A civilian contractor was injured Wednesday at Coast Guard Air Station Sitka when a biomass boiler exploded in the station’s main hangar. This incident happened about 12:30 p.m. The injured man was transported by local EMS to the hospital.
Commanding officer Ward Sandlin said Air Station Sitka personnel and local authorities are working with investigators to determine the cause of the explosion. The station’s other two biomass boilers have been shut down pending the results of the investigation.
Air Station Sitka is the first base in the Coast Guard to convert to the biomass system, which burns wood pellets instead of fuel oil.
Wednesday’s incident comes less than a week after U.S. Senator Mark Begich toured the boiler and praised the project. Air Station Sitka was testing the new wood pellet system, and hoped to have it fully operational by November 1st.
The Anchorage Superior Court released a decision upholding Alaska’s parental notification law on Monday. In the process, it also reversed itself on a controversial provision allowing doctors to be prosecuted for knowingly providing abortions to minors without the notification of at least one parent.
The law was passed in 2010 through a ballot initiative, and Planned Parenthood sued, calling the law unconstitutional. Judge John Suddock did not agree, and upheld the law because of a “compelling state interest” in promoting family involvement.
But even though Suddock kept most of the law intact, he was critical of many of the state’s arguments. He determined that “parental involvement advances no compelling state interest in the health of minor women,” and that it didn’t protect minors from “illicit relationships.”
He also described the criminal and civil sanctions included in the law troubling. Under the parental notification law, a knowing violation could result in a 5-year jail term and a $1,000 fine for a doctor who provides an abortion to a minor without notice to her parents. Suddock called this “draconian,” but allowed this part of the law to go through after the state argued that the statute wouldn’t be enforced. Suddock tossed out a different portion of the law that would open doctors up to civil penalties who violated one of the parental notification statues without realizing it.
Planned Parenthood has not yet decided whether it will appeal the decision, according to attorney Janet Crepps.
Source: Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development, Research and Analysis Section
Alaska is expected to add nearly 39,000 new jobs over the next decade, with nearly a third in the health care and social service industry.
The state Labor Department’s employment forecast through 2020 estimates that nearly all job sectors will gain, for a total growth of 12 percent.
As Alaska’s population ages, it will drive demand for health care and social assistance jobs, a sector that has been steadily growing in the state for years.
State Economist Dan Robinson says the projections are based on existing trends.
“Our projections don’t assume radical changes to existing trends,” he says. “And the main trend is a lot more health-care related openings — some of that growth, some of that turnover, and a lot of it increased demand based on the baby boomers aging up and just Alaska’s 65-plus population getting a lot bigger.”
State economists project the second-highest growth will be in mining, at 19 percent. Mining doesn’t include oil and gas, where 5 percent growth is expected.
The ten-year state outlook can be found in this month’s Alaska Economic Trends magazine.
The Bishop Michael H. Kenny Memorial Peace Park is just below the Dimond Courthouse. Mayor Bruce Botelho noted the location is a reminder that peace can’t happen without justice. Photo by Rich Moniak.
A downtown park has been formally dedicated to peace and the memory of the late Bishop Michael Kenny.
Bishop Kenny served the Catholic Diocese of Juneau, which covers Southeast Alaska, from 1979 to 1995. He was known for his international work for peace, non-violence and human rights.
Juneau Veterans for Peace led the effort to name the city park at Third and Seward streets after Kenny.
The tribute was fittingly held Friday (Sept. 21) on International Peace Day.
During the dedication, the Most Rev. Edward Burns, Bishop of the Diocese, read from Bishop Kenny’s writings about peace. In 1981, Kenny wrote: “It’s time to make peace, not wish for peace, or call for peace, but act for peace.” Kenny was known as an advocate for nuclear disarmament, and sometimes called “No Nukes of the North.”
Click below for sounds of the event, beginning with the Most Rev. Edward Burns, current bishop of the Dioceses of Juneau; followed by Phil Smith, of Juneau Veterans for Peace; CBJ Director of Parks and Recreation Brent Fischer; Mayor Bruce Botelho, and the Alaska Youth Choir.
The Most Rev. Edward Burns, Bishop of the Diocese of Juneau. Photo by Rich Moniak.
Bishop Kenny died suddenly of an aneurism while traveling in the Holy Land in 1995.
