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Welcome addition

Suburban areas should consider fire protection

Published July 2, 2009

The effort to expand fire protection off Chena Hot Springs Road is encouraging. This has been a difficult area for fire departments and residents alike for many years.

The spill

Published July 1, 2009

It has been just more than 20 years since oil spilled from the Exxon Valdez and soiled the biology and economy of Prince William Sound, ruined lives, and forever tainted the image of what is now the world’s largest company.

Top tier

Alaska’s government is in the modern world

Published June 30, 2009

An anonymous, derogatory comment about Alaska’s governmental leaders, made by an oil industry executive and reprinted in a report from a free-market think tank in Canada last week, isn’t cause any great hand-wringing — mostly because it’s false.

Good news on airport

Published June 29, 2009

Editor’s note: The following editorial lauding progress on upgrading the Fairbanks airport for jet traffic was published on June 6, 1959. State officials last month dedicated a new airport terminal building in Fairbanks, and the old sections were torn down.

Takotna’s tale

Big airfield for tiny town raises tough questions

Published June 28, 2009

For decades, Alaskans have numbed themselves to the shock and oddity of the state and federal expenditures that fall all around us. The latest example is the decision to spend $21 million on a new airfield for the tiny community of Takotna. Why does this sort of expenditure occur?

Consensus builder

Sen. Murkowski tapped again by congressional colleagues

Published June 27, 2009

Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s Republican colleagues this week elected her to a top spot in their organization — vice chairman.

Alternatives welcome

Doyon’s natural gas effort could add to energy mix

Published June 26, 2009

Companies have been poking holes in the ground and cutting seismic lines through the woods west and south of Nenana for decades without finding petroleum deposits worth producing. Doyon Ltd.’s effort could end up in the same category, but the odds are better this time.

Community purpose

Morris Thompson center deserves borough property tax exemption

Published June 25, 2009

The Borough Assembly should grant a property tax exemption to the Morris Thompson Cultural and Visitors Center when it meets tonight.

Still in the swamp

Published June 24, 2009

The U.S. Supreme Court missed an opportunity to correct a serious procedural flaw in the way this nation deals with development on wetlands when the court declined to consider a Fairbanks case this week.

Rational rules

Supreme Court upholds permit, leaving room for future mining

Published June 23, 2009

When it comes to private mines placing material in public land and waters, the first rule should be that the stuff isn’t toxic. Those who worry that the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday exempted the owners of the Kensington Mine near Juneau from this basic rule of good behavior can rest assured — the court has done no such thing.

Remembering Red

Former mayor had an enormous impact on Fairbanks

Published June 22, 2009

H.A. “Red” Boucher began with baseball but couldn’t confine his promotional efforts to that sport alone. The former Fairbanks mayor enthusiastically crusaded for all ideas that struck him as worthwhile for Alaska.

Pipeline payments

Taxes to borough are up, but the money has risk

Published June 21, 2009

Borough taxpayers last month were given some help by the state board that decides how much the trans-Alaska pipeline is worth and, therefore, how much its owners must pay in property taxes on the section that runs through the Fairbanks North Star Borough.

Our wilderness reserve

Published June 20, 2009

Editor’s note: As we recognize the 50th anniversary of President Dwight Eisenhower’s signing of the Alaska statehood proclamation on Jan. 3, 1959, the Daily News-Miner is reprinting an occasional sampling of its statehood-related editorials from that era.

Timely science

Research project studies methods of slowing forest fires

Published June 19, 2009

Government officials have been doing what they think will help protect Fairbanks and other towns from severe wildfires in recent years. They’ve acted on experience but necessarily have used some guesswork.

Regulate boilers

Air quality problems require action on solid-fuel heaters

Published June 18, 2009

Outdoor boilers fired by wood, coal or other solid fuels threaten the air quality in Fairbanks, but an outright ban on the devices isn’t the proper reaction.