Federal phone subsidy on the hook
Friday, March 3, 2006 SAM BISHOP - - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
| Two Republican senators on Thursday criticized the federal telephone subsidy for rural areas such as Alaska and suggested the system should be reformed before being extended to broadband Internet services.
| Discuss
Stevens: Alaska needs more weather offices
Thursday, March 2, 2006 SAM BISHOP - - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
| The National Weather Service has located just three of its 122 forecast offices in Alaska, a state that has about one-fifth of the nation's land mass, and Sen. Ted Stevens thinks that could be evidence of discrimination against his state.
| Discuss
Oil official testifies on tax bill
Tuesday, February 28, 2006 R.A. DILLON - - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
| An official with one of the three big oil companies in Alaska told lawmakers Monday that the proposal to double the oil tax increase might enrich the state, but will likely damage industry interest in development.
| Discuss
Stevens promotes Internet subsidy
Tuesday, February 14, 2006 SAM BISHOP - - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
| High-speed Internet service in rural parts of the United States ought to be subsidized in a manner similar to long-distance phone calls, Sen. Ted Stevens said in a wide-ranging speech on telecommunications issues Monday.
| Discuss
Sen. Murkowski tackles global warming
Tuesday, February 14, 2006 SAM BISHOP - - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
| Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said Monday that she believes man-made gases are contributing to global warming and urged government action to combat the trend, but she stopped short of endorsing legislation to cap U.S. production of such gases.
| Discuss
Reporter extends apologies for war game folly
Monday, January 30, 2006 SAM BISHOP - - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
| The following is reporter Sam Bishop's first-person account of playing a missile defense war game with other reporters courtesy of the Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency and Republican Sen. Wayne Allard of Colorado. The presentation is designed to show people a video-game-like version of how the missile defense system operates.
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Harris wants other gas line proposals aired
Wednesday, January 25, 2006 R.A. DILLON - - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
| The Murkowski administration is focusing its effort to land a contract for a natural gas pipeline exclusively with the major leaseholders on the North Slope. But a Republican lawmaker with an independent streak is insisting on hearing competing proposals.
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Nonprofit's spending records sparse
Monday, January 23, 2006 SAM BISHOP and ROD BOYCE - - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
| The two federal departments that have provided $2.9 million to the Fairbanks nonprofit agency LOVE Social Services since 2000 have conducted no reviews to see if the money was spent as proposed, according to documents obtained by the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.
| Discuss
Feds tighten oversight of nonprofit
Saturday, January 21, 2006 SAM BISHOP - - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
| The federal department administering the most recent grant to LOVE Social Services has imposed tighter controls on the Fairbanks nonprofit, a spokesman for the department said this week.
The comments follow the federal government's Jan. 10 search of the offices of LOVE Social Services; the home of its director, Chris Hayes; and the church where her husband, former Fairbanks Mayor Jim Hayes, serves as pastor. About 30 agents from the FBI and three other federal agencies served search warrants at the locations.
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Feds probe nonprofit, church
Friday, January 13, 2006 SAM BISHOP and ROD BOYCE - - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
| Thirty federal agents simultaneously served three search warrants Tuesday at the Fairbanks home of former city Mayor Jim Hayes, at the church where he serves as pastor and at the nearby nonprofit social services center run by his wife.
The agents were looking for evidence that Hayes and others associated with the church and LOVE Social Services Center Inc. misused federal grant money, two sources familiar with the warrants confirmed.
| Discuss
Feds approve revised NPR-A leasing plan
Thursday, January 12, 2006 SAM BISHOP - - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
| Federal officials on Wednesday ended a yearlong limbo placed on a revised oil leasing plan for the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska's northeast area, adopting a final plan that bars leases on the North Slope's largest freshwater lake and protects more tundra used by caribou and geese.
| Discuss
Heating funds increased
Friday, January 6, 2006 STEFAN MILKOWSKI - - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
| The Bush administration released more than $500,000 Thursday to Alaska to help low-income residents pay for heating fuel.
The boost in funding will help the state's Department of Health and Social Services meet this year's high demand for assistance.
| Discuss
Medicare's new plan confuses
Wednesday, January 4, 2006 STEFAN MILKOWSKI - - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
| For pharmacists and seniors across the city, the first days of the new Medicare prescription drug coverage plan have been either wonderfully easy, terribly slow, or downright nightmarish.
Most agree on one thing.
"A lot of people are really confused," said Mary Bohan, who manages the pharmacy at the Safeway on College Road.
