The Homer Tribune :: Homer, Alaska

The Weekender: What's Happening in Homer this weekend?

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

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IN THE NEWS

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Picking through Pebble Project

Amid new surges in the Alaska Clean Water Initiative movement, and facing a virtual standstill in the permitting process if AGIA moves ahead, the Pebble Project continues to bore test holes in the tundra outside Iliamna — searching for evidence of more gold, copper and molybdenum some 6,000 feet underground.
“We have well over 100 miles of rock core – and it’s been sampled every 10 feet,” said Pebble Mine Project Director of Site Operations Lena Brommeland. “Today, we have eight drills operating.”

'Bearing' life with bruins

Each week, the Homer Police Department receives a number of calls about bears wandering into front yards, climbing on porches or meandering in the roads.
And while opinion varies on whether the increase in sightings are a result of climbing black bear population, or bad habits on the part of residents, area biologist Thomas McDonough is encouraging people to quit setting out garbage and storing dog food outside, as that only encourages bears into the neighborhood.

Obama goes after Alaska's votes

In an effort to establish a presence in Alaska prior to the November election, U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama will likely include a Kenai Peninsula field office.
Campaign manager Pete Rouse, speaking telephonically to media from around the state on Thursday, announced that offices will be opened in the usual high-population towns like Fairbanks, Juneau and the Mat-Su Valley in addition to the one now staffed in Anchorage.
Setting up an office on the peninsula, possibly Homer or Kenai, is still being discussed, Rouse said.

Fire consumes hillside home

Homer volunteer firefighters battled a Diamond Ridge house fire the better part of Sunday night, and thought they had the flames completely snuffed by early Monday morning. However, high winds re-ignited the blaze around 4:30 a.m., and crews had to be called out again. The fire was finally extinguished by 11:30 a.m. Monday morning, leaving the home a bare shell, said Homer Fire Chief Bob Painter.

Four whales die in Cook Inlet

Three humpbacks were found in or near Kachemak Bay this week, reportedly killed by predator orca whales. A beluga whale baby also was found in upper Cook Inlet, bringing the week total to a rare four.
A marine biologist with National Marine Fisheries, Barbara Mahoney, was receiving reports Tuesday of two humpbacks found floating by Chugiak and Pearl Islands on Sunday. On Monday, a third was found floating by Yukon Island.

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Humpback

A 28-foot sub-adult female humpback whale expells its stomach following a 2005 death in Kachemak Bay.