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News Service 2 presents Alaska Nightly News with Victor George, Linda Taylor and the entire Channel 2 News Team.
Good evening. Compromise was the key to the tentative agreement reached in Washington between Interior Secretary James Watt and Alaska's Governor Bill Sheffield on the Norton Basin lease offering.
News Service 2 Washington correspondent Fred Burns files this report from the nation's capital.
You've got to give a little to get a little. That was the prevailing mood following yesterday's meeting between Watt and Sheffield on the Norton Basin issue and other matters.
Watt said he yielded on several of Sheffield's environmental concerns about Norton Basin. As a result, 11 tracks near the Yukon River Delta will be eliminated from the sale.
Prohibited will be most offshore loading of oil and drilling in broken ice conditions and in areas inhabited by whales.
Watt didn't give in on Sheffield's request for a delay in the oil and gas lease offering. One thing that's not needed, he said, is more study.
We've had $29 million of previous study. There's been exhaustive studies in that exact Norton Bay area.
So the sale, as the Governor said, will go ahead as scheduled in the five-year plan approved by Congress. Everything's on schedule, but extensive studies have been carried out there.
Sheffield says he's lifting the state's legal objections to the Norton Basin lease offering because he says the state got the best deal it could.
We're trying to protect our people, yet at the same time have development. And I think that although I did not get the two-year delay that I had hoped for to get things in order,
we did get all of our stipulations that we requested in our letter of 30 days ago, which will allow us the opportunity to control the development so that our people, I think, will be protected.
Interior Secretary Watt and Governor Sheffield use words like tough and candid to describe this their first face-to-face meeting.
There will be more lease sales, of course, and more meetings and more discussion of things like coal.
Watt told Sheffield he'd like to see Alaska get into the coal business. In Washington, Fred Burns reporting for News Service 2.
State legislators tonight are divided over what to do about the North Slope borough.
Yesterday, a Superior Court judge decided that 1,800 workers on the North Slope should not have been counted as residents of the slope.
That means the North Slope will not receive about $11 million in state aid.
The question now before state legislators is whether workers who live in the city but work on the North Slope borough should be counted as residents of the city or of the slope.
Yesterday's decision has split legislators into two camps.
Well, I think it's disastrous for the North Slope borough in way of giving revenue to the North Slope borough and having their bonds saleable and their operation budget, I presume, would be affected by that, where they'd have cut back services if that wasn't rectified.
But there's nothing punitive about how I look at this. I think it's an issue that needs resolution. It did not lend itself to a last minute major bill without the appropriate kind of legislative discussion.
We should make the decision. That's a major policy issue and it should be made by the legislature, by 60 of us.
Who loses from yesterday's decision?
Well, obviously the North Slope borough. It will receive $11 million less state aid if that decision holds.
Today, borough mayor Eugene Brower told News Service 2 that by the end of this week he'll decide whether to appeal the court ruling.
Brower also said that with or without the courts, the question of population will now be a political issue and legislators will decide who should be counted where.
Winning that battle, according to Brower, will be a test of political clout.
How, who's got political muscle down there? Whether, where, how will the administration take a look at it, at this issue?
Does the North Slope borough have any political muscle?
It might, might not. You never know.
And the first international shipments of coal out of Alaska could begin by late 1985.
As we see in this report from Jerry DeHogge, a market for Alaska's coal would expand the state's source of revenue.
Alaska has many substantial natural resources, one of which is coal. It is estimated that Alaska's coal reserves are between 1 to 5 trillion tons.
Joe Usabelli Sr. owns and operates this coal mine in Healy.
He has been attempting to complete a contract to sell his coal to a South Korean company, Sun Eel, for the past six years.
He says the signing of a contract is now closer than ever because Sun Eel has a market for the coal in South Korea.
According to Usabelli, this could open up a sizable new industry for Alaska.
To get started lends a lot of credibility to the industry here.
We can prove that yes, we can meet our commitments, yes, we can supply coal, and yes, we can be competitive in the world market.
And that will encourage other mines to start. It will lead credibility to them in their negotiations with Korea or perhaps other countries.
Ultimately, the contract calls for shipping 800,000 metric tons of coal to South Korea a year.
That would be approximately 12,000 railroad cars annually.
It would create about 30 new jobs at the mine, and it would also create jobs for railroad workers.
