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Sampson Tug & Barge planning a return to SE market. Sen. Lisa Murkowski breaks silence on former staffer’s new role as lobbyist. Sitka author brings childhood superhero to life in novel Anstice.

SITKA — Federal officials say fish populations appear to be unharmed by a massive landslide near Sitka last month.

Two people staying at a recreational cabin barely escaped with their lives when the slide came down May 12.

U.S. Forest Service officials say the sockeye run probably wasn’t affected when the landslide slammed into Redoubt Lake, KCAW reported.

The subsistence fishery will take place normally. Sockeye begin returning to the lake around July 4.

Subsistence dipnetters get a chance at the fish in the lake’s outlet stream.

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SELDOVIA — The Seldovia of today is a quiet, remote Alaska community of fewer than 300 residents.There was a time, however, when Seldovia was anything but quiet.

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JUNEAU — The next statewide election is more than a year away, but candidates are already lining up for the top races — U.S Senate, U.S. House, governor, lieutenant governor — hoping to build name recognition and campaign accounts that could help boost their chances.

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FAIRBANKS — The company that designed a new fish hatchery in Fairbanks has agreed to pay $2.9 million to settle the state’s claims over alleged flaws.

The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports that as part of the settlement reached in late May, the company, CH2M Hill Inc., also agreed to swallow as much as $2 million worth of extra work it said it performed on the hatchery.

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KETCHIKAN — An argument over cigarettes between a Metlakatla man and his aunt escalated into a stabbing that killed the woman, according to testimony from the man’s mother.

Marge Buxton testified in the trial of William Buxton, who is charged with first-degree murder in the Sept. 29 death of Leona Meely, 67, at the home all three shared.

Metlakatla is a community of nearly 1,500 on Annette Island, near the tip of the Alaska Panhandle.

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KODIAK — Bo Sloan experienced the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge as a hunter before he became its boss.

After he was selected for a bear hunt, he spent eight days hunting and fishing in early May.

“My first introduction to Kodiak was as Bo Sloan, a private citizen on a bear hunt,” he said. “I came here as a hunter and fisherman before I came here as an employee.”

Although he didn’t get a bear, he received a visitor-level view of the 3,110 square miles he now governs.

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FAIRBANKS — Public meetings have been scheduled to review the impact of transferring the F-16 fighter jet squadron from Fairbanks to Anchorage.

The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports meetings are planned June 19 in Fairbanks and June 20 in North Pole to listen to feedback from community members.

A draft Environmental Impact Study released May 31 by the U.S. Air Force recommends moving forward with a proposal to transfer the fighter jet squadron at Eielson Air Force Base in Fairbanks to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage.

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FAIRBANKS — The adoption Saturday of 21 hamsters and guinea pigs reflects a troubling trend of animal abandonment at Alaska transfer sites, sometimes in frigid winter temperatures.

The animals that have been dropped off before include cats, dogs, birds, lizards and turtles.

The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports the hamsters and guinea pigs were dropped off by an unnamed good Samaritan who said he found the animals at one of the North Pole transfer sites.

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ANCHORAGE — Lawmakers are planning to revamp and expand their cramped offices in downtown Anchorage.

The Legislative Council, a joint committee of the House and Senate, voted Friday to let its chairman, Republican Rep. Mike Hawker, begin negotiating a deal with the landlord of the building that houses the offices, the Anchorage Daily News reported.

Hawker says the six-story building is dilapidated. There’s only one big room for hearings, and the building is cold in the winter and hot in the summer.

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KENAI — Every time he was asked “are you sure you want to move to the next step?” Chris DesOrmeaux’s answer was always “yes.”

Yes, he wanted to save a life.

About three years ago Chris, 25, of Kenai, registered online at marrow.org to become a bone marrow donor or peripheral blood stem cell donor through Be The Match — National Marrow Donor Program. After signing up, the registry program mailed Chris a mouth swab packet that he sent back to be tested on three components of donor-recipient compatibility.

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FAIRBANKS — Urban Rahoi doesn’t just daydream, he forges ahead and makes his dreams come true, which pretty much sums up the 94-year-old’s attitude toward life.

On May 20, Rahoi scratched off another accomplishment on his bucket list — flying a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber as he did as an Army Air Corps pilot during World War II.

“It was one helluva an experience,” Rahoi said.

His dream flight began at the Yankee Air Museum in Ypsilanti, Mich., between Detroit and Ann Arbor, which has one of 12 working B-17s worldwide available.

