Stories include a Washington D.C. exhibit documenting climate change among the indigenous peoples of the Arctic and Juneau’s Anna Graceman prepares for another performance tonight during the America’s Got Talent television show.
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Bears on a roll
The Juneau Douglas Crimson Bears varsity football team is piling up the scores this season – and leaving most competitors scoreless.
That was the case again Friday when the Bears beat the Colony Knights 65 to zero. With a total of 219 points this season, the Crimson Bears have allowed just two touchdowns in four games. (Palmer scored 13 points two weeks ago. No other teams have scored against them. )
On Friday, Colony finished with just 29 yards of offense, while the Bears rushed for 387 yards and had 134 yards in passing.
The Bears also were penalized 14 times, something Head Coach Rich Sjoross calls “fixable:”
“Some of that stuff is from being aggressive, and you want the kids to be aggressive,” Sjooss says. “We have the ability to overcome some of those, we just can’t have too many of them, or else it’s going to come back and bite us at some point, and I think they understand that.”
Despite the penalties, the offense and defense were working well together, as they have all season.
Juneau is ranked the top team in the Railbelt Conference. The Bears next game is in Wasilla. We’ll have a preview later this week.
Electric rates will increase
The Regulatory Commission of Alaska has approved an increase in Juneau’s electricity rates. After 16 months of study, review and several public hearings, the commission says Alaska Electric Light and Power is justified in raising rates another 4 percent, effective immediately.
The RCA released the order about 8 p.m. Friday.
The privately owned utility company requested the 24 percent increase in May 2010. The commission allowed the company to begin charging 20 percent of that in July 2010.
The across the board rate hike actually shows up less on monthly bills, says AELP spokesman Scott Willis:
“The interim rate raised the average electric bill about 18 and a half percent and the final rate raised it to a total of 22 percent,” Willis says.
Customers will now see an increase of about 3 and a half percent. In monetary terms, that’s about $2 to $3 more a month at an average household use of 750 kilowatt hours per month.
The commission’s 44-page order details all the arguments put forth by the company, the state attorney general’s office and a citizen’s group, Juneau People Power Project. Listen to Morning Edition for more details.
To read the RCA’s order click here (PDF).
Friday Newscast 9/2/11
Casey Kelly fills in for Matt Miller. Stories include, a big earthquake jolts the Aleutian Islands overnight; A decision is expected on Alaska Electric Light & Power’s rate increase request; unions in Anchorage battle the city and a local hotel over wages and working conditions; Juneau man enters not guilty plea to 2nd degree murder charge; a preview of this weekend’s high school football games; and August really was as bad as you thought it was.
Record August rains fill reservoirs, keep Tongass green
Tired of the August rain? Well, August is over and the first day of September gave us a day to dry out before the heavy rains of the fall begin.
According to the National Weather Service, Juneau got nearly five inches more rain than usual for the month of August. And the daily high temperature was about five degrees below normal. National Weather Service meteorologist Rick Fritsch has the data.
West enters not guilty plea to second degree murder
A tearful Ryan West was arraigned in Juneau Superior Court yesterday (Thursday), where he pleaded not guilty to second degree murder in connection with the death of 19-year-old Gabriel Carte.
The 25-year-old West was indicted by a Juneau Grand Jury a week ago. Public Defender David Seid entered the plea on West’s behalf.
“I’d ask the court to accept a not guilty plea and we would request a jury trial,” Seid said.
On June 6th, West and Carte were riding in a truck that flipped over multiple times at Mile 35 Glacier Highway. Carte was ejected from the vehicle and pronounced dead at the scene. West was treated for minor injuries. Juneau Police said alcohol and excessive speed were factors in the crash, but at the time of the preliminary investigation it wasn’t clear who was driving.
The grand jury indictment charges West “did knowingly engage in conduct that resulted in the death of [Carte] under circumstances manifesting an extreme indifference to the value of human life.”
District Attorney David Brower asked for bail to be set at 500-thousand dollars. He noted that West was already on probation stemming from an earlier case where a 19-year-old woman was seriously injured after being dragged by West’s truck.
Judge Phillip Pallenberg agreed.
“I would make the comment that the amount of the bail is high not only because of the nature of this offense, but because of the nature of the previous offense in that it involved a person who was very seriously injured as a result of the operation of Mr. West’s vehicle,” Pallenberg said.
Pallenberg set a two-week trial to begin December 5th. The case was originally assigned to Judge Patricia Collins, who’s now retired. It will instead be presided over by incoming Judge Louis Menendez.