But Usabelli says the contract is not yet final. According to Usabelli, some of the specifications Sun Eel has placed on the coal are too tight and need to be adjusted.
Usabelli says he won't enter into a contract that he knows he can't fulfill.
In Healy, Jerity Ho, News Service 2.
And tonight there's more trouble in the native village of Tyonek.
The principal of the Bob Bartlett School, the only school in the village, has filed a defamation suit against certain members of the village tribe.
Bill Hatch says certain statements by these people that state he carries a gun on school property were false and defamatory.
The principal says he wants a retraction.
Meanwhile, in the village itself, the leaders have circulated a petition signed by 62 village residents asking for Hatch's removal as school principal.
The petition contends that the principal is a good administrator, but asks the Kenai Peninsula School District to request his resignation because of his involvement in village politics.
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Behind every chevron sign is nearly 100 years of Alaskan history.
In one of the early oil exploration operations in Alaska, chevron drilled a well at Jute Bay near Kodiak Island with a crew that included local Alaskans.
Today, chevron continues its long-standing practice of local hire.
In the Kenai Peninsula, some of the local chevron employees there are second-generation workers.
Chevron continues to support training courses like these at Kenai Community College that prepare Alaskans for job opportunities in Alaska's oil operations of tomorrow.
Chevron was working with Alaskans at the turn of the century, and chevron is working with Alaskans in the 1980s, helping to fuel Alaska's and America's energy needs.
There's nearly 100 years of Alaska behind every chevron sign.
The state's prison system is poorly managed, overcrowded, and needs lots of changes soon to correct its own problems.
That today from administration officials in Juneau.
The testimony came as lawmakers began their review of Governor Sheffield's plan to create a Department of Corrections. Todd Hardesty has more.
The forum was a joint meeting of the House and Senate Health and Social Services Committees.
Lawmakers must decide by mid-March whether to go along with Governor Sheffield's executive order, creating the Department of Corrections.
Roger Indell, director of the Division of Corrections, says creating a separate division is the quickest way to correct the problem-plagued prison system.
It would be a clean and quick action be taken by executive order in order to get this thing moving immediately.
It's critical in our opinion, the task force opinion, that it be done immediately, and a decisive move would be the best way to go.
Indell says the state's correction system needs a lot of correcting itself. Prisons are overcrowded and understaffed.
The most serious problem, according to Indell, is management.
It's not poorly but mismanaged.
Spans of control and lines of authority and who reported to who and so on were truly in bad shape.
If lawmakers go along with the Governor's plan, the Department's top management would double,
with deputy commissioners assigned in Anchorage and Juneau, and regional directors in Juneau, Fairbanks, and one assigned for rural Alaska.
A change would cost the state an estimated quarter million dollars this year, nearly a million in 1984.
In Juneau, Todd Hardesty, News Service 2.
A nationwide trend of increasing violent crime has missed at least one area of the state.
That conclusion was reached through statistics recently released by the Fairbanks Police Department.
Nolan Spencer reports.
The most notable drop in the crime rate in Fairbanks was in the area of violent crime.
1981 saw six murders or manslaughters. By contrast, 1982 had none.
The incidence of rape dropped by nearly 30 percent from 39 in 1981 to 28 in 1982.
Almost every major area of crime decreased in 1982, with the exception of robbery, which rose by 24 percent.
Criminal fraud rose by over 200 percent.
1981 had 32 reported cases of fraud, while the same crime was reported 103 times in 1982.
Those figures may be misleading.
According to Fairbanks Police Chief Matthew Kiernan, a new reporting procedure groups a number of offenses under the heading of fraud.
One significant reduction was in the number of drunk driving arrests.
In 1981, 415 cases of DWI were reported.
This past year, the number was 296.
Kiernan says the combination of better public awareness and an increase in arrests on the part of the Alaska State troopers accounted for the 29 percent drop.
All other areas of liquor law violations increased in Fairbanks in 1982.
In Fairbanks, Nolan Spencer, New Service 2.
Alaska is on the verge of its very own six-day war, Operation Brim Frost.
1983 begins this Friday on the ground and in the skies over a large piece of Alaska south of Fairbanks.
Brian Murray reports.
Today's media briefing gave reporters a basic version of some highly complicated plans by the so-called friendly forces versus the so-called opposition forces.
Brim Frost commanders say this year's exercise will not be substantially different from previous Brim Frosts.
