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CLARION
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P E N I N S U L A
Friday-Saturday, March 14-15 Soldotna-Kenai, Alaska
Vol. 44, Issue 140
50 cents newsstands daily/$1.00 Sunday
Hawaii, Alaska, territories team up on Jones Act
Question Will the EPA’s move to preemptively block the Pebble Mine discourage other industrial development in the state? n Yes; or n No. To place your vote and comment, visit our Web site at www. peninsulaclarion. com. Results and selected comments will be posted each Tuesday in the Clarion, and a new question will be asked.
By CATHY BUSSEWITZ The Associated Press
In the news House passes $9.1B state operating budget
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JUNEAU — The Alaska House has passed a $9.1 billion state operating budget by a vote of 32-6. Minority Democrats proposed numerous amendments that were rejected, including some previously offered in the House Finance Committee. That included $101 million for schools to help avert district layoffs or other cuts. House Finance members said that discussion should be had when bills dealing with an increase in the per-pupil funding formula reach the committee. Democratic Rep. Les Gara said a goal in offering the proposal on the floor was to keep up pressure to increase school funding. In committee Wednesday, co-chair Rep. Bill Stoltze said someday these might be looked back on as the “good times,” alluding to the expectation the state will need to rely on savings to get by until revenues increase. The measure next goes to the Senate. — The Associated Press
Correction A story in Thursday’s Clarion requires a correction to the number of tunics Susanna Evins designed for the Tustumena 200 and the Iditarod. Evins originally created a tunic for the first female finisher of the T-200 She created a new tunic for the first female finisher of the Iditarod. The Clarion regrets the error.
Index Opinion.................. A-4 Nation.................... A-6 World..................... A-8 Religion.................A-10 Sports.....................B-1 Recreation............. C-1 Classifieds............ C-3 Comics................. C-11 Check us out online at www.peninsulaclarion.com To subscribe, call 283-3584.
Photos by Kelly Sullivan/ Peninsula Clarion
Above: Students of the inaugural Survival 101 spring break camp at the Challenger Learning Center of Alaska in Kenai learn how to make safety formations to conserve energy when stuck floating in cold water on Wednesday at Kenai Central High School. Below: Donovan Orth, 14, struggles with his fellow classmates to stay in sync and swim forward as a group.
Coming up for air Teens learn to survive in frigid water By KELLY SULLIVAN Peninsula Clarion
Instead of taking a break from learning, an eager group of seven teens spent their spring vacation developing skills such as identifying edible tree bark, and escaping a submerged fuselage during Survival 101, which debuted at the Challenger Learning Center of Alaska in Kenai on Monday, March 10. After he spent encased in a restrictive survival suit, repeatedly dumped upside down underwater and taking turns, and dragging his peers across the pool at Kenai Central High School, Donovan Orth, 14, said there still wasn’t a single thing
he hasn’t liked at the camp this week. “The survival suits were buoyant and fun to lay back on,” Orth said. The water-based activities were meant to reproduce emergency situations people may encounter as part a plane crash, or after falling overboard and in very cold water. Students were taught to pat their heads if anything went wrong, then instructor would immediately pull them out of the water. Summer Lazenb,y Director of Education Operations, has also taken the water-safety training, which had previously been offered for adults. Lazenby See WATER, page A-12
HONOLULU — Lawmakers from Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico and Guam are teaming up to pressure the U.S. government for relief from a maritime law passed in the 1920s. The Jones Act was designed to protect the domestic shipping industry. It states that only ships made in the U.S. and flying the country’s flags can deliver goods between U.S. ports. That means that a cargo ship filled with goods from China can only make one stop in the U.S. at a time. It can’t stop in Hawaii to exchange goods before heading to Los Angeles. Hawaii state Sen. Sam Slom says the law punishes the people of Alaska, Puerto Rico, Guam and Hawaii with high costs of living. Representatives from the impacted states and territories met in a videoconference Thursday. “All of our areas are specifically impacted by the Jones Act,” Slom said. “It is now known that the Hawaiian cost of living, primarily because of our additional shipping cost and because of the Jones Act, are now 49 percent higher than the U.S. mainland. And this is becoming unbearable. It’s difficult for individuals. It’s difficult for families. It’s difficult for small businesses as well. Slom is part of a bipartisan group of Hawaii lawmakers pushing Congress to reconsider See ACT, page A-5