And with reason.
| Discuss
Bills would curb use of eminent domain
Wednesday, January 4, 2006 CHRIS ESHLEMAN - - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
| Still feeling the aftershock of a controversial U.S. Supreme Court decision six months ago, state lawmakers have pre-filed at least a half-dozen bills that would change the state's eminent domain laws.
The federal high court decided 5-4 in late June that a city in Connecticut could take 15 homes as part of a larger economic development project.
Fairbanks Rep. Jim Holm hopes to prevent the same from happening in Alaska.
| Discuss
Stevens: 'This is the saddest day of my life'
Thursday, December 22, 2005 SAM BISHOP - - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
| Sen. Ted Stevens couldn't be seen for several hours Wednesday afternoon, but he could be felt.
For about nine hours, other senators wandered on and off the Senate floor while chatting with colleagues and trying to find a way to thaw the freeze that settled in after Stevens lost a vote on Alaska oil drilling.
| Discuss
Stevens criticized as vote nears
Wednesday, December 21, 2005 SAM BISHOP - - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
| Environmental groups have accused Sen. Ted Stevens of slipping language in a defense spending bill that would let the state of Alaska challenge a 50-50 split of revenues from oil development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge without endangering the proposed federal lease program in the refuge.
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ANWR battle rages in Senate
Tuesday, December 20, 2005 SAM BISHOP - - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
| House of Representatives approval of oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was less than five hours old Monday morning when senators took up the debate, but they aren't expected to vote on the issue until Wednesday.
| Discuss
Stevens may link defense, ANWR
Thursday, December 15, 2005 SAM BISHOP - - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
| Legislation to allow oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge may be attached to an annual defense spending bill in a effort to break a deadlock between the House and Senate over the issue, Sen. Ted Stevens said Wednesday.
| Discuss
Mining laws up for major rewrite
Sunday, December 11, 2005 SAM BISHOP - - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
| After the U.S. House this spring told its Resources Committee to find a way to raise a few billion dollars for the federal treasury, Chairman Richard Pombo looked to oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in a high-profile move that culminated in a showdown over a budget bill last month.
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Stevens writes bill to prevent overfishing
Thursday, November 17, 2005 SAM BISHOP - - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
| Building on recommendations from two ocean policy commissions, Sen. Ted Stevens has introduced legislation to make federal fisheries management councils shut down overfishing and listen to their scientific advisers.
| Discuss
Border rules tightened
Sunday, November 6, 2005 SAM BISHOP - - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
| Alaskans will need a passport to travel to Canada by the end of next year under some circumstances, but Gov. Frank Murkowski said Friday he is trying to get the new federal rules relaxed.
| Discuss
ANWR vote expected today
Thursday, November 3, 2005 SAM BISHOP - - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
| Senators pushed to prohibit the export of any oil drawn from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge during debate on the Senate floor Wednesday, and a vote on the issue could come today.
| Discuss
Senate OKs ANWR drilling
Friday, November 4, 2005 SAM BISHOP - - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
| The U.S. Senate moved a step closer to ending one of the nation's most heated environmental struggles Thursday when it narrowly voted to allow oil companies to drill in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
| Discuss
Bridge stakes raised
Sunday, October 30, 2005 SAM BISHOP - - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
| The Sierra Club's executive director has accused Sen. Lisa Murkowski of wanting a big bridge to Gravina Island near Ketchikan to boost the value of property the senator's mother owns.
| Discuss
House panel defeats ANWR revenue-sharing proposal
Thursday, October 27, 2005 SAM BISHOP - - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
| An amendment to force the Arctic Slope Regional Corp. to share oil revenues from the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge with other Alaska Native corporations died in the House Resources Committee on Wednesday, along with several other Democratic proposals.
| Discuss
Hastert presses for gas line deal
Wednesday, October 26, 2005 SAM BISHOP - - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
| House Speaker Dennis Hastert prodded BP and Exxon on Tuesday to come to terms with the state of Alaska over a proposed natural gas pipeline to the Lower 48, something Gov. Frank Murkowski declined to do publicly last week.
| Discuss
House releases draft ANWR plan
Tuesday, October 25, 2005 SAM BISHOP - - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
| The chairman of the U.S. House Resources Committee released his proposal to develop oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge on Monday and, as expected, it carries far more provisions than a Senate version unveiled last week.
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Waiting for Murkowski
Sunday, October 16, 2005 R.A. DILLON - - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
| The list of would-be candidates for governor in 2006 continues to grow as political pundits and Republican insiders speculate on whether Gov. Frank Murkowski will run for a second term.
