JUNEAU — Gov. Sean Parnell on Tuesday signed into law an overhaul of Alaska’s oil tax structure, hailing it as part of an historic legislative package aimed at moving the state forward.

Parnell, who championed the overhaul as a way to increase oil production and industry investment, repeatedly referred to the bill as the “More Alaska Production Act.”

“It’s been an historic year for our state, it’s been a phenomenal year, a comeback year,” Parnell told a crowd at the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce. He said Alaska’s “energy comeback begins today.”

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JUNEAU — Gov. Sean Parnell on Tuesday signed into law an overhaul of Alaska’s oil tax structure, hailing it as part of an historic legislative package aimed at moving the state forward.

Parnell, who championed the overhaul as a way to increase oil production and industry investment, repeatedly referred to the bill as the “More Alaska Production Act.”

“It’s been an historic year for our state, it’s been a phenomenal year, a comeback year,” Parnell told a crowd at the Anchorage Chamber of Commerce. He said Alaska’s “energy comeback begins today.”

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David Wilcox, 14, and his father, Brett, are running across the United States next year. The pair hopes to raise awareness about genetically modified foods, which they say are a danger to the global food supply. (KCAW photo by Ed Ronco)

Note: This story was updated to reflect comment from Monsanto, which was received after our initial deadline.

A Sitka man and his 14-year-old son are hoping to convince you that genetically modified organisms are bad for your health, and for the environment.

Agriculture companies modify the DNA of plants that enter the food supply, to help them grow faster or bigger, or be more resilient to pests. Brett and David Wilcox are channeling their opposition into a demonstration in Sitka this weekend.

The Sitka demonstration is called the “March Against Monsanto.” It coincides with other similar events around the world and is scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday atop Castle Hill.

But Brett and David Wilcox also hope a big journey next year will help bring attention to their cause.

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“We’re going to be running across the country,” says David Wilcox, 14. “We’re starting somewhere in California, and we haven’t really thought of an ending point yet.”

His father, 52-year-old Brett Wilcox, says they’ll include a stop in St. Louis, headquarters to the agribusiness giant Monsanto. The company has become a lightning rod for the debate over genetically modified foods. Among other things, it markets modified seeds to farmers. The seeds are patented and farmers who keep extra seeds for replanting can find themselves taken to court.

That bothers Brett Wilcox, but his bigger worry is about the environmental impact of genetically modified foods. He says his spiritual beliefs are opposed to modified organisms, but also that he has unanswered questions about their scientific safety.

“We’re going to gather seeds from the world, and we’re either going to have them in a backpack and we’re going to carry them as we cross the country, or if we get so many seeds that we put them in a trailer and pull them behind us, we will do that,” Brett Wilcox said. “Those seeds will be the symbol for the run, saying this is why we are running. This is the purpose. We are here to say that we honor these sacred seeds, and we don’t want people messing with them.”

Monsanto is no stranger to the criticisms. The company has an extensive website built entirely to respond to common arguments people make against its practices. One page is titled “Why does Monsanto sue farmers who save seeds?” The company says it’s simply protecting its patents. Another is titled “Farmer suicides in India,” and denies claims that the modified cotton has driven farmers on the subcontinent to kill themselves.

In a written statement, Monsanto spokesman Tom Helscher says the company respects the fact that people can have different points of view, but that the safety of genetically modified crops is well established. The crops undergo federal review by two, sometimes three, federal agencies, including the Food and Drug Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“Hundreds of studies in the peer-reviewed scientific literature support the safety of GM crops and there has not been a single substantiated instance of illness or harm associated with their use,” Helscher wrote in an e-mail to KCAW. “The National Academies of Science, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the World Health Organization and the American Medical Association – among others – have all concluded that GM foods do not pose any more risk to people than other foods.”

The history of agriculture is full of developments in technology — things that have increased the amount of food farmers were able to send to plates. Tractors replaced horses. Fertilizers boosted crops. But Brett Wilcox says what Monsanto and other companies are doing is different.

“What they are producing is not meant to feed the growing population,” he says. “It’s meant to feed cars and cattle. Very little of the research is designed to do anything that would provide any sort of enhanced nutrition. It’s all designed to give them a patent — a legal hold on seeds — so that farmers are then brought into a modern-day slavery system.”

Brett Wilcox says farmers have become too beholden to Monsanto. So, he and David are preparing for their run.

