Internal Report Released Concerning Deepwater Horizon Blowout
Wed, September 8, 2010
Steve Heimel, APRN – Anchorage
The results are beginning to come in from the many investigations of BP’s Deepwater Horizon blowout in the Gulf of Mexico. The company posted its own 193-page internal report on its website today. It says there were a number of warning signs that were not heeded. The report says that the gas that caused the explosion likely came up inside the casing of the well. The report blames both BP management, and the drilling contractor, Transocean, for not spotting trouble signs and for giving the okay to remove drilling mud from the riser – the pipe that extended from the wellhead to the surface. The report also blames Haliburton for a messy cement job inside the well casing that apparently left gaps that allowed the gas to pressure through. According to the internal report, there were signs that gas was coming up the riser 40 minutes before the explosion, but the crew did not become aware of it until eight minutes before the blowout, which killed 11 workers and sank the drilling platform.
Another report that was released today came from an oversight board set up within the Interior Department, recommending ways to overhaul federal monitoring and enforcement of offshore drilling.
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Southcentral Gas Supplies Stronger This Year
Wed, September 8, 2010
Dave Donaldson, APRN – Juneau
Gas supplies for Southcentral are looking better going into this winter than they were last year. And there’s new opposition – and support – for an Export License for the ConocoPhillips/Marathon Liquefied Natural Gas Plant in Cook Inlet.
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Taylor Highway Closed for Repairs; Will Reopen Thursday
Wed, September 8, 2010
Dan Bross, KUAC – Fairbanks
The Taylor Highway is closed Wednesday from Chicken to the Top of the World Junction to allow for repairs. Department of Transportation spokeswoman Meadow Bailey says fabric and fill are being used to shore up water damaged road bed. She says the technique has already been successfully employed to stabilize an area at about mile 118, where a massive slide, took out the road on the way to Eagle.
The Taylor Highway remains closed between the junction and Eagle. The D.O.T. has led convoys in and out of Eagle in recent days, and Bailey says more will be scheduled. She says the first section of Taylor, from Chicken to the junction, will re-open Thursday.
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Alaskans Fighting Against Foreclosures
Wed, September 8, 2010
Ellen Lockyer, KSKA – Anchorage
Alaska’s housing providers are getting increased funding to fight foreclosure. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, or HUD, will provide an additional $5 million to Alaska Housing Finance Corporation to continue work in assisting local housing providers to pursue projects that improve neighborhoods. Mary McBride, HUD’s Northwest Regional Administrator, said in a teleconference Wednesday that the funds represent the second round of Neighborhood Stabilization Program monies to come to the state.
The HUD money is flexible, McBride said, enabling local housing agencies to purchase, demolish, or redevelop blighted properties. The money awarded to Alaska provides targeted assistance to local governments and their community partners. One of those partners in Anchorage is the Cook Inlet Housing Authority. Carol Gore, with the CIHA, says an earlier HUD grant enabled the agency to purchase 15 blighted sites, in Anchorage’s Mountain View neighborhood and in Wasilla. None of the sites were occupied, she said.
The most recent round of HUD dollars will benefit housing providers in Fairbanks, the Kenai Peninsula, Anchorage and Juneau.
An earlier round of Neighborhood Stabilization Program funds totaling $19.6 million was previously awarded to Alaska. The money comes from the Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act.
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Hundreds Accompany Slain Officers Back to Hoonah
Wed, September 8, 2010
Casey Kelly, KTOO – Juneau
Hundreds of mourners accompanied the remains of Hoonah Police Officers Tony Wallace and Matt Tokuoka to Hoonah this morning aboard the state ferry Malaspina. Wallace and Tokuoka were shot and killed by a lone gunman last month as they chatted with each other and their families on Hoonah’s Front Street. KTOO’s Casey Kelly spoke with some of those traveling to Hoonah for the officers’ memorial service.
