|
|
|
|
PALMER - Organizers are collecting signatures in an effort to recall Sen. Scott Ogan, who is under fire for what some residents perceive as a conflict of interest over coal bed methane drilling.
Ogan, R-Palmer, had a $40,000-a-year consulting job with Evergreen Resources Inc., the same company that is proposing to explore for coal bed methane on more than 300,000 acres across the Matanuska-Susitna Borough.
| [an error occurred while processing this directive] |
But the leaders of the recall effort say the damage is already done. A new Web site created by recall supporters accuses Ogan of promoting Evergreen's interests while working as a legislator. They also say he voted for a bill last year that limited public input on methane operations.
There are four grounds for recall in Alaska, according to the state Division of Elections: lack of fitness, incompetence, neglect of duties, and corruption.
Recall supporters are accusing Ogan of all four, said Sutton potter Robin McLean, who is helping organize the effort but does not live in Ogan's district.
Ferry funds would add service to Seldovia area
HOMER - Congress is poised to approve millions to design a ferry that backers say could jump-start a housing boom on the south shores of Kachemak Bay.
The spending bill, awaiting final U.S. Senate action, includes $2 million to plan and design the high-speed ferry.
Backers envision a bay transformed by twice-daily service, whereby new residents would commute across the water to work or shop like residents of Puget Sound. They say they hope to follow quickly with another $10 million in federal funds to buy a ferry, before Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, steps down next year as chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee.
"We see this being the key to economic development in Seldovia," said Michael Beal, head of the Seldovia Native Association, the Native corporation that presented the idea to Stevens. "Most of our shareholders do not live in Seldovia now because there's no work there."
The fast ferry is central to an ambitious $44 million intermodal transportation program being pushed by the Seldovia Native corporation for the south side of Kachemak Bay. The plan includes reopening a road across the mountains to the Gulf of Alaska as a boon to tourism and fishing.
Agency seeks input on proposed trawling policy
KODIAK - Federal fisheries managers want comments on a preliminary decision not to reduce bottom trawling in parts of the North Pacific Ocean designated as essential fish habitat.
The National Marine Fisheries Service, in a draft document, said managers would prefer to slightly reduce the amount of area designated as essential fish habitat and not add new fishing limits in those places.
Existing restrictions, such as year-round trawl closures in some regions, would continue under the proposal. NMFS has opened a 90-day public comment period on the draft document.
Trawl operations drag fish nets close to the ocean bottom, knocking over or crushing rocks, plants and corals. Environmental groups and some fishermen want the practice limited or banned in important habitat.
The North Pacific Fishery Management Council in October opted to stick with existing restrictions because it saw no evidence that the industry has harmed fish populations.
NATION
NEW YORK - Now that wireless companies can track a mobile phone's location, customers will want to control exactly who knows where they are and when.
Bell Labs says it has developed a network software engine that can let cell users be as picky as they choose about disclosing their whereabouts, a step that may help wireless companies introduce "location-based services" in a way customers will find handy rather than intrusive.
In a presentation this month at an industry conference, researchers for the Bell Labs division of Lucent Technologies Inc. plan to describe how their technology copes with the conflicting demands of speed, privacy and personalization on a live telephone network - enabling users to specify what location information is shared, when, with whom, how and under what circumstances.
Under a federal mandate requiring that cell carriers be able to pinpoint the whereabouts of any customer who calls 911 during an emergency, expensive network upgrades have made wireless companies more anxious to deploy services which can exploit these new capabilities for a profit.
WORLD
GENEVA - A World Trade Organization appeals panel has given a boost to the United States in a dispute with Canada, reversing most of an earlier ruling that said special U.S. duties on Canadian lumber were illegal.
The panel agreed with U.S. claims that lumber from state-owned lands in Canada can be unfairly subsidized if provincial governments sell the wood at below-market price. Therefore the United States has the right to impose extra duties to prevent cheap Canadian wood harming U.S. manufacturers, the panel said Jan. 19.
It stressed, however, that Washington would still have to carry out more extensive investigations before it could justify imposing duties on some imports of logs.
The decision was applauded by U.S. Trade Representative spokesman Richard Mills, who labeled Canadian lumber policies as unfair subsidies.
- Compiled from business wire services.
