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P E N I N S U L A
Thursday, December 27, 2018 Kenai Peninsula, Alaska
Vol. 49, Issue 75
In the news New ferries need $30M in work before entering service ANCHORAGE — The Alaska Marine Highway System says an additional $30 million in public money is needed to install crew quarters on the state’s two new ferries. The Anchorage Daily News reports adding crew quarters will allow the ferries Tazlina and Hubbard to be used on longer routes than originally planned. The new ferries were designed for specific roles, but cuts to ferry service means the ships will need to enter general service. Marine Highway director Shirley Marquardt says the funding would come from the Marine Highway System fund. Work could begin this summer if the state Legislature authorizes the expense. The Alaska Marine Transportation Advisory Board revealed at a meeting last week that tens of millions of dollars will also be needed to construct support facilities for the vessels.
Fairbanks theater floods after sprinkler pipe breaks FAIRBANKS — Officials say no long-term water damage is expected after a sprinkler pipe broke, flooding a Fairbanks theater. The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports the flooding occurred last week at the Pioneer Park Centennial Center for the Arts, which contains a theater, a civic center and an art gallery. Matt Want, a DJ who was working an event at the civic center, says an alarm went off Friday night, and he noticed water pooling in a stairwell. He says he could hear water pouring into the theater, which was behind a locked door. Fairbanks North Star Borough Mayor Bryce Ward says maintenance workers were able to clean up the water. He says he didn’t have information about what caused the pipe to fail. —Associated Press
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‘You have to have a wall’ Trump signals no end to government shutdown
By JULIET LINDERMAN and DARLENE SUPERVILLE Associated Press
WASHINGTON — A shutdown affecting parts of the federal government appeared no closer to resolution Wednesday, with President Donald Trump and congressional Democrats locked in a hardening standoff over border wall money that threatens to carry over into January. Trump vowed to hold the line, telling reporters during a visit to Iraq that he’ll do “whatever it takes” to get money for border security. He declined to say how much he would accept in a deal to end the shutdown, stressing the need for border security. “You have to have a wall, you have to have protection,” he said. The shutdown started Sat-
The tiny Klondike Gold Rush National Historical Park in Seattle’s historic Pioneer Square neighborhood is posted with a closed sign as part of the federal government shutdown Wednesday. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)
urday when funding lapsed for nine Cabinet-level departments and dozens of agencies. Roughly 420,000 work-
ers were deemed essential and are working unpaid, while an additional 380,000 have been furloughed.
While the White House was talking to congressional Democrats — and staff talks continued on Capitol Hill — negotiations dragged Wednesday, dimming hopes for a swift breakthrough. With no deal at hand, members of the House were told there would be no votes on Thursday, assuring the shutdown would last yet another day. Lawmakers are away from Washington for the holidays and have been told they will have 24 hours’ notice before having to return for a vote. The Senate is slated to come into session Thursday afternoon. Rep. Mark Meadows of North Carolina, a Trump ally who has been involved in the talks, said the president “is very firm in his resolve that we need to secure our border.” See WALL, page A3
Clamming on inlet’s east side beaches to remain closed By KAT SORENSEN Peninsula Clarion
There won’t be any clamming, whether sport or personal, on the Cook Inlet side of the Kenai Peninsula in 2019. The Alaska Department of Fish and Game is closing all eastside beaches of the Kenai Peninsula again through all of 2019 to encourage population recovery. “From 2009-2015, eastside Cook Inlet razor clams experienced poor recruitment of juvenile sized razor clams and a high natural mortality rate
See CLAM, page A2
Wall Street notches best day in 10 years By ALEX VEIGA AP Business Writer
Stocks rocketed on Wednesday in Wall Street’s best day in 10 years, snapping a stomach-churning, four-day losing streak and giving some postChristmas cheer to a market that has been battered this December. The Dow Jones Industrial Average shot up more than 1,000 points — its biggest single-day point gain ever — rising nearly 5 percent as investors returned from a one-day Christmas break. The broader S&P 500 index also gained 5 percent, and the technologyheavy Nasdaq rose 5.8 percent. But even with the rally, the market remains on track for its worst December since 1931, during the depths of the Depression, and could finish 2018 with its steepest losses in a decade. “The real question is: Do we have follow-through for the rest of this week?” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist for CFRA.
Traders Peter Tuchman, right, slaps a high five before the closing bell on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Wednesday. The Dow closed up more than 1,000 points in best day for Wall Street in 10 years as stocks rally back from Christmas Eve beating.(AP Photo/Richard Drew)
Technology companies, health care stocks and banks drove much of the broad rally. Retailers also were big gainers,
after a holiday shopping season Energy stocks also reboundmarked by robust spending. ed as the price of U.S. crude oil Amazon had its biggest gain in posted its biggest one-day inmore than a year. crease in more than two years.
But what really might have pushed stocks over the top was a signal from Washington that President Donald Trump would not try to oust the chairman of the Federal Reserve. In recent days, Trump’s tweet attacks on the Fed and chairman Jerome Powell for raising interest rates stoked fears about the central bank’s independence, unnerving the market. The partial government shutdown that began over the weekend also weighed on the market, as did personnel turmoil inside the Trump administration, trade tensions with China, the slowing global economy and worries that corporate profits are going to slip sooner or later. The Dow lost 1,883 points over the prior four trading sessions and is still down 2,660 for December. Wednesday’s gains pulled the S&P 500 back from the brink of what Wall Street calls a bear market — a 20 percent tumble from an index’s peak. See STOCKS, page A3
Southeast fishermen target Group seeks grant funds for hagfish as winter catch proposed Beaver Loop bike path
By ANNIE ZAK Anchorage Daily News
ANCHORAGE — Consider the hagfish. Maybe you’ve never heard of these deep ocean creatures, also called “slime eels” for their eel-like appearance and ability to secrete huge amounts of opaque slime. Not exactly a mouth-watering description at first glance; yet over the past two years, a small-scale effort has developed in Southeast Alaska to harvest these fascinating uggos as a fledgling Alaska fishery. That’s unusual news in a state where most fishery resources are already developed. “There really aren’t too many species that we’re aware of where there is potential for growth that isn’t being taken advantage of,” said Forrest Bowers, acting director for the commercial fisheries divi-
See FISH, page A8
By KAT SORENSEN Peninsula Clarion
In this April 6, 2002, file photo, biology student Byron Pedler, left, and biochemistry grad student Mihael Freamat pour a barrel of hagfish into a holding tank aboard a research vessel about 20 miles off the coast of Portsmouth, N.H. (AP Photo/ Steven Senne, File)
intersection to the Beaver Loop intersection,” Boettger said. The grant money would come from a pool of more than $2 million from the Alaska Transportation Alternatives Program through the Department of Transportation. Grants are awarded to projects that improve health, quality of life, safety for bikes and pedestrians and that garner public support. The grant application is due Jan. 31, 2019 and would require the city’s support in the form of a resolution, which is expected to be on the council’s next agenda for their Jan. 16 meeting.
A local biking group is working to make Beaver Loop Road in Kenai bike-friendly. The Bike Kenai and Soldotna (BIK&S) group is seeking a grant with the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities to create a dedicated multiuse path along Beaver Loop Road. The grant would require a minimum 9.4 percent match from the city of Kenai. Benjamin Boettger of BIK&S told Kenai City Council last week that he was working on writing the DOT grant on behalf of the biking group. “I’m working on an application for a grant from DOT that Reach Kat Sorensen at ksowould largely fund a trail from rensen@peninsulaclarion. the Kenai Spur Bridge Access com.