JUNEAU — Human trafficking most likely occurs in Alaska, but it is unclear how prevalent the crime is in the state, according to a new study.

The State of Alaska Task Force on the Crimes of Human Trafficking, Promoting Prostitution and Sex Trafficking presented its findings to a joint session of the House and Senate judiciary committees Wednesday. Legislation passed last year called for the creation of a task force that would look at the prevalence of trafficking and prostitution, as well as the services available to help victims of those crimes.

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JUNEAU — Gov. Sean Parnell supports legislative efforts to let voters decide whether to change the constitution to allow public funds to be used for private schools, his spokeswoman said Wednesday.

Sharon Leighow said Parnell has always supported more choices in education for parents and that as a legislator, Parnell helped establish charter schools.

“In the case at hand, the governor supports legislative efforts to move the resolution to the voters for Alaskans to have their say,” she said in an email.

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A bill written to reduce state corporate taxes for certain small- and medium-sized businesses moved out of House Labor and Commerce Committee on Thursday.

House Bill 68 Corporate Income Tax is sponsored by Rep. Shelley Hughes, R-Palmer. She presented her bill to the House Committee on Labor and Commerce.

If passed, the bill would change the ranges of the state’s 10 corporate tax brackets for type C corporations — the change would not affect limited liability corporations or S corporations.

“We have about 5,000 C corps that this would apply to,” Hughes said.

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Sitka High and Mt. Edgecumbe students captured several titles at the state Drama, Debate, and Forensics meet in Anchorage last weekend (Feb 14-16).

For Sitka, it was a chance for last year’s underclassmen to move into the limelight following the graduation of a strong senior team. For Mt. Edgecumbe, it was a first taste of victory for a growing program.

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Jesse Bartelds and Michael Boose celebrate their state title in Duet Acting. (Kevin Lane Photography)

“Yeah it’s amazing. It’s like the Oscars.”

Donovan Gurule is a senior at Mt. Edgecumbe High School. He helped carry his team to a second-place finish in the small-schools Forensics sweepstakes, by reaching the finals with a solo acting piece called “Lloyd’s Prayer.”

Donovan – “Me, I was a preacher. A black preacher. And I did a duo interp that was a married couple piece. And I did a Reader’s Theater with Doug that was ‘Piggy Pie,’ which is a children’s story.”

Doug – “It’s about a dysfunctional newscaster…”

This is Gurule’s teammate Doug McClenahan.

“…I play an anchor with a real ditzy female co-anchor, and we try to watch all our pieces on a screen but we don’t have video clips, so we act them out.”

“Newscast Live!” also reached the state finals in small schools. As did McClenahan’s Dramatic Interpretation of “Flowers for Algernon,” which took second.

Sitka High senior Jesse Bartelds also competed in Dramatic Interpretation, with a piece about Judy Garland. Many students find their way into drama competition with lighter pieces. Bartelds say DI offers an actor room to work.

“You can either be very sad with it, or just plain dramatic. It offers a lot of variety with what you can do with the piece.”

Bartelds teamed up with Michael Boose to take a state championship in duet acting. Their performance has been honed in monthly regional meets, with hours of practice time on top of that. She’s earned the right to reflect on what has been a long road to the top.

“I remember the first time me and Michael sat down in my house and read over our duet. That was months ago. And it’s crazy now to think, Wow I’m never going to perform those again. But all’s well that ends well, really.”

Her partner, Boose, also tackled a solo performance, selecting a piece that he hoped would give him an edge.

“So my solo is basically an actor forgetting his lines. It’s a hilarious piece. I basically get to stand in front of a judge and say ‘ahh’ and ‘umm.’ Which is really handy when you’re first learning it because if you actually forget a line you can say ‘ahh’ or ‘umm’ until you remember it, and it still works with the piece.”

Sitka High came in third behind Mt. Edgecumbe in the Forensics sweepstakes, but for the second year in a row won the Drama sweepstakes, the Debate sweepstakes, and the overall small schools championship. Bartelds says it was a chance for the younger performers and speakers from last year’s championship team – which won all three sweepstakes and the overall competition – to step out from behind the long shadows of the seniors that dominated the team in 2012.

