaysin a growing community. After more than 30 years, the newspaper is no longer sold inKetchikan. (McClatchy’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission are availablethrough Google.)

TCS doesn’t usually use current news stories of a political nature so rerunning an AnchorageDaily News story critical of Stevens tells us more about TCS than about Stevens, whomKetchikan residents know very well. Ketchikan’s borough Assembly last month passed aresolution commending the senator. That’s the body Vickrey wants to serve on.

It was Stevens who got the Forest Service’s $11 million Discovery Center located inKetchikan. Four of those centers were authorized for Alaska. Ketchikan got the one thatrevitalizes part of the downtown area where an abandoned sawmill sat before.

Stevens, Congressman Don Young and Sen. Lisa Murkowski helped the state obtain $75million in federal dollars for its Ketchikan Drydock. The first $40 million for the Swan Lake-Tyee Lake Intertie was federal money, acquired with Stevens’ help.

These brought jobs to Ketchikan as did having a NOAA vessel stationed in Ketchikan insteadof having it run up from Seattle each season to chart Alaska waters.

When the timber industry closed down in Southeast, Stevens obtained $110 million infederal compensation for the losses to communities, $25 million of that for Ketchikan.

Ketchikan isn’t alone in benefiting from Stevens. Without him, Anchorage wouldn’t have theTed Stevens International Airport and Juneau would not have recently dedicated a $51million NOAA lab at Lena Point named for the senator. Other towns can point to projectsthat the congressional delegation, especially Stevens, has assisted with. It is Stevens’Denali Commission that is improving health, energy, transportation and job opportunities inAlaska’s villages.

Instead of asking what has he done for us lately, that question should go to Stevens’ criticssuch as Vickrey, TCS and the California-owned Anchorage Daily News: What have they donefor their communities lately?

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So on Oct. 2, Ketchikan area voters will vote for Stevens’ critics, including TongassConservation Society members and the Anchorage Daily News, or for those in the Ketchikanarea who support Stevens. A first test of the 2008 balloting.

Lew Williams Jr. is a retired publisher of the Ketchikan Daily News who has been aSoutheast Alaska journalist since 1946. His e-mail is [email protected] e-mailaddress is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it

TPMUCKRACKER

Senate Leaders Mum on StevensBy Laura McGann - September 24, 2007, 4:57PMThe Senate is certainly a kinder place to mucked-up pols than the House.

Despite testimony last week from former Veco CEO Bill Allen that he bribed Sen. Ted Sevens (R-AK)and news that the FBI taped two of their phone conversations, Senate leaders haven’t commented on thelegal woes plaguing the longest-serving Republican senator.

That’s in stark contrast to how the House leadership has reacted to news of investigations. HouseRepublicans apparently put the squeeze on Rep. John Doolittle (R-CA) to remove him from hiscommittee spots. Democrats gave Rep. William Jefferson (D-CA) the same treatment. SenateRepublicans did react aggressively to news of Sen. Larry Craig’s (R-VqT) guilty plea, but apparently thisis a much different case.

Roll Call asked Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) if Stevens should be removed from hiscommittee assignments in the wake of the scandal. McConnell referred back to a July 31 statement, inwhich he referred to Stevens’ "four decades of service" in the Senate and said he didn’t have "anyannouncements today."

On the other side of the aisle, Majority Leader Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) was similarly tight-lipped:

I dldn t comment on [Sen,] La ry Craig [R~Idaho], I m not going to comment on

Ketchikan Daily NewsBoro manager candidates Ok’dBy ANDREW DAMSTEDT

Daily News Staff Writer

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Six borough manager candidates have been selected by the manager search committee fortelephone interviews starting next Friday.

The six, in alphabetical order and not by committee ranking, are Dan Bockhorst of Anchorage,local government specialist for the state’s Local Boundary Commission; Stephen Giesbrecht, cityadministrator of Electra, Texas; Henry Luxem, administrator of the Village of Kronenwetter,Wis.; Michael D. Miller, city administrator of Raytown, Mo.; Dennis R. Sparks of Hopewell, Va., aconsultant and previous city manager for four cities; and Kenneth S. Weaver, city manager ofEunice, N.M., according to Borough Clerk Harriett Edwards.

Originally, the committee was going to select only five top candidates, but Assembly MemberGlen Thompson, chair of the committee, said the sixth candidate was ranked only a couplepoints behind the fifth candidate. The committee decided to include the sixth candidate fortelephone interviews, which will be public.

The rankings were not released to the public so as not to jeopardize the borough’s bargainingposition in contract negotiations with the final selected candidate, according to BoroughAttorney Scott Brandt-Erichsen.

The borough manager search committee, which consists of Assembly Members JohnHarrington, Dave Landis and Thompson, and public members Renee Schofield and Bruce Borupalong with the rest of the Assembly ranked all 15 applicants with the top six selected fortelephone interviews. The remaining nine applications, plus one late application, will remain onfile at the borough clerk’s office.