Proposed education Testimony on HB77 extended amendment pulled By BECKY BOHRER Associated Press
JUNEAU — A proposed constitutional amendment that would allow for public money to be used for private or religious schools was pulled from the Senate floor ahead of scheduled debate Wednesday. The measure’s sponsor, Sen. Mike Dunleavy, said he expected it to return though there was question about whether it would. “I would be surprised to see it again, frankly,” Senate Education Committee chair, and critic of SJR9, Gary Stevens, said Wednesday. Dunleavy, R-Wasilla, told reporters he asked that SJR9 be returned to Senate Rules while he awaited information on constitutional and legal issues surrounding the measure. He said he expected the information he was awaiting — including surrounding current practices on things like post-secondary scholarships, pre-kindergarten funding and public money going to nonpublic entities for education or training — would bolster, rather than poke holes in, his position. Senate Rules is the committee that sets the Senate calendar. It also is where bills wait until they receive sufficient support to advance. Dunleavy said he was confi-
dent the measure would reach the floor again. Senate Majority Leader John Coghill, a cosponsor of the measure, was more cautious. While Coghill, R-North Pole, supports having a debate on the issue he said there’s a difference between having a debate when people are flexible in their position and having a debate “and it just flops without a whole lot of support.” “I think if it comes back, you’ll see that it actually has the support level and beyond,” he said. SJR9 proposes striking a provision in the state constitution prohibiting use of public funds for the direct benefit of private or religious schools. It also proposes adding, in a section of the constitution that says public money cannot be appropriated except for a public purpose, that nothing in that section shall prevent payment of public funds “for the direct educational benefit of students as provided by law.” Since it would affect two sections of the constitution, questions have been asked about whether the change could be proposed by the legislature as an amendment or if it would require a constitutional convention. See PULL, page A-5
By DAN BALMER Peninsula Clarion
With each passing minute at the Legislative Information Office in Kenai, it became increasingly obvious that not all of the 25 people that came to give public testimony on House Bill 77 Wednesday would be heard. Two days after the Senate Resources committee released the updated bill, Alaskans from all across the state were given 90 minutes with each person limited to two-minutes to speak to the amendments made to Gov. Sean Parnell’s 25-page land management bill. Of the 47 people who testified, two were in favor of the bill. Both represented mining development interests. The overwhelming majority of people who spoke were tribal leaders, fishers and environmentalists who argued that the bill -even in its revised form- undermines the public’s ability to challenge decisions of water reservation made by the Department of Natural Resources. Just four people at the Kenai LIO were able to speak. Steve Schoonmaker was one of them. The Kasilof man said he had been fishing for more than 30 years and salmon meant a lot to him. During C
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his two-minute testimony, Schoonmaker read a poem he wrote asking the committee to “listen up” to the wave of opposition to the proposed bill. “We have this conflict with development and habitat; its called management and stewardship,” he said. “In a place like this where salmon means so much more and is so rare in the whole world, lets please work together.” If the committee gives the people a chance to speak, they should exercise that right and if they don’t, the government will not give them the oppor-
tunity, he said. Gerald Brookman, Clark Whitney and Robert Ruffner also testified against HB77. Ruffner, Executive Director of the Kenai Watershed Forum, a non-profit habitat protection group, said he is familiar with regulatory permitting requirements in multi-jurisdictional environments. He said he doesn’t think every water right or every reservation should be granted. “There needs to be a fair process for consideration and a clear pathway to reach a de-
See BILL, page A-12
Photo by Dan Balmer/Peninsula Clarion
Clark Whitney of Kenai gives a two-minute testimony telephonically to the Senate Resource Committee in opposition to House Bill 77 at the Legislative Information Office in Kenai Wednesday. Approximately 25 people packed the Kenai office to give testimony but only three were heard by the committee as they heard from residents all over the state. More than 40 people commented in the 90-minute period with only two people in support of the amended bill.