Juneau Veterans for Peace must now raise funds to fabricate and install in the park a sculpture called Growing Peace, by Juneau artist Jim Fowler.
After the dedication, the sign was revealed. Juneau Veterans for Peace are also raising money for a sculpture called “Growing Peace” to be located in the small park. Photo by Rich Moniak.
Three groups of boaters throughout Southcentral and Southeastern Alaska are keeping Coast Guard aviators busy.
The 107-foot fishing vessel “Midnight Maid” began taking on water about 30 miles south of Resurrection Bay on Thursday night. Lt. Crystal Hudak, search and rescue controller for the Coast Guard in Juneau, says the wooden vessel was getting hammered by 13-foot seas. Winds were 30-knots in the area. The four crewmen of the Seward-based vessel were prepared. Hudak says they donned survival suits, grabbed a radio and an EPIRB as they climbed into a life raft. A Kodiak based H-60 helicopter hoisted them aboard and took them back to Seward about midnight last night.
Hudak says there were no reported injuries.
An H-60 helicopter will be dispatched out of Sitka on Friday morning when the fog lifts. They will search for at least four people in a skiff who were headed to Klag Bay to count salmon. They did not return to Sitka as planned on Thursday night.
The Coast Guard has rescued four men whose 19-foot aluminum boat swamped in heavy seas as they were returning from a hunting trip northwest of Cordova. The men sent a distress call on Thursday before abandoning their boat and taking their dinghy to shore. A Coast Guard helicopter located the men on a shoreline off Orca Inlet and hoisted them off the beach. They were taken to the Cordova Community Hospital for evaluation.
The paddling portion recently ended in Ladysmith, British Columbia, and after taking a couple weeks off, the group plans to begin the bike portion this weekend.
KTOO’s Casey Kelly has more.
Before setting out, Kanaan Bausler was expecting the trip of lifetime. So far, he says it’s been that and so much more.
“Basically, when people ask what’s the best part of the trip, it’s hard to say, because it seems like almost every day we were saying, ‘This is the best day of the trip,'” Bausler says.
The group arrives in Ladysmith, BC. (Photo courtesy A Trip South)
After leaving Juneau in their kayaks on June 1st, the group spent almost a hundred days on the water before reaching Ladysmith, British Columbia earlier this month.
Bausler is spending the time between the kayak and bike portions at Quest University in Squamish, BC, where he graduated last year.
He’s using the downtime to put together a short video about their adventure so far. Some of the footage likely will be featured in a longer documentary about the trip.
“This film project has really turned out to be a great way of doing a trip like this,” says Bausler. “Because it just gives us an excuse to go into these really unique places, and go out there and find the smartest person living there and just have a good excuse to have a deep conversation with them.”
Bausler says a conversation with Kake village elder Mike Jackson had an especially profound effect on him.
“He was actually the very first person we recorded a conversation with,” he says. “And it was very cool to hear all of the things that they use, both in food and he’s artist and crafts-maker. So, he’s constantly harvesting from the area and using those resources to maintain his lifestyle.”
The core of the “Trip South” group consists of Bausler, Chris Hinkley, Andrew Flansaas, Colin Flynn and Max Stanley. The Funky Five as they call themselves were joined by about ten friends for portions of the paddling trip, as well as other boaters they met along the way. More friends and family undoubtedly will join for various legs of the bike journey.
Hinkley, who’s currently on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington state, says the shift to biking will take some getting used to. But he’s ready for it.
“I’m sure glad that I’m not going to have to unload that kayak and haul it up the beach every night,” Hinkley says with a laugh. “So, kind of a different way of moving and it’ll be a lot faster. All of a sudden we’re going from ten miles a day to ten miles an hour.”
Some members of the group already have their bikes ready to go. (Photo courtesy A Trip South)
But Hinkley says the group doesn’t plan to hurry. After all, part of the reason for doing the trip was to see the world at a leisurely pace, and get to know some new people along the way.
“I think everyone has a little bit of this experience when you go out travelling, it just seems you attract all these people and it seems like you meet more people than you might meet in your everyday life,” he says. “I can’t tell you how many times we were invited into peoples’ homes to share a meal, and kind of just talk and share stories.”
Hinkley says they hope to start the bike trip on Saturday.
The group plans to follow the Pacific coast all the way through North and South America. Several local companies, including Nugget Alaska Outfitter and Cycle Alaska have donated money and gear.