Mt. Edgecumbe in the not-too-distant past dropped DDF, but later reconsidered and restarted the program a few years ago. Donovan Gurule wishes he had gotten into DDF sooner. Just the practice of settling himself may one day be useful if he ever does make it to the Oscars.

“You take deep breaths before you go in. And you have to be prepared mentally. And you can do that with your teammates. We do games – that really helps.”

Teammate Doug McClenahan has a similar ritual, and the same hard edge.

“Play a lot of games and focus and think about my piece and how it goes. And focus in on that I need to win this judge over if I want to do well.”

KCAW’s Holly Keen contributed to this story.

MEHS State DDF Individual Awards
2nd place – Dramatic Interpretation – Doug McClenahan with “Flowers for Algernon”
3rd place – Solo Acting – Donovan Gurule with “Lloyd’s Prayer”
5th place – Duet Acting – Anneliese Moll & Doug McClenahan with “Newscast Live!”

MEHS State DDF Team Awards
2nd place – Forensics (small schools division) – Mt. Edgecumbe High School

Sitka High State DDF Team Awards
1st place – Drama Sweepstakes – Sitka High School
1st place – Debate Sweepstakes – Sitka High School
3rd place – Forensics Sweepstakes – Sitka High School
1st place – Overall Sweepstakes (small school division) – Sitka High School

Sitka High Individual Awards
1st place – Duet Acting – Jesse Bartelds and Michael Boose
1st place – Mime – Ryan Apathy and Emma Bruhl
3rd place – Reader’s Theater – Emma Bruhl, Ahna Cushing, Celia Lubin
3rd place – Foreign Extemp – Annemarie Pike
4th place (tied) – Public Forum Debate – Annemarie Pike/Celia Lubin and Ryan Apathy/Chaya Pike
Listen to these two teams debate! From a KCAW broadcast on February 11, 2012.
8th place – Speaker Points – Ryan Apathy
3rd place – Speaker Points – Chaya Pike
Command Performance at Finals – Original Oration – Annemarie Pike

Members of the Alaska Legislative Centennial Commission, a group of lawmakers and public members responsible for planning for the 100th anniversary of the Alaska Legislature in Juneau, reviewed a draft itinerary Thursday for a three-day celebration at the Rockwell restaurant in downtown Juneau next month.

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Anchorage Democrat Sen. Bill Wielechowski Wednesday defended Alaska’s oil production tax structure and criticized Republican Gov. Sean Parnell’s proposal to overhaul the system during the biweekly Native Issues Forum sponsored by the Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska.

Wielechowski gave an abbreviated version of his presentation entitled “Debunking Myths About ACES,” which leans on graphs, charts and tables to dispel criticisms of ACES, the Alaska oil tax regime, at the event.

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The Senate Transportation Committee advanced a bill Tuesday to add a 12th seat to the Alaska Marine Transportation Advisory Board, an expansion proponents say will improve local representation for communities on the Kenai Peninsula and Kodiak Island.

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The Ketchikan Medical Center Auxiliary recently awarded $45,000 for new equipment at the hospital, including $26,000 for a single item.

The Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter is an intravenous method used for patients with difficult IV access or who require long-term IV antibiotic or drug therapy.

The portable unit will be used throughout the hospital as well as in the Transitional Care Unit.

The auxiliary operates the Ketchikan Medical Center gift shop, which is staffed by volunteers. Profits from the gift shop are used each year to help purchase equipment at the hospital.

The items approved for purchase this year are:

• $26,000 for a Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter
•  $5000 for Education Materials for Surgery, Orthopedic & Sports Medicine and Women’s Health,
• $2800 for an Enhanced Standing Aid for the Transitional Care Unit,
•  $1800 for an Adult Platform Walker in ICU,
• $2000 for a Temporal Thermometer for Home Health,
• $5700 for a Bilirubin Meter for Pediatrics, and
• $2550 for a machine to monitor blood coagulation levels in Primary Care

The U.S Forest Service is conducting a five-year review of the 2008 Tongass National Forest management plan. A big part of that process involves public meetings throughout the Tongass to gather feedback and input.