“David has done two half marathons and he’s going to do another half this summer,” he said. “He’ll do his first full marathon this summer for Sitka’s inaugural full marathon. We’re excited about that coming up on August 3rd.”

Brett Wilcox also runs marathons, although he didn’t come to running until his 40s.

“I kind of grew up with the belief that I didn’t have the heart to run,” he said. “That’s not true. I do fine running, and I enjoy it. I’ve done a couple of marathons, and it helps keep me relatively sane.”

The two Wilcoxes plan to leave on their journey sometime in January. They estimate it will take about eight months.

Gov. Sean Parnell discusses budget bills in Anchorage Tuesday as Budget Director Karen Rehfeld reviews paperwork.

Governor Sean Parnell left Southeast Alaska project funding intact when he signed the capital budget Tuesday.

But he blocked the transfer of money from one older project to another.

The Legislature’s capital budget called for taking $5 million out of $17 million set aside for a cruise-ship dock in Hoonah. Lawmakers transferred that money to a planned aquatic center in Sitka.

During an Anchorage press conference, Parnell said it was a bad idea.

“That dock is still needed. The growth in passenger traffic, travel-industry traffic, is creating jobs in Hoonah, right down to our high-school age level. That money needs to stay there so they can continue to build their economy there,” he said.

He said it’s unfair to let one town, quote, “rob” another of its capital-project funding.

Sitka’s aquatic center, which has other funding, will be part of the state-run Mount Edgecumbe boarding high school.

Cruise ship passengers board a tendering vessel at Huna Totem’s Icy Strait Point. Lawmakers have funded a new berthing facility, which has not been built. Photo by Ed Schoenfeld, Coastalaska News.

Money for Hoonah’s dock was in the 2011 capital budget. And Hoonah’s municipal government and the local Icy Strait Point tourist attraction have clashed over its location.

Parnell’s Budget Director Karen Rehfeld said the project is still on track.

“The mayor and others have been in touch with us to let us know that they are doing some of the geotechnical work now and that it is moving forward,” she said. “And clearly if the $5 million had been reapporiated from the project for another community’s project, they simply would not be able to move forward with it.

The governor did allow $2 million from the dock project to be transferred to the Hoonah Health Center. The Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium facility needs matching funds to begin construction of a new building.

Rehfeld said Hoonah leaders told her office they supported that change. And since it was in the same community, the governor kept it in the budget.

Sitka Democratic Rep. Jonathan Kriess-Tomkins said he was not involved in the reappropriation effort. Sitka Republican Sen. Bert Stedman could not be reached for immediate comment. Both also represent Hoonah.

Southeast projects in the Capital Budget include:

Infrastructure

• Haines – Haines Highway reconstruction/Chilkat Bridge replace, $31 million
• Juneau Access, $10 million
• Ketchikan – replacement of Water Street Trestle No. 2, $10 million
• Inside Passage Electric Cooperative – Gartina Falls Hydro Project, $6.7 million
• Juneau – Glacier Highway – Multi-use path to UAS, $5.5 million
• Haines – Klehini River bridge, $5 million
• Wrangell – Evergreen Road upgrade and pedestrian access, $5 million
• Ketchikan – Bar Harbor South, $4.78 million
• Alaska Marine Highway System – Skagway Terminal modifications, $4.5 million
• Juneau – Egan Drive illumination – 10th to McNugget Intersection, $4.2 million
• Sitka – Blue Lake Hydroelectric expansion project, $4 million
• Juneau – Amalga Harbor Road/bridges reconstruction/replacements, $3.5 million
• Petersburg – Haugen Drive and bike path improvements, $3.3 million
• Alaska Marine Highway System – Ketchikan Ferry Terminal, $3 million
• Wrangell Airport – apron and taxiway rehabilitation, $3 million
• Petersburg Airport – apron and taxiway rehabilitation, $3 million
• Juneau – Airport snow removal equipment facility, $3 million
• Tenakee – Indian River Hydroelectric Project construction, $2.98 million
• Juneau – Egan Drive improvements – Main Street to 10th Street, $2 million
• Juneau – Riverside Drive rehabilitation, $2 million
• Skagway – Port of Skagway gateway project, $1.5 million
• Alaska Marine Highway System – Auke Bay Ferry Terminal, $1 million

