LUTHERAN QUILTERS – Members of the Quilts for Comfort Group stand between pews draped with some of the 205 quilts they made, in the Sitka Lutheran Church Tuesday. The group made the quilts for five local non-profits and one in Anchorage. The remaining quilts are sent to Lutheran World Relief which distributes them to places around the world in need, such as Ukraine, as part of Personal Care Kits. Pictured are, from left, Helen Cunningham, Kathleen Brandt,Vicki Swanson, Paulla Hardy, Kim Hunter, Linda Swanson and Sue Fleming. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
By JAMES BROOKS
Alaska Beacon
Federal officials on Wednesday approved most of Alaska’s four-y [ ... ]
By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
At an hour-long work session with the Assembly Tuesda [ ... ]
By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Sports Editor
The story behind a classic, though often misunderstoo [ ... ]
By CLAIRE STREMPLE
Alaska Beacon
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Alaska Beacon
Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy on Wednesday signed a bill that promise [ ... ]
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Alaska Beacon
Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, known for its steep mountains [ ... ]
By Sentinel Staff
Playing Wednesday in competitive division City League volleyball matches, Ca [ ... ]
Police Blotter
Sitka police received the following calls by 8 a.m. today:
March 27
At 2:36 p.m. a dead [ ... ]
This Week in Girls on the Run
By Sitkans Against Family Violence
and The Pathways Coalition
During th [ ... ]
By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
The future of management and operations at the Perform [ ... ]
By Sentinel Staff
The Sitka Sound commercial herring sac roe fishery continued today with open [ ... ]
By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Sports Editor
After storming into the state 3A boys basketball brac [ ... ]
By Sentinel Staff
The Queen Bees’ spotless season record ended Tuesday night with a 2-1 loss [ ... ]
By SHIRLEY SNEVE
Indian Country Today
A major renovation at an Alaska museum to attract tourist [ ... ]
By CLAIRE STREMPLE
Alaska Beacon
A presentation about a jump in the number of inmate deaths in [ ... ]
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Northern Journal
Tribal and environmental advocates calling for a crackdown o [ ... ]
Police Blotter
Sitka police received the following calls by 8 a.m. today:
March 26
At 2:10 p.m. a man e [ ... ]
Big Rigs Sought
For April 13
The 3 to 5 Preschool’s spring fundraiser and Big Rig event is happening [ ... ]
By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
The city’s reassessment of taxable real estate, alo [ ... ]
By Sentinel Staff
The third opening in this year’s Sitka Sound sac roe herring fishery was held Mon [ ... ]
By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Sports Editor
Sitka High’s Lady Wolves bounced back from an openi [ ... ]
By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel ports Editor
Competing in the state 3A basketball tournament in Anc [ ... ]
By Sentinel Staff
Playing in a competitive division City League volleyball game Monday evening [ ... ]
By JAMES BROOKS
Alaska Beacon
A bill that passed the Alaska House of Representatives on Monday [ ... ]
Daily Sitka Sentinel
Legislators Again Fail To Overturn Vetoes
By DAN JOLING
Associated Press
ANCHORAGE (AP) — Minority members of the Alaska House of Representatives and a handful of state senators today again refused to join colleagues at a special session in Juneau, thwarting efforts to overturn budget vetoes by Gov. Mike Dunleavy.
The deadline for overturning vetoes, which critics say could devastate the Alaska economy, is Friday night.
More than a third of the 60-member Legislature, including 16 members of the House Minority and five state senators, missed today’s joint session.
Dunleavy called for the special session to be in Wasilla, his hometown and the home of his conservative base. Senate and House leaders, citing security, access and expense, decided to instead to meet at the Capitol in Juneau.
The missing lawmakers have been gathering at a makeshift legislative hall in the gymnasium of a Wasilla middle school. They say the Juneau session is an illegal gathering and they will not attend.
In anguished floor speeches, lawmakers warned of harm to vulnerable Alaskans and severe damage to the state economy if vetoes were not overturned.
“Please join us,” said Sen. John Coghill, R-North Pole, a 20-year legislative veteran and the son of an author of the Alaska Constitution. “The people of Alaska need your voice. We can’t do it without you.”
Sen. Bert Stedman, R-Sitka, the co-chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, called his missing colleagues “dissidents” who were not fulfilling their sworn duty.
“The real issue is they’re not here,” he said.
The absent lawmakers, he said, had thwarted his right to argue in favor of money to expand a Ketchikan dock. The dock expansion is needed for Ketchikan to home-port a federal hydrographic survey vessel.
“I want my constitutional rights back,” he said.
Dunleavy, a first-term Republican who took office in December, vetoed more than $400 million from the state operating budget.
About one-third of his vetoes fell on the University of Alaska, which saw its state funding cut by 41%. University of Alaska officials say the system will lose $135 million on top of a $51 million cut over the past six years, which resulted in the loss of 1,200 faculty and staff members and 50 academic and degree programs.
Officials warned as many as 2,000 more staff and faculty would be lost, including 700 at UA Anchorage, along with 40 degree programs.
Coghill said the Fairbanks-area economy has three pillars: the University of Alaska, the military and a combination of tourism and mining. When Defense Department officials in 2005 prepared to shutter Eielson Air Force Base, Fairbanks officials argued persuasively that the University of Alaska offered excellent education opportunities for military personnel and their families, Coghill said.
The university supplies training that supports the others pillars of the economy, he said.
“One-third of my economy is going to drag the rest of the community with it,” Coghill said.
Dunleavy also vetoed money for low-income senior citizens, public broadcasting, the state arts council, drug rehabilitation and battered women’s shelters.
He reduced spending for Medicaid, reimbursement to communities for school construction, the Civil Air Patrol, and ocean monitors on cruise ships.
Sen. Natasha von Imhof, R-Anchorage, on Wednesday accused missing colleagues of using the session location to duck the veto override vote.
“It’s a red herring to mask the real issues of what we are facing here today,” she said.
Dunleavy’s vetoes, she said, will “bite us hard in the future” when patients who lost Medicaid show up in emergency rooms, homeless people turned away from shelters commit crimes, drug addicts lose treatment and bright young minds leave Alaska for opportunities elsewhere.
Rep. Ivy Spohnholz, D-Anchorage, also called the location dispute an excuse to avoid a courageous decision.
“It’s difficult to stand up to your party,” she said. “It’s difficult to stand up to your governor. But the cost to the state of Alaska is huge.”
Alaskans pay no state income or sales tax and receive annual checks from earnings of the Alaska Permanent Fund, a savings account created with oil wealth and grown over decades by investment earnings. Since 1996, the checks have exceeded $1,000 all but four years.
Dunleavy has called for a dividend check of $3,000 and has refused to consider new taxes. He said last week that he based the budget vetoes on a desire to provide basic services “while understanding our fiscal constraints.”
Senate Minority Leader Tom Begich, D-Anchorage, said the past two days were two of the hardest of his life.
“I know that the things we are doing will potentially break this place,” Begich said.
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20 YEARS AGO
March 2004
Advertisement: Tea-Licious Tea House & Bakery 315 Lincoln Street Grand Opening! Freshly Baked Scones, Cakes & Pastries Innovative Salads, Soups & Sandwiches Harney & Sons Tea. Lunch * Afternoon Tea * Supper.
50 YEARS AGO
March 1974
Photo caption: National Republican Chairman George Bush takes a drink of water offered by Jan Craddick, Sitka delegate, during the Republican convention held here. Mrs. Craddick explained to Bush that the water was from Indian River, which means, according to local legend, that he will return.