Elements of the opposition forces will occupy the remote Clear Creek airstrip.
The friendly forces will do their best to take it back.
To simulate realistic conditions, rifles and machine guns will be loaded with blanks, tear gas, smoke devices, and flares will be used.
In all, 16,000 troops, 125 aircraft, and 900 vehicles will participate.
And despite rumblings from Washington, mainly from the Democrats, about defense spending cuts for next year,
Deputy Exercise Director Major General John A. Hempel says this year's Brim Frost will not be affected.
The actual extra cost for this exercise is $16 million.
Now most of that goes into airlift to transport forces to and from the South 48.
Major General Hempel says if future Brim Frost exercises are cut back for economic reasons,
it would likely happen to all major U.S. military exercises around the world.
Brim Frost would be considered in context with all these other exercises over the next few years and how it would be cut back or not.
Hempel says weather conditions for this year's Brim Frost are nearly perfect, at least for the moment,
and he says he's not overly concerned with which side wins.
No, we're not here to create Napoleons.
The real winner is a trained soldier and a trained airman, whether it be enlisted or officer, and that's why we're here.
At Elmendorf Air Force Base, Brian Murray, News Service 2.
Alaska's buildings are designed to waste rather than conserve energy, that according to an energy economist for the Sierra Club, Skip Leitner.
Leitner is an anchorage to participate in an alternative energy conference at the community college,
and he says cutting down on energy waste is the first step towards energy conservation.
So once we've done a bang-up job of making everything efficient, then we can introduce things like wind energy,
which has some real potential out here in Alaska, the possibility of converting urban wastes into natural gas.
That's a real possibility. Passive solar heating, some solar hot water heating, although not nearly so, as might be down in the lower 48.
A different blend of diverse technologies could really, I think, do a lot for Alaska,
but it would have to happen at a larger scale than just one person who was a good tinker in the backyard.
It'd have to be a community-wide kind of thing.
While many of you are still waiting to receive your first permanent fund dividend check,
there are some who are luckier than most and have received more than one.
One 19-year-old anchorage girl got quite a surprise when she found the state had sent her two of the thousand dollar checks in the mail.
Diana Schaeffer says she had to fill out several applications for her check, and she thinks that may be why she received a duplicate.
I sent in one, I went back to check to see if I was on the computer all right, and it ended up that I wasn't on the computer,
so they had me fill out another one, which was no problem, so I filled out another one.
About two weeks after that, Juno sent me another thing saying, well, you're going to have to fill this out and then send it back again.
And so I did it again, and before the paperwork had time to return to Juno, I had gotten my first check.
So what I think happened is by the time they got the second or the third application, they, you know, that messed them up totally,
sent me another one.
Diana says she thought briefly about keeping that check, the second check rather, but she's going to send it back with a note saying thanks, but no thanks.
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This portion of Alaska Nightly News has been sponsored by Chevron USA.
You want something better? Yeah, you won't take second bets.
You want it delicious? For you, there's nothing less than Wendy's all-white chicken sandwich.
Better, you can't fight it. With a real delicious chicken breast, that's not the process kind.
That's why you're Wendy's kind of people.
You want something better? Your Wendy's kind of people.
Time now for a look at sports Alaska. Thank you for joining me this evening. I'm Al Gill.
The sporting world is mourning the death of a college football coaching legend.
Former Alabama Crimson Tide head coach, Paul Bear Bryant, died today in Tuscaloosa, Alabama of a massive heart attack.
He was 69 years old. The Bear had been admitted to a hospital there last night after complaining of chest pains.
At that time, he was reported in satisfactory condition. His vital signs were stable and he was resting comfortably.
Today, however, Bryant's heart stopped beating while he was being x-rayed.
The last game Bear Bryant coached was the Liberty Bowl only a few weeks ago.
His players won that game for him, his 320 third career victory.
The Bear was the winningest coach in NCAA history. The Bear announced he was retiring before the Liberty Bowl.
Today, the legend is dead. Bear Bryant dead at the age of 69.
In pro football news today, good news for the Seattle Seahawks.
Chuck Knox has been hired as the new head coach of the Seahawks.
Only yesterday, Knox handed in his resignation as the head coach of the Buffalo Bills.
Knox is a winner. His record proves that he reshaped the hapless Buffalo Bills and took them into the playoffs twice.