Public Health and Safety

• Ketchikan – Medical Center addition and alterations phase I, $15 million
• Petersburg – Police station and jail facility, $2.5 million
• Ketchikan – Jackson/Monroe/4th/7th water and sewer, $2.3 million
• Hoonah – Water Transmission line replacement, $1.9 million

Education

• State Library, Archives and Museum facility construction funding, $20 million
• Metlakatla Elementary School renovation, $14.5 million
• Petersburg Elementary School exterior wall renovation, $2.15 million

Information provided by the governor’s Office of Management and Budget

Sitka resident Mike Alfred reads the newspaper at Totem Square on Tuesday afternoon. Temperatures reached 61 degrees on the cloudless day. (KCAW photo by Ed Ronco)

The cover page of Sealaska’s proxy statement and annual meeting notice. Fourteen candidates are running for for board of directors seats.

Ten Sealaska shareholders are challenging four incumbents for the regional Native corporation’s board of directors. That’s the largest number of independent candidates in five years, although some earlier ballots came close.

Proxy statements, which include ballots, were sent to Sealaska shareholders May 10th. Voting runs through June 20th, just before the corporation’s annual meeting, which is June 22th, in Hoonah.

They can be mailed, faxed or dropped off in person. Ballots can also be cast at the annual meeting.

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Corporate Secretary Nicole Hallingstad said online voting has become increasingly popular.

“The first year of online voting, about 11 percent of our shareholders voted online. The second year that rose just a little bit to 13 percent,” she said. “We’re early in the proxy process, so it’s impossible at this point to say where that final percentage will fall. But higher levels than that have already come in through online voting for this year’s proxy season.”

This year’s online voting is done through a new shareholder-information system called “My Sealaska.” The secure site also includes stock information and dividend payment history.

No resolutions are on this year’s ballot. Prior years’ measures addressed term limits, discretionary voting and stock for shareholder descendants.

Tribal members can vote a specific number of shares for up to four candidates they support. Or they can vote “discretionary,” turning their ballots over to the board, which supports its own members.

Most of this year’s 14 board candidates are in their 50s, 60s or 70s. But three are between 30 and 40.

Hallingstad, also vice president of communications, says that includes Ralph Wolfe. He was last year’s appointed youth representative on the Sealaska board.

“This year’s slate does include some of our younger shareholders and it’s great to see that successive generations of shareholders for Sealaska are seeing this as a mechanism to serve the Native community,” Hallingstad said.

Sealaska added several thousand younger shareholder descendants after a 2007 vote.

The regional Native corporation is headquartered in Juneau and has more than 21,000 shareholders. Most are of Tlingit, Haida or Tsimshian descent. Close to half live in Southeast.

Read the proxy and annual meeting notice, which includes candidate statements and biographical information starting on page 10.

This year’s independent candidates are:

• Mick Beasley, Myrna Gardner and Ernestine Hayes of Juneau.
• Frank Jack III of Angoon.
• Angela Michaud of Anchorage.
• Ralph Wolfe of Yakutat.
• Will Micklin of Alpine, California.
• Edward Sarabia Jr. of South Glastonbury, Connecticut.
• Richard “Jack” Strong of Bonney Lake, Washington.
• And Bonnie Jo Borchick of Tucson, Arizona.

This year’s board incumbents are:

• Patrick Anderson of Anchorage
• Jodi Mitchell of Juneau.
• Jackie Johnson Pata of Fairfax, Virginia.
• And Richard Rinehart Jr. of Bellevue, Washington.

Board members serve three-year terms.

At about 4 p.m. Saturday, Alaska State Troopers and North Tongass EMS responded to Refuge Cove Marina for a report that a man had died.

Daniel Eaton, a 61-year-old man from Kansas, had been found when a co-worker went to check on him after Eaton failed to show up at work.

Eaton was pronounced dead on the scene by EMS personnel. The Alaska State Medical Examiner’s Office was contacted and they requested that the body be sent to Anchorage for an autopsy.

With the assistance of the Gram County Sheriff’s Department in Kansas, next of kin has been located and notified. The cause of death is unknown, but no foul play is suspected at this time.

The Ketchikan Gateway Borough Assembly added $300,000 in local funding to the school district budget Monday before approving the document in second reading.

School funding was the big topic on the agenda, and generated quite a bit of discussion. The gap between what School District officials asked for and what the borough proposed giving was about $631,000. Assembly Member Bill Rotecki proposed the amendment, thus meeting them halfway.