A meeting in Craig is set for Wednesday evening. It starts at 6 p.m. at the Craig Tribal Association Hall. In Ketchikan, a public meeting is set for 6 p.m. Thursday at the Ted Ferry Civic Center.

Forest Planner Sue Jennings said the five-year review was written into the plan when it was drafted, and public input is an important element to the process. At each meeting, Forest Service officials start with an introductory presentation about the plan, and then open up the meeting for comments and questions.

She compared the forest plan to a municipal planning and zoning document.

“It’d be the same as a zoning map for the City of Ketchikan, where some areas are industrial and some areas are residential and some areas are business,” she said. “It’s the same kind of thing with the Tongass National Forest. Some areas we have timber production and some areas are wilderness, where we have no improvements at all. It’s the range of what can be done on the national forest, much like a zoning map.”

Meetings already have taken place in Wrangell, Petersburg and Sitka. Jennings said that comments so far related to timber, subsistence, access and travel.

“And interestingly enough, hydroelectric projects,” she said. “That’s one of our big comments so far.”

Jennings said she hopes for a big crowd at each meeting,”and we have cookies, so it will be fun.”

The final public meeting for the review will take place Feb. 28 in Juneau .

For more information and to comment online, go to http://www.fs.usda.gov/detail/tongass/home/?cid=stelprdb5367364

Sometime over the Presidents Day holiday, someone stole about $100 worth of heating oil from Edna Bay School.

Alaska State Troopers in Klawock were told of the theft early Wednesday morning. According to Troopers, the crime occurred sometime between midnight Monday and 6:30 Tuesday morning.

The investigation is ongoing.  Anyone with information about the incident is asked to contact Troopers in Klawock.

It appears that Sen. Dennis Egan, D-Juneau, who expressed concern that he could be kicked out of the Republican-led Senate majority caucus for opposing Senate leadership on a procedural vote Friday, will remain in his caucus after discussions Monday and Tuesday.

Egan said after a majority caucus meeting Tuesday that everything is now “hunky-dory” between him and leaders of his caucus, a day after Senate President Charlie Huggins, R-Wasilla, met with the Juneau senator and publicly praised him as a “good friend.”

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Petersburg has a full borough assembly. The Mayor and four other elected members filled two vacant seats by appointment last night. The new members are Kurt Wohlheuter and Cindi Lagoudakis. Matt Lichtenstein reports:
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Juneau’s Alaskan Brewing Co. is using an innovative boiler to save fuel and shipping costs. The business is among those highlighted at a recent innovation summit in Juneau. Photo courtesy of Alaska Brewing Co.

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Most of us have heard stories of an Alaskan with an idea for a business that just takes off.

There’s the boatyard that became a major tour operator. Or the beer-lovers who now sell in more than a dozen states.

Representatives of some of those businesses talked about how they made it work during the recent Innovation Summit at Juneau’s Centennial Hall.

One is a business that provides the flexibility needed for local hire.

Huna Totem Corp. Board Chairman Russell Dick says its Icy Strait Point tourist attraction does just that. He says the seasonal business employs village residents who don’t want a year-round job.

Russell Dick, Huna Totem Corp. and Haa Aani’.

“Nobody works in these communities to work for a Microsoft,” Dick says. “Their idea of lifestyle compatible is the ability to go deer hunting, the ability to go berry gathering, to do these things that make living in a rural community critically important to them.”

Dick is also president and CEO of Haa Aani’, a Sealaska subsidiary pursuing economic development in Southeast. It’s been helping village residents set up oyster farms and sell their product.

He says it’s a collaborative business model, not a grant program.

“We as a for-profit entity were willing to put money into this, we’re willing to put in time. But we’re not going to solve the problems within the region,” he says.

Another innovator is Allen Marine, based in Sitka.

Jamey Cagle, Allen Marine.

The family-owned business began as a ship-repair yard. It fixed up a derelict boat and began providing tours. Growing demand led the company to buy, then build more vessels.

Wildlife-viewing excursions expanded to Juneau and Ketchikan, and the company eventually formed its own small cruise line, Alaskan Dream.

Vice President Jamey Cagle says its onboard shops are part of its business plan.