He says he liked Buffalo, indicated he wanted to stay there, but the Bills owner didn't give him the contract extension Knox wanted.
Now he's with Seattle, a team with some excellent personnel, but also a team that has never made it into the playoffs.
Well, the new Alaska prep basketball rankings are out.
No change at the top of the men's poll. A new leader in the women's rankings.
However, let's take a look.
The East High Thunderbirds are a unanimous choice by the Alaska Sportswriters poll for the number one position.
They received all 10 first place votes.
Then comes Kodiak, West Valley, Juno, Douglas, and Wasilla.
Rounding out the top 10, Bartlett, Monroe Catholic was second last week, but fell to seventh due to a couple of losses last week.
Toka's eighth, followed by Service, and then Ketchikan pulls down the tenth spot.
In the women's basketball poll, a new number one, Kodiak, with a record of 13-1.
That team got six first place votes.
Bartlett is second, followed by Juno, Douglas, then Wasilla, and Lathrop.
Lathrop was the team that was number one last week and unbeaten.
However, they lost twice last week to Anchorage teams.
Rounding out the top 10 women's teams, West Anchorage holds down the sixth slot.
Northway is seventh, West Valley eighth, Service is ninth, and Palmer is number 10.
The UAF men's basketball team, as well as the UAA men's basketball squad, will be on the road this week.
Then Anooks play Eastern Montana tomorrow. Then they move on to play Eastern Washington.
Meanwhile, the Seawolves also play the same two teams. Bob became in as a preview.
The Seawolves' latest road trip is the longest of the year, and although it won't feature the toughest competition the Wolves have seen,
the six-game trip is very important from the standpoint of postseason play.
Four of the games are against Division II competition, three are in the conference, and one is in the toughest town to play in.
When you get on a road trip, the first game is the most important game of a road trip,
because depending on how you play there can really affect how you play in the later games.
The second contest at Billings, this is a hard trip to prepare for in packing our bags,
because we're going to go to Cheney, Washington, then to Billings, where it's probably colder than it is in Anchorage,
and then we go straight from Billings over to Hawaii.
The trip begins in Cheney against Eastern Washington on Thursday.
The Eagles were swept by Puget Sound and Seattle Pacific last weekend.
The parade then moves into Billings against the Scrappers of the league, Eastern Montana.
The Yellow Jackets lost only one conference game at home last season.
After that, Hawaii is the next stop for encounters with Hawaii Hilo and BYU on Monday and Wednesday.
Then, after returning home, the Wolves travel to Fairbanks for two games with the Nanooks.
It's a tough trip, and one that will go a long way in deciding who will win the Great Northwest Conference.
Bob Okamian for News Service 2 Sports.
Well, in a word, Super Bowl XVII translates into hype.
Hype for Pasadena, hype for Los Angeles, hype for the teams, for advertisers who will be shelling out millions to sell live beer during the game.
But perhaps the biggest hype of all comes from the media.
Every sports person in the world, except me, is in Southern California.
Now, one reporter who has taken an interesting view of everything that's going on down there TV-wise is Mike Leonard.
It's Super Bowl week, isn't it? And aren't those guys Washington Redskins?
Then where the heck is the media? Oh, there they are.
It's enough to make a Miami dolphin rub his eyes in disbelief.
All those questions, all those microphones.
Hey, get that big one out of his ear.
And what about this strategy stuff?
It's Greek to me. As far as I know, they could be talking about baseball.
Really, who cares about multiple offenses?
Wouldn't you rather know that Bob Baumhauer wears a size 15 shoe or that Dave Butz is the nephew of Earl?
Eric Laxow? Sure, he's the only NFL player of Finnish descent.
And Tom Vigorito? Why, he works for Jack Mullane in the offseason.
Ooh, he does have nice legs, doesn't he?
But my favorite of all, Mike Nelms, the bird man of Washington.
Yes, I want to know these guys on a personal level. Then why don't they want to know me?
You're not curious about what kind of guy I am?
Uh, yes and no.
No, not really. I've never thought about it.
I don't know, it's a pretty tough question. I'm a little lost now.
Finally, a breakthrough and a payoff for that nice football man.
Where are you from?
Well, I was born in Patterson, New Jersey and I live in Chicago now.
Oh really, so you're covering this for Chicago?