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Lost Villages Project Enables Elders to Visit Homes of Their Ancestors
Wed, September 8, 2010
Alexandra Gutierrez, KUCB – Unalaska
For the past two years, the Lost Villages Project has made it possible for some Alaska natives to see the places their ancestors called home. Last week, a group of about a dozen elders and descendants of Unangan villages braved harsh weather to visit Biorka and Kashega in the Aleutian Islands.
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Fairbanks Tourism Rebounds From Slow 2009 Season
Wed, September 8, 2010
Dan Bross, KUAC – Fairbanks
Fairbanks tourism showed some signs of rebound this summer. Fairbanks Convention and Visitor’s Bureau President and CEO Deb Hickock says one indicator, city bed tax revenue, showed some improvement over last year’s very weak season, but nowhere near the record level of 2008.
Hickcock cautions that Borough and North Pole bed tax revenue hasn’t been calculated, and that August receipts, which she expects to be relatively strong, also aren’t in yet. Cruise ship companies reduced Alaska sailings this summer, so any bump in visitation is being attributed to independent travelers. Matt Atkinson with the Northern Alaska Tour Company says independents helped cushion the cruise decline.
No individual operators report anything dramatic, but there’s optimism among all. Steve Frank who runs a restaurant, hotel and R.V. Park says the season was encouraging.
Deb Hickock says cruise companies are giving some indication they may increase Alaska sailings by 2012.
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Author Discusses “Legend of a Suicide”
Wed, September 8, 2010
Annie Feidt, APRN – Anchorage
There was a time when David Vann thought his book, “Legend of a Suicide,” would never be published. He spent 10 years writing it and then another 12 fielding rejections from editors and agents. But it may have been worth the wait. The book is now it’s being published in nine languages in 50 countries and has been called “an American Classic” by one reviewer. The book is mostly based in Alaska, where Vann was born and spent a lot of his childhood. On a recent trip back to the state, he spoke with APRN’s Annie Feidt.
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BP Releases Deepwater Horizon Report
Wed, September 8, 2010
Steve Heimel, APRN – Anchorage
Today BP released its internal report on what caused the Deepwater Horizon blowout in the Gulf of Mexico. The report has eight findings and one of them is that the gas that caused the explosion likely came up inside the casing of the well. The report blames both BP management for not spotting trouble signs and giving the okay to remove drilling mud from the riser, and Haliburton for a messy cement job in the well casing that apparently had gaps that allowed the gas to pressure through. The report does not criticize BP’s controversial practice of reducing the number of separators in the well that keep the inner pipe in the center of the well.
This evening a presidential commission that is also investigating the spill has a listening session at the University of Alaska for any Alaskans who want to pass on what they learned from the Exxon Valdez spill of 1989.
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Ground Zero Flag to Fly Over Hoonah Today
Wed, September 8, 2010
Casey Kelly, KTOO – Juneau
The United States Honor Flag flew over the Capital Building in Juneau on Tuesday afternoon. The flag that flew over Ground Zero in New York City after September 11 now travels around the country paying tribute to those who have lost their lives in the line of duty, as well as those who continue to serve. The flag goes to Hoonah today.
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Murkowski is “Still in This Game”
Tue, September 7, 2010
Associated Press
A week after conceding the GOP primary, Senator Lisa Murkowski says she’s not a quitter and is “still in this game.”
Murkowski told The Associated Press today that she’s been inundated with calls and e-mails from supporters, asking her not to leave the race. She says she’s been humbled and is listening – and weighing her options.
“What I’m looking at is my state and the future of my state for my kids. So, I have not made that determination that I’m going to give up. I’m not a quitter, never have been. And I’m still in this game,” Murkowski said.
Murkowski met briefly today with the Libertarian candidate, David Haase after friends of hers – without her direction, she said – approached his party, asking if they would consider a Murkowski candidacy. She said she had an interesting discussion with Haase but made clear she’s not interested in changing her “political stripes.”