Edwards will schedule the interviews for next Friday, with the interviews expected to last 45minutes and open to the public. Committee members will ask six prepared questions and eachmember will have the chance to ask one additional question.

The six prepared questions are:

* Describe your human resource experience.

* Describe your experience with both professional services contracts and construction contracts.

* When do you delegate and when do you try to supervise projects directly?

* You believe that a particular project is not in the community’s best economic interests. Itappears that a majority of the Assembly is inclined to support that project. What would you doprior to an Assembly vote about that project?

* Describe what type of revenue enhancement you would pursue for the borough.

* What would you do to improve the borough’s operating efficiency.

The six candidates also will be e-mailed 15 questions, to which they are asked to send writtenresponses back by Thursday. The manager search committee established the written questionsat a previous meeting from past questions asked of previous borough manager applicants.

The questions include asking why they applied for the job, whether the person has firedanybody, how consensus is sought, could they be perceived as autocratic, how they establish

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and meet deadlines, their understanding of the Alaska Open Meetings Act, how they resolved amajor mistake they made, and their experience in developing budgets, job descriptions andemployee performance standards.

The written questions also include how the candidates perceive the manager’s role vis-a-vis theAssembly, what they would like or dislike working for an Assembly, how would they handle asituation in which an Assembly member was seeking to get something that had not beenapproved by a majority of the Assembly, how they would respond when the Assembly or thepublic criticizes a borough employee, and their understanding of Ketchikan Gateway Borough’spowers and functions.

After the telephone interviews and rankings are made, the committee will select threecandidates to come for in-person interviews by the Assembly Oct. 12 and 13 and a selection fora new manager would be made upon Assembly approval. An estimated start date for a newmanager is Nov. 15.

Friday’s manager search committee meeting was moved from the Ketchikan City Councilchambers because of a closed city arbitration session. Next Friday’s telephone interviews arescheduled to take place all day in the council chambers and will be televised. Interviews alsocould be scheduled for Saturday.

FrontiersmanState asked to help soothe road rashBy Greg JohnsonFrontiersmanPublished on Tuesday, September 25,2007

WASILLA -- The owner of a landmark local eatery is asking the stateAttorney General’s Office to intervene in its dispute with the city.

Bob Andres, co-owner of the Windbreak Caf~ with his wife Annete, isfrustrated over a city proposal to trade Parks Highway frontage property forownership of East Sun Mountain Avenue. The swap, Andres said, paves theway for a large retail development called Creekside Town Square next to hisproperty that calls for an access road that would run through his parking lot.

Andres has been approached by Meritage Development to buy his land, buthe doesn’t want to sell. Meritage plans to develop the Creekside complex onits property near the Parks Highway next to the Windbreak. Because he andother nearby businesses don’t want to sell, Andres is concerned over a hardline the city is taking to secure his property.Conflicting correspondence from Wasilla officials shows the city has alreadymade up its mind to take his land to make way for Meritage’s development,Andres said.

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"Developers develop for one reason and one reason only -- to make as muchmoney as they can," Annete Andres said Monday while was addressingWasilla City Council. "Let’s not behave like giddy teenagers who have acrush on a developer."

Calls to Meritage Development owner Jack Barrett for comment were notreturned by press time.

In an Aug. 22 letter addressed to an official at First National Bank Alaska,Wasilla Public Works Director Archie Giddings tells the official the city issecuring ownership of East Sun Mountain Avenue from the state. He alsowrites that, "At this point, all parties have agreed the exchange can becompleted to allow Creekside Town Square to incorporate property along theParks Highway where East Sun Mountain Avenue exists while providingaccess road(s) of equal value."

Bob Andres said he never agreed to the exchange. In fact, an Aug. 24 lettersent out to affected property owners by Mayor Dianne M. Keller stresses thecity intends to take their property, using eminent domain if necessary, hesaid.

Deputy Mayor Ron Cox asked Keller if she sent a letter threatening to takethe property through eminent domain.

"No, I did not," Keller said, adding she sent a letter inviting affected businessowners to discuss the situation.

In the Aug. 24 letter to business owners Keller writes, "We are confidentthat you are aware we are well within our purview to pursue moreaggressive means for this public purpose; however, it is our preference toexhaust every opportunity with local business and property owners and workcooperatively with other jurisdictions before pursuing other means."

Although the words "eminent domain" aren’t used, Bob Andres said hebelieves that is what the mayor meant by saying the city could take "moreaggressive means" to solve the dispute.

The divergent messages in the two letters and their timing concerns DianaStraub, a Wasilla resident who questioned the city council about the issueMonday.

If the city had support of all the affected property owners, "why is eminent

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domain a threat [in the Aug. 24 letter]?" she asked.

Dianne Woodruff, a Wasilla resident and council candidate, was more to thepoint: "Who’s in charge?"

"Lack of planning can cause big problems," she said. "Stop letting[developers] dictate to us .... Apparently, there’s a pecking order in Wasilla."

