Business columns & opinions from Anchorage, AK

Business Columns

Lynne Curry: The tricks to managing a diva employee

Your sales manager considers himself above the rules others obey. "After all," he tells the frustrated accounting staff, "without sales, there wouldn't be a company."

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Archive by category ''Business Columns

LAINE WELCH

Laine Welch: Magnetism problems spark revamping of halibut tags

It's back to the drawing board for halibut iTags that will soon tell us more about where the fish travel than ever before. The internal tags, which were deployed in 30 halibut two years ago, were the first to test smartphone geomagnetic advances to track the migrations of fish.
LYNNE CURRY

Lynne Curry: Is business liable for employee's sidewalk fall?

An employer wonders if his business is liable for an employee's medical expenses after she fell on a sidewalk on her way to work.
BARBARA AND CLAIR RAMSEY

Ramseys: Population, price and permit issues slow new construction

As the Anchorage real estate market continues to improve, even a casual look around the city shows very little new construction activity. Why? Let's look at population, price and permits.
LAINE WELCH

Laine Welch: Experiment reveals good news in golden king crab fishery

Amid the salmon fisheries starting up across the state, several Alaska crab seasons also get underway each summer. In mid-June, the summer Dungeness crab fishery opens in the Panhandle, as does red king crab at Norton Sound. Those are followed in August by golden kings along the Aleutian Islands...
LYNNE CURRY

Lynne Curry: Clean freak co-worker tossed out my stuff

An employee returns from his Memorial Day weekend to find that a co-worker has cleaned and organized his desk drawers, throwing out things he had been keeping.
TIM BRADNER

Tim Bradner: Several ideas in the works to bring gas to Alaska homes

State government is certainly moving to address energy concerns, at least in the more populous Interior-Southcentral "railbelt" communities.
LAINE WELCH

Laine Welch: Over a Kodiak beer, Murkowski discusses Frankenfish

Salmon setnet families streamed out of Kodiak all week, headed to their sites to get ready for the June 9 season opener. Their departures wrapped up a busy week of Memorial Day festivities on "the rock," including festivals, fleet blessings, a landslide on Cannery Row and visits by both of Alaska...
LYNNE CURRY

Lynne Curry: Employee's arrest has company debating what to do next

Q. "Sara" didn't arrive at work yesterday morning. Because we worried about her, we called her cell at noon and got no answer. The next morning, we called her cell and her apartment and again got no answer.
LAINE WELCH

Laine Welch: Report shows nice gains throughout salmon value chain

It takes quite a crew to get an Alaska salmon from "boat to throat," and everyone along the line gets a cut of the catch. How that "value chain" has paid out in the past few years shows nice gains for Alaska fishermen and processors.
CHRIS STEPHENS

Chris Stephens: Broker plays a central role in real estate negotiations

A broker, according to Wikipedia, is an individual or party that arranges transactions between buyer and seller, then gets a commission when the deal is executed. The word is derived from the Old French broceur, "small trader," possibly from brocheor, meaning "wine retailer," which comes from the...