Unalaska, AK – The state House and Senate gaveled in another special session last night. One of the Legislature's two priorities for the meeting is to reach a resolution on how oil companies should pay taxes to the state. Governor Frank Murkowski has proposed a bill that would require the companies to pay a tax based on 20 percent of their total profits in Alaska. Some members of the Legislature have other ideas. Senator Lyman Hoffman of Bethel and Representative Carl Moses of Unalaska, both of whom represent the Aleutians region in the Legislature, spoke with KIAL last week about the upcoming session. The two lawmakers sit on the finance committees of the Senate and the House, respectively, which means that they are among the members who are considering the governor's proposal.
Unalaska, AK – Unalaskans Against Sexual Assault and Family Violence will host a new support group beginning tomorrow night. The program, called Women's Voices, will be a weekly gathering, and USAFV Client Services Coordinator Glennda Holmes says she hopes it will provide a forum in which women can talk about issues they may be facing at home.
Holmes says the point is to create an informal, supportive environment for women who may be uncomfortable talking about personal problems in a less personal setting. In the future, the program will involve speakers and specialists such as alcohol counselors.
Unalaska, AK – Dozens of earthquakes have rocked the far western Aleutians over the past several weeks, most recently early Tuesday morning near Amchitka Island. The quakes thus far have been confined to this mostly uninhabited part of the island chain. But the largest, on Saturday and also near Amchitka, was felt by residents of Adak Island. Adak is 200 miles east of Amchitka and home to about 300 people.
Unalaska, AK – After 27 years in Unalaska, Mike Gebhart is getting ready to leave town. But when he takes off today, he's going to do it in an unusual way: by sailboat.
Unalaska, AK – Record low sockeye salmon numbers have forced the Alaska Department of Fish and Game to extend the closure of subsistence fishing in part of Unalaska's Reese Bay. The closure was scheduled to end Sunday as it has in years past, but Fish and Game management biologist Forrest Bowers said it will be extended on account of tumbling salmon escapement numbers, which have fallen from a high of nearly 102,000 in 2003 to less than a tenth of that this summer.
Unalaska, AK – The National Marine Fisheries Service crab rationalization program was tweaked slightly Thursday, closing a loophole that allowed crab fishermen unrestricted access to Pacific cod in state-managed waters.
The amendment, which was published Thursday morning in the Federal Register, extends sideboard protections for Pacific cod to state waters in the Gulf of Alaska. A sideboard is a fishery-wide cap, in this case applying to boats that fish mainly for opilio crab in federally managed waters. The change will subject all fishing vessels to the same set of rules.
Unalaska, AK – It may be July 6, not July 4, but Unalaska will finally get its fireworks show tonight. The holiday display was scheduled for the 4th but was postponed twice because of the weather. Lieutenant Jamie Sunderland of the Unalaska Department of Public Safety says all systems are go for tonight.
The fireworks will be launched from Summer Bay Road, just past the cemetery. The best viewing from Unalaska will be from Front Beach.
Unalaska, AK – Next month, for the first time since 2000, 37th District House Representative Carl Moses, D-Unalaska, will face a challenge in his party's primary election.