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This week’s castaway is Wren Droege, Raven Radio’s summer Programming Intern. Wren hails from Davidsonville, Maryland which is just outside Annapolis. Wren’s family, is friends with Raven Radio founder and first Program Director Marika Partridge, who encourage Wren to volunteer at the station this summer. So far Wren has been processing new music, producing recorded announcements and organizing the newly digitized radio programs archived since the station signed on the air. She has been very productive and a real joy to have around the station! Wren’s stories paint lovely pictures about the 10 songs she chose to have on her deserted island. Listen here:

Wren’s songs:

1. The Gardner – Tallest Man on Earth
2. Romulus – Sufjan Stevens
3. Earthquake of ’73 – Fruit Bats
4. Myriad Harbor – The New Pornographers
5. Boots of Spanish Leather – Bob Dylan
6. The Book of Love – The Magnetic Fields
7. You Only Live Once – The Strokes
8. Elephant Gun – Beirut
9. WHALE – Yellow Ostrich
10. The Circle Game – Joni Mitchell

Wren’s Christmas Toffee
Ingredients:
1 cup butter
1 cup white sugar
1 cup chocolate chips
1.5 cups ground walnuts

1. Use a food processor to grind up the walnuts. You should end up with about a cup of very thinly ground nuts and maybe half a cup of less thinly ground nuts (to go on top of the chocolate at the end).
2. Heat two baking sheets in the oven at 250 degrees. This will make the toffee spread thinner and will keep it hot enough to melt the chocolate chips. No need to grease the baking sheets.
3. In a large heavy bottomed saucepan, combine the butter and sugar. Cook over medium heat, stirring throughout. Allow to come to a boil, and cook until the mixture becomes a dark amber color. Just when the mixture starts to smell like it is close to burning, turn off the heat and add the thinly ground walnuts.
4. After the nuts are mixed in, pour the toffee onto the baking sheets. The baking sheets should be on the table upside down (bottoms up) – this makes it easier to get the toffee off after it cools. Sprinkle the chocolate over the top, and let it set for a minute or two to soften. Spread the chocolate into a thin even layer once it is melted. Sprinkle the less-thinly-ground walnuts over the chocolate.
5. Let set until toffee has cooled. Break into pieces, and store in an airtight container.

Wren’s sister painted the back of her car.

Wren’s dad painted his car like a fish.

Petersburg’s Parks and Recreation Department is asking for the community’s support in ending dangerous riding on the borough’s trails. Officials fear the vehicles could lead to injuries for riders and hikers.

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Motor bike damage at the entrance to Hungry Point Trail

Donnie Hayes is the head of Petersburg’s Parks and Recreation department. Since he moved here three years ago, he’s made it a priority to keep an eye on Hungry Point Trail.
“Oh, I love it,” Hayes said. “The community loves it! When I first came here, I was surprised at how many people came into me and said, ‘Now Donnie, the Hungry Point Trail needs a little bit of tender love and care.’”

Hayes has made sure to follow those instructions, even bringing in a twelve-person crew last year for a week to renovate the trail.But keeping up the area’s condition has been difficult. Hayes says that people on motor bikes and ATV’s have started riding through Hungry Point and other trails, kicking up rocks and leaving marks in the ground. Signs are up forbidding the vehicles, but the rides have continued.

That worries Hayes. He’s concerned about the condition of Hungry Point, but he’s more worried about the safety of those on it. To give an idea of just how dangerous the trail can be, Hayes walks to the opening of the trail and points inside.

“So a lot of people have assumed that we put up our ‘No Motorized Vehicles’ signs on the trails, we were more mostly concerned with destruction to the trails themselves,” Hayes said. “Which is part of the reason. But more importantly is if you come down a motorcycle on a small pathway, and you saw just a few minutes ago that we had 30 people here. A motorcycle coming right at them, there’s nowhere else to go, it’s an accident waiting to happen. And so to keep those who are hiking safe, this trail is just not built for motorized vehicles. And that’s the truth of the matter.”

Those accidents aren’t just hypothetical. Hayes mentions a situation that happened at the end of May, where one of his employees saw a motorcyclist on the trail and asked him to leave.

“And within a couple minutes of asking the young man not to ride on the trail, he actually fell over on his motorcycle and broke his ankle,” Hayes said. “And so it was just one of those situations where it was like, ‘Ugh!’ And then my employee had to carry him, put him into his vehicle, help him get into the ER. So he was out of work for the rest of the day to make sure he was taken care of. It’s a problem that is continuing to create more maintenance work for us, but it’s also the safety factor.”

The riders aren’t just damaging the trails, though. Hayes says they’ve damaged Petersburg’s ball fields, too. The Parks and Recreation staff has to get the field ready for games each day. And often, they’ll come out to find deep marks and divots, which can take over an hour to fix. Dave Nauman works for the department, and he says that he’s seen the same few riders, over and over, and continued to warn them about their damage.

“They’ll go on the fields, and they’ll tear the fields up,” Nauman said. “And it takes untold times to drag it and roll it to get that damage off the fields.”

