By Roger Maynard, on January 25th, 2012  Overall winners, left to right: Randy Martin #3, Craig Hill #2, Jarrid Davy #1. Photo courtesy of Karen Hess.
Saturday’s Alcan 200 snowmachine road rally on the Haines Highway from the Canadian border to Dezadeash and return was won by Jarrid Davy of Whitehorse for the second year in a row.
According to race organizer Karen Hess, the race was fast but no new records were set, “This year there was $1,500 for the fastest local to finish and that was Chris Brooks. The money came from $1,000 Mary Miles in memory of Dennis, $200 Fogcutter Bar & $300 Howser’s IGA. The odd thing is that he won because he wasn’t the fastest but the only local to finish. There were two locals and Jack Smith Jr. didn’t finish, so the money went to Chris. Chris also got the RED LANTERN AWARD, for the last racer to finish the race in 2:46:10, with an average speed of 56.”
Overall winners:
Jarrid Davy 1st overall / Whitehorse / Time 1:18:11 / avg. speed 119.
Craig Hill 2nd overall / Fairbanks / Time 1:21:08 / avg speed 114.6
Randy Martin 3rd overall / Fairbanks / Time 1:31:10 / avg speed 102.
Read more->
By Editor, on January 21st, 2012 Public Information Release:
HAINES–DOT/PF crews filled cracks and dip in the pavement, making travel through the problem area safe and smooth. Our thanks to the crew for their concerns and efforts to keep this portion of the road safe for our use.
Even though we continue to record slow movement in this area, PLEASE check with the Command Center in Brian Lemcke’s office, or at least check the latest update on the Borough website or the PSA’s on KHNS before running with the wild rumors that are circulating. These updates will be posted daily, or when necessary to report.
Lutak road is not closed, nor are there any plans at this time to do so. Any such information will be posted to the website as soon as possible, so we can all know the truth at the same time.
Haines Borough Command Center – 766‐2258
Link to Haines Borough updates on this issue.
By Roger Maynard, on January 20th, 2012  The center line and fog lines, originally straight, have moved sideways several inches. Photo by Roc Ahrens
HAINES–The land that has suddenly started sinking in the vicinity of Lutak Road and Oceanview Road has the attention of Haines Borough residents, especially since Lutak is the main road from Haines to the Alaska Marine Highway Terminal and the freight dock. The area continues to move, with cracks in the road growing about 1 inch since yesterday, and other areas showing a 9-inch vertical shift overnight. Read more->
By Editor, on January 20th, 2012 SEATTLE–Alaska Airlines reports flight cancellations are expected to continue through Friday.
Travelers are advised to check your flight status before leaving for the airport and visit Alaska Airlines’ advisory page for rebooking options and more info. For more information, see the Alaska Airlines website.
By Editor, on January 19th, 2012 By Michelle Theriault Boots | ADN
In a state that expects to see more than 400 cruise-ship sailings with nearly a million passengers this summer, it’s difficult to look at the images of the Costa Concordia and not wonder: Could it happen in Alaska?
“It kind of gives us a little wake-up call,” said Rick Janelle, a civilian U.S. Coast Guard employee based in Juneau who acts as an adviser on cruise ship safety.
Read full story in the ADN.
By Editor, on January 19th, 2012 By Mary Pemberton | AP
A Russian tanker Wednesday was nearly finished pumping fuel to the iced-in city of Nome, having sent more than half of the 1.3 million gallons of diesel and gasoline through two hoses snaking across the ice.
The remote Western Alaska coastal city has been anticipating its winter fuel delivery since November when a powerful storm prevented the delivery by barge. The tanker left Russia in mid-December and pushed through miles of ice to begin the high-stakes delivery on Monday.
Read full story in the Anchorage Daily News.
By Editor, on January 19th, 2012 By Amanda Coyne | ALASKA DISPATCH
In a wide-ranging State of the State address Wednesday night, Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell told Alaskans that much of the future of this state will be determined by the actions of legislators in the upcoming session.
Read full story in the Alaska Dispatch.
By Editor, on January 18th, 2012 Part of the Lutak Road in the vicinity of Ocean View Drive has settled several inches in the past few days, and state and borough investigators are trying to determine the cause so that corrective action can be taken. Meanwhile, drive carefully on the way to the ferry terminal–there are a couple of new bumps in the road.
