Heather Bryant

Alaska’s unemployment rate rose in June, to 7.3 percent.

The state Labor Department said that three-tenths of a percentage point increase from May’s 7.0 percent.

The national rate for June was 8.2 percent.

State labor officials in a release say it’s too early to say whether June’s increase in Alaska is a start of a new trend.

Both the state and national rates have changed little in the first six months of the year, and are lower than this time last year. The state rate in June 2011 was half a percentage point lower than this time last year, and the national rate is eight-tenths of a point lower.

Alaska Natives are in Washington, D.C. – urging lawmakers to pass climate change legislation. Some believe that’s the best way to get federal money for relocating several villages.

There is no one central government agency to assist villages aiming to move because of climate change. Leaders in Kivilinia, Newtok and Shishmaref deal with a whole host of state and federal agencies – from the Environmental Protection Agency, to the Army Corps of Engineers to the Department of Commerce.

And that gets difficult. Yupiit Nation Chief Mike Williams says the effects of climate change are too severe for the government to delay time by duplicating services, or making plans and then failing to act.

“Federal agencies need to be coordinated. And I think a hearing on this matter in Alaska would help – in consultation with the federally recognized tribes that live on the ground,” Williams said.

Williams says having oversight hearings in Alaska will force federal agencies like the EPA – which is legally required to consult tribes on policy decisions – to actually see how dire the situation is.

And the Yupiit Nation needs money to move villages. Williams says he’s pushing Congress to pass legislation that would allocate the money.

And he has a straight forward pitch.

“It’s a disaster, and people are suffering,” Williams said.

Still, that may not be enough to sway Congress. The money would likely be attached to climate change legislation – something not only politically toxic, but also, not scheduled for any votes.

A nonpartisan group, formed in 1999 to fight a huge oil merger in Alaska, is speaking in support of the Senate’s bipartisan coalition.

Leaders of Backbone plan to hold a news conference next week in Anchorage to support the coalition, which Backbone says has a record of “putting Alaska first.”

This comes after some Republicans, including the governor, expressed a desire to break up the current coalition.

Malcolm Roberts is with Backbone. He says Alaska is at risk of becoming the “owned state,” rather than an owner-state. He says the coalition has shown courage and reflected the spirit of Alaska, which he says isn’t partisan.

Roberts says Backbone doesn’t plan to register as an independent expenditure group, and he’s not sure yet what role it might play in the elections.

You’re invited to a party at the Governor’s House today. It’s the celebration of the house’s 100th anniversary. There will be music and refreshments on the north lawn as well as guided tours of the house’s first level.

The mansion, officially known as the Governor’s House, underwent a recent renovation aimed at preserving and sprucing it up for its 100th anniversary. Work included peeling away paint, repairing stucco and resurfacing columns around the house.

Gov. Sean Parnell’s office says all former governors and their families were invited; former Govs. Bill Sheffield and Frank Murkowski are expected to attend.

Sheffield also is expected to speak, as is former state Rep. Clark Gruening, whose grandfather, Ernest Gruening, was governor from 1939-1953

Parnell is the 22nd governor to live at the house, according to Carol Sturgulewski, who wrote a book on the mansion and provided notes for the guided first floor tours that will be offered Thursday.

The house was built in 1912 when Congress set aside $40,000 for the construction.

Federal architect John Knox Taylor designed the house.

However, it wasn’t owned by the state of Alaska until 1959. Before that it was under federal control.

It was completed in time for its first public event, an open house on New Year’s Day in January of 1913.

The first floor is the public part of the house for dinners, reception and scheduled tours. Most people visiting the mansion do so during the Governor’s Holiday Open house, the largest public event of the year.

The house fills 14,000 square feet comprised of 25 rooms over three floors.

The totem outside the house stands almost as tall as the house and is nearly as old. It was carved in the winter of 1939 as part of a Civilian Conservation Corp Project.

The house has undergone a number of renovations and changes.

In 1936, additional columns and a portico were added.

1983 saw the interior being renovated to restore the original and historic look of the house’s interior. The governor at the time, Bill Sheffield had the entire house renovated, making the most changes to the house since its original construction.

The house is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, a title it’s held since 1976.

“This is the people’s house. This house belongs to every single person in Alaska,” Nancy Murkowski said in the 2005 documentary about the house.

The public is invited to the celebration that will take place at 4 p.m. today.

A family fishing trip turned to into a wildlife rescue mission for Michelle Brown and her son.

The family was out at Bridget Cove on July 8, when Brown heard two adult eagles making a lot of noise in the spruce trees.

Brown took her dog to investigate.

She found the source of all the ruckus was a baby eagle that had fallen from its nest.

“I just was concerned, he was on the ground and you could tell from the surrounding area that his mom and dad had been taking care of him but it was within the tide line where he would get taken out with a hide tide,” Brown said.

Brown and her son walked to another cove to get cell signal and called 911 who patched them through to the Alaska Raptor Center.

The Center asked Brown to bring the bird to them, as it would have no chance of surviving on the ground.

“He wouldn’t have normally been able to fly or leave the nest until late August. So it was kind of like either get him out of there or else he was not going to make it,” Brown said.

The eaglet was about a third of the size of an adult eagle, according to Brown.

“He’s a baby but he was huge. His talons and his beak looked really intimidating. He was opening his mouth at us, but it was more like feed me than it was threat. They always have that threatening look about that hooked beak. We’re like ‘Really, we’re supposed to pick him up?’”

Brown covered the bird with a blanket and her son Beamer carried it to the car.

The bird was flown to the Sitka Raptor Center the next day.

Since then, the bird has been doing well according to Jen Cedarleaf, the Avian Rehabilitation Coordinator at the Raptor Center.

“It is doing really well right now. It’s in our main flight center with two other babies. We have one baby that came from Sitka and another baby that was sent to us from Angoon last week. We built them a big nest box so they hang out in the nest box,” Cedarleaf said.

“The adults come down and sit with them occasionally and the other juveniles come and sit down with them occasionally.”

Cedarleaf estimates the eagle is approximately seven or eight weeks old. However, it is the smallest of the young eagles.

Volunteers at the center named the eaglet Peanut due to its small stature.

The Alaska Energy Authority has submitted to federal regulators a study plan for a proposed large-scale dam between Anchorage and Fairbanks.

The plan includes 58 separate studies that an AEA public outreach liaison says are intended to help AEA better understand the ecosystem and potential impacts from the proposed Susitna-Watana dam. Emily Ford says AEA will hold meetings with other agencies and stakeholders to discuss the study plan. She says the authority will have an opportunity to file a revised plan, taking into account comments from the meetings, in November. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will then weigh in on the plan.

Ford says information from the studies will be used in making a license application.

Separately, AEA is soliciting proposals for an independent cost estimate for construction.