Deer Mountain Challenge
Ketchikan resident Amy Russell with ice ax and crampons ascended the NW face of Deer Mt. summit last Wednesday. Yes, it's really that steep with 18" of fresh powdery snow and a snow base of 3 ft. Guided by Ken Arriola, Russell made it.
Front Page Photo By KEN ARRIOLA

Alaska - National: Cheap Labor as Cultural Exchange - Earlier this month, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ordered an “extensive and thorough review” of the State Department’s troubled Summer Work Travel (SWT) program, which every year brings more than 100,000 college students from around the world to fill low-wage seasonal jobs at fish processing plants in Alaska, national parks, and other locations around the United States.

The ordered "extensive and thorough review" followed last summer's protests by students working at a Hershey Co. warehouse in Pennsylvania that garnered worldwide attention.

Last week the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) began an online publication of a four-day investigative series on the program. The report, “Cheap Labor as Cultural Exchange: The $100 Million Work Travel Industry ”, is based on five months of reporting by CIS senior research fellow and Pulitzer Prize-winning former journalist Jerry Kammer. Part Three of the series, "In Alaska, Fish Sliming as Cultural Exchange", addresses the story of SWT in Alaska, where some 2,000 "cultural exchange" workers take seafood industry jobs that used to be magnets for American college students as well as local hires.

Every year SWT provides J-1 visas to more than 100,000 college students from around the world, allowing them to work for three months in the U.S. and take an additional month to travel. Because they pay an average of about $1,100 in fees to the private organizations that sponsor their participation in the program, the program generates well over $100 million in annual revenues for those organizations. They pay many millions more in visa fees to the State Department and in travel expenses to and from the U.S.

The four-part series tells the story of the SWT program’s rapid growth over the past 15 years into a $100 million international industry that has spread around the globe. SWT is emblematic of a larger problem with the nation’s immigration system, where new programs are created and allowed to expand significantly without giving careful consideration to their impact on the labor market or the larger American society. - More...
Tuesday AM - December 20, 2011

Alaska: Corps Decision Clears Way for Development of NPR-A; U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Approves Surface Access to National Petroleum Reserve –The decision Monday by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to grant road access to the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A) via construction of a bridge across the Colville River was welcomed by Alaska officials.

The Corps permit authorizes construction of a drill pad, two valve pads, pipeline support structures, access roads and four bridge crossings for the development of the CD-5 site, located just inside NPR-A’s eastern border. ConocoPhillips has been working for nearly a decade to tap the oil and gas reserves at CD-5, a satellite of the company’s Alpine field on the North Slope.

The Corps permit represents the final hurdle to ConocoPhillips’ plan to connect CD-5 to pipelines and other infrastructure at Alpine. The bridge has the support of the North Slope Borough; the village of Nuiqsut; the Arctic Slope Regional Corp., which owns the subsurface rights to CD-5; and the Alaska Native village corporation for Nuiqsut, Kuukpik Corp. which owns the surface rights at CD-5.

U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), the top Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said in a prepared statement, “Today’s decision clears the way for the National Petroleum Reserve’s first oil production,” Murkowski said. “NPR-A has long been cited as an example of the federal government’s commitment to domestic oil production, but in reality the gates to NPR-A have been locked by bureaucracy and regulatory red tape. The Corps’ revised decision finally unlocks those gates.” - More...
Tuesday AM - December 20, 2011

Alaska: Alaska District Court to Hear Lawsuit this Week, Decision Could Impact How Endangered Species Act is Applied Nationally - The courtroom of Alaska U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Burgess is expected to be full this coming Wednesday as the State of Alaska and some of Alaska’s largest seafood companies face off against Federal attorneys over an Agency decision that has entirely closed an area in the Aleutian Islands that is half the size of Texas, and placing further restrictions on an area twice that size.

The plaintiffs - in this case the State of Alaska and the industry coalition - argue that there is “... factual and significant support for the faults found and the reckless manner in which National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) Protected Resources division proceeded to rush forward a predetermined outcome based solely on political beliefs rather than scientific facts. Without proper leadership capable of exercising direction and authority over low level politically motivated researchers within NMFS, NMFS leadership has allowed the problem to explode,  with devastating effects on crewmembers, captains, owners, operators and other participants in the fisheries, as well as the communities, suppliers, dealers, and other businesses that depend on the fisheries—all to no demonstrable benefit, contrary to the administrative record, contrary to applicable law, science, and reason, and without allowing for meaningful public comment.” - More...
Tuesday AM - December 20, 2011

Alaska: Fire Safety for the Holidays - The Holiday Season is upon us and Alaskans are busy decorating their homes and offices with colorful lights and ornaments. It is important not to forget fire safety in our haste to get our decorating, baking, and shopping done for the Holidays. Many people choose to use natural cut trees to decorate their homes. Beautiful decorations are traditional in the lives of Alaskans, but it is important to know that these decorations lead to added fire risks if safety precautions are not followed.

Alaska State Fire Marshal David Tyler offers these fire safety tips to help make your Holiday Season safe and memorable:

• When decorating for the holidays, guard against blocking exit doors with Christmas trees or decorations that could interfere with being able to escape in the event of a fire.

• Natural cut trees should be secured in a sturdy tree-stand to prevent falling or being knocked over.

• Christmas trees should be freshly cut and placed in water the entire time the tree is inside your home. - More...
Tuesday AM - December 20, 2011

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