After being cleared of embezzlement in Valdez in 1912, the man was never heard from again. On today's Alaska Report, Alaska's senior senator Ted Stevens opened himself to questions from his high school interns. One intern from Fairbanks, a graduate of Howard Luke Academy, asked the Senator questions about issues directly related to the Interior. When the intern asked what a natural gas pipeline in Alaska would mean for Fairbanks, Stevens said it would benefit Fairbanks by lowering energy costs. The other issue discussed by the Fairbanks intern and the senator were recent criticisms of the proposed national missile defense system.
Interns spend their summers in Washington D.C. before beginning their college education.
Railroad and state officials say five of the derailed cars were 20,000 gallon tankers carrying unleaded gas. Four of those cars overturned and slid down a 25-foot embankment. The derailment occurred shortly before noon, near the intersection of the Parks and Glenn highways. The cause of the crash is not yet known, but some 200 feet of track was left damaged. A loose valve on one of the cars is being blamed for the leak.