The following update is from Haines Borough Manager Mark Earnest: Read more->
By Editor, on January 10th, 2012 by Doug O’Harra | ALASKA DISPATCH
ANCHORAGE–Alaska just experienced its third warmest December on record, with temperatures averaging about 8.7 degrees Fahrenheit above normal, according to the latest analysis posted by the National Climate Data Center. At the same time, the state was splattered with the fifth “wettest” December – most of that precipitation piling up in big white drifts that blocked on-street parking and choked residential streets to single lanes.
Alaska’s weird warm-wet month was so unsettling, the climate agency listed it as one of the month’s most significant weather events in the nation.
Read full story in the Alaska Dispatch.
By Editor, on January 9th, 2012
By Editor, on January 6th, 2012 AK DOL Press Release
JUNEAU—The Alaska Department of Labor and Workforce Development’s annual job forecast is 1.2 percent job growth in 2012, a modest gain in Alaska for a third straight year. The state’s employment levels dropped briefly in 2009 due to the national recession. Read more->
By Editor, on January 4th, 2012 by Jeff Richardson | FAIRBANKS DAILY NEWS-MINER
FAIRBANKS—Gasoline prices in the $4-per-gallon range may be uncomfortably high for many Fairbanks residents, but Doug Reynolds believes prices in the years ahead could make these seem like the good old days.
Reynolds, a professor of oil and energy economics at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, said he sees oil prices soaring in the next five to 10 years, “easily” reaching $200 per barrel or more.
That increase, roughly double the current price of oil, would translate into gasoline in the $5 to $10 range at the pump, he said.
Read full story in the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.
By Editor, on January 3rd, 2012 By Richard E. Mooney | NY TIMES
Washington, Jan. 3, 1959 — Alaska became a state today. By the clock on the mantel in the Cabinet Room at the White House, it was two minutes past noon. In Juneau, capital of the forty-ninth state, it was 9:02 A.M., Pacific Standard Time.
Read full article from 1959 in the New York Times.
By Editor, on December 31st, 2011 By Andrew Halcro
JUNEAU–According to the Alaska Department of Revenue, the state will depend on oil & gas revenues to fund 92% of state spending this coming fiscal year. With increasing government costs and decreasing oil production, Alaska’s economic engine needs an overhaul.
In 2007, just weeks after successfully pushing through the largest tax increase on the oil & gas industry in the state’s history (ACES), the Palin administration proudly predicted that oil production would be 675,000 barrels per day in 2011. The actual production number turned out to be 603,000 barrels per day.
In fact, according to the optimistic projections after the tax increase was adopted, the Palin administration didn’t forecast Alaska’s daily oil production would drop to current day levels until 2022.
Looks like we arrived at their projected decline destination ten years early.
Read Halcro’s full editorial opinion at AndrewHalcro.com
By Editor, on December 30th, 2011 by Jeff Richardson | FAIRBANKS DAILY NEWS-MINER
FAIRBANKS — Filing for an Alaska Permanent Fund dividend check is a happy ritual for most Alaskans, but this year some residents have been a little too eager to get their paperwork in the mail.
The Alaska Department of Revenue has received hundreds of applications this week for the 2012 PFD and expects as many as 1,000 could arrive in Juneau by the end of the year.
That prompt attention comes with a drawback: Applications aren’t valid unless they’re signed and delivered after Jan. 1.
Read more: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner – Mailing glitch results in early PFD filings
By Editor, on December 30th, 2011 By: Travel World News Editor

SITKA–Alaskan Dream Cruises, one of the newest small-ship cruise lines sailing in Southeast Alaska, is announcing three new itineraries, additional ports of call and ship renovations. Alaskan Dream Cruises is owned and operated by an Alaska Native family in Sitka, Alaska. The company will operate its second season from May through September 2012.
The 42-passenger Alaskan Dream will sail on three new itineraries in 2012: an eight-day trip that focuses on many less-explored destinations, including Hobart Bay and Kasaan, and two more comprehensive 11- and 13-day trips through the Inside Passage. The three itineraries also include new ports of call for the cruise line: Ketchikan, Skagway, Haines, Thorne Bay, Kasaan, Wrangell and Gustavus.
Read the full story in the Travel World News.
Visit Alaska Dream Cruises website.
By Editor, on December 29th, 2011 By Hope Yen | AP
Texas, Utah and Alaska were the fastest-growing states in 2011, according to new Census Bureau estimates. Alaska’s population grew 1.8 percent from April 2010 through June 2011, double the nationwide average. Alaska’s estimated population on July 1, 2011, was 722,718, a gain of about 12,500, reports the Census Bureau.