Besides a third-party run, Murkowski also could seek a write-in candidacy, which she called high risk. Or, she could decide to stay out of the race.
She gave no timetable for a decision – and her fate as a Libertarian candidate lies with party leaders who earlier voted against putting her on the ballot.
A party’s candidate would have to withdraw by September 15 so someone else could run in the November election.
She has until five days before the general election to decide on a write-in run but acknowledged a decision needs to be made soon. She said she’s listening to Alaskans and giving “considered thought.”
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Law Enforcement Community Rallies Around Hoonah
Tue, September 7, 2010
Casey Kelly, KTOO – Juneau
The tiny Southeast village of Hoonah has received condolences from around the world for the recent shooting deaths of Police Officers Tony Wallace and Matt Tokuoka. The pair was ambushed by a lone gunman August 29 as they chatted with each other and their families on the town’s Front Street. John Marvin, Jr. has been charged with their murders, and is currently being held at Lemon Creek Correctional Center in Juneau on $1 million bail.
Hundreds plan to attend a memorial service for Wallace and Tokuoka on Wednesday in Hoonah. Among the mourners will be dozens of police officers from Alaska and the rest of the country.
As KTOO’s Casey Kelly reports, the law enforcement community has rallied around the town in the days since the shooting.
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State Investigates Possible Gas Line Route
Tue, September 7, 2010
Dan Bross, KUAC – Fairbanks
Geologists will get an underground look at a suspected fault this week as part of a state led reconnaissance of the route of a gas pipeline to Canada. State Neo-tectonic Geologist Rich Kaoehler says the excavation project near Cathedral Rapids on the Tanana River west of Tok, allows investigators to peer back in geologic time.
Kaoehler says the fault site is one of many on the north side of the Alaska Range the state is evaluating along the potential gas line route between Delta Junction and the border. He says the process starts with an aerial recon.
Kaoehler says the area has a lot of low level seismic activity and that trenching done by the state on other fault sites to the east and west, show evidence of earthquakes as long as 10,000 years ago. He says the data derived from fault excavations will be used by gas line engineers.
Excavation is scheduled to begin tomorrow.
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Health Officials Prepare for Flu Season
Tue, September 7, 2010
Len Anderson, KSKA – Anchorage
It’s an annual phenomena as regular as turning leaves and snowlines descending from the mountain tops – the fall and winter flu season. Health professionals are busy preparing for this year’s flu outbreaks. At the same time, they’re looking for more effective ways to reach Alaska’s various ethnic and racial groups.
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Opening of Fairbanks Hatchery Postponed
Tue, September 7, 2010
Tim Ellis, KUAC – Fairbanks
The opening of the state’s newest sport fish hatchery here in Fairbanks has again been postponed.
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Planning for Next Year’s Veggie Garden
Tue, September 7, 2010
Mike Mason, KDLG – Dillingham
Although fall is in the air, we can still plan ahead for next year’s vegetable patch. A new gardening manual written specifically for Alaska has been published by the University of Alaska Fairbanks Cooperative Extension Service.
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Adventure Fuels Ski Tour Through Wrangell Mountains
Tue, September 7, 2010
Slideshow and Story by Joe Stock, APRN –Anchorage
Part 2 of 2
And now, back to the Wrangell Mountains, where Anchorage-based mountain guide Joe Stock is halfway through a long ski tour with two friends. They set off into the Wrangells with little information, craving adventure. In last night’s story, they reached a point high in the mountains and became stalled by avalanche and crevasse conditions.
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Grandmothers Come Together for Good of Earth
Tue, September 7, 2010
Joaqlin Estus, KNBA – Anchorage
Indigenous elders from around the world are planning a gathering in Anchorage to promote unity, peace and respect for the earth and all its inhabitants. Representatives of the Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers came to Anchorage this weekend to make initial preparations, and to raise funds.
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