“I chose that as approximately half of the $631,000 for the school district budget,” he said. “I would prefer to fund them the full $631,000, but knowing that they have a considerable excess, leftover from last year. They could, with that excess, I hope, reach that $631,000.”

Assembly Member Alan Bailey, speaking in support of the amendment, said he’s torn on the topic of taxes.

“This is a very difficult thing to vote upon,” he said. “And here I am again reminded of those people who may not have that opportunity. And I want those people to have that opportunity, because I know the cost to their life, the cost to their future, if they are not given a decent education. I’m sure I’ll be getting tons of phone calls on this one, but that’s not as important as doing the right thing. And I believe this is the right thing to do.”

The amendment squeaked by on a 3-3 vote, with Mayor Dave Kiffer breaking the tie in favor of the additional funds. Assembly Members Agnes Moran, Glen Thompson and Todd Phillips voted no.

The main motion then passed 4-2, with Moran and Thompson voting no.

The district budget now tops $42 million, with a little more than $8 million from the borough. That’s nearly $4 million more than the minimum required by state law.

Later, while talking about the overall borough budget, the Assembly discussed the potential need to raise the mill rate. The borough already has proposed raising property taxes by a half mill.

Thompson suggested some possible new revenue, or savings that the borough could find in various departments. Among his ideas is raising fees at the recreation center, and cutting the reception local officials traditionally have hosted during Ketchikan’s lobbying trip to Juneau.

Bailey said raising the mill rate seems inevitable. He reminded listeners that the Assembly cut property taxes a few years ago.

“We cannot sustain our current existing operations with the existing mill rate as it stands,” he said. “I do not believe that at all.”

The Assembly postponed action on the borough budget. Staff will bring it back with some suggested changes at the next meeting, set for June 3.

The board will vote Wednesday to approve $27,000 for staff training on Apple computers. Sixty Apple laptops were recently purchased for the district’s elementary program; there was some debate within the board over the cost of Apples versus other brands.

Also on the agenda is a motion to approve the district’s portion of the operating costs for the First City Library System. The annual cost of the library system, which is shared by the City of Ketchikan, the University of Alaska Southeast and the School District, is determined by the number of books within the system. The School District’s contribution for the year will be almost $41,000. That is an increase of more than $1,000 from last year, reflecting an increase of books in the School District’s circulation.

The board also will vote on teaching contracts for five new teachers. It also is slated to accept the resignation of Robert  Hammer, a physical education teacher at Kayhi. In his formal resignation letter to the School Board, Hammer states that after more than 35 years of service, retirement “seems about right.”

On Monday night, the Ketchikan Gateway Borough Assembly voted to add $300,000 to the school budget.  Assembly member Alan Bailey explains and gives an update on other actions.  Assembly052113

Governor Sean Parnell signed into law several bills Tuesday including the More Alaska Production Act that would enact tax reform for the state’s oil industry.

During a luncheon of the Chamber of Commerce in Anchorage, Parnell outlined his five-year fiscal plan before signing Senate Bill 21.

“This was quite a year of legislative accomplishment,” Parnell said. “We are accomplishing so much together.”

Before the chamber he called the bill signing Tuesday as a “package of opportunity” and the year as a “comeback.”

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Sitka’s Community Food Survey extended to the end of the month. Eighth-graders put Andrew Jackson on trial. Ten shareholders to challenge four incumbents for Sealaska Inc. board.

The Sealaska story in this newscast was corrected to reflect the proper date of the company’s annual meeting: June 22, 2013. Voting for the board ends on June 20. The full story is here.

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Two Petersburg High School students recently received recognition for their aptitude and achievement in science. Junior Diane Murph was one of 90 students nationwide who were selected to spend a week at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas this summer where they’ll study space exploration and engineering with NASA staff. And Petersburg Senior Krissa Davis took part in the National Junior Science & Humanities Symposium in Dayton, Ohio this month. She was invited to be a delegate to the national event after her genetics project took 5th place at the statewide symposium in Fairbanks earlier this year. Matt Lichtenstein spoke with both students and started by asking Davis about her project.

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From left: Krissa Davis and Diane Murph

Petitions are circulating around the state for a referendum to repeal the Legislature’s oil tax bill. If organizers collect enough signatures in time, the question will go before voters in August, 2014. Lawmakers who supported the tax cuts say the oil companies needed the incentive to pick up production. Those who want to repeal the measure point out that the state is giving up billions in revenue with no promise of anything in return.

