Airport shooting settles at $3.5 million
The federal government agreed Friday to a $3.5 million settlement in the case of Dietzmann et al vs. U.S.A. involving the shooting of an infant who was caught in the crossfire as police sought to arrest his father at the Homer airport in 2006.
Marion Chrysler Kelly, Phillip Paul Weidner, Timothy Kent Ford, and Pamela Sherry Sullivan, Counsel for the Plaintiffs in Dietzmann, et al., v. U.S.A., et al., announced that they had reached the settlement after lengthy litigation with the federal government and the U.S.
HEA to purchase power plant
Homer Electric Association has agreed to terms with Chugach Electric Association on the purchase of the Bernice Lake Power Plant for $11.8 million.
The plant, which has a generation capacity of about 69.9 megawatts, is located in Nikiski, just north of the Tesoro refinery. HEA purchases about 73 megawatts from Chugach, making this generation potentially the answer to a problem HEA has grappled with in its 2013 contract conclusion with Chugach. The purchase of the Bernice Lake Power Plant is being made through HEA’s generation and transmission subsidiary, Alaska Electric and Energy Cooperative.
City opts out of problematic tsunami system
In the near future, when a tsunami warning alert goes off in Homer, the message will be sent out by the police department dispatchers.
The Homer City Council passed a resolution Monday night making the city’s “opt out” of the current automatically activated system official. Seward, Kenai and Seldovia also are considering the move, which is meant to calm the chaos of the now automated message sent out on a regional level.
River guides protest bait restrictions
Mondays being drift-boat-only days on the Kenai River, with no power boats allowed, they are typically the only day a week off fishing guides with power boats get all week. This Monday guides still hitched their boats to their trucks and went angling. But instead of heading to the river to help their clients catch king salmon, as they would any other day of the week, it was to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game office on Kalifornsky Beach Road to angle for king-friendly support from fishery managers.
Homer placed in ‘Thirsty for Answers’
A national group studying how cities are preparing for anticipated changes in water supplies and a rising ocean released a report Tuesday that details the City of Homer’s climate action plan along with those of 11 other cities.
Chocolate lily irresistible to flies
A couple weeks back, I was invited to join a number of fellow entomologists in an attempt to collect as many insect species as possible from selected areas within the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge.
Each of us concentrated on those insects we know the best. For me that was the aquatic dipterans known aschironomids. The larvae develop in various aquatic habitats, become a pupa for a few days, and then emerge as an aerial adult. They look like miniature mosquitoes but the adults do not feed.
Community News – July 27
This was a great week for ling cod fishing, with one sport fisherman hauling in what may be a new state record.
Dylan Moffit caught a ling in Kachemak Bay that weighed 67 pounds. Moffit was fishing with Ocean Charter’s Capt. Dave DeBrosse. It measured out at 55 inches. A few pounds more, and it could have broken a national record.
To mow or not to mow?
The Homer Public Library lawn epitomizes some of the town’s eccentric traits. Through the years, its summer turnout is a compromise between the factions in town who would have all lawns mowed and those eco-friendly people who point out it wastes resources and is not the best approach for the environment.
King problems line up as perfect storm
The phrase “Perfect Storm” comes from a movie of the same name where a hardened commercial fishing captain experiences the best catches of prized fish and a killer storm on the same trip. The vessel, crew and catch are all lost in the storm. The fisheries staff of KRSA began using the phrase prior to and during the February/March 2011 meeting of the Alaska Board of Fisheries to describe a scenario that we felt was very possible.
Congress must act to stabilize economy
Social Security checks to nearly 80,000 Alaskans could be delayed. Medicare benefits to 65,000 Alaskans may be affected. More than 25,000 active-duty Alaska military personnel might have trouble getting paid on time.
This is the tip of the iceberg of potential problems for Alaskans if Congress fails to approve a new debt limit and the federal government defaults on its financial obligations.
I can’t think of a more irresponsible predicament. That’s why I’m working every angle possible to pass a responsible federal budget that also sets a new debt limit.