Murkowski has been tight-lipped about his future plans, leaving members of the GOP in limbo and Democratic hopefuls anxious to recapture the state's top spot.
| Discuss
Memo: BP halting some Slope work
Tuesday, October 4, 2005 SAM BISHOP - - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
| BP Exploration (Alaska) Inc. suspended work this spring at a Prudhoe Bay oil production pad and gas processing plant because of tax uncertainties created by Gov. Frank Murkowski, according to a memo sent to employees in May.
| Discuss
Thousands gather in D.C.
Wednesday, September 21, 2005 SAM BISHOP - - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
| More than 100 Alaskans joined a national rally and later an informal debate with Alaska congressional aides Tuesday, as environmental groups launched a weeklong lobbying effort in Washington, D.C., to block oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
| Discuss
Road funds staying put
Wednesday, September 21, 2005 SAM BISHOP - - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
| Rep. Don Young has an offer for commentators who say he and the rest of Congress ought to divert Alaska money from the recent highway bill to assist regions washed out by Hurricane Katrina.
"They can kiss my ear," Young said last week. "That is the dumbest thing I've ever heard."
| Discuss
Alaskans protest drilling plan
Wednesday, September 21, 2005 R.A. DILLON - - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
| About 100 people showed up at Veteran's Memorial Park in the heart of Fairbanks on Tuesday to protest the Bush administration's plan to drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
| Discuss
Governor delivers gas line terms
Thursday, September 15, 2005 R.A. DILLON - - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
| Gov. Frank Murkowski gave major oil producers on the North Slope a week to respond to a state contract proposal for building a natural gas pipeline.
The governor sent a comprehensive proposal for a 30-year contract--potentially worth as much as $3 billion a year to the state--to the producers Tuesday.
| Discuss
BRAC hearing focuses on savings
Sunday, August 21, 2005 SAM BISHOP - - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
| Three military base review commissioners on Saturday expressed strong skepticism about the Pentagon's treatment of personnel cost savings from the proposed closing and revamping of bases around the nation.
| Discuss
Galena airfield on BRAC list
Wednesday, July 20, 2005 SAM BISHOP - - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
| The military base review commission voted unanimously Tuesday to consider canceling the Air Force contracts for snowplowing at the Galena runway and maintenance of other military facilities at the state-run airport.
| Discuss
Roberts worked on Alaska cases
Wednesday, July 20, 2005 SAM BISHOP - - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
| President Bush's first nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court worked as a contract attorney for the state of Alaska on several high profile legal cases during the 1990s, including a successful bid to deny "Indian country" status to lands owned by the Venetie tribal government.
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State gets grant to offset BRAC impacts
Thursday, June 30, 2005 SAM BISHOP - - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
| The U.S. Department of Labor has approved a $615,000 grant to the state of Alaska to help businesses and workers potentially harmed by the Department of Defense's proposed reduction in forces at military bases.
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State denies ANWR threat
Friday, June 24, 2005 SAM BISHOP - - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
| After threatening Congress twice in the past two years with the prospect of state oil leases off the coast of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Gov. Frank Murkowski on Thursday downplayed and denied the state was engaged in such work.
But it is, and has been for many years, though without much success.
| Discuss
River hazard may be reworked
Thursday, June 23, 2005 SAM BISHOP - - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
| Legislation in Congress may give the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers authority to rework a section of riprap on the Tanana River that created a navigational hazard for the Riverboat Discovery tour boats last year.
| Discuss
Senator: Build up Eielson
Sunday, June 19, 2005 SAM BISHOP - - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
| The evening before the military base review commission came to Fairbanks for its first hearing, some of the Department of Defense's top officials gathered in Washington, D.C., to watch and listen as Hawaii Sen. Daniel Inouye picked up an award from a local think tank.
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Thousands show support for Eielson
Thursday, June 16, 2005 MARY BETH SMETZER and DIANA CAMPBELL - - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
| A cross-section of Fairbanks area residents, including Eielson Air Force Base workers, stood patiently Wednesday in a long line streaming around the Carlson Center. More than 3,000 people turned out under a hot sun to show their support for keeping Eielson off the Air Force's realignment and closure list.
| Discuss
Eielson change would alter district plans
Monday, June 13, 2005 MARMIAN L. GRIMES - - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
| It's not as simple as closing the doors and shutting off the lights.
Fairbanks North Star Borough School District officials say that if Eielson Air Force Base were to be downsized in the fashion proposed by the Department of Defense, the results would roll across the entire district.
| Discuss
Eielson balancing act
Monday, June 13, 2005 SAM BISHOP - - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
| Eielson Air Force Base was born, raised and brought through middle-age during the Cold War. During much of the last 60 years, its purpose was to house aircraft and airmen who were ready to take on Soviet bombers.
