A dissenting member of the science advisory panel asked legislators to slow down work on a set of bills that would alter a citizens initiative requirement for cruise ship waste water discharge.

The main contention comes from how House Bill 80 and Senate Bill 29 remove the requirement that cruise ships meet wastewater standards at the point of discharge – at the mouth of the black water pipe. The bills allow for mixing zones around moving and stationary large commercial passenger vessels while in Alaska waters.

Sealaska Heritage Institute’s cultural center won an exclusion from Juneau’s downtown historic district.

The City and Borough of Juneau Assembly granted SHI’s ordinance Monday. The ordinance excludes the block encompassed by Seward Street, Front Street, Shattuck Way and Municipal Way from historic district height and appearance limitations.

It is within a block known as ‘the pit’ that SHI plans to build its Walter Soboleff Center for Alaska Native heritage and culture.

Renewable energy is growing in Alaska, but Power Cost Equalization is still a utility’s preferred way to shrink energy bills.

Alaska’s power producers met with Legislators, staff and the public Wednesday for a lunch learning session sponsored by the House Energy Committee. Four speakers represented the four major electrical regions in the state — Southeast, Railbelt, Copper River and Kodiak and the Arctic and Aleutians areas. Utilities from these regions are part of the umbrella group Alaska Power Association.

Juneau School District Superintendent Glenn Gelbrich had little good news for the newly created budget committee’s second meeting Tuesday night.

“Next week you will get a budget proposal from (a group of administrators) who have put hours and hours,” Gelbrich said. “And I can tell you without exception it was unbelievably difficult. The cuts we made were on top of cuts we've made already.”

JSD has lost around 90 positions in the last three years.

Gelbrich and his administrative team of principals and managers will turn a draft budget over to the committee.