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State millions can't get seed potato exports going

Alaska’s attempts to sprout an international export business selling seed potatoes have failed to develop into a viable enterprise, and will likely never pay big dividends, a state audit has found.

The potato advocates, however, say its still worth investing state money in the effort, and that’s the only way it will ever succeed.

“The potato program, I believe is still a worthwhile program,” said Bryce Wrigley, president of the Alaska Farm Bureau. He’s not a seed potato grower himself.

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Brown gets national League of Women Voters appointment

With charges of “lies” increasingly common in the ongoing presidential campaign, a Juneau woman is taking a leadership role in both improving the quality of elections — and also of government.

Douglas’ carolyn V. Brown, (first name spelled correctly in lowercase) has been named a member of the national board of directors of the League of Woman Voters, following elections during the group’s 50th biennial convention last month in Washington, D.C.

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Alaska's moon rocks back in NASA's hands

Alaska’s historic moon rocks, collected by Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin in 1969, are back in NASA’s custody.

Now, Alaska State Museums Curator Bob Banghart says he’d like to see them back in an Alaska museum.

“They belong to the state of Alaska, and they belong in the museum’s collection,” said Banghart, who has been following the case of the moon rocks for years.

The moon rocks were a gift to Alaska by President Richard Nixon just after Armstrong became the first man to walk on the moon.

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Ferry system proposes more Lynn Canal service in new schedule

Proposed ferry schedules are out early this year, with ferry officials saying they think they’ve solved this year’s Lynn Canal service problems.

The northern Lynn Canal ports of Haines and Skagway will get daily service, said Jeremy Woodrow, spokesman for the Department of Transportation and Public Facilities.

The Malaspina, based out of Juneau, will serve as a “day boat” shuttling up and down Lynn Canal, six days a week, with the Columbia handling that route on the seventh day.

“Those were the concerns that were raised by Skagway and Haines,” Woodrow said.

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Coastal Management campaigns debate source of contributions

The Alaska Sea Party is calling foul on the Vote No on 2 campaign’s out-of-state campaign contributions, but the opponents are saying the concerns are nothing but “overblown rhetoric.”

The Alaska Sea Party, which sponsored the initiative to resurrect a Coastal Management program in Alaska accused foreign corporations of trying to “buy this election any way then can.”

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The Alaska Permanent Fund and Romney's Bain Capital

Bain Capital made Mitt Romney very wealthy, and the Alaska Permanent Fund corporation hopes the newly-prominent private equity firm will do good things for Alaska as well.

Few people outside the finance world had heard of Bain Capital in 2006, but the Alaska Permanent Fund and its investment advisors were very familiar with the company’s stellar returns.

Alaska began a profitable relationship with Bain Capital in March of 2006 with a $20 million investment in Bain Capital Fund IX, the company’s ninth multi-billion dollar investment fund.

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Voters to be faced with property tax exemption measure

Alaskans will get to vote for lower property taxes during the August primary election, but no matter how they vote on Ballot Measure 1 it is not clear that they’ll actually see lower bills.

Juneau Assessor Robin Potter questioned whether Ballot Measure 1 should be before voters here at all.

The measure would allow those communities that choose to have a residential property tax exemption of up to $20,000 to raise that amount to $50,000. Juneau is not one of those cities.

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Flesh-eating bacteria victim leaves hospital, faces rehab

Ruben Pereyra has left the hospital, but his battle with the ravages of flesh-eating bacteria is not over yet.

Pereyra, a Juneau school bus driver who was flown to Seattle for treatment of the rare but dangerous disease in June, spoke to the Empire for the first time this week.

“I’m feeling a lot better than I did a month ago, a month and a half ago,” he said. “It’s kind of scary leaving the hospital, but I’m excited at the same time.”

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Campaign contributions lay out regional races

New Southeast legislative districts are driving up campaign costs, especially for some closely watched races that may pit incumbents against each other.

Two incumbent state senators will face each other in the fall, Sen. Albert Kookesh, D-Angoon, and Sen. Bert Stedman, R-Sitka, after the latest version of the redistricting maps.

Declining relative population in Southeast has made the districts in the region larger than before, and new lines means that even incumbent legislators have to introduce themselves to new communities.

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BP reports losses in Alaska, elsewhere

Key Alaska oil producer BP reported slightly declining revenues in Alaska, but vanishing profits, as the company ended work on an a costly offshore oil field.

BP Exploration (Alaska) the subsidiary of the huge multi-national oil company BP, reported Tuesday that it lost $508 million in the first half of the year, compared to a profit of $782 million last year.

The suspension of the Liberty project, with which BP would have used extended-reach drilling to tap into offshore oil reserves, played a significant role in the company’s overall loss for the quarter, it said Tuesday.