Alaska: Governor Asked to Investigate Alaska's High Gas Prices BY MARY KAUFFMAN - With gas prices remaining high despite plummeting oil prices, Rep. Scott Kawasaki (D-Fairbanks) is asking Alaska Governor Bill Walker to begin an investigation into the retail price of fuel in Alaska. In a letter sent to the Governor on Friday, Rep. Kawasaki asked the Governor to find out why price reductions in Alaska are trailing price reductions nationwide.

“Alaska’s high cost of living is only exasperated by the high cost of gasoline, diesel and heating fuel,” said Rep. Kawasaki. “Alaskans deserve a clear answer to why such an oil rich state has the highest gas prices in the country. The high cost of energy is putting a damper on our economy just when we need to give it some air.”

Rep. Kawasaki represents one of the most heating fuel dependent regions in Alaska and he’s a prime sponsor of House Bill 37, which seeks to deter price gouging for gasoline and heating fuel.

In Friday’s letter, Rep. Kawasaki notes that in 2007 when oil was priced at $78 dollars a barrel the price of gasoline was just $2.40 a gallon. However, today oil prices are hovering below $50 dollars a barrel but gasoline is still priced well over $3.30 a gallon.

“It curious that when oil prices go up the price for gas also goes up but when oil prices fall we don’t see that same decrease in gas prices,” said Rep. Kawasaki. “Gas prices that do not reflect the trends seen in the lower 48 states are intolerable for Alaskan consumers and deserves a thorough investigation.”

Rep. Kawasaki is asking the administration of Governor Walker to prepare a report and recommendations for the Alaska Legislature as soon as practicable on the gas price issue.

According to gasoline price website GasBuddy's daily survey of 398 gas outlets in Alaska, average retail gasoline prices in Alaska have fallen 5 cents per gallon in the past week, averaging $3.32 per gallon on September 8, 2015. This compares with the national average that has fallen 6.1 cents per gallon in the last week to $2.39 per gall, according to GasBuddy.com.

Including the change in gas prices statewide in Alaska during the past week, prices Sunday were 64.9 cents per gallon lower than the same day one year ago and are 13.9 cents per gallon lower than a month ago. The national average has decreased 20.2 cents per gallon during the last month and stands 103.7 cents per gallon lower than this day one year ago.

In the Ketchikan Borough, the average gas price according to GasBuddy is $3.50 per gallon. On Prince of Wales, the average gas price per gallon is reported to be $3.32 as of September 08, 2015. The price per gallon in the Ketchikan Borough and in the City of Ketchikan also includes a sales tax. - More....
Tuesday PM - September 08, 2015

Alaska: Alaska among states with highest job satisfaction rate at 54.3 percent - Buoyed by a rapidly tightening labor market, job satisfaction among American workers rose slightly for the fourth consecutive year in 2014, and now stands at the highest level since 2008, according to a report released today by The Conference Board. Nevertheless, satisfaction remains stubbornly low in historical terms, with the majority still not satisfied at work. At 54.3 percent, the Pacific states - Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington - had the highest job satisfaction rate in 2014.

Based on a Fall 2014 survey of 5,000 U.S. households conducted for The Conference Board by The Nielsen Company, Job Satisfaction: 2015 Edition found 48.3 percent of Americans satisfied with their jobs, up from 47.7 percent in 2013 and 42.6 percent in 2010 (an all-time low). As unemployment plummeted over recent years - from 9.1 percent in April 2011 to 5.1 percent in August 2015 - job satisfaction has risen in kind, reflecting heightened competition for talent and the perception of expanded opportunities for turnover and advancement. In fact, absent workers' sense of growing job availability, overall satisfaction would have actually fallen slightly since 2012. This negative underlying trend mirrors the long-term picture: While job satisfaction topped 60 percent in the late 1980s and stood at 58.6 percent in 1995, a majority of Americans haven't been satisfied at work since 2005. - More...
Tuesday PM - September 08, 2015

Southeast Alaska: Archaeologists piece together how crew survived 1813 shipwreck in Alaska - Working closely with the U.S. Forest Service and the Sitka Tribe of Alaska, an international team of researchers funded by the National Science Foundation has begun to piece together an archaeological and historical narrative of how the crew of the wrecked 19th century Russian-American Company sailing ship Neva survived the harsh subarctic winter.

Dave McMahan, Neva Project principal investigator, takes notes in a completed excavation block.
Credit: Gleb Mikhalev
Courtesy National Science Foundation

"The items left behind by survivors provide a unique snapshot-in-time for January 1813, and might help us to understand the adaptations that allowed them to await rescue in a frigid, unfamiliar environment for almost a month," said Dave McMahan of the Sitka Historical Society.

McMahan is the principal investigator for the NSF award, which was made by the Arctic Sciences Section in NSF's Division of Polar Programs.

The wreck of the frigate Neva, which occurred near the city of Sitka, has been surrounded by stories and legends for two centuries. Although survivors eventually were rescued and taken to Sitka, few accounts of their experience were collected or published. No official records relating to the wreck and its aftermath have been discovered.

The researchers are seeking to verify the wreck location and confirm the site of a survivor camp. They also hope that Tlingit oral history will add to the story and help to place the wreck in a broader context.

The NSF-funded work stems from a 2012 survey project by the U.S. Forest Service, the Alaska Office of History and Archaeology and the Sitka Historical Society. At that time, archaeologists discovered caches of Russian axes at a location they predicted to be the survivor camp.

The archaeological team - which includes members from Russia, the U.S. and Canada - believes articles they found over the past two years represent the everyday tools used by 26 shipwrecked members of the Neva's crew. Those crewmembers survived for almost a month in the winter of 1813 by foraging and gathering materials that washed ashore from the wreck.

In July, researchers discovered at the campsite a series of hearths with early 19th century artifacts such as gun flints, musket balls, pieces of modified sheet copper, iron and copper spikes, a Russian axe, and a fishhook fashioned from copper. Well-preserved food middens--or refuse heaps - will allow reconstruction of the foraging strategies the sailors used to survive. - More...
Tuesday PM - September 08, 2015