KBBI | Where the Sound Meets the Sea

Legislative call-in with Sen. Gary Stevens

By Renee Gross • 6 hours ago

Sen. Gary Stevens spoke with KBBI’s Renee Gross on Thursday afternoon about Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s budget proposal.

Dunleavy's budget cuts will cost Homer and borough

By Aaron Bolton • Feb 14, 2019

Gov. Mike Dunleavy unveiled his far-reaching budget proposal Wednesday and it’s left public officials on the Kenai Peninsula with more questions than answers.

Homer City Manager Katie Koester said the city has a laundry list of concerns when it comes to the cuts that may be in the fine print of Dunleavy’s budget proposal.

Schools face drastic cuts under Dunleavy's budget proposal

By Renee Gross • Feb 14, 2019

Kenai Peninsula Borough School District

School districts and colleges across Alaska are facing drastic cuts under Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s budget proposal. On Wednesday, Dunleavy proposed a 41 percent cut to the University of Alaska system, but the Kenai Peninsula College says it’s too early to say exactly how it would respond to the loss of funding. The college currently provides classes at three different sites on the Kenai Peninsula and one in Anchorage.

Proposed cuts to Medicaid would mean big changes for healthcare

By Renee Gross • Feb 14, 2019

Healthcare is one of the many programs facing deep cuts under Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s budget proposal. Becky Hultberg is the president of the Alaska State Hospital and Nursing Home Association.

She said under Dunleavy’s spending plan, the state’s Medicaid program would lose over $700 million.

“That kind of a reduction would quite simply restructure our healthcare system,” she said. “There is not a way for providers to absorb cuts of that magnitude within the current system.”

Chocolate - Episode 12

By Jeff Lockwood • Feb 14, 2019

chocolate making — Jeff Lockwood/Harold McGee / KBBI

Join Jeff Lockwood and Evangelina Briggs from Homer Truffle Company on Valentine's Day for a discussion of chocolate. Mousse to mole, talk about tempering, flavors and ganache, and how cocoa butter is like a yoga class. Patrick Driscoll from the Grog Shop talks about beverage pairings with chocolate desserts.

Recorded at Homer Truffle Company's factory and in the studio of KBBI AM 890 in Homer, Alaska on 02/14/19.

The Coffee Table--February 13, 2019

By Renee Gross • Feb 14, 2019

On the Coffee Table this week: climate change on the Kenai Peninsula. We discuss its impact, what we could see in the future and what we can do about it. Joining us to talk about this subject is John Morton, supervisory fish & wildlife biologist at the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, Sue Mauger, science director at Cook Inletkeeper and Bjorn Olson, director of Alaskans Know Climate Change.

Part of Bering Sea Pacific cod fishery could move toward quota system

By Aaron Bolton • Feb 13, 2019

Photo Courtesy of Holland Dotts & the Alaska Marine Conservation Council.

About a year after federal regulators dramatically cut the Pacific Cod quota in the Gulf of Alaska, some fishermen in the Bering Sea say there are too many boats fishing for the declining species.

The North Pacific Fishery Management Council is looking into the problem, but potential solutions are likely to be controversial.

Since Pacific cod stocks crashed in the Gulf of Alaska in recent years, members of the fishing industry say fishermen are focusing their efforts farther west.

Dunleavy’s proposed education cuts would be deep, but KPBSD still figuring out details

By Renee Gross • Feb 13, 2019

Image courtesy of the Kenai Peninsula Borough School District

Gov. Mike Dunleavy proposed a roughly $270 million cut to K-12 education funding Wednesday as part of his 2020 budget proposal. Now, school districts across the state are assessing what those cuts mean.

Kenai Peninsula Borough School District spokesperson Pegge Erkeneff said the specifics of the cuts are unclear.

City Council postpones decision to fund residential treatment center

By Renee Gross • Feb 12, 2019

The Homer City Council postponed making a decision on whether to help fund a residential drug treatment program Monday. Originally, some council members proposed donating nearly $200,000 to help Set Free Alaska, a Christian-based organization, set up a men’s residential treatment center in Homer.

But some members of the local opioid task force have some concerns about Set Free and say that the city should also fund existing local drug prevention and addiction efforts.

Project to fix flood-prone Halibut Cove transmission line will be costly

By Aaron Bolton • Feb 11, 2019

Updated: 4:03 p.m. 2/11/19

Work is underway to fix a transmission power line that regularly fails near Halibut Cove and Peterson Bay, but Homer Electric Association said customers all over the Kenai Peninsula will likely share the cost of the project.