As previously reported, Kevin Thornton died from his injuries Wednesday in a Little Rock Hospital, where’d been in a coma for a week. The sheriff’s investigator is calling the assault “completely random violence. “ The youth charged in the attack will be tried as adults for murder.
Rosemarie Alexander has been piecing the story together.
For years, organizations in the state have paid the bills by relying on government grants, as well as contributions from corporations and private foundations. But those revenues are drying up, according to Anchorage-based nonprofit consulting firm Foraker Group and the University of Alaska’s Institute of Social and Economic Research.
Last year, they published their second report on Alaska’s nonprofit economy. Casey Kelly has more.
Southeast Alaska’s only ski area has a new manager. The Eaglecrest Board of Directors yesterday (Wednesday, July 27) announced the hire of Oregonian Ray Gardner for the job.
Eaglecrest is owned by the city and borough of Juneau, which held a lengthy hiring process earlier this month that resulted in Gardner’s selection.
The Juneau Police Department says two teenagers are responsible for a string of vandalism incidents in the Lemon Creek Area.
One of the youths – a 17-year-old boy – was arrested 10 days ago on an unrelated warrant. Officers say he was spotted by members of the Juneau Citizen’s Patrol leaving the area of Dzantik’i Heeni Middle School shortly after it had been hit with a considerable amount of graffiti.
Police Spokeswoman Cindee Brown-Mills says a subsequent investigation revealed the 17-year-old and a 19-year-old male had tagged the word “toke” in several locations around Lemon Creek.
JPD has forwarded charges of criminal mischief against both to the Juneau District Attorney’s office. Neither suspect is being named at this time per department policy.
Brown-Mills says the vandalism resulted in approximately 1,120 dollars in damage to the school and nearby buildings.
The investigation is ongoing.
Juneau’s Planning Commission last night recommended the CBJ Assembly extend the city’s downtown Parking District 1 throughout the entire Willoughby District.
The move would reduce the amount of required off-street parking in the neighborhood by 60 percent. Retail and office buildings would go from having to provide one space per 300 square feet to one space per 750 square feet.
CBJ Community Development Director Dale Pernula says the goal is for property owners in the area to consolidate parking.
“Trying to become more of a pedestrian oriented area, like the core of downtown,” said Pernula. “Rather than all the parking be on all the individual lots that it be more often than not provided by public parking lots.”
Parking District 1 currently includes the downtown core, as well as Willoughby Avenue and Whittier Street around the JAHC and Centennial Hall. If the Assembly adopts the recommendation it would encompass the rest of Willoughby all the way to Gold Creek.
Pernula expects the Assembly to hold a hearing in about two months.
The change is recommended in the city’s Willoughby District Land Use Plan.
Alaska’s summer hiring boom is in full effect. The economy added about 20,000 jobs in June, according to monthly employment statistics released Friday by the state Labor Department.
State Economist Mali Abrahamson says the visitor industry led the way, adding more than 5,000 jobs from May to June. Tourism jobs were up more than 2,400 from June 2010.
“Putting us back closer to levels that we were seeing in 2007 and 2008 before consumer confidence kind of tanked during the recession and we saw a decline,” Abrahamson said.
Health care continues to have one of the largest and fastest growing job bases in Alaska, while oil and gas and mining have remained steady or seen moderate growth. The government sector took a dip from May to June as jobs in education dropped from payrolls for the summer.
The state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate rose slightly to 7.5 percent in June. But Abrahamson calls the increase statistically insignificant, as May’s rate was revised down from 7.4 percent to 7.3 percent. She says the increase can be attributed to more people looking for work.
For the 31st consecutive month Alaska’s unemployment rate was below the national average of 9.2 percent – up slightly from 9.1 percent in May. Abrahamson says states with resource-based economies, like Alaska’s, appear to have done well at weathering the national recession.
“Rather than the manufacturing, the residential construction – where you saw a lot of losses in the Lower 48 – not so much up in Alaska,” said Abrahamson.” And that’s true of other states that have similar features, North Dakota for instance.”
Juneau’s unemployment rate went from 4.9 percent in May to 5.5 percent last month – the same rate as June 2010.
The lowest unemployment rate in the state last month was two percent in Bristol Bay, where hiring in the fishing industry was strong. The highest rate was 23.5 percent in Western Alaska’s Wade Hampton Census Area, which has experienced chronic under-employment.