“We try and support and procure as many local products as we can, whether it be the foods on board or the gifts that we sell,” Cagle says. “And we’ve found that to be a very successful program for us. It’s what our customers like to see and the quality’s good.”

Juneau-based Alaskan Brewing Company’s innovation is resisting pressure to grow too fast and create too many products.

Brewing Operations Manager Brandon Smith says the craft beer market has expanded significantly since the company began operations.

Brandon Smith, Alaskan Brewing Co.

“You look at some breweries and they have 60 different products and it gets kind of insane,” he says. “We have a somewhat different philosophy there, that we want to do a smaller number of products very well and not confuse the consumer with the dizzying array of things that we put out.”

The company has also invested time and money into new technology. The most recent innovation is a boiler system that burns spent grain, saving heat and shipping costs.

Another business, Juneau’s Gastineau Guiding, tapped into the cruise-ship excursion market during a time of rapid passenger growth.

Owner Bob Janes says it wasn’t alone. He says his business recognized opposition from residents needed to be addressed.

Bob Janes, Gastineau Guiding.

“We saw tours driving through neighborhoods. People weren’t sure whether the trails were going to be packed with tourists every day. So there was a lot of dissention in Juneau,” he says.

He cites the Tourism Best Management Practices program and similar efforts with reducing conflicts and allowing for smoother growth.

Yet another innovator is a much larger company, Anchorage-based Alaska Communications Systems.

ACS CEO Anand Vadapalli says his company took a new direction by partnering with a longtime competitor.

“For those of you who have been in Alaska at least 10 years or more, you have a sense of the degree of competition and rivalry that exists between ACS and GCI,” Vadapalli says.

Anand Vadapalli, ACS.

“But guess what? Last year, ACS and GCI announced a joint venture to combine our wireless networks together to form the single largest wireless network in the state of Alaska.”

That, he adds, is to compete against telecom giant Verizon, which plans to begin service in the 49th state this year.

University of Alaska Southeast Management School Dean John Blanchard moderated the panel.

“We’ll hopefully be inspired to go and incorporate some of those great those ideas as we move the needle a little bit further in creating innovative ideas for Southeast Alaska,” he says.

Some regional business and government leaders are pursuing such an approach through the Juneau Economic Development Council’s cluster initiative.

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Sitka High DDF team members Michael Boose and Jesse Bartelds, and Mt. Edgecumbe DDF team members Donovan Gurule and Doug McClenahan discuss their schools’ successes at the state Drama, Debate, and Forensics tournament in Anchorage over the weekend.

David West, orthopedic surgeon at the Ketchikan Medical Center, discussed how to prevent sports injuries for both regular athletes and weekend warriors on today’s Morning Edition.

West encouraged athletes to both keep active and exercise incrementally to avoid injuries, among other suggestions.

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Senate passes bill relaxing cruise ship wastewater standards; will go to governor’s desk. Am. Cancer Society’s Relay for Life returns to Sitka this summer. Former Sen. Kookesh in critical condition following heart attack. Entrepreneurs exchange ideas at Innovation Summit.

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JUNEAU — What’s the trick to helping figure out winter weather on the U.S. mainland? One way, according to meteorologists, is sending a hurricane hunter aircraft from Alaska or Hawaii to fly reconnaissance over the Pacific Ocean.

For about 15 years, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has conducted such flights with the goal of improving weather forecasts for the United States — an idea born after winter flights over the North Atlantic improved storm forecasting in Europe.

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JUNEAU — A proposed massive dam in south-central Alaska could provide stable electricity rates in Alaska’s most populous region for a century, officials behind the effort said Tuesday.

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Asked whether her caucus would support a legal status for same-sex couples, such as civil unions, at a House minority caucus press conference Tuesday morning, House Minority Leader Beth Kerttula, D-Juneau, called the issue “a civil rights question” and said she believes that “people deserve to live with whomever they want.”

“There’s no two ways about this,” said Kerttula. “These are humans and deserve to have human relationships.”

Kerttula also responded to a question on whether the caucus would bring forth a bill to legalize civil unions for same-sex couples in Alaska.

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