A 60-year-old woman suffered a broken leg last Thursday when the tour boat she was on got too close to a calving glacier in Tracy Arm. A video of the incident posted on the website LiveLeak.com on Sunday shows a large chunk of the glacier break off, sending waves and ice flying toward the vessel.…
Casey Kelly
Plastic bag tax initiative goes to CBJ Assembly
Organizers of a citizens’ initiative in Juneau to tax plastic shopping bags at certain retailers have collected the required number of signatures to put the measure on the ballot. But it might have to wait a year before going to voters. The 15-cent “plastic bag tax” would be levied at the point of sale, and…
Assembly to take up controversial valley rezone
The Juneau Assembly tonight (Monday) will settle a simmering controversy over a zone change request in the Mendenhall Valley. At issue is a property on the corner of Atlin Drive and Loop Road, and whether it should go from medium density residential to light commercial. Homeowners in the neighborhood, along with the city’s Community Development…
9th Circuit denies state’s Juneau Access appeal
The full US 9th Circuit Court of Appeals will not take up the State of Alaska’s latest petition in the Juneau Access case. In May, a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit upheld a lower court’s order for a new Environmental Impact Statement for the road project. The state petitioned to have all 11 members…
Girl reports false abduction, sexual assault
Juneau Police say an 18-year-old woman made up a story about being abducted and sexually assaulted because she was having problems in her personal life. At about 2:45 last Saturday morning, the woman’s mother called police saying her daughter had reported being abducted at knifepoint by three men. The girl said she was taken to…
Searchers find body of missing man in Herbert River
The man found dead Tuesday from an apparent fall on the Herbert Glacier Trail was a nursing supervisor at Bartlett Regional Hospital. Forty-two year old James “Steven” Reese had worked at the hospital about ten years. Bartlett Spokesman Jim Strader says he was popular with both patients and staff, and the whole hospital is shaken…
Assembly COW reviews draft Climate Action Plan
Energy consumption was down 13 percent in Juneau between 2007 and 2010, leading to a 10 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. But the city’s Commission on Sustainability has a more ambitious goal – to reduce the 2007 emissions level 25 percent in the next 20 years. To get there the commission working on a…
Foraker CEO: Alaska nonprofits face funding crisis
Tough times in store for Alaska’s nonprofit sector… For years, organizations in the state have paid the bills by relying on government grants, as well as contributions from corporations and private foundations. But those revenues are drying up, according to Anchorage-based nonprofit consulting firm Foraker Group and the University of Alaska’s Institute of Social and…
Police arrest teenagers in Lemon Creek graffiti incidents
The Juneau Police Department says two teenagers are responsible for a string of vandalism incidents in the Lemon Creek Area. One of the youths – a 17-year-old boy – was arrested 10 days ago on an unrelated warrant. Officers say he was spotted by members of the Juneau Citizen’s Patrol leaving the area of Dzantik’i…
Planning Commission recommends Willoughby parking change
Juneau’s Planning Commission last night recommended the CBJ Assembly extend the city’s downtown Parking District 1 throughout the entire Willoughby District. The move would reduce the amount of required off-street parking in the neighborhood by 60 percent. Retail and office buildings would go from having to provide one space per 300 square feet to one…