Matt Lichtenstein discussed the issue with nearly all of Southeast Alaska’s legislators as well as the Lt. Governor when they visited Petersburg for the Little Norway Festival last weekend:
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The annual celebration of Norwegian heritage is Petersburg’s biggest event of the year, so it usually draws several lawmakers from out of town. They often take the opportunity to meet with local leaders and other residents about legislative issues. This year was no exception and the biggest issue was Senate Bill 21. That measure effectively cut taxes on oil production by billions of dollars.

Juneau Representative Cathy Munoz initially voted against the bill because she thought it needed some changes but when it came up for reconsideration, she voted to pass it along with the rest of the Republican majority.

“The main concern, of course, is that the production has decreased so rapidly. Just in my 5 years in the legislature the production has gone down 25 percent and that represents billions of dollars in revenue to the state of Alaska. So, my strong feeling is that the state needs to do something, that there are problem in the current tax policy, in ACES that need to be refined and made to be competitive as it relates to other taxing juristictions in the western hemisphere,” she said while talking with KFSK radio in Petersburg.

ACES stands for Alaska’s Clear and Equitable Share. That was the oil tax regime instituted in 2007 under then-governor Sarah Palin. It included a windfall profits tax that increased with the price of oil, reaping billions more for the state. SB21 eliminated that provision, which is often called progressivity.

According to Munoz, Alaska needs to provide an incentive for more production not only at existing oil developments, called legacy fields, but at new sites as well. Republican representative Peggy Wilson of Wrangell also voted for bill. Southeast’s other four lawmakers are against it.

Sitka Democrat Jonathan Kreiss-Tomkins doesn’t see a need for incentives. He points out that under ACES, ConocoPhillips made more than half-a-billion dollars in profit in Alaska just for the first quarter of this year.

“I can’t be persuaded that 500 million dollars in three months needs to be increased, I mean, to incentivize more production…..Maybe I should go into the oil business if that’s too low. I just don’t think people can accept that,” said Kreiss-Tomkins. That’s one of the reasons why he and other critics think there’s a good chance the public will vote to repeal SB 21.

According to the Alaska Department of Revenue, the tax cut will cost the state at least four-and-a-half billion dollars in revenue over the next six years. That’s the forecast. Had the changes been in place in 2012, it would have cost the state one-point-seven billion for just one year. That’s according to Sitka Senator Bert Stedman who thinks SB 21 gives away too much:

“The production that was done in 2012, the vast majority of that is already economic, under ACES, by any measure, rate of return, cash margins. So, when you see 1.7 billion moving, red flags should go up. Something’s wrong,” he said.

Stedman thinks the progressivity under ACES should have been toned-down but not eliminated. He was one of two only two republican senators who joined with democrats to oppose SB 21.

“We’re a political sovereign and we should be treated like one and we should act like one. And we should not act or put up with being treated like a third world country where someone says we’ll take your resources and we’ll give you some jobs. My response is, ‘We’ll sell you our resources and well get the jobs to get the resources out to market,’” Stedman said.

Stedman said he’ll sign the petition to get the referendum on the ballot and once it’s on the ballot, he said he’ll campaign for repeal.

Lt. Governor Mead Treadwell certified the petition drive application as part of his job but Treadwell said he would have voted for SB 21 had he been in the legislature, “You know we’ve kind of set ourselves up talking about this as a giveaway or not a giveaway. We have to really begin thinking about attracting investment. Is it a risk? There’s always a risk. You set up a tax system. You hope you’re going to raise your revenues by raising production.”

Treadwell emphasized that unlike ACES, SB 21 ties oil tax credits to actual production rather than just investment, “You know, People said, if we’re gonna reduce taxes, let’s make sure we get a commitment to produce. The biggest thing we did in SB 21 is pull back the credits that were paid out without production and we changed the timing of the credits so that if you get production, then you get the credit.”

Opponents like Representative Beth Kerttula, a Juneau democrat, point out that the elimination of progressivity means a tax break for oil companies whether or not they step up production, “We changed this tax without one guarantee. Not even a memorandum of understanding. Not even one company stepping up and saying we’re going to put new production into the pipeline which is what we’re so desperately after so we can continue that revenue. But what kind of a negotiation is that?”

Kerttula and a her fellow Juneau Democrat, Senator Dennis Egan, say Alaska’s budget outlook, from funding for education to capital project spending, is much worse under SB 21.

