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JUNEAU - State flags in Juneau were lowered to half-staff today in honor of Andres Cadiente Sr.

Cadiente, a Juneau man, died last week at the age of 97. He moved to Juneau in the 1940s and became a leader in the Filipino community and a well-known chef.

JUNEAU - Power lines damaged by a landslide on Saturday are carrying electricity from the Snettisham hydro plant again.

Alaska Electric Light and Power crews completed repairs to the damaged lines and power towers near Limestone Inlet, about 25 miles south of downtown, around noon Thursday.

"We tested the line and we transferred the load back to Snettisham about 1 p.m. yesterday," AEL&P spokesman David Stone said today. "Our crew worked under very difficult circumstances and they did a very good job."

The company doesn't yet know how much it cost to generate more expensive diesel power after the line to Snettisham, about 35 miles south of town, went down. But Stone said most of the cost would be covered by income provided by selling surplus summer power to Princess cruise ships docked in Juneau.

In a separate incident, parts of downtown and the Mendenhall Valley went without power for about 20 minutes Thursday morning, Stone said. He said the outage was caused by a problem with one of the turbine generators at Auke Bay.

Southeast Conference hires intertie coordinator

JUNEAU - The Southeast Conference has hired Dave Carlson of Petersburg to coordinate work on an electric intertie for the region.

Carlson will work on forming a legal entity that will own or operate the intertie and identify projects for planning and permitting, according to a press release from Southeast Conference, a regional organization of community and business leaders.

Congress authorized $384 million to build the regional electric grid in 2000, and the Southeast Conference wants to begin identifying projects for federal funding, according to Executive Director Loren Gerhard. The organization secured a $150,000 state grant for the project this year.

"Southeast Conference doesn't want to end up in the position of being the de facto operating entity of the intertie, but we do want to take advantage of the current situation in Washington, D.C., to fund it on a timely basis," Gerhard said.

Carlson has been the divestiture coordinator for the Four Dam Pool, which coordinated the sale of state-owned hydroelectric projects to Alaska communities and utilities. Most recently he has been the interim general manager for the Four Dam Pool Power Agency.

Workers this summer started clearing the right of way for an electric line connecting Swan Lake in Ketchikan with Lake Tyee near Wrangell. The project has been considered the first piece of a regional intertie.

Deadline looms for voter registration

ANCHORAGE - Alaskans have until Sunday to register to vote in the general election Nov. 5.

The Division of Elections said four regional elections offices in Juneau, Anchorage, Fairbanks and Nome will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and from noon to 4 p.m. Sunday to register voters.

Alaskans can register at city clerks' offices, the Department of Motor Vehicles and public libraries. Registration forms also are available on the Internet.

Alaskans who change their voter registration after the deadline Sunday will have to vote a questioned ballot, officials said.

Anchorage man sentenced to probation in assault

ANCHORAGE - A 20-year-old man was sentenced Wednesday to three years probation for his role in holding a 16-year-old boy against his will, beating him and branding him on his back.

Nathan Carroll, convicted of assault, avoided a longer sentence because he cooperated with police from the start, prosecutors said.

Four others pleaded no contest to assault earlier this year. Each received between six months and one year in jail, prosecutors said.

Co-defendant Nicholas M. Stevens, 21, was convicted of kidnapping and four counts of assault. His sentencing is set for December.

Compiled from staff and wire service reports.