For the department, the situation is a frustrating one. They can warn riders they see on the trails, but they can’t punish them. And while they maybe could patrol the trails to make sure they’re safe, Hayes says that he’s only got a staff of two people. So for now, the department is simply asking the community to be aware of the laws and to not drive on the trails.

“So, really, it’s just a matter of people making the decision on their own, saying, ‘Hey, this is something that we need to do to help the community, to keep our trails safe and protected,’” Hayes said.

A Samson barge departs Seattle for Alaska on May 6th. Image Copyright © Samson Tug and Barge. Used with permission.

A Sitka-based barge line hopes to return to serving Southeast by the end of the year. It depends on a shipping-industry shuffle, where a much larger company is trying to absorb its chief competitor.

Samson Tug and Barge used to do a lot of business with loggers and mills around Southeast Alaska.

But as the timber industry shrunk, the line’s service area moved farther west. The Sitka-based company now carries cargo to and from Seattle, Prince William Sound, the Kenai Peninsula, Kodiak, King Cove and Dutch Harbor.

The list could expand – later this year.

“We started in Southeast, we still have our headquarters in Southeast, so why not be in Southeast. It just makes sense,” said Samson Tug and Barge Vice President Cory Baggen.

“We’ve looked at entering the Southeast market over the years. But with two carriers in the region there really hasn’t been room for a third,” she said.

That number could shrink later this year.

Alaska Marine Lines containers wait for loading on Yakutat’s dock. AML is part of Lynden. Image by Ed Schoenfeld, CoastAlaska News.

Lynden Inc., which owns Alaska Marine Lines, is in the process of buying Northland Services. The two lines handle the lion’s share of cargo shipments to Southeast communities.

Samson does some barging to and from Sitka. Baggen said the purchase allows her company to compete in other communities.

“Our plans right now are to serve Ketchikan, Juneau, Wrangell, Petersburg, all of Prince of Wales Island and Metlakatla,” Baggen said.

Northland’s barge line will continue to exist as a Lynden subsidiary. But operations will be combined in Southeast towns that both serve.

The purchase has to clear a number of hurdles. Among the concerns: The combination could effectively create a monopoly.

Lynden CEO Jon Burdick said that’s why his corporation supports Samson’s Southeast expansion.

“There is a regulatory review process and the state of Alaska wants to ensure that where there’s competitive overlap between Lynden and Northland, that there’s alternative services available,” he said.

Burdick said buying Northland expands Lynden’s service area to Western Alaska, as well as Hawaii.

But he said Lynden’s Alaska Marine Lines subsidiary will not reduce Southeast port calls.

“At a minimum, they’ll receive equal frequency of service. In terms of equaling what AML’s doing now or what AML plus Northland’s doing now? AML plus Northland,” he said.

Burdick expects most Northland employees will either keep their jobs or find new ones with Alaska Marine Lines or Samson Tug and Barge.

Baggen said her company will be hiring.

“Eventually, we’ll probably double our size, probably have somewhere between 120 and 160 employees. … Most of those employees will be in Alaska,” she said.

Baggen understands her company will compete against a much larger operation.

She said Samson will do that by providing personalized customer service.

“We’re not the box-box carrier. We’re not going to be the one that says you better do it at this time in this way. We don’t care how you want to do it. We’re going to say, hey, what do you need and we’re going to do the best we can to come in and really work for the customers,” she said.

Both companies expect the sale to be completed by the end of this year.

And both say they’ll be ready for a quick transition.

Sometimes you just have to scratch what itches. (Hugh Bevan photo)

Sitka resident and outdoorsman Hugh Bevan captured this image of a large brownie enjoying one of the delights of spring — a hearty back-scratching — with a remote trailcam. This bear was photographed in an area about 10 miles north of Sitka on April 22. It is one of four large bears the trailcam snapped over a 5-week period, suggesting an unusual density of males. Bevan says he keeps a couple of trailcams in the field at any given time. He pulled this one out on May 28 “because I was getting jumpy about going in there to check it.” For scale, Bevan (at around 6-feet) says his head would come up to the bottom of this bear’s neck.

Check out another of Hugh Bevan’s trailcam images.

Sitka resident Marjean Ragsdale poses with her book, “Anstice.” The cover was designed by Sitka artist Jessica Lynn Clark. (KCAW photo by Ed Ronco)

In her book “Anstice,” Sitka resident Marjean Ragsdale tells the story of a 13-year-old girl named Leyla who has just been orphaned in an automobile accident. The story takes a turn toward the fantastical when Leyla is called upon by a race of aliens to become their new leader.

The book is the product of more than seven years of active work. But, as Ragsdale told KCAW, she’s known her main character a lot longer. Hear the interview:

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“Anstice” is available for sale at Old Harbor Books or online.

