Calls to the lawyer representing the state in the partial-birth abortion suit were not returned. A committee meeting on the Conservation and Reinvestment Act was canceled yesterday. The Senate is expected to take up the bill sometime after its week-long Independence Day recess. Near McGrath Alaska State Troopers have discovered a major marijuana growing operation on the Kuskokwim River. More than three hundred marijuana plants were found yesterday at a site about 27 miles south of McGrath.
Troopers say no arrests have been made yet.
A medical surveillance program for people who worked on an underground nuclear testing program at Amchitka Island 30 years ago begins July first. The Alaska State District Council of Laborers is looking for former Amchitka workers to participate in the program, which will track their health and medical problems. The union represented the roughly two thousand people who worked on Amchitka during nuclear tests and cleanup. Program manager Don Webber says workers who may have been exposed to nuclear radiation during testing or clean-up may be suffering illnesses related to the work. Webber says clinics will be located in Anchorage and Fairbanks.