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AP AK Daily News WatchMoved: 3/9/2010 04:38Latest Alaska news, sports, business and entertainment:
House panel working on operating budget
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The House Finance Committee is completing its version of an operating budget.
It passed amendments Monday that slash travel budgets for most state agencies by 10 percent and includes money for foster children and domestic violence programs.
One of the more controversial line items -- funding for Alaska's instate gas program -- is expected to be considered Tuesday. Floor debate is expected later this week.
Republican Rep. Mike Hawker says the travel item is intended to force agencies to prioritize. It would not pertain to the university system, which already is facing a hold down of expenses, or the Department of Public Safety.
Detailed analyses of the spending plan are expected by state and legislative finance officials by Tuesday.
RESHAPING LEGISLATURE
Key panel holds first hearing on adding lawmakers
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The Senate Finance Committee has held its first hearing on a constitutional amendment to add 12 seats to Alaska's 60-seat Legislature.
Chairman and Sitka Republican state Sen. Bert Stedman says the bill has his attention.
Experts have testified that the upcoming decennial redistricting process may have irreconcilable problems. Population shifts to the Railbelt and disparate rules in the state Constitution and federal Voting Rights Act on how to redraw the lines are the cause.
Without changes, districts with stagnant and shrinking populations, like Stedman's, may face dissolution in favor of new Railbelt districts.
With the additional legislators, those districts would likely remain intact while the Railbelt gained the new seats.
ENERGY POLICY
Johansen: State needs energy policy first
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Republican House Majority Leader Kyle Johansen of Ketchikan says he's confident in a statewide energy policy passing the Legislature this year.
He's less clear on the chances for individual projects -- or on an omnibus energy package -- that some believe could bring rate relief to Alaskans.
Johansen told reporters Monday that he's pushing a policy first, saying that will help focus other efforts. Proposed policy pending in a House committee is essentially a mission statement, calling for promotion of renewable energy resources and supporting research, among other things.
It also sets goals for such things as increases in energy efficiency.
Republican House Speaker Mike Chenault of Nikiski says some projects may need to move forward to address energy concerns.
He says he wants to move past studies to getting power in the grid.
ALASKA PIPELINE
Lawmaker questions pipeline potential
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Questions are being raised about the viability of a major natural gas pipeline in Alaska.
Republican House Majority Leader Kyle Johansen of Ketchikan says he left last week's Energy Council meeting surprised to learn about the potential impact that shale gas development in the Lower 48 could have on a major line here.
These aren't new concerns; Gov. Sean Parnell took aim at the gas line "pessimists" in his State of the State Address in January.
Two projects are competing for a major line. One estimates it will cost from $20 billion to $41 billion to build, depending on the route. The other hasn't released figures.
Johansen says the state should keep pushing for a major line but officials must weigh all factors in gas development and delivery options.
CHEESE-COTTAGE INDUSTRY
Alaska cheese makers seeking lesser regulations
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — Alaska's small dairy producers are seeking exemptions in proposed regulations that appear to be geared for the industrial scale.
The Legislature's regulation review committee heard from dairy processors and home dairy farmers on Monday. They say the rules appear too burdensome and stifle the meager commercial potential.
Kristin Ryan is head of the state Department of Environmental Conservation's division covering sanitary food.
She defends the new regulations. And Ryan notes that three farms -- of which two are "mom-and-pop" operations -- have already been permitted under the proposed regulations.
Ryan also says the regulations are a work in progress that will be revised to address many of the comments without compromising food safety.
PALIN-HEALTH CARE
Palin notes irony of using Canada health care
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Sarah Palin has criticized Canada's health care program, saying the socialized system should be dismantled in favor of free enterprise.
But during a speech Saturday in Calgary, Palin acknowledged the irony of her family using medical care in Canada decades ago.
Palin was a child in the mid-1960s when her family lived in Skagway, a southeast Alaska town near the Canadian border.