Traffic issues

While the city maintains it is pursuing a swap with the state for East SunMountain Avenue to address traffic issues, those traffic concerns have been"trumped up," Annete Andres said.

"There have now been several attempts by [Mayor Dianne M. Keller] and thecity to destroy, devalue and sacrifice my business, my employees’ jobs," shesaid. "And now you are willing to risk the lives and community safety for thesake of a developer and his project."

Only in the past few days since she requested public documents has sheseen the full picture of "the efforts you’ve made in this regard and theavoidance of the public process you’ve achieved," she said.

Council member Marty Metiva said he doesn’t have enough informationabout the proposed road swap or Andres’ concerns. He’s also not aware ofany traffic problems with East Sun Mountain Road.

"From what little I’ve seen, there’s not a traffic issue there," he said.

The state Department of Transportation and Public Facilities has hadpreliminary discussions about a trade for East Sun Mountain Road, said RickFeller, spokesman for the department’s Anchorage office.

"The subject of a potential exchange of rights-of-way has been discussed forsome time now," he said. "It’s been conceptual .... We’ve been working offand on with the city and developers to bring that to a conclusion."

The state has reviewed some plans for the area, but there is still much localwork to be done before the state would entertain a swap, Feller said.

"There’s a lot of work that needs to be done at a local level before it makesany sense for us to look at [this] at a state level," he said.

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Intervention

Annete Andres reiterated her husband’s desire Monday to have the stateAttorney General’s Office investigate.

"I hereby request the state attorney general be part of this and review alldocuments in regard to this situation for ethics, propriety and proper publicnotice," she told council. "I would hope you would want the same review."

Bob Andres said he sent a letter Monday to the Attorney General’s Officeasking for its intervention.

Reporter Chris Gillow contributed to this report.

Contact Greg Johnson at 352-2268 or [email protected].

Dairy farmers banding together in co-opBy John R. MosesFrontiersmanPublished on Tuesday, September 25,2007

MAT-SU -- The region’s major dairy producers are forming a cooperativeaimed at protecting their operations if a state-owned milk processing plantshuts down before a new facility opens.

Milk traditionally purchased by the state-owned Matanuska Maid Dairy couldbe sold to a new venture in Palmer when that plant goes online next year.With Mat Maid up for sale, dairy farmers are nervous about the possibilitythe Anchorage dairy plant will close down before a new one can open. Theplant sale takes its next step this weekend as the state seeks publiccomment in Palmer on disposal of Mat Maid’s assets.

What dairy owners do know is that they can’t stop milking their cows ifsomething goes wrong with either venture. Side industries that depend onthe care and feeding of dairy cows would also suffer from a marketdisruption or collapse. The farmers and some processors are gettingtogether to form a non-profit corporation, draft bylaws and figure out whatto do with as much excess milk product as possible should the worsthappen.If dairy farmers "had to dump their milk for a month it would be prettydevastating," said Kyle Beus, a former dairy farmer who now has a ruraldevelopment grant to make cheese and other products from locally produced

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milk products. With some advice from the state Division of Agriculture, theFarm Services Bureau and a lot of work by an ad hoc group, Beus said acoalition is working hard on a timeline that boils down to "the sooner thebetter."

A planned Palmer milk processing plant owned by Borough Assemblymember Rob Wells and funded by a federal rural development grant is partof the overall picture. Beus said cheese and ice cream products could alsosoak up some of the excess product.

No specifics of the co-op’s structure are available, and organizers say thedetails are still being designed. Beus said if another new processing facility isto be constructed it would have to go into an existing building, as it’s toolate in the season to build on a vacant parcel.

"There’s certainly a sense of urgency," he said.

Farmers are worried

Dairy farmers have been talking about creating a cooperative for years andwere pushed forward by Mat Maid’s impending sale, Beus said. Withcontinuing losses reported against Mat Maid’s operating budget there is anassumption among dairy farmers that someone will cash in on the land andliquidate the facilities. Cows must be fed and maintained or butchered in theabsence of a buyer, and no cows means a hit to people who grow barley andother products used in the industry.

"I think a lot of people don’t understand the ramifications of closing MatMaid," Wasilla dairy farmer Wayne Brost said. "If the cows go away I don’tthink they’re coming back."

The co-op idea is just beginning, Brost said. "It’s just a group of producersand potential processors who want to keep this industry together."

Brost praised Dr. Donald McLean, a Wasilla dentist active in many localissues who is spearheading the drive to create a co-op. McLean could not bereached for comment.

The Division of Agriculture is moving forward with a proposed sale of the MatMaid facility in Anchorage and a plant in Palmer for a target price of $3.35million. A hearing Saturday is set to determine how to dispose of Mat Maid’sassets at 814 W. Northern Lights Blvd. in Anchorage and its bottling plant. Itbegins at 9 a.m. at the Division of Agriculture Conference room, located at

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1800 Glenn Highway, Suite 12, in Palmer. It will last until 11 a.m. unlessmore time is needed to accommodate speakers.

Contact John R. Moses at [email protected] or call him at 352-2270.

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