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)

State's Transportation Plan Gets Federal OK
28 Mar 2024 15:06

By JAMES BROOKS
Alaska Beacon
    Federal officials on Wednesday approved most of Alaska’s four-y [ ... ]

New Funding Plan Ahead for Visit Sitka?
28 Mar 2024 15:02

By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
    At an hour-long work session with the Assembly Tuesda [ ... ]

Sitka 'Frankenstein' Puts Classic Tale in New Ligh...
28 Mar 2024 15:01

By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Sports Editor
    The story behind a classic, though often misunderstoo [ ... ]

State May Los Millions Over Ed Dept. Missteps
28 Mar 2024 14:59

By CLAIRE STREMPLE
Alaska Beacon
    The state government risks losing millions of dollars in feder [ ... ]

Gov Signs Bill On Internet In State Schools
28 Mar 2024 14:57

By JAMES BROOKS
Alaska Beacon
    Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy on Wednesday signed a bill that promise [ ... ]

Capitol Christmas Tree to Come from Tongass
28 Mar 2024 14:56

By YERETH ROSEN
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    Alaska’s Tongass National Forest, known for its steep mountains [ ... ]

City League Games Thursday
28 Mar 2024 14:52

By Sentinel Staff
    Playing Wednesday in competitive division City League volleyball matches, Ca [ ... ]

March 28, 2024, Police Blotter
28 Mar 2024 14:50

Police Blotter
Sitka police received the following calls by 8 a.m. today:
March 27
At 2:36 p.m. a dead  [ ... ]

March 28, 2024, Community Happenings
28 Mar 2024 14:48

This Week in Girls on the Run By Sitkans Against Family Violence
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During th [ ... ]

New RFP Sought For Managing PAC
27 Mar 2024 14:48

By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Staff Writer
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Seiners Get Second Day with 2 Areas to Fish
27 Mar 2024 14:46

By Sentinel Staff
    The Sitka Sound commercial herring sac roe fishery continued today with open [ ... ]

Braves Take Second in Last Minute Upset
27 Mar 2024 12:41

By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Sports Editor
    After storming into the state 3A boys basketball brac [ ... ]

Tuesday City League Volleyball
27 Mar 2024 12:39

By Sentinel Staff
    The Queen Bees’ spotless season record ended Tuesday night with a 2-1 loss [ ... ]

Kodiak Alutiiq Museum Getting New Attention
27 Mar 2024 12:37

By SHIRLEY SNEVE
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    A major renovation at an Alaska museum to attract tourist [ ... ]

House Hearing on Inmate Deaths Halted
27 Mar 2024 12:35

By CLAIRE STREMPLE
Alaska Beacon
    A presentation about a jump in the number of inmate deaths in  [ ... ]

Nominee to Bering Sea Council: Not a Trawler
27 Mar 2024 12:34

By NATHANIEL HERZ
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    Tribal and environmental advocates calling for a crackdown o [ ... ]

March 27, 2024, Police Blotter
27 Mar 2024 12:26

Police Blotter
Sitka police received the following calls by 8 a.m. today:
March 26
At 2:10 p.m. a man e [ ... ]

March 27, 2024, Community Happenings
27 Mar 2024 12:25

Big Rigs Sought
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Reassessments Raise Tax Bills for Sitkans
26 Mar 2024 15:22

By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
    The city’s reassessment of taxable real estate, alo [ ... ]

Two Areas Opened in Herring Fishery Today
26 Mar 2024 15:21

By Sentinel Staff
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Lady Wolves Rally to Take Fourth at State
26 Mar 2024 15:16

By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel Sports Editor
    Sitka High’s Lady Wolves bounced back from an openi [ ... ]

Edgecumbe Girls Close Out Season Up North
26 Mar 2024 14:58

By GARLAND KENNEDY
Sentinel ports Editor
    Competing in the state 3A basketball tournament in Anc [ ... ]

City League Monday
26 Mar 2024 14:55

By Sentinel Staff
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House Votes to Broaden Rules For Review Panel Memb...
26 Mar 2024 14:52

By JAMES BROOKS
Alaska Beacon
    A bill that passed the Alaska House of Representatives on Monday  [ ... ]

Other Articles

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.

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