inside today good ua president: gun bill...
TRANSCRIPT
75 cents THURSDAY, MARCH 20, 2014 newsminer.com
T H E V O I C E O F I N T E R I O R A L A S K A S I N C E 1 9 0 3
SOURDOUGH JACK:
“A cat whisperer? Now I’ve heard a everything.”
The weather.Today will be partly cloudy with lows dip-ping below zero.
High today ..............25Low tonight ............ -4
WEATHER » A11
GOODMORNING
Classified » B10 | Comics » B9 | Dear Abby » B8 | Markets » B5 | Nation » A3 | Obituaries » A9 | Opinion » A8 | Weather » A11INSIDE
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For continuing coverage of this week’s Arctic Winter Games, see www.newsminer.com.Inside Today
A GLIMPSE OF WHAT’S TO COME?Toyota’s $1.2 billion recall case payment shows what could be in store for GM.
NATIONPage A3
Aurora forecast.Auroral activity will be low. Weather permit-ting, low displays will be visible overhead from Barrow to Fairbanks.
This information is provid-ed by aurora forecasters at the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. For more infor-mation about the aurora, visit http://www.gi.alaska.edu/AuroraForecast
CREEPY CRITTERSAlaska sees uptick in bed bug cases.
ALASKAPage A2
FELINE FURYCat whisperer heads to Oregon after family says they were attacked and trapped by pet.
NATIONPage A4
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Team Alaska curler Jacob Dirksen releases the stone as Tyler Cotter prepares to sweep during their playoff game against Team Northwest Territories on Wednesday at the Fairbanks Curling Club. Alaska clinched a bronze ulu and will play in the silver round today. For more on the curling playoffs, see Sports, Page B1. SAM HARREL/NEWS-MINER
EASY DOES IT
UA president: Gun bill unacceptableBy Matt [email protected]
JUNEAU — University of Alaska Pres-ident Pat Gamble said even a com-promise on a bill allowing the con-cealed carry of handguns on campus is unacceptable.
The Senate Judiciary Committee unveiled a rewrite of Senate Bill 176 Wednesday to tighten requirements for people to conceal carry on university campuses after hearing vocal opposition to bill, but Gamble remained opposed. He said the measure won’t make cam-puses any safer but that it would intro-duce a “whole bucket of problems.”
Gamble said he spoke with the univer-sity’s Board of Regents about the bill and they determined that the current policy, which limits firearm possession to locked cars or specially designated gun lockers, doesn’t need changing.
“It looks pretty good on the record, it doesn’t look like it needs adjustment, it doesn’t look like it needs work,” he said. “So the board position and the position I speak for is that we are very satisfied with the policy we have. We have looked at the (committee substitute), it still brings to us a lot of problems. … We can’t accept the (committee substitute) as written.”
University of Alaska President Pat Gamble testifies Wednesday against the latest rewrite of a bill to allow people to carry concealed handguns on campuses. Gamble said the bill, even with a rewrite to tighten standards, poses a huge number of safety risks for students and believes the Board of Regents’ policy is acceptable. MATT
BUXTON/NEWS-MINERGUNS » A9
Body of man found in South Fairbanks snowbankBy Sam [email protected]
The body of a man in his early 20s was discovered Wednesday morning in a snow berm off South Barnette Street.
Someone who was out walking a
dog reported finding the body at about 11 a.m., according to Detective Scott Adams who is investigating the death for the Fairbanks Police Department.
The body was found about midway down the alley that separates Barnette Street and Wilson Street near 26th
Avenue.Police have not yet identified the
man. There was no indication that the man was a homicide victim, but police have also not ruled out foul play, Adams said.
Adams said it was difficult at this
point to determine how long the man had been deceased. There was a fresh layer of snow on the body, he said. The man was wearing jeans and a sweat-shirt.Contact staff writer Sam Friedman at 459-7545.
Arctic Man lands a new title sponsor
By Julie HerrmannFOR THE NEWS-MINER
The Arctic Man Ski and Sno-Go Clas-sic has itself a new title sponsor.
The Outpost, a snowmachine and motorcycle dealership in Fairbanks, signed on, race director Howard Thies announced on Wednesday.
The former title sponsor, the Tesoro Corp., decided to stop sponsoring the race back in early January.
Tesoro had been the main sponsor for 20 years.
The Outpost, located off Airport Way, donated a Polaris snowmachine, which will be raffled off. Thies expects to sell 2,000 tickets, raising about $40,000 that will go toward operating costs.
“It’s the biggest snowmachine event in the state of Alaska all winter, and the biggest social event,” said John Haddad, one of the owners of The Outpost. “We were happy to help Howard out and rep-resent Polaris.”
The roster has not yet been finalized, but Thies is expecting as many as 66 teams to compete. The most he’s ever had was 69.
“This many competitors, it’s going to be a long day; it’s going to be a four-hour show,” Thies said in announcing the sponsorship at The Outpost.
So far, this year’s roster includes X-Games competitors and several Olym-pic skiers and snowboarders, including five who competed in Sochi. Skier Marco Sullivan and snowmachiner Tyler Akles-tad, who have won the last three Arc-tic Man competitions, are returning to defend their title.
Ten adaptive skiers, who race sitting on top of a ski, are signed up, twice as many as last year.
Arctic Man is an annual snowma-chine and ski race that takes place near Summit Lake in the Hoodoo Mountains about 160 miles down the Richardson Highway from Fairbanks.
Competitors are paired up, a skier with a snowmachiner. Skiers race down a mountain, are pulled up another moun-tain at high speed by a snowmachine, and ski down that mountain to the fin-ish line. The team with the shortest time wins. Snowboarders also participate.
The race will take place April 11. Other races including a kids version and drag races, which will take place April 12. During Arctic Man, thousands of spec-tators and competitors pour into the area, making it the fourth-largest “city” in Alaska for a few days.
The Outpost dealership signs on for the race