Rosemarie Alexander

Anchorage Superior Court Presiding Judge Sharon Gleason has been confirmed to the U.S. District Court in Alaska.

Gleason is the first Alaska woman to be confirmed to the federal bench.

She will replace U.S. District Court Judge John Sedwick, who is on senior status.  

President Obama nominated Gleason to the U.S. District Court last spring on the recommendation of U. S. Sen. Mark Begich.   

In speeches on the Senate floor before Tuesday’s confirmation vote, Begich and Sen. Lisa Murkowski cited the praise of other judges and Alaska attorneys who practice before her.

“Alaska judicial candidates are rated by their peers and Judge Gleason consistently receives among the highest marks possible,” Begich said.

Murkowski said Gleason “is and will continue to be a superb judge. She has tremendous control of her own demeanor so that she maintains control of the proceedings and as a result, parties almost universally leave a hearing feeling that she has understood them and thought carefully about her decision.”

The U.S. Senate confirmed two women to the federal judiciary on Tuesday — Gleason on a vote of 87 to 8, and Yvonne Gonzales Rogers to the Northern California District Court by 89 to 6. The votes against the women came from Murkowski’s Republican colleagues, including Senator Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Gleason waited 224 days for her confirmation. Forty-five judicial nominees await Senate confirmation, among them Alaska Supreme Court Justice Morgan Christen. She was nominated to the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals on May 18th.

Alaska news has been full recently of stories about the huge storm that battered the state’s west coast last week.

While the U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Sherman figured prominently in helping a nearly disabled catcher-processing ship, those reports had few details.

The Sherman’s Commanding Officer, Captain Joe Hester, is fond of telling sea stories. Hester recounted a number of them when the cutter stopped in Juneau in September on its way to the Bering Sea for a three-month patrol.

As the big storm developed over the Bering last week, KTOO checked in by email. After the storm had subsided and the crew of 180 had had a good night’s rest, Capt. Hester followed up with a phone call. Rosemarie Alexander brings us the rest of the story of the Rebecca Irene.

It may look like ski season, but Eaglecrest Ski Area is still closed – as are most U.S. ski areas.

Eaglecrest is warning hikers that there is no ski patrol or avalanche control within the ski area boundary and out of bounds.

“They need to treat it like backcountry,” says Marketing Director Jeffra Clough.

In recent days a number of people have been hiking up the mountain to ski or snowboard, she says. Some parents even dropped off their kids at the mountain on Monday when schools were closed.

“We’re seeing hikers that are a little bit younger and they may not realize that it is a backcountry situation out there on the mountain,” Clough says. “You do need to be prepared for avalanche danger and unmarked terrain.”

Avalanches have already been seen on the mountain and the danger of slides will continue to increase.

Clough says hikers also need to beware of snow cats and other machinery working on the mountain.

She says Eaglecrest has far more snow than usual for this time of November, but Dec. 3rd is still the target date for opening the ski area.

City and Borough avalanche expert Tom Mattice says the people hiking at elevation are the major concern, but slides are not yet a problem in Juneau urban zones and Thane.

“The urban paths still have a fair amount of anchors and not tremendous amounts of snow down low yet,” Mattice says. “The people that are hiking are the biggest concern, especially in the Eaglecrest area.”

A backcountry avalanche has already claimed one life at a closed ski resort in the Lower 48. Professional ski and snowboarder Matthew Jamie Pierre – often seen in Warren Miller ski movies – died Sunday at the Snowbird Ski Resort near Salt Lake City, Utah. According to the Salt Lake Tribune, the 38-year-old Pierre was swept away in an avalanche he triggered while snowboarding.

A grassroots organization known as “Occupy Juneau” has been holding protests at Marine Park every Saturday for the past month; tomorrow will be the fifth gathering. The organization is a local movement in support of the national “Occupy Wall Street” protests that have been going on across the country since September. As Danny Peterson reports, the activism has also moved to the UAS campus.

 

Juneau Mayor Bruce Botelho has won the Alaska Municipal League’s Vic Fischer award for excellence in local government.

The award was presented by Fischer Thursday night at AML’s 61st Annual Local Government Conference in Fairbanks.

The AML Board of Directors established the Vic Fischer Local Government Leadership Award in 2000 in honor of Fischer, who was the secretary to the Committee on Local Government for the Alaska Constitutional Convention. He also served more than 50 years in local and state government.

According to the AML, officials nominated for the award must show significant statewide contributions to improving local government and communities in Alaska.

Botelho is in his third term as mayor of the capital city. He also served as mayor from 1988 to 1991. He’s often described being mayor as the best job he’s ever had. Botelho served eight years as Alaska Attorney General under two governors.

Thursday marks the beginning of the 59th Annual Ski Sale in Juneau. The event is a fundraiser for the Eaglecrest Ski Patrol and Juneau Ski Club, which is the youth ski team.

Folks planning to sell their extra winter gear can check it in this evening, tomorrow afternoon and Saturday morning at Centennial Hall. The actual sale is 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday. For more information, go to juneauskisale.org.

Meanwhile, Eaglecrest’s new general manager is on the job.

Matt Lillard, his wife and two-and a half-year old son just made the move across America from Londonderry, Vermont, where he worked for Magic Mountain Ski Resort.

Lillard says the two ski areas have some similarities:

“Size wise they’re actually quite similar, 700 acres is where I come from, and two lifts as opposed to four here, but we both pride ourselves in having some great terrain and great community,” Lillard says.

He’s settling into the Juneau ski area, learning the lay of the land as well as the bureaucracy of Eaglecrest, owned by the City and Borough of Juneau. But Lillard says the biggest challenge in the ski industry is always the weather.

“The New England weather is different from Southeast Alaska weather so I think getting a good grasp of that and how that works will be the biggest challenge,” Lillard says, “and after that just a lot of learning curve to pick up in a short amount of time.”

Weather permitting, opening day at Eaglecrest is December 3rd. Snow is building up, with about 7 inches at the base and 41 inches on top on Thursday.

Lillard answers to the city and the Eaglecrest Board of Directors, which sets ski area policy. The board has contracted with a local research firm and international ski area planning company to write a 20-year master plan to guide its decisions.

The first of two public meetings on the plan was held last week, and as KTOO reported, a random telephone survey shows hiking and biking trails and summer tourist attractions to be very important to the future of the area. The telephone survey questions are similar to a current online survey (skijuneau.com), which will be live until the end of November.  Click on the audio for more on the master plan study.