District Attorney Steven West gives his closing argument Friday in Ketchikan Superior Court during the murder trial of William Buxton.

A murder trial in Ketchikan wrapped up Friday with closing arguments from the prosecution and defense. Following their statements, Superior Court Judge Trevor Stephens handed the case over to the jury for deliberation.

A warning: This report is about a violent killing, and includes some graphic content.

Closing arguments in the murder trial of a Metlakatla man accused of killing his aunt centered on intent. Both sides agree that 30-year-old William Buxton killed Leona Meely early in the morning on Sept. 29 by stabbing her multiple times in the chest, slitting her throat and finally using a cast on his arm from a previous injury to pound a knife deep into her neck.

District Attorney Steve West said that all shows Buxton meant to kill his aunt, and he is guilty of first-degree murder.

But defense attorney Sam McQuerry said Buxton couldn’t have intended such an act, because of his mental state at the time of the killing.

The defense was not claiming insanity. Judge Trevor Stephens made that very clear when reading jury instructions, adding that Buxton also was not claiming self-defense or defense of others.

West went first in closing arguments, and gave a summary of what he said happened the morning of the murder, none of which the defense disputed. He said that Buxton went to his aunt’s room and woke her up, asking for cigarettes. Meely refused and that led to an argument. Buxton’s mother helped resolve the fight, and the three of them went and watched television for a while.

The two women then cooked some breakfast, which they all ate. Then Margie Buxton went back to the kitchen.

“She was at the stove when she heard a thump, she turned and looked around behind her, her sister was lying down on the ground, she was not moving,” he said. “She went over to her sister, and Mr. Buxton picked up a chair and was picking it up and getting ready to hit her with it. Marge Buxton grabbed it, there was a struggle, but she was able to get the chair from him. He then grabbed Ms. Meely…, pulled her into the kitchen, grabbed a knife and started stabbing her.”

West said Meely was stabbed six times in the chest area, with injuries to the heart, lungs and liver. He said the attack didn’t end there.

“He tried to cut her throat a couple times,” he said. “The two cuts to the side of the neck weren’t very deep. However, this last one, clearly shows an intent to kill. When he took that knife and put it in her, he was using his cast as a hammer to pound it in.”

West talked about what’s called “lesser included” charges, which are less serious crimes that the jury could consider if it didn’t agree on the first-degree murder charge. There were three of them: second-degree murder, manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide.

Defense attorney Sam McQuerry writes out a comment for jurors to consider during his closing arguments Friday. McQuerry is defending William Buxton, who is accused of killing his aunt, Leona Meely.

While West wanted a guilty verdict on first-degree murder, defense attorney McQuerry asked for criminally negligent homicide. He argued that his client couldn’t have intended to kill his aunt.

He said, “The question is: ‘What was Mr. Buxton’s state of mind?’”

McQuerry reminded the jury of earlier testimony from various witnesses that he said indicates Buxton was unable to form a conscious objective. Those witnesses said Buxton was talking about shadows nobody else could see, that he was one of the four horsemen, and he was afraid of a “globe” in the hallway.

“Remember when Ms. Buxton testified? She stated that Mr. Buxton on that morning, right there in the kitchen, … was growling in a voice she had not heard before,” McQuerry said.

Because the state has the burden of proof, West was allowed to give a rebuttal argument after McQuerry’s statment. West said that intent can be formed by people with mental problems.

“The fact that he thought his aunt was a witch casting spells, doesn’t mean he didn’t know it was his aunt,” he said. “He knew it was his aunt. He intended to kill his aunt. He made statements to the police: ‘I stabbed her in the heart. I slit her throat’”

West said that through his closing arguments, McQuerry was aiming for an insanity defense for his client without actually claiming insanity.

UPDATE: After about five hours of deliberations Friday, the jury did not reach a verdict. They convened in court a little after 4:30 p.m., and were released for the weekend. Deliberations will resume Monday at 9 a.m.

Following Friday’s closing statements, murder defendant William Buxton is placed back in handcuffs for transport back to jail.

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Cindy Gibson, with the Sitka Summer Music Festival, and Greater Sitka Arts Council staff Jeff Budd and Abigail Carney discuss plans for ‘Salmon in the Trees,’ an art installation in Sitka National Historical Park which will be mounted on Wed Jun 19. Artists should submit completed salmon by Jun 15. Blank salmon are $25 at Baranof Island Artists Gallery or Waddell & Reed.

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Body of Santa Fe, NM, man recovered from Petersburg float plane crash site. Audio postcard: Violinist Gil Morgenstern finds inspiration in Sitka. Contractors perform repair work on state capitol. Int. Sec. Jewell responds to senate questions on arctic oil.