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JUNEAU - Juneau resident Dan Easton has been promoted to deputy commissioner of the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation, the department announced Wednesday.

Easton is now the department's Water Division director and said Wednesday that he looks forward to the challenges of the new job.

"My private sector experience suggests that everyone benefits when complex environmental rules can be untangled and explained in a way that makes sense," Easton said in a prepared statement.

A graduate of the University of Maryland and George Washington University, Easton has spent the past 25 years in environmental engineering.

"Dan brings a wealth of knowledge and Alaska-based experience to the position," Fredriksson said.

Easton began working for the department in 1981 in Fairbanks and then spent 10 years operating his own engineering firm before returning to the department.

Five longshoremen arrested in cruise ship protest

WHITTIER - Five longshoremen were arrested in Whittier during a protest Wednesday over a cruise ship company's alleged use of foreign workers to handle passenger luggage.

The arrests occurred when the longshoremen tried to place themselves in front of a tour bus headed to a Carnival Cruise Line ship in Whittier. Those arrested were charged with disorderly conduct and trespassing, according to KTUU-TV in Anchorage.

Whittier is the only port in the country where the Miami-based Carnival is using foreign workers to unload passenger luggage, according to the West Coast Longshoreman's Union, which has about 15,000 members. The union maintains that the practice violates a federal law that requires American workers to unload cargo from ships in U.S. waters.

About 60 union members from as far away as San Francisco and San Diego converged on the Alaska port to protest.

"I am ashamed of this whole situation here," said Carl Norman, president of the union, following the arrest of union members. "This is an injustice to the American worker."

Carnival spokesman Tim Gallagher said he wasn't sure exactly what the dispute was about in Whittier. He was aware, he said, that the longshoremen refused to work the ship Wednesday.

"The longshoremen work the docks. They unload from us and passengers arriving in cars," he said. "Once the baggage is on the ship, then our personnel take that baggage and deliver it to the cabins."

The cruise ship company also issued a statement in which it said the disagreement arose over the positioning of longshoremen inside the vessel during baggage loading and off-loading.

"It is Carnival's normal practice and preference to have its own employees handle baggage once it is inside the vessel," according to the statement.

Institutes offer Haida dictionary

FAIRBANKS - Sealaska Heritage Institute and the Alaska Native Language Center at the University of Alaska Fairbanks have co-published a dictionary of the Haida language.

Haida is spoken in two major dialects from the Queen Charlotte Islands in British Columbia and an Alaskan variant from Hydaburg and Ketchikan. The dictionary, compiled by linguist John Enrico, includes two volumes.

The dictionary presents vocabulary and examples of usage by dialect, with explanations of word history and derivation. An English-to-Haida index contains about 7,000 items.

The cloth-bound dictionary sells for $279. For more information, contact the Alaska Native Language Center at (907) 474-6577 or fntla@uaf.edu.

Diesel engine caused smoke from ship

JUNEAU - Dense smoke coming from the cruise ship Coral Princess before 9:30 a.m. Wednesday while it was docked downtown came from a diesel generator that kicked on when the ship's shore power source malfunctioned, according to Kirby Day, the company's director of shore operations.

"It wasn't a fire," Day said Wednesday afternoon. "It was an engine starting. When you have a malfunction it starts the generator.

He said he wasn't sure what caused the malfunction that interrupted power to the ship.

Women's group seeks Native Web content

JUNEAU - The Alaska Women's Network is seeking Native girls and women to create content for an Alaska Native women section on the AWN Web site at www.alaskawomensnetwork.org.

The AWN Board of Directors wants to have an authentic representation (text and pictures) of the cultures and lives of Native women across the state. This is a volunteer effort with credit attributed on the Web site.

For more information, contact Barbara Belknap, AWN co-chairwoman, at 780-8602.

Alaska Railroad employee injured by falling debris

ANCHORAGE - A supervisor for the Alaska Railroad was injured Wednesday after being struck by falling debris during work to repair the Moody Tunnel near Healy.

The supervisor, whose identity was being withheld until his family could be notified, sustained head and shoulder injuries. His injuries are not believed to be serious, railroad spokesman Tim Thompson said.

The tunnel ceiling was damaged Sunday evening when a train loaded high with equipment was not able to clear the tunnel. Temporary repairs were made Sunday evening.

On Tuesday morning a rock slide occurred as a crew was making more permanent repairs. About 150 cubic yards of rock and soil poured into the tunnel after support timbers holding up the ceiling were removed.

The rock slide closed rail lines north of Denali National Park. The tunnel is in Healy Canyon between the national park and Healy, a community of about 1,000 people 78 miles southwest of Fairbanks.

Thompson said it looks like the tunnel will be reopened Thursday. In the meantime, passengers were being bussed through Healy Canyon and points south from Denali to Anchorage.