When bad weather kept planes grounded, the train to Whitehorse, Yukon, often was the only option for travel.
Palin told the Calgary audience her family would then take the train across the border for health care.
Palin aide Jason Recher didn't immediately return an e-mail from The Associated Press seeking comment.
HIKER RESCUE
Coast Guard to reassess rescue mission
HAINES, Alaska (AP) — The Coast Guard will assess weather Tuesday as part of plans to rescue an extreme hiker on Meade Glacier.
Weather on Monday prevented a crew from reaching the man stranded in the Tongass National Forest east of Haines.
Coast Guard officials say they will assess weather at first light Tuesday and decide if they or a private air service that dropped the man off will retrieve him.
The 28-year-old Haines man on Feb. 20 was dropped off alone at the glacier. He did not show up at a scheduled pickup site Sunday.
A ski-plane sent to pick the man up spotted him about 7 miles away at an altitude of 4,300 feet.
The ski-plane couldn't land but dropped him a hand-held radio.
The man said he was tired and weak and that he hadn't eaten for four days.
MALL SHOOTING DEATH
Police seek 2 more for questioning in homicide
(Stations: 'Edwing' is cq.)
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Anchorage police say they've added two names to the list of people sought for questioning in the fatal shooting of a man at Alaska's busiest mall.
Police said Monday they want to question 23-year-old Anthony Neal Williams and 32-year-old Warren Brooks regarding the Feb. 27 shooting death of Edwing Matos at the Dimond Center.
Detectives also continue to seek 28-year-old Terence Gray as a "person of interest."
Matos was shot multiple times in front of a barber shop in the mall's west wing.
Witnesses told police the shooter may have been wearing a wig and fake mustache.
Gray is 6 feet tall and 215 pounds.
COAL ASH-GOVERNORS
Western governors say states best regulate coal ash
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Western governors are telling the Obama administration that regulation of coal ash waste is best done by the states.
The Western Governor's Association is resisting a move by the Environmental Protection Agency to reclassify coal ash as hazardous.
The EPA delayed that decision late last year. Doing so would limit where it could be sent for disposal.
Association chairman Gov. Brian Schweitzer says the EPA move would undercut what he described as effective regulation by Western states.
The governors say the reclassification would prevent the materials' use in road construction and other purposes.
Utah Gov. Gary Herbert says coal-fired electric generation in the West would also be hurt, which would cost ratepayers more money.
DENALI WOLVES-BOYCOTT
Animal rights' group urges Alaska tourism boycott
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — An animal rights' group is calling for a tourism boycott of Alaska over a recent decision to remove buffer zones for wolf trapping near Denali National Park.
Friends of Animals' President Priscilla Feral says last week's decision by a divided Alaska Board of Game lacked any sense of decency.
She says treating wolves as vermin is an extreme attitude and that her group is taking a drastic step in response. She says Gov. Sean Parnell needs to intervene.
Parnell's spokeswoman said the buffer zone was scheduled to sunset this year. Sharon Leighhow says there's a "very healthy wolfpack" and that Parnell respects the board's decision.
Feral says Friends of Animals last used a tourism boycott to protest Alaska's wolf program in the early 1990s.
KIDS COOKING
Fairbanks kids get hotel cooking lesson
FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) — A group of Fairbanks middle school students is learning what goes in a hotel kitchen.
Last week, students from a weekly cooking class at Randy Smith Middle School toured the kitchen areas of the Fairbanks Princess Riverside Lodge, where they got to see chef Steve Frazer at work.
The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner says the class was started by teacher Carla Yetter and hotel manager Deb Vance, who came up with the idea while chatting on a flight to Fairbanks.
Vance and Frazer have visited Yetter's classroom twice, cooking and telling students about opportunities in the food and hospitality industry.
The hotel tour included a lunch of hamburgers and french fries, topped off with an elaborate dessert: Bananas Foster.
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Information from: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, HYPERLINK http://www.newsminer.comhttp://www.newsminer.com
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