Miller bests Murkowski in District 35
The message of the Tea Party Express won over many voters’ minds on the Kenai Peninsula, showing up in District 35′s voting results as favoring Joe Miller over incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski by just under 200 votes or 1,223 to 1,056.
A tight count statewide means that race is too close to call. Statewide, the two hang by 45,909 Miller votes to 43,949 for Murkowski, with nine more precinct ballots needing to be counted. Miller, a Fairbanks attorney, led from when the first returns came in Tuesday night.
Cities share sisterly secrets of success
Eight visitors from Teshio, Japan continue to spend their week meeting Homer residents and taking in the sights in celebration of the 25-year Sister City relationship between Homer and Teshio. And, while exchanging gifts, ideas and stories about their lives, the two very different groups discovered they have a number of things in common. Politics isn’t necessarily one of them.
Pilot praised for saving lives
A flight-seeing tour went awry Thursday forcing a Homer pilot to make an emergency landing on a nearby glacier.
At 2:08 p.m, a Homer Flight Service pilot reported that a Homer Air Cessna 206 was attempting an emergency landing on Grewingk Glacier, and crashed after the engine stalled. Homer Flight Services dispatched Maritime Helicopters with two EMT’s from Homer to the location of the Cessna, said Alaska Department of Public Safety Information Officer Megan Peters.
Long journey, short road
When the state fixed a 6-mile segment of the Pile Bay Road outside Iliamna last summer for $6.2 million, they built pullouts to take some of the pressure off its limitations as a one-way gravel road.
The newly built turnouts allow a northbound truck to pull over if a southbound one comes along, as well as providing spots for emergency pullovers.
Already considered dangerous for its narrowness, the transportation route through lush green wilderness and lavender mountains is made a further hazard by boats, equipment and vehicles parked in some of the only pullouts available along the 15.5 mile road.
Matti’s Farm brings ‘sparkling energy’ to the fair
Despite the ominous clouds drifting through Ninilchik over the weekend, an air of excitement and energy coursed through the Kenai Peninsula State Fair as kids bearing “passports” navigated through a series of farm “stations.”
They all wanted to be part of Matti’s Farm.
The son of Blair and Ronna Martin of Diamond M Ranch in Kenai, Matthias Martin died at the fair last year when a cow he had tied himself to spooked and bolted, dragging him across the fairgrounds. The Martin family — a three-generation Alaska family with roots that run deep in agriculture and animal care — decided to turn the tragedy into something positive.
Community News – Aug. 25
Jasper makes Dean’s List William Jasper completed his freshman year at Southern Oregon University in Ashland. He was on the Dean’s list all three quarters of this past academic school year. Iredale wins writing award Homer High School freshman Taylor Iredale was awarded the Editor’s Choice in the 28th-Annual Creative Writing Contest sponsored by UAA [...]
Understanding our coastal environment
When Mayor Jim Hornaday came back from a climate change meeting last year, he drafted a letter to the Kachemak Bay Research Reserve.
The land around Kachemak Bay, Hornaday had heard, was rising.
“What does this mean to us?” he asked. “Are we going to wash away or gain more land?”
ENSTAR cautions city on gasline
• Unknown variables may crop up By Naomi Klouda Homer Tribune Getting a gasline to Homer carries a lot of unknowns right now, but officials encouraged the city to remain optimistic, even while being realistic that funding might not happen in the coming legislative year. ENSTAR has purchased one mile of pipe and other equipment [...]
Surviving ‘Old Skool’ recess
If you are reading this while awake, upright and semi-conscious, congratulations! You’ve survived your first day of school.
I realize this is — technically — the second day of school. But, I understand how some of you may need a little extra recovery time — especially with all that back-packing, lunch-making, clothes-arguing, hair-disaster-fixing, ribbon-straightening and shoe-tying going on. Besides, I’ve heard from a number of reliable sources around town that there is a secret, underground network of Homer moms who meet surreptitiously for champagne after dropping their kids off on the first day of school.
Moral crimes in an immoral society
It seems relatively ridiculous to actually have to sit down and write an editorial that explains why it’s not OK for grown men to have sex with 15-year-old girls.
Yet, here I am.
On Saturday, the Anchorage Daily News ran a front page story of a woman who alleged that former Veco chief Bill Allen “repeatedly paid her for sex, starting when she was 15.”
The U.S. Department of Justice says it won’t prosecute him for those crimes, and won’t say why, according to the Daily News.