What do you do after you get off the camera? I mean, what kind of person are you on the weekends?
Hey, quit getting so personal. I need my space.
All over the country, GE is having train load sales, but not in Alaska.
Here we do things differently. It's the GE Shipload Sale and it's at Mastercraft Kitchens on the Old Seward Highway.
That's right, ship loads full of fantastic things on General Electric, washers, dryers, dishwashers, microwaves, rangers, refrigerators and more.
All at prices so low you'll blow your...
The GE Shipload Sale only at Mastercraft Kitchens, Tudor and the Old Seward Highway.
At Alaska Energy Service, we have a warehouse full of energy efficient items designed to keep you warm this winter.
For example, the Super Heat Fireplace Insert for prefabricated fireplaces, the Tropicana Free Standing Fireplace and the Ponderosa Catalytic Wood Stove.
And a fireplace designed by Alaska Energy Service called the Alaska.
So stop in today and don't forget to bring in your energy audit.
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The choice is yours, but I want a shamrock.
Pick up your shamrock at Alaska Small Engine Specialties.
Today's weather is brought to you by General Foods, makers of Tang brand instant breakfast drink and other fine products.
Well good evening out there. It is raining in southeast Alaska.
Will be this evening and tomorrow and it looks like it's heading up towards south central and if you were up north in the North Slope area guys,
but it's going to change. Partly cloudy skies and some snow showers tomorrow.
They see a low one in the Gulf of Alaska right now.
Brought heavy rain showers to Kodiak, the Alaska Peninsula area, but mild temperatures.
Thirty-six degrees today at Cold Bay. Snow showers throughout most of the southwest area of the state today around the southern Alaska range.
Cloudy skies and freezing rain here in south central Alaska, the North Kenai Peninsula, Anchorage area southeast.
Rain showers today, tonight and probably tomorrow up in the interior.
Partly cloudy skies, temperature wise. Still cold in North Slope, minus five today up at Barrel.
Lower 48. The weather has changed to winter on the east coast.
Snow showers throughout most of the New York state area in Pennsylvania.
Thirty-eight degrees today in New York City itself. Forty-four at Washington, D.C.
Snow showers, very heavy at times for most of the Rockies. Rain showers all the way from Los Angeles to Seattle today.
Super Bowl 17 looks like it's going to be wet. Over three inches of rain today in Los Angeles, California.
Sixty-five degrees, fifty-five degrees and a third of an inch of rain at Seattle.
Back with the forecast for south central Alaska and the rest of the state calling for mostly cloudy skies. Don't go away.
Take a tip from Joe Reddington. Drink hot tang. Mix tang brand instant breakfast drink with boiling water.
And have a satisfying drink on a cold, blustery day.
My team sent the brewing paste over the frozen tundra. The drink of hot tang hits the spot. It's satisfying and hot tang tastes great.
The next time you have to face the rigors of a cold winter's day, do as Joe Reddington does.
Have a drink of hot tang. Tang instant breakfast drink with vitamin C.
All right, since we are short on time tonight, very quickly the forecast for southwest Alaska calling for continued cloudy skies this evening.
Chance of rain or snow showers mixed tonight for the Bristol Bay area.
Lows tonight ranging between 25 to 33, the highest tomorrow between 33 and 38 southeast.
Rain showers persist. Next 24, 48 hours. Lows tonight 25 to 40, highs tomorrow 35 to 45.
Northwest north slope increasing clouds tonight, partly cloudy skies to mostly cloudy skies tomorrow.
Moderating temperatures, east winds 20 miles an hour. Lows tonight between 15 above to 15 below, the highest tomorrow between 7 below to 20 above.
Interior Alaska, partly cloudy skies tonight, and on Thursday, lows tonight ranging between 0 to 17 below, the highest tomorrow from minus 5 to 8 above.
And south central Alaska, cloudy skies, light rain for the coastal sections, heavy rain showers at times for Kodiak Island.
North winds to 20 miles an hour, diminishing by tomorrow morning. Lows tonight 25 to 35, highs tomorrow between 30 and 40 above.
That's it for weather for the state of Alaska on a Wednesday. We are out of time. Have a good evening all.
Today's weather has been brought to you by General Foods, makers of Tang brand instant breakfast drink, and other fine products.
Thank you for joining us. Good night.
From all of us here at Alaska Nightly News, thanks for watching.
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