“I hope it works but I just have real reservations about it. We’ve tried crazy stuff like this before and it doesn’t work. We could have tweaked the current legislation and done a much better job for the people. You think capital projects are down this year, just wait,” said Egan.

Supporters of the referendum petition have until July 13th to gather enough signatures. If they succeed, it will be up for a public vote during Alaska’s primary election in August 2014.

The Petersburg assembly will take a closer look at how the borough’s tax assessments are made. That’s in response to complaints from a local property owner at Monday night’s regular meeting. Lynn Escola said she and her husband Paul Johnson appealed their 2013 tax assessment and got an adjustment. So, she didn’t object to this year’s bill. Rather, she had broader concerns. Escola took about 15 minutes to detail what she said were inadequacies and inaccuracies in the borough’s assessment records including conflicting information and a lack of written documentation on how property values were calculated. She also charged there was a lack of transparency and accountability in how the borough manages the assessments, which are contracted out to a private firm.

“To us the borough’s handling of property assessment looks like this: We’re the government. We don’t make mistakes and we certainly don’t need to document for your benefit how we calculate your property value. In fact, we don’t want these documents ourselves because then we’d be liable for the information in them. Now, shut up and write us a check for several thousand dollars. That, in a nutshell, is how Petersburg manages property assessment from the point of view of this property owner. You’re a newly-minted borough assembly with newly-minted residents and properties. This is a good time to take a look at this part of the borough operation. Rethink it. Update it. Upgrade it,” she said.

There were 40 appeals over property taxes this year, but borough assessor mike Renfro had resolved them all prior to Monday’s meeting. Escola was the only person to take her concerns to the assembly.

Renfro attended by phone and said he’d like to get the transcript so that he could provide the borough a written response to all of Escola’s questions.

He said he had addressed the same issues with the couple in person, “I also had our evaluation manuals with me and I explained to them the process in how we came up with the multipliers and how we valued the property.”

Renfro said he would provide his written response to the Borough Manager by July 8th. In addition, Assembly Member John Hoag asked that the manager provide the assembly with an overview of the assessment process, “So we can get an understanding of how the process works and a detailed response of how records are kept and how they’re reconciled.”

Hoag asked if that could be done by the July 15 assembly meeting and there were no objections.

ANCHORAGE — Former police lieutenants in Juneau and Barrow who are charged in criminal cases could have their law enforcement certifications revoked when the Alaska Police Standards Council meets Tuesday in Kenai.

“We have close to 20 (cases) we’re taking a look at this time,” said Kelly Alzaharna, director of the council that is appointed by the governor and made up of four police chiefs, the commissioners of Corrections and Public Safety and four members of the public.

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KETCHIKAN — Folks in Ketchikan likely set a new Guinness World Records mark when nearly 2,000 people showed up to race one kilometer in their rain boots.

Exactly 1,976 people showed up for Saturday’s event, trying to set a new mark for largest rain boot race.

“I’m so incredibly proud of Ketchikan,” Shauna Lee, one of the race’s many founders, told the Ketchikan Daily News. “For this town to come out on a day that didn’t start off with the best weather, I’m overwhelmed with pride.”

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FAIRBANKS — Low-lying areas of Fort Yukon were under water Monday, a day after breakup on the Yukon River left 15 homes uninhabitable in Circle.

The Yukon River moved past Fort Yukon late Monday morning, and village officials reported to the National Weather Service that the frontage road was impassable and water was up to the steps of the tribal hall.

The ice had jammed about 15 miles upriver from Fort Yukon until it broke Monday morning. The flood warning for Fort Yukon remains in effect until 4 p.m. Tuesday.

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ANCHORAGE — An Alaska volcano eruption is prompting regional airlines to cancel flights to nearby communities, including a town that reported traces of fallen ash.

Pavlof Volcano released ash plumes as high as 22,000 feet over the weekend, according to the Alaska Volcano Observatory. Clouds obscured the volcano Monday, but U.S. Geological Survey scientists said seismic instruments at the volcano show continuing tremors.

“Seismically, it’s been pretty steady over the last 12 hours,” geologist Chris Waythomas said late Monday morning.

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WASHINGTON — Education Secretary Arne Duncan announced on Monday that three more states would join the ranks of those given permission to ignore parts of the federal No Child Left Behind law in favor of their own school improvement plans.

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