Read full story in the Anchorage Daily News.
By Editor, on December 29th, 2011 SEATTLE (AP) — The Washington state ferry service isn’t going to start turning away hefty passengers, but it has had to reduce the capacity of the nation’s largest ferry system because people have been packing on the pounds.
Coast Guard vessel stability rules that took effect nationwide Dec. 1 raised the estimated weight of the average adult passenger to 185 pounds from the previous 160 pounds, based on population information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
…The new stability rules may have a bigger impact on the smaller charter fishing boats, such as those that take anglers fishing out of the Pacific Ocean ports of Westport and Ilwaco, Young said. Any vessel that carries more than six paying customers has to be inspected and certified by the Coast Guard as a passenger vessel.
Read full article in the Seattle PI.
By Editor, on December 29th, 2011 By Diane Cardwell and Rick Gladstone | NY TIMES
The United States economy managed to cope this year despite triple-digit prices for barrels of oil. The lessons may come in handy, economists say, because those prices will probably be sticking around.
With Iran threatening to cut off about a fifth of the world’s oil supply by closing the Strait of Hormuz and unrest in Iraq endangering the ability to increase production there, financial analysts say prices for two important oil benchmarks will average from $100 a barrel to $120 a barrel in 2012.
Read full article in the New York Times.
By Editor, on December 26th, 2011 JUNEAU–MV Kennicott will delay departure from Juneau/Auke Bay terminal today; Monday, December 26th by 24 hours due to severe weather. For more information, please contact your local terminal by dialing 1-800-642-0066.
At this time, Kennicott is scheduled to depart Juneau/Auke Bay on Tuesday, December 27th at 4:30pm for an arrival in Yakutat on Wednesday, December 28th at 9:30am.
For more info or updates, see FerryAlaska.com.
By Editor, on December 20th, 2011 AP | ADN
JUNEAU — Lt. Gov. Mead Treadwell estimates a proposed coastal management program would cost $5.4 million a year. The program is being proposed as a ballot initiative.
Read more in the Anchorage Daily News.
By Editor, on December 20th, 2011 Jill Burke | ALASKA DISPATCH
It’s nearly guaranteed to be a monumental showdown, the kind Alaska seems to spawn regularly. On Wednesday, a handful of lawyers will volley before a federal judge over whether the U.S. government properly chose to shut down cod and mackerel fisheries in Southwest Alaska, giving the well being of an endangered marine mammal preference over the livelihood of scores of fisherman.
Read the full article in the Alaska Dispatch.
By Editor, on December 15th, 2011 by Andrew Halcro
Bristol Bay–The recent television ads created by the opponents of Pebble Mine have reached an absurdly new low. Unfortunately, that’s not surprising for this crowd.
Read Halcro’s opinion at andrewhalcro.com.
By Editor, on December 14th, 2011  Sen. Ted Stevens
By Jordy Yager | THE HILL
A bipartisan group of senators is calling on the Justice Department to apologize to the family of the late Sen. Ted Stevens and fire the attorneys accused of the withholding of evidence that contributed to his criminal conviction.
The former colleagues of the long-serving Alaskan Republican told The Hill that the DOJ’s prosecution of Stevens was a disgrace.
Read full article in The Hill.
By Editor, on December 13th, 2011 Alex DeMarban | ALASKA DISPATCH
The National Marine Fisheries Service has renewed plans that may lead to a listing of the ribbon seals under the Endangered Species Act, bringing to three the number of ice-dependent seals in Alaska that could be protected by the act.
The agency rejected a ribbon-seal listing in 2008 but said new information warrants a second look. That’s disappointing news, said Rick Rogers, executive director with the pro-industry Resource Development Council in Anchorage.
The combined population of ribbon, bearded and ringed seal populations in the Beaufort and Chukchi seas exceed 1 million animals, so why should they fall under the act’s protections, he wondered.
Read full article in the Alaska Dispatch.
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| Nate Beeler The Columbus Dispatch May 16, 2012 |
Lynn Canal Map & Marine Traffic (refresh for current ship positions)
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P.O. Box 784
Haines, Alaska 99827
Editor:
Roger L. Maynard
P.O. Box 784
Haines, Alaska 99827
editor@hainesnews.net
The Haines Alaska News is a public information service of the Alaska Alliance for Commerce, Inc., a grassroots movement organized to advocate for small business and a free market economy in Alaska.
The AAFC is organized under section 501(C)(4) of the U.S. Tax Code; contributions are not tax deductible. |
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