Empire Archives is a series printed every Saturday featuring a short compilation of headline stories in the Juneau Empire from archived editions in 1985, 1995, and 2005. The stories include names, AP style, and other content of their eras.
This week in 1985, a special grand jury today recommended that the Alaska Legislature be called into special session to consider impeaching Gov. Bill Sheffield but did not indict him or any member of his administration.
The legislature will decide within 72 hours whether to begin impeachment proceedings against Sheffield.
The grand jury’s report follows its 10-week probe into the administration’s involvement in the state’s lease of a Fairbanks office building. Senate President Don Bennett said this morning he and other Senate leaders are seeking legal advice and hope to decide as soon as possible whether to convene a special session.
“This is totally unprecedented in the state’s history. It’s a grave and shattering event,” the Fairbanks Republican told the Empire. The grand jury late this morning issued the 69-page report, which said:
“The Grand Jury recommends that the Legislature be called into special session so that the Alaska Senate may consider the evidence presented to and the findings of the Grand Jury for the express purpose of initiating impeachment procedures against Governor William Sheffield.
State Chief Prosecutor Dan Hickey said the governor had been informed of the grand jury’s report, but a spokesman for the governor said there would be no official comment on it.
Original Story: “Grand jury calls for impeachment session” by Debbie Reinwand. 7/2/1985.
This week in 1995, North Slope oil exports. Wetlands development. Oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
Just eight months ago, the thought of speedy congressional action on any of these hot-button Alaska issues seemed improbable. Any suggestion that all could be resolved in a single year would have been dismissed as absurd.
But that was before the November 1994 elections that put Republicans in control of Congress and the state’s all Republican congressional delegation in charge of natural resource policy.
“We’re putting the agenda together,” said Sen. Frank Murkowski, chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. “We are able to move a lot faster and a lot further.”
And move they have.
Midway through the first year of the two-year 104th congressional session, it seems likely that the ban on the export of North Slope crude oil will end soon if only Rep. Don Young, chairman of the House Resources Committee, can stop his bill from getting bumped from the House’s crowded schedule.
Legislation to liberalize restrictions on development of millions of acres of Alaska wetlands, part of a larger package of Clean Air Act revisions, has passed the House and is about to take off in the Senate.
And while tapping the potential oil riches of the ANWR refuge still is a long way from authorization, congressional enactment of a budget measure calling for money from leasing means that a drilling go-ahead could reach Congress by Thanksgiving.
More is on the horizon.
Original Story: “Alaska issues have new urgency in GOP Congress,” by The Associated Press. 7/3/1995.
This week in 2005, on a barge in the middle of Gastineau Channel is a small forest of chest-high tubes arranged and angled towards downtown Juneau for tonight’s firework show.
This is where a crew will start its 16-hour day, loading the 800 tubes with powder shells and meticulously checking wires so the show goes off with a bang at midnight.
“Sometimes it’s ll o’clock and we’ll have a problem with a whole section,” said Gary Stambaugh, one of the 15 volunteers expected on the barge today.
It’s a combination of arts and sciences to pull off this 20-minute show that some fireworks experts have said is the best in the state.
Stambaugh compared his work to composing a symphony and stacking dominos at the same time. No doubt it’s a complex evening with the timing involved and the conducting of combinations of explosions in the air without letting the barge burst into flames.
A tarp covers the hot, sweaty area around the tubes, shielding the fireworks from rain until the very “last, last second” before the show starts, Stambaugh said.
The crew has been working for several says to wire the fuses to a switchboard that, with the help of a 24-volt battery, ignites the fireworks electronically.
This technique is actually cutting-edge for fireworks shows, as cities including Anchorage still light fuses by hand and flare, Stambaugh said.
Original Story: “Fireworks crew puts in the hours,” by Andrew Petty. 7/3/2005.
• Contact Natalie Buttner at natalie.buttner@juneauempire.com