Now, with the Soviet Union gone and the federal budget bleeding, the Pentagon wants to adjust its strategies and shed costs. Eielson, the military's northernmost large domestic air base, has been assigned the role of career counselor.
| Discuss
Funds tagged for land swap
Saturday, June 11, 2005 SAM BISHOP - - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
| The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service would receive $500,000 to conduct an environmental impact statement on a proposed land exchange with Doyon Ltd. in the Yukon Flats, under legislation proposed by the Senate Appropriations Committee.
| Discuss
Air Force releases Eielson plans
Thursday, June 9, 2005 SAM BISHOP - - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
| Air Force officials this week released more information on their plan to turn Eielson Air Force Base into a major training venue, saying they want to keep two-thirds of the base "fully operational" and run war games from early spring through late fall.
| Discuss
Disappearing arctic lakes linked to global warming
Monday, June 6, 2005 CHRIS TALBOTT - - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
| The thousands of lakes dotting the arctic landscape for millennia have offered fresh water, a source of food and a home to the many different inhabitants of the Far North.
Now, those same lakes are offering evidence of global warming on a large scale. Scientists charting their rise and fall with satellite data have seen lakes dry up and disappear in less than 50 years, something that should take centuries.
| Discuss
Stevens' mum on confirmation vote part of Senate procedure
Wednesday, June 1, 2005 SAM BISHOP - - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
| Sen. Ted Stevens spent months advocating a vote on President Bush's judicial nominees, but on the first confirmation vote after a compromise ended the lengthy stalemate over Senate filibuster rules, the Alaska Republican said neither "yea" nor "nay."
He simply registered himself as "present."
| Discuss
BRAC data slow to go out
Friday, May 27, 2005 SAM BISHOP - - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
| Members of Congress, including Alaska's delegation, complained Wednesday that they haven't received the detailed information necessary to analyze Pentagon proposals to rearrange and close some of the nation's military bases.
| Discuss
Eielson effort rolling
Wednesday, May 25, 2005 DIANA CAMPBELL - - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
| The local "Save Eielson" effort is gaining momentum.
Business leaders pledged additional support to help keep the 62-year-old Air Force base 30 miles from Fairbanks from dramatically downsizing.
And more experts have signed on to help convince federal officials that Eielson is central to U.S. military strategy.
| Discuss
Borough mayor focuses on effort to save Eielson
Thursday, May 19, 2005 R.A. DILLON - - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
| With the clock running on proposed military base closures and realignments in Alaska, Fairbanks North Star Borough Mayor Jim Whitaker has called for the formation of a local advisory group to focus specifically on the threat to Eielson Air Force Base.
| Discuss
BRAC hearing set
Friday, May 20, 2005 SAM BISHOP - - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
| A commission reviewing the nation's military base structure will hold a hearing in Fairbanks on June 15 to take comments on the Department of Defense's proposed personnel reduction at Eielson Air Force Base and other Alaska installations.
| Discuss
Local task force taking shape
Friday, May 20, 2005 R.A. DILLON - - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
| Fairbanks area leaders thought they had 10 weeks to respond to a Pentagon proposal to reduce troop strength at Eielson Air Force Base by nearly 3,000.
Instead they have less than a month.
| Discuss
Downsizing Eielson an economic blow for Interior
Saturday, May 14, 2005 DIANA CAMPBELL - - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
| When Realtor Debe Reischke heard the news about the reductions in force at Eielson Air Force Base, she couldn't help but remember the "For Sale" signs that sprouted up around the Interior in the early 1980s.
Construction on the trans-Alaska oil pipeline was over. The economy slumped and people left. She remembers empty houses on every block.
But if the Department of Defense relocates more than 2,800 Air Force personnel and their 3,300 dependents--about 7 percent of Fairbanks North Star Borough population--she hopes it's not time to dust off those sale signs.
| Discuss
Eielson on cut list
Friday, May 13, 2005 SAM BISHOP - - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
| The Department of Defense recommended Friday that the Air Force move 2,800 personnel and all its A-10 and F-16 fighter aircraft out of Eielson Air Force Base during the next five years.
| Discuss
Missile tests reviewed
Thursday, May 12, 2005 SAM BISHOP - - Fairbanks Daily News-Miner
| The Missile Defense Agency will install 10 more interceptors at Fort Greely and deliver an X-band radar to the Aleutian Islands this year, but flight tests of the national missile defense system are on hold while the agency reviews what went wrong with two failed launches in the last six months.
| Discuss
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